Praise God, praise God. Man, glad to be here. Praise God. God bless you, brother. I love y'all so much, man. I just love being in this church. I think back, I look back at God's forgiveness in my life and where I'm standing now. It blows me away. I mean it. You can study about magnifying God's forgiveness. And I was telling Pastor Kenny, that's from Genesis 1 to the end of the Bible. Amen. You can close your eyes and just flop over the page and point, and you're going to find something about God's forgiveness. And I know everybody here's got plenty of testimonies about God's forgiveness in their life. And so we're going to start here in John chapter 3, which is really, it's the heart of the gospel. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is why he came. This is why it was decided he would come before the world was formed. This is why. So we'll start out here in James chapter 3 verse 1. Okay. When I say James, I'm sorry. I apologize. It's all good, yeah. We might get in James a little bit. But right now, John chapter 3. I apologize. All right. Verse 1. There is a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night. Now, Nicodemus came by night. He was a leader of the Jews, he had a reputation, he had plenty of things on the line, nice life, respect of his fellow Pharisees and so on, but there was something about Jesus. It's just some about Christ. Now I'm sure he didn't tell anybody, probably didn't tell his wife. Slipped in there by night, scared, had questions, had doubts, wondering, but he still came. He still came. When you come to Jesus, you don't have to make a big scene about it. You don't have to run to the altar. You just come to Jesus in your backyard on your knees. You can come to Jesus in the closet. You can come to Jesus in your car or wherever. As long as you come. And small beginnings can turn into major, miraculous changes in your life. Praise God. Praise God. What brother? She had passed my bedtime too, sister. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. He knew, he didn't understand. I could imagine his mind swirling. But he knew that he came from God. He knew it. And he had to find out what was going on. He was drawn. And Jesus, here in verse 3, he went right to it. He didn't him all around. He didn't discuss Judaism. He didn't discuss Jewish law. He didn't get in a debate about if the resurrection was real or not, or the man-made laws that they twisted. Didn't get into any of that. What did Jesus, first word, first crack of the bat. Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Amen. There it is right there. Then Nicodemus saith 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? Now, there's somebody using the physical, using the flesh to try to understand the spiritual. God is the spirit. Those that worship him must worship him in spirit. We can't measure the things of God by the flesh. We're going to get all twisted up and all confused and turned upside down when we try to understand the things of God or measure the things of God by the flesh. It just won't get it done. It just won't. Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water, which is natural birth, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee again, ye must be born again. He's made that three times here. Ye must be born again. There is a change that will happen. Praise God. Nicodemus answered, I'm sorry. Verse eight, the wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh and whether it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Praise God. Now the Spirit's work in the new birth is mysterious and powerful. And like the wind, its effects are visible. When the wind blows, you can't hear, I mean, you can't see the wind, but you can see the leaves rustle. You can see the branches in the trees going. You can see the clouds blowing across the sky. You can see the effects. If the wind blows through, something's gonna happen. You can see it. Same thing with the spirit. Somebody's life. When the spirit, woo, when that spirit enters your heart, there's gonna be evidence. There's gonna be a change. Something's gonna be different. You're not gonna be able to see the Holy Spirit, but you're gonna be able to see the effects of it in your life. Praise God. Now the wind blows wherever it pleases. This shows the Holy Spirit's freedom and sovereignty. The Spirit works in people's lives as He wills, not according to our will. The Holy Spirit is sovereign. He moves about as He will. And brothers and sisters, when you feel a conviction of the Holy Spirit, you better answer it. You better answer it. Cause the Holy Spirit, I'm not here to say that you only get one shot because you don't because people are convicted throughout their life but there will come a time that maybe the Holy Spirit, that's it. The Spirit of God stripes not forever with man. Don't let that be the last stop. We're not guaranteed our next breath. We don't know, we might walk out here and get in an accident. We're one stroke away. One car accident away. Right? One heart attack away. One gunshot away. Never after that. Brothers and sisters, it's something to be taken very seriously. Something to praise God for. Excuse me. Being born of the Spirit is a spiritual transformation that enables a person to enter the kingdom of God. It's a work of God's grace and power. It's not something we can achieve on our own. We can't come to Christ on our own. We don't get up one day and say, hey, you know what? I think I'll go get saved. No, it don't work that way. The Holy Spirit has to convict our hearts. We don't even have the faith within us to believe in Christ. That is a gift from God. Faith is a gift from God. There's nothing we can do on our own to work for, to earn, or to achieve salvation. The Holy Spirit, God, has to be with us every step of the way. and to think that he planned on this before the foundation of the world, that the God in heaven, the creator of everything, Jesus Christ, who created, not one thing was made without Christ, came down on this earth, not only to give us the free gift of salvation, but has to carry us to it, has to give us a gift to be able to receive the free gift that they gave. That's love, that's forgiveness of Christ. Excuse me. Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, are thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and ye receive not our witness. Now, brothers and sisters, if I'm wrong, past correct me, I've always took that as evidence of the Godhead. Praise God, praise God. If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. Christ fills all in all. No matter how high you are, Christ is there. No matter how low you are, Christ is there. To the depths of the sea, to the highest you can go, Christ is there. He fills everything. That's our Lord and Savior. Can't get away from His love. You can't get away from His conviction. You can't get away from His protection and covering. Praise God, brother. Praise God. I love you, brother. And no man is ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever, not that the predestined, or not the Baptist or the Pentecostal, not the Calvinist, but whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Just like as the serpent was lifted up out in the wilderness, when the serpents were biting the people, all they had to do was look to the serpent on the pole, prophesying what would come. prophesying what would come. Praise God. For God so loved the world, not for God so loved the predestined, not for God so loved the ones who were in church every time the doors were open, not God so loved the self-righteous, not God so loved the intelligent and the good-looking, For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. It don't matter who you are, where you come from, what you've done, where you're headed, what your family line is, what your family history is, where you live, what your religion is at that time, whosoever believeth in Jesus Christ. I saw a video today of so many Christians in Iran. People in Iran are being saved. Christ is appearing to them in a dream. Christ is appearing to them and convicting their hearts in Iran. Don't matter where you're at, don't matter what you've been doing, Christ loves you and he gave his life for you. All we need to do is truly believe in our Lord and Savior. We will receive that Holy Spirit, we'll be born again, and we're living under God's protection and covering and forgiveness. It's not a cheap grace, it's love and it's forgiveness. And the Holy Spirit enables us to walk the Christian walk as we go along. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be manifest, that they are wrought in God. When we look at our society today, and you go out there, you witness this to somebody, or evil's good, and good is evil, and up is down, and down is up. Brother, our society is in such darkness. And they flee from the light. They flee from it. They don't want to hear nothing about it. They don't want to hear it, don't want to see it, don't want to be close. They run from it. They run from it. But when that Holy Spirit gets a hold of somebody's heart, it draws them to it. It draws them to their knees. It draws them to accepting Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. But we are all such, we were all like that at one time in our lives. All of us. Some of us, atheists, some of us in self-delusion, thinking that somehow that they were saved, living like a dog, living in a world I don't, you know, I was one of them. Don't know how I thought that, I don't. But it was the word of God. that opened my eyes. It was a light of the Word of God that opened my eyes. I'd like to go through a few scriptures here this evening too, some more. There's just so much, but just the main ones that the Lord, I believe, has put on my heart. I'd like to go to Romans chapter 5, 1 through 11, please. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Amen. That's right. Yes, that's right. Praise God. You'll be healed. Sin. Praise God. Believe it. Trust it. Amen. None of us would. None of us would. Praise God. Oh yeah. Yeah. Believe, praise God. True belief. Yes, sir. Oh, praise God. Me as well, praise God. Chapter five, verse one, Romans. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. by whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. It's not a one-sided relationship. We have access, brothers and sisters. We can access the Holy Father through Jesus Christ for encouragement, for healing, for making us wise, for protection and covering, for opening our minds and anointing our hearts and ears to receive and understand the gospel more perfectly. He leads and guides our steps. He don't just save us, He changes us too. And all the things that we do once we're born again, it's not to be saved, it's because we ARE saved. Christ does not forget you once you accept Him as your Lord and Savior. Just the contrary. He's going to pay you attention. He's going to prune. He's going to form. He's going to teach you and bring you up into the Christian he wills for you to be. And it's just beautiful when you just think about the creator of the universe paying all that attention to you or to me. The love and forgiveness of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also, knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope, and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us. For when we were yet without strength, In due time, Christ died for the ungodly. We weren't worthy, brothers. We weren't worthy at all. We were without strength in seeing enemies of God. And He sent His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to deliver us and cleanse us and save our souls. For scarcely for a righteous man will one die, yet per the venture for a good man some would even dare to die. But here's two of my favorite words, but God, praise God, but God commendeth his love toward us and that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Now watch this much more. being now justified by His blood, shall we be saved from wrath through Him." Brothers and sisters, if He did all that to save us when we were His enemies, what will He do for us when we're His children? Praise God! He will save us from wrath. Not only so, He will tenderly grow us and watch over us. like a loving father does. Praise God! For if when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of His Son, much more being reconciled, we shall be saved by His life. And not only so, but we also join God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement. We have received the atonement. It's not coming. It's not something that you work for and you get up in stages with. We have received the atonement. Praise God. When you hit those knees, when you pray to the Lord for Him to come into your heart, you look on the cross, you look to Christ and you truly trust Him and you become born again, you receive the atonement. No more working or earning or going in stages, there's no rankings, you have received the atonement. I'd like to go to 1 Timothy 1, chapter 12, I'm sorry, verses 12 through 17. First Timothy chapter 1 verses 12 through 17. This is Paul speaking here. And I thank Christ Jesus our Lord who hath enabled me for that he counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry who was before a blasphemer and a persecutor and injurious, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was exceeding, exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all exception that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners of whom I am chief. Oh, brothers and sisters, praise God. Paul was a man that hauled off Christians. Persecuted them in prison. Did everything he could to burn down the church. Christ met him on a road. Said, hey, why you persecute me? Why you persecute me? And Paul realizes, whew, I wonder what Paul felt and what he thought when he first realized the level of God's forgiveness and mercy upon him. Just like me? That's right, brother. Praise God. You just, huh? Oh, praise God. Yes, sir. Oh, praise God. Yes, sir. Just to think of that, the love. I remember, whew, I went in that backyard and hit my knees. I'll never forget how it felt, Brother Benny. Never forget it. And I know everybody in here has the same testimony, praise God. I just, I praise God for it. I'd like to go to 1 Corinthians 15, 1-6. I know I'm jumping around here a little bit today, but I was trying to get this thing cornered here. 1 Corinthians 15, 1-6. I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, wherein ye stand." It's not good enough just to hear the gospel now. We have to receive the gospel. We have to receive salvation. Praise God. Very easy like Pastor Kenny was saying. But we still got to receive it. We have to accept it. We have to receive the gospel. And once we receive it, we're called to stand in it. Praise God. I'd like to go real quick here. You don't have to turn with me. I'm going to go to Ephesians 6, 10 through 20 here real quick. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore, take on to you the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day. And having done all to stand, stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness, and your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith we shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. and take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints and for me, that utterance may be given unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly We should preach, we should pray for Pastor Kenny that he may open his mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel for which I am an ambassador in bonds and therein I may speak boldly as I ought to speak. Praise God, boldly, yes, boldly and honestly. Brothers and sisters, I know it may seem like I went off the track there, but when God saves us and forgives us, Again, He don't just leave us alone. He calls us. But not only does He call us, He equips us. He gives us armor. He gives us the weapons that we need to fight spiritual warfare. He don't just leave us out there flapping in the breeze. We're called for a reason. We are to get out there and witness. We are to be a shining light on the job and in our homes and in our neighborhoods. We should show compassion, help people when we can. And when we have difficulties on the job or difficulties in the neighborhood where we're struggling, we should try to remember that it's spiritual warfare. It's not that man doing that to you. It's not that woman doing that to you. That's the devil. That's the enemy coming at you. That's why we have to fight in the spiritual realm. That's why the loving father gives us everything we need. He's protecting us with his armor. It shows us how to use it in the word. But if you'll notice, in all that armor that he provides, there ain't nothing for the back. Because we're not to turn our back. We're not to run away. We're to face the enemy, to face our challenges, and keep going down the road, carrying our cross, following Christ, staying on the narrow way. Praise God. Go back to 1 Corinthians here. Verse 2, by which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain. For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received. how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, and that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, and that He was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, He was seen of about five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are falling asleep. I shared a video with Pastor Kenny about how sure the Word of God is. It's in apologetics. This is one of the scriptures that he used. 500 witnesses when this was written, most of whom were still alive. Not to mention all the miracles and everyone that witnessed that. And I can't go through all the stats and figures when he was throwing out there. I'd have to study that video for about two months to be able to rattle all that off. But I assure you, this is truly the Word of God. It is to be trusted. It is to be followed to the letter. It is the Word of God. Without question, we can have confidence in God's love, we can have confidence in His forgiveness, and we can have confidence in the Word of God. Praise God. It says, we must keep our minds and our hearts into the Word. We must meditate on God's Word. We can't just, you know, come in the church every once in a while, listen to what the pastor reads off and go off and not give it any more effort, not give it, no, I'm not talking about words here. I'm talking about growing in the Lord. I'm talking about reading the word of God, listening to the word of God. And I'd like to go to James 1, 21, 25 real quick. You don't have to go there. Wherefore, lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness and receive with meekness the engrafted word which is able to save your souls." Brothers and sisters, I can testify here today that God used his word to save my soul. When I went through the world living like a dog, I got witnesses here that know good and well what kind of person I was. You couldn't have told me that I wasn't saved for no amount of money in the world. No pastor, no hymn, no other Christian witnessing to me. But when I got into the Word of God, When the Holy Spirit convicted my heart, something's wrong. You're not right. You're not where you think you are. You best open up the word. Brothers and sisters, it was a sweet medicine, a sweet ointment. It opened my eyes, the scales came down as I got into the Word of God and the Holy Spirit convicted me as I read the Word of God and showed me where I was and when I ran out that back door and hit my knees in that backyard that night and begged the Lord to forgive me and to save my soul He did it through the Word of God It is so important not to just take Pastor Kenny's word for something or take my word for something or Brother Ron's word for something. Look at it for yourself. Read the Word of God. Don't listen to some slick false teacher on TV and never open up the Word of God and believe everything he tells you. There's wolves in sheep's clothing everywhere you go. This is the sword. This is the sword. Open it up, take it out of the sheath, practice with it, train with it, and use it. Praise the Lord. Praise the Lord. We'll go back here and let's see here. I'm sorry, well, okay. I'd like to go to Romans chapter 8, 34. And we're just about done there. Okay, eight. Now I generally don't like to cherry pick verses. I like to, on this one thing, I'm just going to read this one verse here. Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us. Brothers and sisters, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of God making intercession for each of us. If that doesn't make you jump up and down a little bit and have a little more confidence and a little more faith and trust a little more in that salvation, trust a little more in what the Lord's going to do for you, I don't know what will. Jesus Christ is lawyering for us. He is interjecting. Oh my goodness. The Lord and Savior is right there at the right hand of God. Right there. Praise God. Let me read just a little further, if you don't mind. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written, for thy sake we are killed all the day long. We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Praise God. Stick with him. Keep looking to Christ. Keep trusting Christ. You'll never go wrong. You'll never go wrong. And as it says in Job, though he slay me, yet shall I trust him. Sometimes we may, brothers and sisters, being killed, tortured, persecuted all around this globe. And you might say, well, how's that? Because the reward in heaven is unimaginable. And some of us may be called to be martyrs, to be persecuted, to be imprisoned or killed as long as we can. And that's easy to say standing here in America when the most persecution we ever get is being called racist or something else. But brothers and sisters, I don't want to get into that too much, but I believe maybe before the Lord calls us home that we're going to start facing that here in this country. I really do. And we better be into the word. We better be in prayer. Praise God.