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John chapter 3, if you both stand
with me please, and honor the word of God as we read our scripture
text for tonight. John, the third chapter. John chapter 3, we're
going to begin reading in verse 1. The Bible says, There was
a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. 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. Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nehemiah
saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time in his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born
of water 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, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and I hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Jesus answered and said unto him, How can these
things be? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things,
and ye believe not, how shall ye 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. And
as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. 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. For God
should not ascend into the world to condemn the world, but that
the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him
is not condemned, and he that believeth not is condemned already,
because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten
Son of God. standing for prayer. Father,
thank you tonight for bringing each one of the services come.
We pray, Holy Spirit, that you would undertake for the proclamation
of your word and the application of it in each of our hearts tonight.
We pray, Lord, that there should even be one here tonight who's
not certain if they died they'd be on their way to heaven, that
tonight might be the night of their soul's salvation. We pray Lord
that believers might be helped as well. Lord, help us to learn
from the master soul winner how he went about sharing the gospel
with others. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to be
faithful in sharing the message with those you bring across our
path as well. We ask you in Jesus' name and for his sake. Amen.
You may be seated this evening. I want to look at this passage
of Scripture for two very important reasons. First of all, there
is not a clearer passage in the Word of God that tells us regarding
salvation, how a person can know for sure they're going to go
to heaven. There are a lot of people that don't believe you
can know that for certain. Some religions even will say, if you
say that you know, if you die tomorrow, you're going to go
to heaven, you are presuming upon the grace of God. I like
to answer those people by saying, I'm not presuming on anything,
I'm depending on the finished work of Jesus Christ and the
final Word of God. It's not my opinion that matters,
it's what the Word of God says. And that's true of every witness
that we give to folks as well. It doesn't do us any good to
stand face to face or nose to nose or toe to toe with somebody
and say, this is what my parents taught me to believe. Or this
is what my pastor taught me to believe. Or if you happen to
go to a Christian school, this is what my principal taught me to
believe. Because anybody else could say the same thing. They
could say, well, this is what my place of worship teaches me to believe.
Anybody can say those same things. Well, what's important is that
it's not our opinion and it's not what somebody else said,
it's what the Word of God says. The only authority we have is
this book. And that's why we need to be
able to take the Word of God and share the Gospel with others.
And not only is this a tremendous passage of Scripture regarding
the clarity of the presentation of the Gospel, but it's also
a good place for us to study who are Christians to learn how
the Lord Jesus, the master soul winner, went about sharing the
Gospel with others. as well in this description and
discussion that we find that he had with Nicodemus. So let's
look then together tonight at a passage of scripture that begs
a question. Will you enter the kingdom? Will
you enter the kingdom? If your life came to an end tonight,
are you sure you'd enter the kingdom of God? If you died tomorrow,
would you enter the kingdom of God? Let's look at what the word
of God says regarding that subject tonight. John chapter 3 verse
1 says there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a
ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night.
Now some people make fun of Nicodemus for that. They want to say the
reason why Nicodemus came to Jesus by night is because being
a ruler of the Jews and knowing that the rest of the rulers of
the Jews were trying to find a way to get rid of Jesus Christ.
that he came to Jesus by night because he was afraid to let
anyone else see him talking to the Lord Jesus. So he waited
until everybody had gone home and it was dark and he could
slip to where Jesus was and talk to him then without anyone seeing
him. I give Nicodemus a little more credit than that. I think
Nicodemus realized that wherever the Lord Jesus was throughout
the day, there were multitudes of people surrounding him. all
the time, frowning him. And if he wanted to get a chance
to sit down with the Lord Jesus and talk to him personally and
ask him some personal questions, it would have to be if he would
wait until the crowds went home at night and find out where Jesus
was spending the night and go and talk with him there. But
no matter what you believe as to why Nicodemus came at the
hour he did, you'll notice what he said to the Lord Jesus Christ.
The same came to Jesus by night, verse 2, and said unto him, Rabbi,
teacher, 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. If you know what Nicodemus said
about the Lord Jesus Christ, I believe you'd find that most
people that you might stop on the street and ask, who is Jesus
Christ, might give the same answer. They might say, well he was a
prophet of God, maybe one of many prophets sent forth by God,
he taught a lot of good things about God, he was a good example
from God, he showed us the way to God, but he wasn't really
actually God. That's what most people in the
world would say. Even many religious people would say regarding the
Lord Jesus Christ. In fact, some would like us to
believe that neither the Bible nor Jesus Christ ever claimed
that He really was God. But they would be absolutely
wrong. Look at John chapter 1. John chapter 1. Just two chapters
earlier, the Bible says, In the beginning was the Word. The word Word is capitalized
there. Why? Because it's talking about a
person. And it says, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was
with God, and the Word, what? was God, the same as in the beginning
with God. All things were made by Him.
Without Him was not anything made that was made. He's the
Creator. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men.
He's the light and light of men. And the light shineth in darkness,
and the darkness comprehended it not. There was a man sent
from God, a man sent from God. Who was that? His name was John.
The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the light,
that all men through him might believe. The light, that is.
He was not that light, but was sent to bear witness of that
light. Okay? Pause there for a minute. John
the Baptist is the one who's being referred to here. To whom
did John the Baptist give witness as being the light? Or being
the Savior of the world? The Lord Jesus Christ, the Word.
You'll find it here in the very same chapter. If you look at
what it says in John 1, verse 15, John, bear witness of Him,
and cried, saying, This was He of whom I speak. He that cometh
after Me is preferred before Me, for He was before Me. You'll find it later on in the
chapter as it discusses it as well. It says in verse 25, And
they asked Him, and said unto Him, Why baptizest Thou then,
if Thou be not that Christ? nor Elias, neither that prophet.
John answered and saying, I baptize with water, but there standeth
one among you whom ye know not. He it is who coming after me
is preferred before me, whose shoelatch that I am not worthy
to unloose. These things were done in Bethabara beyond Jordan,
where John was baptizing. The next day John seeth who?
Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold, the Lamb of God which
taketh away the sin of the world. This is he of whom I said, After
me cometh a man which is preferred before me, for he was before
me. Wait a minute, just a second.
Question. Who was born first chronologically? John the Baptist or Jesus Christ?
John the Baptist was, that's right, remember John was already
developing within the womb of Elizabeth when Mary finally went
to visit her and when John knew that Jesus, the Messiah was there
in his presence within the womb of Mary, it says he left in the
womb. And John was born first because
he's the man to prepare the way of the Lord, he is the prophet
sent ahead of time to announce his coming so John was born chronologically
first how then can John say twice in this passage of scripture
that Jesus was before him? if John was born first how could
Jesus be before John? hm? Logan? got an idea? Parker? think! how could Jesus be before
John? Who was the Lord Jesus Christ?
He is? Yes! He's God! Has God ever had
a beginning? No, he's always been, right? So if he's always been, and John
began at a certain point, then Jesus was before John, right?
Because he is God. What John the Baptist is saying
very plainly is, he's before me because he is the eternal
God. He's always been, he is today, he always will be. Do
you remember when Moses was sent back to Egypt to bring the people
of Israel out of bondage in Egypt, and he said to God, okay, now
wait, look, when I go down there and I tell your people that you
sent me to bring them out of bondage and he asked me what
is his name who sent you how am I supposed to answer that
question what did God say to him you tell them I am that I
am you tell them the I am has sent you unto them why would
God refer to himself as the I am again he's always been he is
today he always will be Jesus Christ the Bible says is the
same yesterday, today, and forever, because He is the eternal God. In fact, they tried to push Him
over a cliff in His own hometown of Nazareth, because He was claiming
to be God, and when they came to the Garden of Gethsemane to
arrest Him on the night that He was betrayed, they said, Are
you Jesus of Nazareth? And He answered, two words, I
am. Oh, you say, big deal, Brother
Webb. If I said, are you Barry Webb? You'd say, I am. Yeah,
but you see, his I am is a little different than mine. His I am
is the identifying name of Jehovah God to the nation of Israel specifically.
That's because those who came in the crowd to arrest Jesus
that night were Jews. They came from the high priest's
house. They came with Judas, who led them. And the Bible says,
some people say, wait, it says there were soldiers there. So
the Romans were there too. No, no, they weren't Roman soldiers.
The Romans didn't get involved until the next day when the Lord
Jesus was taken to Pilate's judgment hall. So where did those soldiers
come from? They were Jewish temple soldiers under the command of
the high priest. Everybody in that group of people who came
to arrest Jesus on the night that he was betrayed were Jews.
So he identified himself to them as Jehovah God in this specific
addressed name of Jehovah to the Jews. And when he spoke who
he was, they went backward and fell to the ground just at the
power of his name. A lot of people say, well, I
just don't believe that Jesus, hey, He said that He was God.
I don't believe the Bible says He was really God. We read that
in John chapter 1. Or you may run into somebody like, say,
a Jehovah's Witness, and say, well, there is only one God,
Jehovah, but Jesus is not Him. Take that little book of Revelation.
Show them the last chapter where it says, I'm Alpha and Omega,
the beginning and the end, the first and the last. Ask them
who's speaking those words, and they'll refer, that's Jehovah
God. I agree, totally. Then take them back to the first
chapter of the book of Revelation and ask them who John is speaking
to there, because the one he speaks to in the first chapter
says to him, I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the
first and the last. Who is that? Again, it's the same identifier,
so it has to be the same person, Jehovah God. And I agree again,
but keep reading because it goes on to say, I am He who was dead
and am alive again, and am alive forevermore. Well, wait a minute,
when did Jehovah God ever die? Only when Jesus Christ, God's
Son, went to the old rugged cross of Calvary and laid down his
life for you and for me. The Bible clearly tells us that
Jesus Christ is God. Remember Isaiah 9 verse 6, For
unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given, and the government
shall be upon his shoulders, and his name shall be called
what? Wonderful Counselor. What's next? The Mighty God. The Everlasting Father. The Prince
of Peace. The Bible identifies Jesus Christ
as again, in the Old Testament, Immanuel, which being interpreted
in Matthew 1 verse 23 means what? God with us. So anybody that wants to try
to tell you that neither Jesus nor the Bible claims that He
was God is lying through their teeth or completely misinformed
because both claim that He is God. Now what did Jesus do about
that statement that Nicodemus made to Him? He brushed right past it. Went
straight to the heart of the problem. What's the heart of
the problem? It's the problem of the heart.
The problem of the heart. So I want you to notice how Jesus
began his witness to Nicodemus. He started with an exclamation.
He started with an exclamation that got Nicodemus' full attention. What does it say if you go back
to John chapter 3 again? It says, Jesus answered and said
unto him, verse 3, Verily, verily, I like to, when I share this
with people, look at the language Jesus uses here. There's not
a bit of uncertainty in it. In fact, it's all certainty.
Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee, except, look
at that word, it literally means, unless a man be what? Born again,
he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Okay, so pause there for
just a minute. Jesus made a statement that got Nicodemus' attention.
Nicodemus, if you're going to see the Kingdom of Heaven, you've
got to be born again, because you can't even see Heaven, much less
enter Heaven, unless you've been born again. He told Nicodemus
that in order to get into Heaven, Nelson, you had to have a second
birth. Question, how many of us here
have had a first birth? Have a first birth? Oh, you're
getting slow to raise your hand there, Parker. I was wondering
if you were hatched or something. Everybody here has had a first
birth. That means you've had a physical
birth. Now we understand that those
of us who are believers need to share with those who are lost.
Do you realize that though everybody's had a first birth, if you've
only had one birth, you're going to die twice? If you've been
born once, you're going to die twice. People look at you and
say, really? What do you mean by that? Well, first of all,
you're going to die physically, right? Hebrews 9.27 says, it
is appointed unto men once to die. Romans 6.23 said, the wages
of sin is death. Romans 5.12 said, wherefore is
by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin? So death
passed upon all men for the goal of sin. Every person faces a
physical death as a result of being born in sin and because
of our own sin the word of God says because we're sinners we
face the penalty of death Ezekiel 18 for the soul that sinneth
it shall die so death is what we deserve but the Bible says
of course that when a sinner dies though their body is buried
in the grave their soul goes to the place that Jesus called
hell Luke chapter 16 but not forever Until the day of what
is known as the Great White Throne Judgment, Revelation 20, verses
11-15, I saw a great white throne, and Him that sat on it, from
whose face the earth and the heavens fled away, and there
was found no place for them, and I saw the dead. small and
great, standing before God. And the books were opened, and
another was opened, which is the book of life. And the dead
were judged out of those things which are written in the books
according to their works. And the sea gave up the dead which
were in it, and death and hell delivered up the dead which were
in them. And they were judged, every man according to their
works. And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This
is the second death. That's eternal death. That's
forever. The death that never dies, you
could call it. It's the second death. And Lucifer was not found
written in the Book of Life, was cast into the lake of fire.
So if we've only been born once, we're going to die twice. But
if you've been born twice, you only have to die once. And maybe
not even once. Jesus comes back first. Amen.
Remember 1st Thessalonians 4 16 and 17 the Lord himself said
he sent from heaven with the shop of the bush of the archangel
with the trump of God and the dead in Christ shall rise first
and move it to our life remains to be caught up together with
them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall
we ever be with the Lord my father often said when he was preaching
over the years I'm not looking for the undertaker. I'm looking
for the upper taker. Amen. We know Christ is personal
Savior. We may not even have to face
a physical death and we're certainly not going to face a spiritual
death, so I don't know. But I challenge people, which would you rather
have? One birth and two deaths, or two births and only one or
no death? I think it's a pretty sensible question to ask. It
ought to be easy to answer. But the fact of the matter is,
Jesus told Nicodemus, you have to have a second birth if you're
going to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. And look at what Nicodemus
said. Verse 4, Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born
when he is old? See, Christ has his attention.
Just by what he said, he's got Nicodemus' attention. Nicodemus
is a ruler of the Jews, he knows the Old Testament Scriptures.
And he says, he has to ask Jesus, How can a man be born when he
is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and
be born? Jesus answered, verse 5, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born of water, that's
a physical birth, and of the spirit, that's a spiritual birth,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Well now wait a minute,
some people say, Brother Webb, you added a few words in there.
How do you know that when he said water, he was talking about
physical birth and not baptism? I would ask you, how do we know
that Jesus is talking about physical birth and not baptism here? Right? He says born of water and of
water isn't water, baptism. Read baptismal regenerationists,
point to this very passage and say, see, gotta be baptized,
baptism washes away your sin and gets you to heaven. No, how
do we know that? Well, first of all, because of all the other
verses that we can look at that tell us that baptism can't save
us. And that those who were baptized in the scripture were only baptized
after they had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ. Acts chapter
8, Acts chapter 16 tell us that. The word of God tells us in Matthew
28 verse 19, what? Go ye therefore and teach all
nations. What? baptizing them in the name of the Father, and
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. We need to give them the gospel.
They need to believe on Christ. Then they ought to be baptized.
If you've been saved, but you haven't been baptized, that's
the next step of obedience beyond salvation. But we need to make
sure that folks recognize they have to be born again first.
They have to be born into God's family first. Okay, well then,
how else do we know what he's talking about here is not water
baptism? Well, you've probably heard this
said before, but it's a good thing to remember, the best commentary
on the Bible is the Bible. If you're wondering what a verse
says, look at the context first. Look at the surrounding verses.
If it isn't explained there, it's likely explained further
on, progressively, in the Word of God. Here it's explained in
the very next two verses, so I'm going to back up and read
that verse just like I did, and I'm going to go on and read the
next two verses, and you'll see it bears out exactly what I said. John
chapter 3 and verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily I say unto thee,
Except the man be born of water, that's a physical birth, and
of the spirit, spiritual birth, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which
is born of the Spirit is spiritual. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of
the Spirit. physical, born of water, is physical.
Any woman that's ever given birth to a child can easily explain
how that is. When we went out, my wife and
I went out to visit my daughter, Rachel, and our most recent grandchild
that came along, our granddaughter, that was born to her, just about
a year and a half ago. We flew out there. All of our
other daughter's kids always came like two weeks ahead of
time. This one decided to be a stickler for details. and hang
around until the actual day she was supposed to be born, which
was only the day before we were supposed to leave to come back
to the United States from setting aside a week to go out and visit
with her. In any case, about 4 o'clock in the morning on the
night before we were supposed to leave, my daughter came and
opened the door of the bedroom and stuck her head in and said,
Mom, I'm going to the hospital because my... Water bro, I water
broke you guys realize before you were born you were inside
mom swimming around You're in there, you know, just pure I
don't know what you're doing somersaults cannonballs I don't
what do you guys do when you're in water like that? Anyway, hey,
you know when you were born the first part of the process, you
know There's water broke and that came out and then it wasn't
long before you followed it Okay, that's what the Lord is making
reference to even here. He's talking about being born
of water. That's physical birth and born of the Spirit is the
second birth. So Jesus said, then what? As
he made an exclamation to God in the Gideon's attention, that
exclamation was twofold. Number one, you have to have
a second birth to see the Kingdom of God. And secondly, it's got
to be a second birth, a spiritual birth. to see the Kingdom of
Heaven. Not a physical one, but a spiritual one to see the Kingdom
of Heaven. I remember I was preaching in the Philippines. I'm looking
forward to going back there and preaching in January of this coming year.
It's been over 10 years since my wife and I were there last
to preach. But I'll be preaching in one of the churches that we've
preached in nearly every time we've been there, in Hillcrest
Baptist Church in Angeles City, about two and a half hours north
of Manila, where we used to have, the U.S. used to have an airbase
closed down for many years now but the last time I was there
I was preaching the gospel one night and there was a man who
I noticed a visitor walked in the back just when the choir
was singing before the message that night I wasn't in front
of the earlier preliminaries but he sat down in the back and
he listened all the way through the message and every night after
the service is over the choir would practice their number they
were going to do for the next night. So he hung around, he
was standing in the back listening to the choir practice. And since
I saw him back there, I went back and introduced myself to
him. I found that he was a German fellow that was on holiday there
in the Philippines. And I had three and a half years
of German in high school, so I spoke to him a little bit in
German. Then I found out he spoke English, and his English was
a whole lot better than my German. So we switched over to English,
and I said to him, what did you think of the service tonight?
And he said, well, he enjoyed it. And I said, do you know if
you died tonight, you'd go to heaven? He said, well, I don't
believe anybody can do that. And I said, well, the Bible says
you can be certain of that. He got all excited, and I had his
attention for sure. When he looked at me, he said,
where does it say that? He said, I've been in church all my life.
I've gone to church all my life. Where does the Bible say you
can know you're going to go? I had his attention. And so when you learn from the
Lord Jesus that we share Christ with others, get somebody's attention
with a statement that will catch them and have them desire more
interest in what you said. But notice what Jesus went on
to do. He began with an exclamation. But now, having gotten Nicodemus'
attention, he continues with an illustration. He continues
with an illustration. It's important for us to illustrate
what the Word of God says. Look at the teaching of the Lord
Jesus. He was constantly using illustrations. things that were
right there, things that were nearby as he taught. And we can
get the truth of God's word across people's hearts better when we
can illustrate it in some way that they can understand. I don't
know how many times I've met people over my lifetime that
will walk up to me in a week of meetings and say, you know,
Brother Webb, I was saved under your father's ministry years
ago when he came to our church as a priest. And I say, well,
that's wonderful. May I ask you some questions? They say, what's
that? Do you remember what scripture he preached from? No. You remember any of the points
or sub-points of the message? No. What do you remember? They can almost always tell me
at least one clear illustration that my father used during that
message that's what got the truth of the Word of God across to
them. In fact, an interesting situation happened to me about
eight or nine years ago. A missionary's wife, they were
home from a furlough, she and her husband and family, emailed
me on Sunday evening after they'd been in a church that day, and
they said, just thought you'd like to know this. We were in
our home church, having come back, getting ready to go on
a visit to a church that was on a furlough, but our first
Sunday back in our home church to visit there, and they said
there was a young man who's graduated from Bible College, a Hispanic,
comes from the state of California, He's getting ready to start a
Spanish ministry to the Spanish in the Pensacola area through
our church. But he gave his testimony in this morning's time, Sunday
school hour, when he was introducing his ministry, and told how he
got saved. And he explained that he was saved in a meeting of
combined Hispanic-speaking Baptist churches, Spanish Baptist churches,
in California that took place at a particular church in Antioch,
California. And there was this evangelist
who preached there that evening who had a dummy named Woody.
Now those who know my ministry back in the United States or
anything else about our ministry know that you've already seen it. Last
time we did some vigil, it was with Woody's dog, right? Digger, who says Woody's his
pet. Anyway, Woody is my dummy. He's talking about me. So right
away the missionary's ears perked up and said, okay, I'm going
to hear about this. Here's what's interesting about that testimony.
When that young man came to that service, he did not know hardly
any English at all. I have a routine that I do with
my dummy where he tells me he doesn't need me anymore and he
can do it all himself. So after talking with him about how he
can't do it and his assurance that he can do it, I tell him
I'll let him do it and I walk away and leave him sitting on
the pulpit. And of course, he can't say a word. He simply stares
out, vacantly at the crowd. And everybody watches while I
explain how that's like human beings are, right? We all were
created by God for His use, for His glory. And yet, if we're
not willing to allow Him into our hearts, we can't have eternal
life. If we're not willing to let Him control our lives, we
have no abundant life in Him as well. Well, that young man,
who did not understand hardly any English, understood the illustration. And when the invitation was given
that night, he walked the aisle, and one of the Spanish pastors
led him to Christ, and they discipled him, and he went to Bible college,
and here he was, a young preacher fella, getting ready to start
a new church, and they praised the Lord for that. use illustrations to
help people understand the gospel something they understand something
that they would be familiar with that will help them get the truth
that will stick with them that will be something that God can use
his word to cause them to remember the truth so what's the illustration
the Lord Jesus Christ used well let's go on reading it says in
verse 9 Our Nicodemus answered and said
unto 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 which we know,
and testify that which we have seen, and ye receive not our
witness. If I have told you earthly things, Okay, pause here for
just a minute. What Jesus refers to is, He's already used two
illustrations of Nicodemus up until this verse. What illustrations
has He already used? the illustration of birth, that's
right, and then after that the illustration of the wind. You don't see the wind in Nicodemus,
you know where it comes from, you don't know where it's going, but you believe
in it even though you can't see it. Now I would almost believe
that Nicodemus was a Sadducee, although the Bible tells us he
was a Pharisee. Why? Because the Sadducees didn't
believe in the spiritual, right? They didn't believe in any life
after death. There was no hope for them. That's
why as people say, they were sad, you see, because that's
the way they were. But it says he was a Pharisee,
but he must have been influenced by them because how can this
be if Jesus had to say to him, look, you don't see the wind,
but you don't know where it comes from, don't know where it's going,
but you believe in it, so believe in the spiritual. Then he goes
on and he says, if I have told you earthly things, verse 12,
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.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so, once
the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. Oh, wait a minute, what
is he talking about now? Moses? Serpents? Wildernesses? What's that got to do with any
of this? Well, if you had been Nicodemus, you would have known
exactly what the Lord is referring to. May rule the Jews can know
the new the Old Testament scriptures. Well, what's Jesus referring
to? Well, if you want to put your finger in John 3 go back
to Numbers chapter 21, you'll find out Numbers chapter 21 beginning of verse 4 it says,
and they, that's the people of Israel having been brought out
of Egypt and on the way to the promised land, and they journeyed
from Mount Hor by the way of the Red Sea to encompass the
land of Edom and the soul of the people was much discouraged
because of the way. Verse 5, I want you to notice
the first thing we find here is sin committed. sin committed,
and the people spake against God and against Moses. Wherefore
you brought us up out of Egypt to die in this lowliness? For
there is no bread, neither is there any water, and our soul
loatheth this light bread. They're committing sin against
God. Can you believe this? I mean, think about it. Here are these
people who have been in Egypt for over 400 years in bondage.
And now they've been set free, and they've been led through
the Red Sea. They've watched the Lord take them through the
Red Sea on dry ground. And then as they watch the Egyptians
try to follow them, they've seen God bring the waters of the Red
Sea back upon them and destroy the entire Egyptian army. They've
seen the Lord every day since that time lead them by day by
a pillar of cloud and by night by a pillar of fire. And yet
they're griping. I mean, here God has given them
manna, the bread of heaven, on the dew of the ground every morning
when they get up, all they can gather. And when they complain
about wanting meat, He brought quail within a day's journey
to camp so that anybody that wanted meat could have as much
as they wanted. And when there really wasn't any water anywhere
around, what did He do? He brought it to them out of
rocks. and yet they're griping and they're complaining and they're
moaning and groaning and all we ought to be able to believe
that we all do the same thing. That's why the Bible says in
Romans 3, 23, all have sinned and come short of the glory of God.
As we said this week and illustrated last night from the message,
there's not a one of us that can look at the Ten Commandments and say
we've kept them, we haven't even kept the first one. The Bible
says, he that keepeth the whole law, and yet offendeth in one
point, is guilty of all. We're all sinners in the sight of a
holy, just judge. The scriptures have concluded,
all under sin. Every one of us is a sinner.
So what do we find happen next? Sin was committed, yes, then
there was sentence carried out. Sentence carried out verse 6
and following is this and the Lord sent fiery serpents among
the people and they bit the people and much people of Israel what?
died So they had committed sin against God and they are now
paying the wages of sin, which is death And remember this is
not my illustration. This is the Lord Jesus's illustration.
Okay, here are these people they've committed sin against God and
so they are facing the penalty for sin, which is death We've
all sinned against God, and Romans 6.23 says the wages of sin is
death. The soul that sinneth and shall
die, Zechariah 18.4. And all the other verses we've
been quoting this week that say the same thing. Death is the
result and the consequence of sin, Romans 5.12. So death passed
upon all men for the all of sin. Then what do we find? Then we
find salvation commended. So sin committed, sentence carried
out, and salvation commended. What do you mean? Well, it says
in verse 7, Therefore the people came to Moses and said, We have
sinned. We have sinned against the Lord
and against thee. Pray unto the Lord that he take
away the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people.
So here we find the beginning of salvation commended. What's
the first thing? The people repented. People repented. They came and
asked forgiveness. Now, listen, this is important because, first
of all, a lot of people that don't believe repentance has
anything to do with salvation. Oh, no, no, that's not salvation.
Okay? In fact, I've had people walk
up to me before and have said to me, because they were taught
in a particular Bible college that emphasizes this ideology,
they have said to me, Brother Webb, do you believe that you
could lead somebody to the Lord Jesus Christ only using the Gospel
of John? And I said, sure. They said,
then you can't preach repentance. I said, why? Because the word
repent is not found anywhere in the Gospel of John. How do
you answer that? Well, the first answer is there's
a reason why God gave us four Gospels, not just one. Okay?
And it is found in the other Gospels. But furthermore, what
are we looking at right here in the center of the Gospel of
John? The quintessential discussion about, with Jesus Christ, how
we can know we're going to go to heaven. What is the illustration
that Jesus uses? This one. And what is it we're
seeing right here in the illustration? Repentance. Repentance. Now, the other reason that's
important is because some of us say, oh, but wait a minute.
Repentance only means, has nothing to do with our sin. Has to do
with changing your mind about false religion and believing
only in the Lord Jesus Christ. Doesn't have anything to do with
your sin. Really? Okay, question. What are these people in this
passage repenting of? Were they worshiping an idol? No. Were they following some false
god? No. What were they doing? They
were sinning against God. And they recognized their sin
against God. What they were repenting of was
their sin. This is the illustration that
Jesus Christ himself used. So you can answer that kind of
a person with both of those facts from the Word of God. But the
Lord Jesus Christ said, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the
wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. Okay, so let's look at that illustration then. We find
salvation commended. First of all, the people repented.
What happened next? It says that in verse 8, the
Lord said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon
a pole, and it shall come to pass, that every one that is
bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made
a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole, and it came to pass,
that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent
of brass, he live alright so let's say you all have been bitten
by a fiery serpent right now and you're dying right now and
you hear the announcement from Moses who says look to the serpent
and you can be healed And Cayley looks at Lake and
says, look at the serpent. That's disgusting. I don't like
serpents. Besides, that's the stupidest
thing I've ever heard in my life. I'm not, I'm not gonna look at
any serpent like that. Would you believe we healed?
No. Why? Because you didn't believe.
You didn't believe. So the second thing anybody there
had to do, they repented, and then what else? They had to believe
all that God said. What did Jesus go on to say himself
when he used the illustration in John chapter 3 verses 14 and
15? As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up to do so ever what? Believe it,
and him shall not perish but have eternal life. Verse 16,
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son
to do so ever what? He that believeth in him shall
not perish, but live a everlasting life. Verse 18, He that believeth
on him is not condemned. He that believeth not is condemned
already. Why? Didn't go falling off on
his pilgrimage? No. Didn't talk to the right preacher?
Uh-uh. Didn't climb up the steps on
their knees? You know, get them all... No. Didn't keep the sacraments? No. Didn't take the sacraments?
No. Why are they not forgiven? Why are they not saved? Because
they believed not. In the name of the only begotten
Son of God. Verse 36 says, He that believeth
on the Son hath everlasting life. He that believeth not the Son
shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him. Remember
when the Philippian jailer came in before Paul and Silas and
said, what must I do to be saved? Remember that story? God said
the earthquake shook the foundation of the jail. And they don't understand why
God had to send an earthquake to get Paul and Silas out of
jail that night. Because they could have gotten out on their
own eventually. All they had to do was keep singing like they
were, until they found the right key. They were only behind a
few bars, right? In any case, the jailer came
in and fell down before them and said, Sirs, what must I do
to be saved? What did they say? Join our church?
No. Get baptized? No. Go on a pilgrimage? No. They
said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved.
Believe what? Believe that Jesus is God. Believe
that he came from heaven. Believe that he was born without
sin. Believe that he lived without sin. Believe that he died on
the cross. in our place. Believe that He rose again from
the grave. Believe that only He can save us from our sin. I would ask you, do you truly
in your heart believe that? Why would you say that? Well,
because it's a lot. We've been seeing sometimes young
people that are growing up in a Christian home, sometimes in
ministry homes, and they may do everything that's right while
they're home, but when they grow up and leave home, they go out and
live in the sin. Turn their backs on what they've been taught.
Walk away. Why does that happen? I believe sometimes it's because
they may have their parents' faith while they're at home,
or their pastor's faith, or if they go to Christian school, a principal's
faith, but they don't have a personal faith. In Jesus Christ, you can't
get heaven on somebody else's faith. And if that's whose faith
you've got, I don't believe it'll last. It'll only be around as
long as you're around the person who's got that faith. And then
when you're off on your own, you won't have that faith. I
remember back in, you know, every once in a while there's a tragic
shooting in a school back in the U.S. Back, oh, I don't know
how many years ago it was now. There was the shooting in Columbine,
Colorado. And there was a story that came
out of that shooting about a young lady whose name was Cassie Bernal.
You can look up on the internet and find the story and the testimony
of Cassie there. She was a born-again believer,
but she was one of the ones who was involved in that shooting.
A student, I believe it was at the time, was going through and
shooting other students there. He walked into the classroom
where Cassie was, put the gun to the back of her head, and
asked her, do you believe in Jesus Christ? Now, what would you do if somebody
put the gun to the back of your head and asked you that question?
That's as they say, where the rubber meets the road. That's
where I think, you know, if he did that, you know, to somebody
today, most, an awful lot of people today that claim to be
Christians, I think you'd probably see him answering things like,
well, I'll come and get it. That's just what my parents taught
me growing up. I mean, does anybody really personally believe in
that? I mean, it was so long ago, and it's just, you know,
it's just what I was told to believe. Cassie didn't hesitate. She said,
yes, I do. He pulled the trigger. sent her into eternity to meet
the Lord Jesus she had just confessed publicly before him. You know,
I believe when Cassie got to heaven, the Lord Jesus stood
up to meet her. Why would I say that? Well, go back and look
at the first martyr, Stephen. When he's being stoned to death,
what did he say? I see heaven open and the Son of Man, what?
Standing at the right hand of the Father. The Lord Jesus rose
from his throne to greet Stephen when he came. I believe he stood
to meet Cassie as well. But I wonder, what if it was
your life that was being threatened? Would you still affirm a true faith
in Christ? Would you genuinely have a true faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ if your life depended on it? That kind of faith? That's
what the Bible is talking about here. not just a serpent's faith,
but a true faith in your heart. Okay? The people had to believe.
So they repented, they believed. Well, that was it, and I wasn't
quite finished with you all yet. You've been bitten by a fiery serpent,
you're dying right now, you hear the announcement from Moses,
look to the serpent and you're gonna be healed, and wait, you
look at Benson and say, isn't that great? God made a way for
us to be healed. All we have to do is look at the serpent.
But you never look, would you be healed? No. Why? You had to
act on the faith you said you had and look to receive that
healing. God's word tells us salvation
is a gift, right? Romans 6.23, no wages of sin
is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Ephesians 2.9, it is the gift of God, not of
worthless that any man should boast. Well if it's a gift, it's
already been purchased by somebody else and is offered to you and
to me for free. We were in Decatur, Alabama,
North Alabama, preaching several years ago. On a Sunday night
after the meeting was over, I took my family to a steak and shake
restaurant chain that they have mostly down south in the U.S.
And we walked into the restaurant, and I looked across the restaurant.
All the way on the other side of the restaurant was another
family, obviously had come from church. Not the church I was
preaching in, but from a church. They were dressed up in church
clothes, and the man was dressed up very well. In fact, the closer
I looked at him, the more I thought he looked like a younger evangelist
friend of mine. And then I remembered, I'd been
talking to that younger evangelist friend earlier that year, and
he saw my schedule, what I was going to be, and he saw I was
going to be in Decatur, and told me he had an older brother who
pastors a church, another good Bible-preaching church in that
town. So I went over and asked, that's who it was. So I took
my family over and we introduced ourselves. Now we didn't stay
there and stand and talk for very long. You know how you hate
to have somebody stand at your table and talk while your food gets
cold? So we just invited him to the meetings and told him
we knew his brother and all the rest of that and went back and sat down
and we were, they ordered some food and we were eating and they
finished first obviously because they'd been there first. And
they came by our table, and they told us they'd see us at the
meetings later on during the week. And they didn't stay long, because
they didn't want our food to get cold either. So they, his family went
out, and he paid their bill, and they all left. And we finished
our meal, and we fellowshiped a little while longer. And then
we had fellowshiped a bit, and then my family got up and went
out to our truck. And I got up and went over to the cashier and
handed her the check and the money to pay for it. And she
said, I'm sorry, sir, I can't accept your money. I said, man, that's highly unusual
because most cashiers I've met in my lifetime have been more
than happy to accept my money. She said, well, I'm sorry, sir.
I can't accept your money. I said, well, there must be some
mistake. See, that's my bill. That's the money to pay for it.
I just assume you make change and let me go. I don't have to
wash the dishes or mop the floor or something before you let me
out of here. She said, well, I'm sorry. I can't accept your money.
I said, why not? What's wrong? She said, oh, nothing's wrong.
She said, you're not of the family you were talking to earlier tonight
on the other end of the restaurant. I said, yes, ma'am. She said,
well when they went out tonight, they not only paid for their
meal, they paid for your meal as well. Now I could have stood
there and I could have said, NO! I feel like there's something
I have to do! You can't do that! I won't feel right if I don't!
That would have been foolish, wouldn't it? There was nothing
I could pay because there was nothing that I owed because it
had already been paid in full. All I could do was gratefully
accept what someone else paid for me. That's what salvation
is. We get folks to understand that
fact because most man-made religions in the world today want to tell
people, oh, you've got to do something to earn it or merit
it or be deserving of it. And we have to show them, no,
listen, there are really only two religions in the entire Bible.
My father used to say, there's the religion of do and there's
the religion of done. Which one does the Bible teach?
Jesus said it is. Finished. That's done. It's completed. All we need to do is accept what
Jesus Christ had done for us on the cross of Calvary. So this
is the illustration that Jesus Christ, the Lord himself, uses
to help Nicodemus understand what it means to be born again.
So he started with an exclamation that got Nicodemus intent. He
continued with the illustration. And I want you to see in closing,
as we look at just John chapter 3 verse 16 and 17, he finishes
with an explanation. You finish it with an explanation.
Once you've shared the gospel with somebody, you've given an
illustration, helped them get an idea of it, you got their
attention with an explanation earlier on. And once you've gone
over this, it's important to go over it with them briefly
again, just to make sure they understand what you're telling
them. And that's exactly what the Lord Jesus Christ did here.
It's a gospel message in itself that I won't preach, but we'll
look at it very briefly. It says, and if you're back in
John chapter 3, for God, He's the provider. Hey, it wasn't
the lost sheep that went along with the shepherd, right? It
was the shepherd that went along with the sheep. Salvation is
not man's idea, it's God's idea. The sheep wanders off, not even
realizing he's missing anything. It's the shepherd that realizes
he's missing, brings him home. And we're like sheep, the Bible
says in Isaiah 53 verse 6, we've gone astray, we've turned every
man to his own lane, the world hath went on him, the iniquity
of us all. So for God, he's the provider. For God, so loved what? The world, that's the people.
Upon whom was God's love focused? On the world. That includes you
and me. Praise God for that. That means
there's not a one of us that isn't precious in the sight of
the Lord. He was willing to send his son to die in our place.
No matter how wicked we've been, no matter what age of time we're
from. Jesus died in our place. The Bible says it wasn't just
for the people of his day either, because the apostles said in
the scriptures, he is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours
only, but also for the sins of the whole world. So the Bible says, for God, the
provider, so loved the world, that's the people, that he gave
his, what? Only begotten Son. That's the
price. Some of you will say, I can't accept salvation, it's
too easy. It's only easy for you and me because it was a horrible
price for God. God so loved the world that he
did what? He gave his only begotten son. We are so precious to him
that his one descendant sacrificed his own son, slain his own son
on a rugged cross. because of our sin, because He
wanted to save us. For God, He's the provider. So
love the world, the people that He gave His only begotten Son.
That's the price. Then whosoever believeth in Him
should not perish. That's the present. Or excuse
me, that's rather the promise of God. That's the promise. What? If I believe on Him, I shall
not perish. And an awful lot of people who
want to say they believe God and they believe the Bible, but
they believe that if you've trusted Christ the Savior, you can lose
your salvation and you can perish. That's not what this verse says,
isn't it? You shall not perish. And we can go to John 10, verses
27 to 30, which says, My sheep hear My voice, and I know them,
and they follow Me, and I give unto them, what, eternal life,
and they shall, what, never Perish either son of a man plucked him
out of my hand the father which gave to me is greater than all
knowing as I would have plucked him out of my father's hand I
and my father are one So God the provider so loved the world
the people that he gave his only begotten son the price That whosoever
believing in him should not perish. That's the promise but have what? Everlasting life that's the present
that's the gift that Jesus purchased for anyone to be able to accept
and The price has been paid. The gift is being offered by
God. Then what does it say? For God
sent not his son into the world to condemn the world, but to
the world, what? Through him. I be saved. He's the purchaser.
The one who with his own precious blood signed the dotted line
at the bottom of the penalty document. To die in our place
on the unbreakable cross, to shed his blood, to pay in full
for they get to eternal life, that was the Lord Jesus Christ.
And that's why we're saved through his precious blood. Not through
our works, not through baptism, not through anything else, but
through the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is
the purchaser himself. That's so simple. Anybody ought
to be able to understand it. God, the provider, soul of the
world, the people, that he gave his only begotten son, the price,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, the promise,
but have everlasting life, the present, for God sent on his
Son into the world to give them the world, that through him the
purchaser might be saved. I trust that every one of us
here tonight can say with absolute assurance, yes I know for sure,
that I'm not trusting anyone or anything else but the Lord
Jesus Christ for my salvation, and it isn't my parents' faith,
It's not my church's faith, it's not my denomination's faith,
but it's a personal faith in Jesus Christ. A personal faith
that allows me to say, by the grace of God, praise the Lord
for that amazing grace and that amazing love of the Lord Jesus
Christ that allowed us to have forgiveness of our sin, to be
the anchor of our soul, steadfast and sure. Notice when the black
light went on, there's an anchor crossing you. alone is the anchor of our soul,
steadfast and sure. I can know for sure if I die
today I'm going to go to heaven, not because my father told me
so, or not because some other evangelist told me so, or some
pastor told me so, or my parents told me so, but because God tells
us so. Christ says so, right here in
this very passage of Scripture. So simple a little child can
understand it if we read it. And look at what Jesus said.
So if you already know the Lord Jesus Christ is Savior, and I
believe most of us would claim to do that, not all of us, then
I would challenge you, take the opportunity to follow the example
of the Lord Jesus Christ. To share the gospel with folks
in the same way he did. Say an explanation. Say something
to somebody that will get their attention. And then follow that
with an illustration to help them understand what the gospel
is about. And then a true, clear explanation when you go over
it again, so they understand exactly what you're asking them
to do. and then you can give them an invitation to put their
trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. By the way, do we read that Nicodemus
got saved on this night when Jesus came to him? Uh-uh, we
don't. So was Jesus a failure when it
comes to being a soulmater? No. Was Nicodemus ever saved?
In the New Cell he was listed with the believers. Remember
when Christ was taken down off the cross and Joseph of Arimathea
was involved, Nicodemus was there. He was among the other believers
that worked with the Lord Jesus Christ there. So, you know, we
often remind ourselves again just from that, even the Son
of God didn't see somebody saved on the very day he told him about
the gospel. Remember, some plant, others water, God gives the increase.
The Lord planted the seed in the heart of Nicodemus and it
bore fruit at another time. and we can rejoice in that fact.
Take the Lord's example, take that opportunity as believers
to share the gospel as simply as we can and the best we can
to help others come to know Christ as a personal Savior. It's been
a blessing to see some that have put their faith and trust in
Christ or even gotten assurance of salvation this week, but whether
or not anybody else trusts Christ and we have one more night to
hopefully see someone else come that needs to know Christ and
be saved, yet if we can carry the gospel to folks for days
and months and years after that, there'll be people coming to
Christ and make them rejoice in the
power of Christ to use us to bring others to the Lord Jesus.
Let's bow our heads together for a closing word of prayer.
I hope that as we ask that question that comes from this passage,
will you enter the kingdom of God, that you can say, yes, I'm
absolutely certain of that fact. I'm absolutely sure it's not
my parents' faith. It's not somebody else's faith
I'm believing in. It's a personal faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
I wonder if I could ask that just tonight, just as we've talked
about that so strongly this evening. I wonder how many tonight can
just slip a hand up where you are, if you can say truly, pretty
sure, I believe personally in Christ. I know for sure that
if I die right here, right now, tonight, I'm on the way to heaven.
How many can lift a hand and say that tonight? If you're absolutely
certain of that, it's your personal faith in Christ, you can testify
of, all right? Amen. Looks like everybody tonight
could see it this evening. Let me encourage you tonight
to take the scriptures that we've talked about. I want to have
you say, Brother Webb, I'm going to learn from the Lord Jesus
Christ. I'm going to even try to take some of the scriptures that were
talked about tonight and use them as I share the gospel with
folks to help them, too, understand the gospel and be saved. I'm
going to slip a hand up if you're going to try to do that. Amen?
Great. Praise the Lord for that. That's why I encourage people,
if you're a believer, even when the gospel is being preached,
I hope you're taking note of the scripture references and
the verses that are being used. But each one of those is another
bullet, another piece of ammunition we can put in the gospel gun
to be able to win others to the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's stand
together for a word of prayer together tonight. Heavenly Father,
thank you so much for your precious word and I thank you Lord for
speaking to hearts tonight. Thank you for making the gospel
simple enough that any child can understand it and any child
can present it to someone else. Lord, you said in your word that
unless a person has the faith of a little child, they shall
not enter into the kingdom of God. Well, I pray that you would be
testimonies to those around us as you give us an opportunity
to do so. And that we lead others to the Lord Jesus Christ. I pray
tonight for brothers and sisters in Christ here, that you would
help us to be able to learn as much as we can from your word
about leading others to Christ. And get as many of the scriptures
regarding the gospel into our head and down into our hearts
so that it will come out of our mouths any time we need it to and want
it to. Lord, I pray that even this week you might lead us to
the divine appointments you would have for us to share the gospel
with others, and as you would put the right words in the mouth
to be able to speak to those specific people's needs, and
Lord, to answer their questions so that they would come to Christ,
and to get an interest in their hearts so that even if they don't
trust Christ at that outside meeting, they would want to come
here to learn more. Lord, I pray that you would answer
that prayer. Use us, Lord, we pray, to bring others to yourself.
Help us to use you as an example, Lord, we that it will allow you
to work through us, that you'll draw souls unto yourself as we
lift you up. We thank you for it in Jesus' name. As Katie just
plays a verse or two of an invitation song, maybe you want to talk
to the Lord, maybe you want to tell Him that you're going to
be willing to use what He's given to you from the Word of God to
give to others and ask Him to help you to remember those scriptures.
I challenge you to mark them in your Bible, and that way you'll
know where they are. You can lead others to those
same verses, and help them to see what the Word of God says.
It's great to be able to quote the Scripture to people, but
sometimes it's necessary to take them and show them the verses
themselves. God has promised to use that
Word in their hearts. I trust you'll let God use you
to do that. song being played says, wounded
for me, wounded for me. And there on the cross, he was
wounded for me, dying for me. He said, he's risen for us as
well. Will you let him work through
you to bring others to you soon? And look up this way. In my evangelism
as I'm witnessing people, I get to the fact that Death is the
result of sin. And then you just ask him the
question, why did Jesus die? You know, you start to think
about it. Jesus was eternal. I mean, as a man, he was sinless. The soul that sinneth, it shall
die. There was no reason justly for
God to condemn Christ except that he died for us. And because
he died for us, he died. I mean, that's it. Otherwise,
he is eternal because it would be unjust except for him taking
our place. So praise God. for the love of
Jesus, for us, that he died and took our place. Let's sing about
it, 263. Wounded for me, wounded for me, here on the cross, he
was wounded for me. 263. Wounded for me, wounded for me,
there on the cross He was wounded for me. All my transgressions
and now I am for me. Let my redemption I see, all
because Jesus was dying for me. Prisoned for me, prisoned for
me. for me. The throne of grace was
risen for me. Now and evermore from death to
life I am free. All because Jesus was risen for
me. Living for me, living for me. Love in God's eyes is living
for me. Daily He's weeping and praying
for me. All thy praises be filling o'er
me, Coming o'er me, coming o'er me. On days new earth is coming
o'er me, When with what joy His dear face
I shall see, O Lord, praise Him, He's coming for me. Amen. Praise the Lord. Glad you
were here tonight. And I'm just thankful. You know,
the great thing about where two or three are gathered together
in my name is that God is here. We had a good service tonight.
Praise God. We'd love to have seen you on
stage here. It's recorded tonight. And thankfully
for that, we put it online. Pray for those that hear it.
Let the Spirit of God speak to their heart. Pray for tomorrow
night. There's two people I talked to today. They have something
on tonight. We'll both indicate they'll come
tomorrow, Pam and Jordan, and pray for others. I mean, maybe
last night God allowed us to see some visitors come, right? We'll pray about that, but thank
you for the web, for your ministry, and pray that God bless the webs,
and meet their needs, provide for them. We've got a little
box back here in the back, if you want to participate in that,
we welcome you to do so. All right, let's pray. Father, we
praise you that you are a gracious God, a loving God. Father, we
read the love letter tonight that you have for us and thank
you for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten
son. Father, what precious scripture to us and what a great reminder
to us tonight of everything that you've done for us. through the
death of the Son of God, that we could look at not a snake
lifted up, but the Son of Man in His flesh, in His suffering,
taking our sin upon Him, and being God-forsaken on the cross
because of our sin. But Savior, thank You for loving
us that much. Father, I pray, give us compassion,
give us wisdom. We don't know what to do sometimes,
Lord, even just to consider right now, Lord, how blessed it would
have been to have a lot of unbelievers here present tonight to hear
the Word of God as it was presented. We pray, Father, bless the audience,
bless the hearts of those that listen online. And yet, I pray, Father, please,
we need to see visitors come. And I pray that the Spirit of
God work in the hearts of those that We have spoken to or that
we've invited and I just pray tonight but somehow some way
in this in this date at this hour this time with all the technology
and all the junk and all the The lurement of the world on
a Friday night and by the grace of God we see the Spirit of God
draw men to this place and father we see people say and father
really say and really wanting to be baptized, and really wanting
to join a church, and really wanting to do something for God.
And Father, we challenged earlier this week, pray there for the
Lord of the harvest, that he'd send forth laborers into this
harvest field. And Father, we need to go. And Father, we need
more men. We need more women. And Father, we need you to in
the same commitment to have faithful men who shall be able to teach
others also. Father, I pray you, give us those faithful men. Help
us be faithful. Help us be men of faith and obedience
ourselves. But Father, I pray, may the work
that you desire to do grow. And Father, bless your servants.
And I am faithfully preaching the word of God to us. And Father,
I thank you for using them this evening to stir us up for our
evangelism and for the gospel that was declared, the good news
about Jesus Christ. And Father, for the work that
you did through his wife as well, bless them for their ministry.
It's in Christ's name we pray. Amen.
Will You Enter the Kingdom?
Do you know for sure you'll go to Heaven? If not, you need to listen to this message. Do you know how to help someone know how to enter Heaven? If not, this message will help you to better know how to share the Good News about Jesus.
| Sermon ID | 919192132327645 |
| Duration | 1:02:17 |
| Date | |
| Category | Special Meeting |
| Bible Text | John 3 |
| Language | English |