[0:00] This message was recorded at Vision Baptist Church in Alfred, Georgia. This is the next message in our series on the book of John, entitled, Jesus is God.
[0:13] If you will join me in John chapter number 3. How many of you in here with me could say, Oh God, you are my God and I will worship you all of my days. I say amen to that.
[0:24] What a wonderful song. John chapter number 3, what a wonderful passage. You can find many people that can present this passage to you better, but you will not find a better person than Jesus Christ to share the gospel.
[0:36] And in John chapter number 3, we have the creator God in flesh, in Jesus, sharing the gospel with one man. And I'm so excited about sharing this passage with you today. One, because in sharing this passage, I get to share about something that has changed my life.
[0:51] You know, the gospel not only changed my eternity, but it changed my life. At the age of nine, I received eternal life. And that doesn't just speak about quantity of days. That talks about quality of days.
[1:01] That Jesus not only changed my trajectory of where I'll spend eternity, but he, in West Kentucky at the age of nine, he changed the projection of my life from that point until now. And I love the life that he gave me that's only made possible by the gospel.
[1:15] And the gospel is the only thing that will ever shake a young man out of the picture like we saw early, where he would worship at the river Ganges. The only thing that will ever shake us out of this religion, out of this false morality, is the gospel.
[1:29] Nothing else will do it. It seems like a goal, it seems like something that is too large to do, and it would be impossible if it wasn't for the gospel being his gospel and him sharing it with us.
[1:42] And I get a lot of comfort in John chapter number three. First of all, I get comfort in the fact, as I've said, and I'll keep saying it again, is that the creator God, who created the earth in six days, but in flesh, he felt what we felt.
[1:55] We learn in the book of Hebrews. So at nighttime, he would want to sleep. He would feel pain from walking. He would feel those things. But in John chapter number three, after a busy day of everything going on, he spent a night sharing the gospel with one man.
[2:09] And that ought to bring comfort in here today, if you have that one person, or you have some people upon your heart, and you say, I know God cares for those three billion people. I know he cares for the billion people in India. I know that God cares for this world.
[2:21] But does he really care for that one person that's on my heart today? John chapter number three lets you know he does so much that he would give his time to do that. Also, it brings us comfort in knowing that no matter how indoctrinated somebody is, that the simple gospel can bring them so that they can inherit the kingdom of God.
[2:42] The gospel is simple. I'll save that the age of not. How many of you in here were saved before the age of 15 in here? Would you raise your hand? How many of you received Christ as a teenager? All right, as a teenager.
[2:53] You know, if a teenager can understand it, it must be simple, right, teenagers? The gospel is simple, and Jesus explains it in simple terms here. And we'd be amiss if we tried to explain it in any other terms but in simple terms.
[3:06] But there's one thing that makes the gospel not simple, and it's complicated, and it's the sin of unbelief. To an unbelieving man, the gospel will never make sense. And in your sharing of the gospel, no matter how simple and how clear and how biblical your presentation of the gospel, if they do not believe, if they do not respond in their heart to it, they will never understand it.
[3:28] And I've talked to people since we started in the book of John. Some of you have shared testimony of how you've shared the gospel with a friend or a co-worker. And you said, I just don't know if I said it right because they did not respond.
[3:40] Obviously, we ought to work at knowing our Bibles and sharing the gospel and making sure that it's clear. But a perfect presentation of the gospel does not mean there's going to be a perfect response to the gospel.
[3:51] So faithfully keep sharing the word, studying our Bibles, and seeing what Jesus says. We'll look together at verse number 5 through 11, and we'll read more. Today, we'll build up to verse number 16, the best-known passage of Scripture.
[4:04] If you never spent a day in church but you ever went to a sporting event, you know of John 3, 16. It's the thing that we write underneath our eyes. It's that billboard. It's the posters that we hold up. And in looking at this passage, we'll see how wonderful that it truly is.
[4:18] Verse number 5. And Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except the man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That's the first thing we'll look at here in a moment, as this being born of water and of the Spirit.
[4:33] That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof.
[4:44] But canst not tell when it cometh, and whether it goeth. So it everyone that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things?
[4:59] Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, We speak that we do not know, that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness.
[5:11] Let me pause there for a second. Jesus calls the time out in his presentation to Nicodemus, and he said, Nicodemus, just because you don't understand because of your unbelief, don't believe for a second, that we don't know that this is true.
[5:23] And I love this, Jesus goes from talking, I, singular here, he says we. He's referring to the disciples there with him. He's saying, Nicodemus, we know that this is true. So you may act like this is hard to understand, and that you don't want anything to do with this, but we know that that's true.
[5:38] And isn't it wonderful that Jesus would include, his disciples and us, and that I'm in a room full of people today, that know that this is true. And if you're in here today, and you're not a believer, I want you to know that we know that this is true, and not just us, but the creator, God knows it as well.
[5:54] If I have told you earthly things, verse 12, and you believe not, how shall you believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? Verse 13, And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven.
[6:08] In verse number 12 there, he said, If I tell you earthly things, and you don't understand, then how do you think I can tell you heavenly things, and that you're going to understand it? He even says to Nicodemus, he says, Nicodemus, you are a teacher of the Jews, and you don't get this?
[6:23] I can't understand why you don't get this. And then he says, I'm going to tell you about the wind, and you don't understand that either, and if you can't believe what I teach you about earthly things, then why should I even go on and teach you about heavenly things?
[6:37] And what he was saying to Nicodemus is, you're not going to understand what I'm about to tell you, because you do not believe that I am God. Because unbelief makes it impossible to understand the gospel.
[6:50] And that's what Jesus was saying when he said to Nicodemus. He said, I can't believe you don't get this. If you don't believe that, you can't trust me about earthly things, then how do you believe that you're going to believe me about heavenly things?
[7:00] And he says this to him before he goes on and explains the nature and the basis of the new birth. As I said, in verse number five, we will start there, and we'll look at this statement here, that you must be born of water and of spirit.
[7:14] Let me give you a few explanations of what's going on there. First of all, the Bible here is not teaching of water baptism. Water baptism is taught throughout the scriptures and many times, but not here in this passage.
[7:25] This would contradict teachings in Roman 3 and Ephesians 2. And so we compare scripture with scripture. Throughout the Bible, Old and the New Testament, baptism is seen as symbolic. And also, it's not only just seen as symbolic, but it's always representing death.
[7:39] And here we're talking about the new birth. In John chapter number four and verse number two, in our next chapter, Jesus tells here that he doesn't baptize anyone. His disciples do.
[7:50] And Jesus, who's on a mission to seek and to save, if baptism was necessary for salvation, then it would seem quite odd that Jesus would not baptize, seeing that he came to seek and to save those that were lost.
[8:02] Secondly, this is definitely true. People would tell you that you must be born of a natural birth and also be born of the spirit. And we know that to be true. How many of you were born of a woman in here?
[8:14] How many were born of a woman in here? Where's Mac at? I'm wondering about you. Okay. All right. All right. So all of us were born of a woman in here. You're carried in the womb. There's water there. And so that's obviously true.
[8:24] But why would he be telling this? And why would he tell a man that had already been born this way? Also, we don't find that in another part of scripture. Let me show you here what Nicodemus would have heard when he said, you must be born of the water and of the spirit.
[8:37] With Nicodemus' understanding of the Old Testament, let me tell you what he would know about it. Water in the Old Testament was seen as a purification. Things that were unclean would go through a ceremony of washing.
[8:48] In Ezekiel chapter number 36, there's a prophecy about this washing that would happen. In Ezekiel 36, 25, it says, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your own righteousness and from all your idols, and I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart and spirit.
[9:08] So the book of Ezekiel is talking about, he says, I'm going to wash you from the inside. Remember, Jesus is taking this inside. Nicodemus thought everything was on the outside, and Jesus is saying, no, you have to be born again, and the work that's going to be done, it can't be done by you, and it can't be outward.
[9:23] It must be inward, and it must be a divine miracle by the God of heaven. So Nicodemus said, I thought salvation was hard. I have a whole list of things that I'm supposed to do, and Jesus says, it's even harder than that.
[9:36] It's something that you can't do anything towards, that it takes a divine miracle of God. And then Nicodemus, I don't believe he's being obtuse here. I don't believe he's trying to be difficult. When he says, how can I be born again?
[9:49] I believe he was answering according to what Jesus was saying. He's saying, how in the world do you expect me to do that as an old man? He's saying, either as an old man, how I'll be born again, or as a man who's been following the law for all these years, how in the world do you expect me to start all over again?
[10:04] And Jesus has an answer for him. So we see there, it's a symbol of cleansing on the inside. Purification is done by the Holy Spirit using this water. What is the water?
[10:15] The water is the word of God. Christ will wash his church by the word. Ephesians chapter number five and verse number 26. If you'll follow there with me, Ephesians 5, 26, I want you to see what's said.
[10:29] It says, that he might sanctify her, his church, having cleansed her by the washing of the word with, washing of the water with the word.
[10:39] Here, Christ will wash his church with the word. That being born of the spirit requires the work of the word inside of our heart. So those of you in here today that are burdened about somebody who's not a believer, can I remind you today that the working of being born of the spirit again is only to be possible by the work of the word inside of their heart.
[11:02] And so that there is no way to be going about sharing the gospel without sharing the word with them. So we look here at what it means. We talked about being born of the water. Now let's look at what it says about being born of the spirit.
[11:13] We are baptized by the spirit at the point of salvation. It is the baptism that is mentioned in John chapter number one, verse number three. John the Baptist is speaking here and he says, and I knew him not, but he that sent me to baptize with water, the same said unto me, upon whom thou shalt see the spirit descending and remaining on him, the same is he which baptizes with the Holy Ghost.
[11:35] This is the baptism that's true about all of us in here today, that we are baptized. The Bible tells us in Ephesians four that there is one Lord, one faith and one baptism.
[11:46] Here in John chapter number three, this is the baptism of the spirit that it is speaking about, which is made possible by the work of the word in them. We're told in Galatians three that the spirit unites us with Christ.
[12:00] In first Corinthians, it says that the spirit unites us in the body and the spirit does a recreating work and not just the reforming work in our hearts. In Romans six, that we are made new by the work of the spirit.
[12:11] We cannot change ourselves. In Jeremiah 13, it says it like this. It said, can an Ethiopian man change the color of his skin or could a leopard change his spots? There's nothing you can do, Nicodemus, that is going to change you.
[12:24] There's nothing that can happen except for the inward work of the spirit and the new birth, which is made possible by the washing and the regeneration from the word.
[12:34] First Peter one 23 tells us this. If you would, if you want to write that verse down, this verse will help you as what we're talking about. First Peter one 23, it says being born again, not of a corruptible seed, but of an incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
[12:50] This being born again is of a, not of a corruptible seed, but an incorruptible seed by the word of God, that the word of God does the work inside of our heart. The Holy Spirit draws, the father draws us, and it is the spirit which regenerates us and gives us a new birth.
[13:07] And so we cannot change ourselves. It's an all an inside job done by the Holy Spirit. The exact opposite of what Nicodemus was told. The spirit of God takes the word of God, and with the sinner that believes, and imparts the life of God in them.
[13:22] This is all about God, all through that the word of God, that the work of God is inside of their heart. And Nicodemus, this is throwing him for a loop, because he had been told his whole life, that this was a work of man, by man, and for man.
[13:37] And now Jesus is telling him that that is not true. Let's look here at the conflict that Nicodemus has. Jesus goes on before he even explains it, and says marvel not. He says, I already know how you're going to react to this, because this is this crazy teaching to you.
[13:50] But Jesus knows that he cannot believe earthly things, he won't believe heavenly things. He asked Nicodemus how he could be a teacher. Nicodemus says, how can this be? In verse number 9, Nicodemus answered and said, how can this thing be?
[14:02] Can you imagine where Nicodemus is at there? He is sitting there with Jesus. He had been indoctrinated his whole life. He had followed all these rules, and now he's going to Jesus, and expecting Jesus to tell him one more thing, ten more things.
[14:16] Give me something more that I can do. And Jesus says, this is something that you can't do. It must be a work of God. Nicodemus says, how can this be? Because it went against everything that he had been told.
[14:27] He learned all his religious emotions, religious feelings, religious activities. They all have been pointless. And you do not have to see it to believe it. And that's what Jesus tells him about the wind there.
[14:40] He says, you see the effects of the wind, but you don't understand the wind. And you don't see the wind, but yet you believe it. And he says the same in God's working in salvation. He said, you can't see because it's on the inside.
[14:53] It's not an exterior thing, but you see the effects of it, and of the life of a person that truly believes. Nicodemus needs a whole new system. It would be like telling a fish that he is not able to live on land.
[15:05] The truth is seldom comfortable, for it is always necessary. The gospel is easy to understand, unless there is unbelief. And that's what Jesus is dealing with, as he's talking about with Nicodemus, he's dealing with unbelief.
[15:18] Everything that he had done, his breathing apparatus, he is now like a fish, taken out of water and put on land, because everything he knew went contrary to this. And now Jesus goes on, he says, how can this new birth become a reality?
[15:31] And from verses 11 to 21, the word believe is found seven times in those verses. It's said over and over again. Believing should be a response to what he was told in verse number 10. Unbelief is the cause for his ignorance.
[15:44] As we read in verse 11 and 12, he says, you wouldn't believe me about earthly things, so why would you about heavenly things? Because you just don't believe in me. Receive not. In verse number 11, it says, Verily I send you, you speak these things, testify, and ye receive not our witness.
[15:59] In verse number 12, and then verse number 12, and you believe not. The reason that you receive not, is because you do not believe. And the natural man, it tells us in 1 Corinthians 2, 14, that the carnal man, the natural man, the unsaved man, the unbeliever, can never understand the things of God.
[16:20] So first thing that he told him to do, is you have to believe. So in telling Nicodemus, how are you going to be born again? How will you be born of the water and the spirit? As you first of all, you have to believe. Remember, here's Nicodemus.
[16:31] He's asking, Jesus, tell me what I can do. Do you want me to go feed the poor? Do you want me to go give up something? Is there something I can do? Because it's much easier to give up your money than it is to admit that you're a sinner in need of a savior.
[16:44] And Jesus says, I have something for you to do, Nicodemus. Number one, you can believe. And then number two, he says, not only can you believe, number two, you can stop not believing. Doesn't that sound kind of odd in there?
[16:55] That point number two is, well, number one is believe. Number two is just stop not believing. Because Jesus said, I'm going to tell it to you from a different way. Because the only thing that you can do in this equation is believe. The answer to unbelief is simply believe.
[17:08] No man has ever ascended into heaven is what it said there. Verse 13, and no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the son of man, which is in heaven. And I told you this on Thursday night.
[17:19] No man in his religion, no Hindi man on the Gandhis, no Hindu man on the Ganges River has ever been praying and been given 30 minutes in heaven because of his relief.
[17:30] No man has ever given to the poor and in so God gave him 30 seconds to ascend up into heaven. No religious effort has ever allowed a man to escape the earthly box and go into the heavenly thing.
[17:42] But it says that the son of man has come down, which is from heaven, he has come down to us. So what he was saying here, Nicodemus, I know you're trying to do your best to ascend up in heaven.
[17:53] You're trying to do your best in religion so that you can earn heaven. He said, but that isn't how it worked. I came from heaven and I came down here to you and I'm going to share this message with you.
[18:03] So in the story, Nicodemus is not the superstar and we are not the superstar, but Jesus is the son of man. Jesus came down from heaven and how could he descend and still be in heaven?
[18:14] And the simple answer is that we must believe. The father had drawn Nicodemus. The spirit is able and willing to wash him with the word of God. Now Nicodemus must believe he will not be able to understand the crucified Christ until he sees himself a sinner in need of a savior.
[18:30] Then Jesus tells a story that we know from Numbers chapter number 21. That is a story where Moses and the children of Israel were bit by fiery serpents and he tells them to take a serpent and to put it on a staff and if he would hold it up, all those in the camp that would come and they would believe that this would heal them, they would come and they'd find the serpent and they would look upon it and it would heal them of the condition they were in.
[18:55] In verse number 14, let me read that to you. And Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up. Remember Nicodemus understood the Old Testament. It's wonderful when we know this story too because we know the Old Testament but it talks about the serpent in the wilderness and here it begins to illustrate what is true and what's taught through the New Testament that the wages of sin is death and because of that, people are going to die because of that unless Jesus imparts life into them.
[19:24] Can you imagine? You know, I'd always thought in chapter number 21, I kind of figured when I was younger and I heard this story, I thought about the serpent and I thought about the people being bit and when I thought about being in the camp, I kind of thought about a campsite.
[19:37] I was in the Boy Scouts and I went camping and so that's what I thought maybe this was what the camp would look like. So I pictured it would be about the size of this room and a person would take the serpent rod and he would hold it up and so that everybody around, all they had to do is look over the shoulder, get a glance at this pole that the serpent is on and they would be healed of being bit by the fiery serpent.
[19:57] But that's not the case. It spread out a great distance and the pole was not a radio tower, it was just held up by a person which meant that the person that was bit by the fiery serpent which was sent by God to be bit by the fiery, the fiery serpents were sent by God that when they were bit and then they were told that they could be healed if they would go and look upon the serpent that they went from there that they had to believe that they were dying and they had to believe that looking unto Jesus in the New Testament looking on the serpent looking unto what Jesus said would bring salvation because that's all that pole was, there's nothing special about it.
[20:34] It was Jesus saying the obedience of looking at this pole and looking at it will heal you from being bit of this serpent and the New Testament is that they had to believe that they were in a dying condition and then they had to look unto Jesus and that's what's being told to Nicodemus there in that story.
[20:49] He was saying, Nicodemus, you know the story there and you know your forefathers and the generations before you before they ever looked at this serpent and they were healed they had to recognize that they had been filled with poison and that their body was dying and that they could not help themselves.
[21:05] Many people probably died that day and it said many people died but many of them probably died trying to get the poison out of their body themselves. Many of them probably died talking to one another trying to heal themselves.
[21:16] Many of them probably died trying to do something that they had heard somebody else did one other time when they were bit by a snake and no other remedy would have cured those people because God says you have been bit by the serpent you're going to die and there's only one way that you're going to not die from the snake bite it is to look into what I told you and the serpent and Jesus saying, Nicodemus, that's the same thing right now.
[21:39] There's nothing you can do about the state that you're in and don't believe any different Nicodemus. You have been bit by the snake. You have fallen into sin. You are a sinner. You are one of those people and if you're in here today and no matter how good a person or a good lady or a good man that you are no matter how upstanding of a citizen you are all of us in John 3.18 it says, He that believeth is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already.
[22:06] Every one of us were filled with that poison of sin and we were going to die but we believed and we looked unto Jesus and he did the work inside of us an internal work that only he could do and you will never believe Nicodemus and you will never believe in here if you do not recognize your fallen state that you are a sinner and that you are condemned already.
[22:28] You know, at the age of nine I went from being condemned already to being not condemned because I believed but you know, there's no time where I decided that I was going to become condemned because it said I was condemned already and from a young age when I knew the difference between right and wrong and I knew about Jesus Christ and I rejected it I was condemned at that point.
[22:45] I can tell you when I became not condemned but I can't tell you when I became condemned because condemned is the default setting for everybody in this room and for everybody in the world we're born into this world sinners and that we must look unto Jesus for that and here is God explaining this to Nicodemus and then it goes on and it says even so must the son of man be lifted up.
[23:08] What a wonderful word there. Even so must the son of man be lifted up. Remember Jesus hasn't went to the cross yet. He had just told them the chapter before he said you know I could tear this temple down and rebuild it just like that because he was talking about his body and three days he would rebuild it and Jesus hadn't done this at this point in the story but it says he must be lifted up.
[23:30] Even so must the son of man be lifted up. Even so he's saying Nicodemus even I must go to the cross. I must be put upon that cross. I must be lifted up. The church has to take the message and you must lift it up because if it were not lifted up then first of all we said he must because without the shedding of blood there is no remission of sins.
[23:52] That's taught throughout the Bible. That's why he said he must. He must because his love required God's sacrificial system to take place. Because he loved us he must be lifted up and he must because he is just.
[24:04] That God must Jesus must die in the place for sinners because our God is just and that must happen. In healing we get eternal life and this healing we stay if we are not healed we stay in our natural born state which is condemned already.
[24:19] Now this takes us to verse number 15 and 16. This is what makes John 3 16 so beautiful and it so clearly expresses what God has done to secure our salvation and how believing is expected and it's only reasonable.
[24:33] verse 15 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 and whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.
[24:49] Everything that Jesus had said up to Nicodemus it gets summarized in this. Nicodemus you will not have eternal life you are going to perish. But God so loved the world that he sent his son Jesus that he gave his life that whosoever will believe in him will not perish.
[25:07] Nicodemus you want to know what you got to do? Let me sum it up for you that you have to believe and that if you believe you will not perish but you will have everlasting life.
[25:18] And those of us in here especially those of us who are saved at a young age you find it hard to remember you say Nicodemus I remember reading this story and I just want to yell Nicodemus what is your problem? The God of heaven said believe.
[25:29] I mean what more do you must do? He is there he is sharing the gospel believe but in believing he had to admit that everything up to that point in his life that he had done to earn heaven was futile and it was wasted.
[25:42] Nicodemus must repent of his false belief in order to trust in Christ. God did not send his son to condemn the world for God sent not his son into the world verse 17 and condemned the world but that the world through him might be saved.
[25:54] And this was a word spoken straightly to Nicodemus because being a Pharisee he wanted Jesus Christ to come into this world and condemn the world to set up a kingdom to make the Jewish people great destroy the other people and Jesus said I did not come into this world to condemn but I came to bring life and not only to bring life to you but I came to bring life unto all men.
[26:15] And Nicodemus didn't like that because that isn't man made and that's nothing he could earn and he hated that and that's why we hate grace. You know Mr. Charles Gardner Sr. passed away he would say if you gave a man a job to do if you told a man to build a house they would all build houses they inherit heaven but if you tell a man to admit he's a sinner and trust only in Jesus then his pride will tell him that he can't do it and that's what Nicodemus is dealing with here.
[26:40] You will not be able to hold onto a false belief and embrace Christ. That's why in India you will not be Christian and be Hindu you will not be Muslim and be Christian because that false belief you have must be let go so that you can embrace this free gift.
[26:53] Then lastly what was believed was light is what he thought was darkness was light. Remember in this story Nicodemus comes at night he's leaving darkness he's leaving this false teaching this false religion symbolically and he comes to Jesus which is light but he also leaves and goes back into the darkness but he knew as we said he was a man trying to walk a narrow path on a broad road which was still leading to destruction but Nicodemus here he had an opportunity that day that was given God not he said I did not come to condemn the world I did not come to condemn you.
[27:24] In Amos chapter number 5 verses 18 through 20 this is what Nicodemus and all his Jewish Pharisee colleagues would have been believing about light and darkness because they had it they had it turned around here in the story in Amos chapter number 5 verse 18 through 20 it says this Woe unto you that desire the day of the Lord for what is for you the day of the Lord is darkness and not light and if a man did flee from a lion and bear met him or into the house and leaned his hand on the wall and a serpent bit him shall not the day of the Lord be darkness and not light ever very dark and no brightness in it real quickly here in closing Nicodemus didn't know that he was leaving darkness and coming the light Nicodemus thought he was living in the light he thought he understood the light and all these Gentile Christians that were going out there that they lived in darkness and Amos had said that they believed that the day of the Lord would be darkness for everybody out there and it would be light for them and in the book of Amos the prophet is saying it's like you escape from a lion and then you run down the road and then you get killed by a bear or it's like then you escape from that bear and then you run into your house and when you shut the door when you close the door a snake will bite you and he was saying you cannot run from the day of the Lord no matter what you do you cannot change your eternity unless you put your faith and trust in Jesus so Nicodemus was in a false system which was darkness and he came to light and he realized that day that what he thought was darkness was light and what he thought was light was darkness and he's in a crucial hour in his life and I praise God that we find on later that it appears that he put his faith and trust in Jesus Christ in the story of Nicodemus but Jesus left him here in a situation where he knew that he must make a decision that everything that he had believed up to that point in his life had been a lie
[29:19] I understand that there are probably no Pharisees in the building here today nobody on the Sanhedrin and that there's nobody of Jewish birth very likely in here with us at this time but you may have came in here today and what you thought was light you have heard from Jesus and it is really darkness that you are trying to do something exterior so that you can earn your way into heaven and Jesus says it so plainly you must be born again and this must be done by the word and it must be done by the spirit it has to be an internal work and you can't see it you don't understand it but it's a work of God inside and that you have to be like the children of Israel in Numbers chapter number 21 you gotta first recognize that the condition you're in is gonna lead you to a death not only a physical death as we see the result of sin on earth but it is gonna separate you from God for all of eternity and when you believe that and you realize that there's nothing you can do to change that then you will look unto Jesus and you will believe and in the words of Jesus God saying here today that if you're like that first of all you need to believe and second of all you need to stop not believing which ends up being the same thing you simply need to believe today that Jesus is God and that he has done everything necessary for you and that you cannot add anything to that and then to the believer in here today could I challenge you in here that in sharing the gospel and when we share the gospel with somebody who is not a believer they believe that it's complicated and many times we begin to believe it's complicated and the only thing that causes it to be complicated is a lack of belief he said it clearly in his word he explains it to a man and we must simply believe and so can I encourage you in here today when you're sharing the gospel with your friends and loved ones remember that this is a story of good news that it sets them free from captivity and that it is simple and no matter how complicated they try to make it that belief is the only thing that's going to help them understand it so as you share the gospel you must pray and ask God
[31:22] I told Aaron Basho our missionary in Morocco I said in sharing the gospel with those Muslim men in India I felt like I was wrestling somebody that I was in the exact same weight class and the exact same power and exact same strength I was and we could wrestle all day and nothing would happen because this is those that are born of the flesh are of the flesh and those that are born of the spirits of the spirit because this is a work of the spirit and at the end of that day when I had explained everything that I could explain from the word of God I came to him and I said God you must do something you must do something in his heart and can I tell you in here somewhat of a test to know if you're really out there sharing the gospel with people at the end of your day or at the end of this week if you're not praying to God and saying Heavenly Father I'm asking you to do in the heart of that man or that woman only what you can do then can I tell you then you're not doing your part in this our part we are carriers of this word and our word gets to do something in the heart of man this is an incredible book and by sharing the word of God it does something in their heart and when they believe the spirit of God is born in them do you know what I'm talking about today that new creation that God made you and I told you
[32:33] I was saved that day tonight I had no idea all that God had given me at that point but I knew that I was a man that was a young boy that was bit by a serpent of sin and that nobody could help me and I looked unto Jesus and I asked him to save me and because of my belief it was easy to understand and I accepted it let's pray today Heavenly Father I ask that you'll be in here Lord we know that the Bible teaches there's only two types of people on this earth there's those that have put their faith and trust in you and they're the children of God Lord in here there may be another group of people in here that have never put their faith and trust in you and as Nicodemus Lord they've been looking for things that they could do and the day they heard from you that the only thing that they can do is believe in the finished work of Jesus Christ upon the cross Lord I pray that you will convict and that you will draw people to you that they will respond appropriately to the gospel that they will respond to the work of the word in their heart today with every head bowed and every eye closed and Miss Kristen will play the piano here in a moment we will stand but before then could I ask you if you're in here today and you've never put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ you as Nicodemus you have never believed upon the son of God
[33:46] I'd like for you to raise your hand and we'll send a trained counselor to you they'll take you to another room they'll allow you to ask questions and they will show you what the gospel says if you're like that in here today would you just slip your hand up so we can send somebody there to pray with you and show you what the bible says and Christian in here can I challenge you in your seat or down here at the altar would you make a commitment today and say Lord I am reminded of the fact that the gospel is simple and the gospel is clear and the work for the gospel has already been done and now it's my job to take it and to clearly and simply proclaim it and the day that you will make a decision that you will be a teacher of this gospel some of you in here God may be convicting and you know that you haven't shared that message with somebody for a very very long time and you say that you don't know enough and that you have a million excuses today will you repent of that and say God I want to share the gospel with those around me make that decision in your seat or find your place here at the altar but I cannot beg you do not leave the day with responding to the word of God the day with responding to the word of God you have been listening to Trent Cornwell pastor at
[35:13] Vision Baptist Church for contact information location service times or more audio and video recordings log on to www.visionbaptist.com heaven to provide with hello livecommunitary well live mountains berå’Œ