We're thrilled to be here. I
was telling Teresa on the way here not to stress, because we
were just coming home. And that's the way I feel. Y'all
make us feel so welcome and so at home. Let me get my notes open here. While
I'm trying to get this, y'all turn to John chapter 3, I think. Yes, that's right, John 3. This is going to be our scripture
reading. It's not where I'm going with my text. John chapter 3. I'm sorry. All right. John 3, verse 1. 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. Nicodemus
saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? 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 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. Let's bow together
in prayer before I continue. Our gracious Heavenly Father,
Lord, how we thank you for Our Lord and Savior, Your Son,
Christ Jesus. Lord, thank You for sending Him
to redeem such sinful sinners as ourselves. Father, we ask that You would
send Your Spirit this morning. Lord, anoint us. Give us, O your
Spirit, open our ears and our hearts that we might see Christ,
see him exalted, lifted up in our midst. Lord, bless the word
to our hearts that we'll be fed once more on Christ. Lord, for those mentioned this
morning who are such Burden of heart and burden of this spirit,
the flesh burden of spirit. Lord, we pray your blessing upon
them. Strengthen and comfort and keep. The loved ones who
are. Seeing the frailty and the. In
the true condition of this flesh. Or do we ask your blessing upon
them? Ask your blessing upon me as I endeavor to preach Christ
and him crucified. Lord, may I do so with plainness,
boldness, and liberty. Lord, we need you every hour. And we look to you. Lord, I pray
that we have come here with a spirit of worship. And if you bless
us, we'll truly worship. So Lord, please come and bless
us. For it's in Christ's name we pray, amen. Tomorrow will be a month since
Herman Tucker, who was Mary Bell's father, was called home to glory.
And after the funeral and the graveside service as we were
heading home, Abram asked from the back seat of the van, how
do you know if you're saved? It's a question that you parents
with young children, if you haven't heard it asked of you yet, you
probably will. I remember asking my mother.
And I hope Lord gives you the ability to prepare for it better
than I was. But more important than Us being
asked by our children, how do you know if you've been saved?
Have you asked that question? Am I saved? How do I know? We just read in John 3, 3 that
Christ told Nicodemus, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. I want to spend just a few moments
going over the similarities between the natural and the spiritual
birth. And the first thing I want to
consider about the births is what is the origin of these births? Who is responsible for bringing
it about? The child or the parents? From the natural birth, seems
to be an absurd question to even contemplate. Did the unborn child
bring itself forth? Or were the parents involved? Well, of course, the unborn child
has nothing to contribute to its own birth. It's only at the
coming together of the parents and of the blessing of the Spirit
of God that another person is brought about into this world.
But when we consider the spiritual birth, there are so many that
seem to put things into the reverse order. They say that to be born
again is up to your decision. You have to decide to allow Jesus
into your heart, to allow him to be your personal savior. And
once you do that, you're born again. Puts the new birth into the hands
of an unborn child. No, the spiritual life, being
born again, results in the Holy Spirit bringing into being someone
who wasn't there before. Turn over to Luke chapter 1.
We won't be coming back to John 3. Luke chapter 1. We'll be looking at verse 35. But in the previous verses, Mary's
been told that she's going to have a child. And she doesn't
understand how. How can this thing be, seeing
how I know not a man? Verse 35, Luke chapter 1, And
the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come
upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. This same power, the power that
overshadowed Mary, the Holy Ghost coming upon her, that same power
and that Holy Spirit must come unto a sinner. And when that
occurs, then is Christ formed in us. All the elect of God will
have Christ in them, the hope of glory. Now another similarity between
the natural and spiritual birth is when is life realized? When does a person have life? Is it when the child is made
aware that they're alive? Is it after they're born? Before
they're born? At what point do you have life?
Most often, there are always exceptions to every rule, I believe,
but most often in the natural birth of a child, it's the parents
who are aware of the child long before anyone else, including
that child being aware of itself. Is it not so with our spiritual
birth? Are we not watching for evidence of our Lord's working
in those who we love? Do we not watch them during services? Are
they hearing? Are they listening? Are they
paying attention? Do we as parents, don't we bring
our children and insist that they come and hear the gospel
as often as possible? As long as they're under our
care, we want them under the sound of the gospel, that the
Lord may do something for them. We invite our friends and our
loved ones to come to church with us, that they might hear
of Christ and Him crucified. Here's the root of the matter.
How do you prove life? How do I know if I'm alive? How do I know if you're alive?
How do you prove that life is there? It's only proved by the evidence
that there is life. Is there growth? Is there movement? Is there hungering and thirsting? These are the evidences we look
for in the natural birth of our child. Are they growing? Are they learning more? Are they
moving from one phase of life to another? And same with the
new spiritual birth, James says, for as the body without the spirit
is dead, so faith without works is dead. Spiritual life is going
to show forth. It's going to bring evidence. Of life. Now turn with me to our text
this morning in Matthew chapter 3, excuse me, Matthew chapter
5. Our children come forth from
the womb and as they grow, they develop. They don't come out
of the womb fully mature. They don't come with all the
knowledge and the abilities and the desires of an adult. And we are foolish when we sometimes all too often expect
a child to act as an adult. Spiritual growth can be likened
to that of a child developing. Our Lord began his sermon on
the mount here in chapter five with what has come to be known
as the Beatitudes, because verses three to 11 begin with the word
blessed. Just as our newborns grow and
develop greater abilities, I hope that you'll see that these spiritual
blessings build one upon another. And as we grow in grace and in
the knowledge of our Lord, we develop more fully as believers. Matthew 5, verse 3. Blessed are
the poor in spirit. In Proverbs, we read, the fear
of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, and the fear of
the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. What is the root of this
fear of the Lord? Now my understanding, I know
very little of other religions, but my understanding, from what
I can gather from just base observation of other religions, is they base
themselves upon the fear of something. They're either going to base
their fear on missing out on something, or arriving to a place
that you don't want to go. So you want to avoid this place
and go to this place. Missing out on something. You
want to go see grandma. You know grandma's in heaven,
right? And you want to go see her. So you better stop going
to those honky-tonk places and you need to come over here into
our church. Sit with us and sing for a while. or there's the fear of eternal
torment. Eternal life, where are you going
to spend eternity? Smoking or non-smoking section? They instill a fear of torment.
But they don't have any idea of this fear of the Lord. Because that's something that
natural man cannot dream up. We can't even imagine that there's
a God who deserves to be feared. In our natural estate, we're our own God. We decide
our eternal destinies. We decide whether we're going
to live or not. All we've got to do is cast the
right vote. God cast his vote, devil cast his vote, now it's
up to you. We can't even conceive that there's a sovereign God
with which we have to do. But here in our text, it tells
us blessed are the poor in spirit. When the Holy Spirit begins a
work of salvation in a sinner, one of the first things that
must be taught is that we are debtors. we are in severe debt. Not only are we in debt, but
we have absolutely nothing with which to pay that debt off. God's holy law demands absolute
perfection. And we have not, nor can we,
kept it for a moment of our life. Because we have broken that law,
Because we have sinned, we owe the wages of sin, which is death. But the Holy Spirit teaches us
that we can't pay. We have no life. We have nothing
to give to pay for that death. We find out that we are dead
in trespasses and sins. But just because we're poor,
and can't pay the debt doesn't mean that we don't still owe
it. When the IRS comes and they say, you owe money to us, and
we say, sorry, we've got nothing with which to pay it. They say,
tough, you'll pay it anyway. What happens to a person whose
debts are not paid? Glance over to Matthew 7. Matthew
7, verse 22. Matthew 7, 22. Many will say
to me in that day, Lord, Lord, Have we not prophesied in thy
name? And in thy name have cast out
devils? And in thy name done many wonderful
works? Look at all I've done for you. Look at what I've sacrificed
for you. You've got to accept me. I've done great things in your
name for your honor. Verse 23, and then will I profess
unto them, I never knew you. Depart from me, ye that work
iniquity. Those who cannot pay their debts,
who work hard at covering their debts, work hard at satisfying
what they owe, they still don't have anything to pay with. They
still find that they come short of the glory of God, and they'll
be cast out from His presence. Until that debt is paid, there
is no mercy to be found, only justice. It is a fearful thing to fall
into the hands of the living God. Blessed are the poor in
spirit They've been given a right fear of the Lord. Matthew chapter
five, verse four. Blessed are they that mourn.
Sin has brought us to a pitiful state of poverty. Sin, which
before God began to deal with us, was something that you did. Some act that you took. Stole
an apple, stole a candy bar. That's sin. And it's something that the world's
religion has told me continually. All you've got to do is confess
your sin. Stop doing such things. And as
long as before you die, before you depart this world, you say
the sinner's prayer or you say, I believe Jesus is the Son of
God. When you die, you'll be OK. Because
just by saying that. The Lord has to let you go into
heaven. Because you said those magic
words, you'll be accepted. But when the Lord of Glory begins
to work on a man's heart. You're awakened to see what a
state of sin and depravity you are actually in. Sin's no longer
what you do. It's what you are. It's all I am. In and of myself,
I am sin. I can do nothing but sin. My works that I do, they're tainted
with sin. No matter how good or bad they
are, they're all the same. And we mourn over the sins that
we commit. We mourn over the sin that we
are. Now for that sinner, just entering
into this condition, that man who God has begun a work in,
who's realizing their poverty, who's mourning over their sin,
their miserable condition, It's awful when you're in that
state, when you're made to realize you're cut off from God, you
have no hope, have no help. But for those of us who are watching
our loved one, and we're seeing them as they enter, those of
us who have already been there, see them entering into this state
of misery, we begin to get hopeful. We've
been watching this person. We've been caring for them. We've
been bringing them to God and saying, Lord, please do something
for this person. And now we see them suffering
under this agony of heart and spirit. And we begin to get hopeful. We get hopeful because the work
the Lord has begun. He's going to finish it. Because
we've gone through something similar before, not exactly. There is no method. There is
no 12-step program to be saved. The boys have a friend, our neighbor,
and he came over and told them one day that he was saved. And
while they were discussing it, he said, well, I guess one of
them asked him how they knew that he was saved. He said, well,
you get real sad, and you cry a little bit, and then you get
real happy. You know you're saved. That's a formula. That's what
the world tells these little kids. But my salvation, my experience
is not going to match your experience and yours is not going to match
mine. But we're going to go through some of the same things. We're
going to be made to know we're in debt. We're poor. We're going to be made to know
and mourn over what we are without Christ. And so as this one that we love
starts entering into that, oh, we have hope, because we know
that God's going to reveal to that person in their poverty,
in their mourning, that there is one man, the man, Christ Jesus,
who is rich beyond measure. and He is able and willing to
save to the very uttermost, and He is able to pay the debt owed. Christ Jesus, the Son of God,
being life Himself before the foundation of the world, stood
as surety for His elect people, those who God the Father has
given to Him, as a gift, whose sins have separated them from
the Father and from the Son. Those are whom Christ came to
save. He humbled himself and he came
in the likeness of sinful flesh, but having no sin of his own. And he came and he lived as a
man under his own law. He kept that law. in absolute
obedience and perfection. He didn't keep it for himself.
He didn't have to. He had nothing to prove for himself. But he lived that life as a representative
for those of us he loves. Then after he had done all that
was written of him, he submitted himself into the hands of sinful
men to suffer many things of them. and to be made a curse
for us. The wages of sin is death and
our Lord died upon the cross. Having no sin of his own, it
was the sin of his elect that caused him to suffer and to die
on Calvary. God the Father made God the Son
sin for us. Being found before God Sin, Christ
Jesus bore the wrath of God in his body for that debt that we
owe. Then our Lord laid down his life
to pay the wages of sin. Having paid our debt, having
no debt of his own, Death had no hold over him, once he had
paid our penalty. And on the third day, he took
up his life again. After being seen of many witnesses,
he was received back into glory, where he is today, making intercession
for those whom he loves and saved. Now look at Matthew 5, verse
5. Blessed are the meek, The meek. Those who fall upon Christ. Those who trust that all things
are from him. Whether they be. Pleasant things
in this life. Or hard things in this life. They all come from his hand. Therefore, his glory. And for
our good. Now, do we come from being a newborn
babe in Christ? Being meek? That's not been my experience. I had to be taught to be meek.
It took some preparation for me. Trials and tribulations working
in me, causing me to grow, causing me to see more of Christ, to
see more of what I am outside of Christ. Those things work
together, bringing me to mature a bit. In Numbers 12.3, Scripture
says, Now the man Moses was very meek. above all men which were
upon the face of the earth." Did Moses start out being a meek
man? Do you suppose Moses, when he
was growing up in Pharaoh's court, having all the power that a prince
of Pharaoh would have, do you suppose he was a meek man at
that time? Or when Moses went out and executed
judgment and killed the Egyptian that had beat one of the Israelites? Did he show meekness at that
point? Moses is said to be very meek
after being on the backside of the desert for 40 years. After
being with God on Mount Sinai, after being hid in the cleft
of the rock. Then, Moses was a meek man. When do we become meek? The more
we learn of Christ, the more we learn of our sin, the more
we learn of what He accomplished for us at Calvary, the greater
our esteem of Christ the more meek will become. He who created all things dwelt
in a body. Matthew 21.5 says, Behold, thy
king cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and
occult the foal of an ass. How meek Moses was. but how he
pales in comparison to the meekness of our Lord and Savior. As our Lord traveled into Jerusalem,
knowing all that awaited him, that he would be accused, that
he would be tormented, that he would be hung on a cross, that
he would bear our sin and our shame. And he would be forsaken
of his father. He went willingly. He trusted
God. Knowing that all that he suffered
was for God's glory and his good. All the meekness of our Lord. Verse six here. Blessed are they
which do hunger and thirst after righteousness. All of mankind who exhibits life
must be nourished. Our bodies crave the correct
nourishment. I read a story once of a man
who was shipwrecked, and after being at sea for a number of
days, he managed to catch a fish. And he said at one point, all
that he craved was to eat the eyeball of that fish. And he
said when he returned home, he learned that in that fish's eyeball
were certain vitamins and minerals that weren't found in any other
part of that fish that his body needed to survive. When our Lord has worked the
work of salvation in us. When we have life in Him, we
desire the sincere milk of the word that we may grow thereby. Isn't it a blessing when you
start realizing or taking notice that a person you've been praying
for and asking the Lord to have mercy upon When they start having
an interest in hearing the gospel, you're no longer having to drag
them kicking and screaming to church. But they start coming
and they start listening with attentive ears. They want to
hear of Christ and him crucified. Doesn't that thrill your heart
when you see that start occurring to a person? just another evidence of life. And we want to hear of Him who
is our life, our bread of heaven, Christ, Him alone. That is what nourishes our spiritual
growth. There are many other evidences
of natural life. There are many other evidences
of spiritual life. The last one I want to touch
on today is geared toward repentance. John the Baptist came preaching,
repent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. Our Lord,
after John was cast into prison, began to preach saying, repent,
for the kingdom of heaven is at hand. The best explanation of repentance
I've heard, most simple I've heard, is repentance is a turning
away from. or a change of mind, or reversal of mind, actually.
The carnal man is enmity. Enmity is hatred against God. We hate God, and we hate him
without any just cause. It was man who rebelled and sinned
against God. We received the just recompense
of our rebellion. But in our darkened estate, we
the offenders stand before God and we say, you'll accept me
as I am, because you owe it to me for some reason. We have taken
up arms against the Lord of heaven. Oh, what grace and mercy God
bestows upon us when He comes in power and we're made to behold,
we're poor and we begin to mourn for our sins. Then by His grace,
we repent. We turn from our war against
God to being on the side of God against our very selves. I thought of two men who to me offer the greatest evidence
of repentance in the scriptures. The first is the Apostle Paul.
Listen to his confession. After he had been to Ephesus,
he was on his way back to Jerusalem and the pastors of Ephesus met with
him and they bound his hands and said, one who is bound, this
is what awaits for him in Jerusalem. Paul had heard the prophecy,
knew when he got to Jerusalem he would be put in bonds. And when he was in Jerusalem,
he was assaulted by the Jews. And the Roman guard came in and
they ended up arresting Paul. And as he is being led away,
he asked if he could address his assaulters. And he turned
to them and he said in part, I was zealous toward God as ye
are this day. And I persecuted this way, the
way he was preaching Christ and him crucified. I persecuted this
way unto death, binding and delivering into prisons both men and women. Paul had greatly persecuted the
church until that day on the road to Damascus when our Lord
Jesus Christ revealed Himself to Paul. And from that day forward,
Paul turned from his threatenings and his bindings to preach Christ
and Him crucified. The second is the thief on the
cross. Turn with me to Luke chapter
23. Luke chapter 23. It's in the
Gospels of Matthew and Mark. It's recorded that the two men
crucified with our Lord reviled him. Both of those crucified
with him at one point were calling to him, if thou be Christ, save
thyself and us. But here in Luke 23, it's recorded
that only one of those crucified with him is really against him.
Luke 23, verse 39. I'll get there in just a second.
Luke only records that one of those men were railing against
Christ. Is there a discrepancy in the
word? Is there a change from Matthew and Mark to Luke? Two
of them were reviled, now only one reviles? No, both at one
point were reviling the Lord. But at some point on that cross,
during our Lord's crucifixion, one of the men heard. They heard
the words of Christ and they spoke to His heart and smote
Him. He became aware that he is poor
and needy, that his sin had separated him from his God, and he needed
a great Savior. There upon that cross, he repented
and turned from his railing against Christ, along with that other
thief, to siding with Christ against that thief. All right,
now Luke 23 verse 39. And one of the malefactors which
were hanged railed on him, saying, If thou be Christ, save thyself
and us. But the other, answering, rebuked
him, saying, Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same
condemnation? And we, indeed justly, for we
receive the due reward of our deeds, But this man hath done
nothing amiss. And he said unto Jesus, Lord,
remember me when thou comest into thy kingdom. And Jesus said
unto him, Veryly, I say unto thee, Today shalt thou be with
me in paradise. We will repent. inside with God, even against
ourselves. Lord, I'm guilty. I'm deserving
of death. Have mercy upon me. We love to see evidences of our
loved ones beginning to have an interest in the gospel, to
see them mourn over their sins. But oh, for that day, When the
Lord comes and they experience for themselves life. When they have their eyes opened
to see Christ. When they have their ears, those
deaf ears, opened to hear Him speak to them. Their hearts to
cry out for mercy. To know Him and the power of
His resurrection. That's the day of rejoicing for
all of God's people. We rejoice to see our loved one
join us in knowing the only hope we have is that the Lord Jesus
Christ loved me and gave himself for me. He's redeemed me from
my sin and condemnation and made me free. And he alone is worthy
and deserves all glory, honor, power, and blessing. While I was trying to come up
with an answer for Abram's question, Elam answered, well, you'll just
know. And to an extent, that's a correct
answer. And to my shame, he probably
heard me say that at some point. Now the warning to us parents,
be careful about our flippant answers. They might be listened
to. But it's not an answer that's
very good, nor is it very helpful. How do I know if I'm saved? It's a difficult question to
answer. How do you know if you're alive? My salvation may not be like
yours. But I do know our actions will
change, our walk will change, we'll have evidence of having
life. By nature, our question is, what
shall I do to inherit eternal life? When the Lord begins to deal
with you, you'll stop asking, what shall I do? And you'll start
saying, who will undertake for me? For I have no hope. Who can save me? Who can redeem
me? Who is able and willing to save
me? And you'll turn to Christ. We started out this message considering
how the spiritual birth is like the natural birth. There is one
way in which spiritual and natural birth differ, well, several ways,
but I wanted to bring this one out. As our children grow, as
they develop, us parents often look forward to them getting
to that next stage, particularly in the years of the gimme, gimme,
gimme, and the ceaseless asking of questions. We look forward
to that next stage of life, because they're going to grow. They're
going to go from drinking milk to having better foods. But as
the believer grows, as we progress, In one sense, we regress. We
started out being shown our poverty. As we grow, we become more impoverished. We started out seeing and mourning
over our sins. As we see more of our Lord's
glory, more of our nature of sin, the more we mourn over our
sins. As we grow to a better understanding
of the majestic nature of our God and how he humbled himself
to suffer and die for us, the more meek we become. And the
more we learn of what we are, the more we learn of who he is,
the more we have to gather together to read, study, be reminded of
what great things God has done for me. May the Lord be pleased
to grow us in the grace and knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. We
might be found worshiping him. All right. Eddie?