Good evening. If you would, open
your Bibles to the book of John. John chapter three. John chapter three. Now, before I start, There was
some advice I was given a few years ago before I ever preached
my first message, and that was when you're getting ready to
preach, one of the best things you can do is you can follow a really
simple outline. You can tell everybody what you're
going to tell them, then you can tell them, and then you tell
them what you told them. Just do that and you cover your
bases and everything will go well. So I'm going to start off
tonight by doing that. I have a tendency to try to get
cute, get creative, maybe lead into something and try to surprise
you, and it just doesn't work out very well. So my goal tonight
is to have everyone in here, everyone, remember three things. Anything else you get out of
this message will just be gravy, will just be extra, and that's
great, I hope you do. But let's just try to get these
three simple things. When it comes to salvation, There
are three things that we need to know. First thing is we need
to know His life. The second thing we need to know
is His death. And the third thing we need to
know is the Lord Jesus Christ's resurrection. That's what I want
us to get tonight. Now, in John 3, let's start in
verse 1. This is a conversation between
the Lord and Nicodemus. who is a man of the Pharisees
and a ruler. And this is a conversation that
could have been had with us or just about anyone else who didn't
know the truth. Verse 1 of chapter 3 in John.
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 in 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. 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?
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 sent not His Son into
the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him
might be saved. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God." This message began through a
conversation I had with someone a while back. This is a conversation
that when I describe it, everyone in here probably will have had
a conversation like this or you will at some point soon. And
many of you probably have had a lot of them. These conversations
usually are based right after someone has died. And you're
talking with someone and this person says to you, you know,
pray for so and so's family. You know, be thinking about them
because their mom just died. And there are always three things
that come in this conversation in different orders, but there's
usually three things that happen in them. The first being this.
You know, you may not have known her, but she was unbelievable. She was so sweet, and did you
know that she volunteered down there at that soup kitchen? She
went down there all the time. And she taught Sunday school
at that church over there on the corner. You know, she taught
for 37 years, that Sunday school class over there, and she never
missed. She didn't even go on vacation once because she thought
it was too important that those kids always had that Sunday school
class. And then it goes into the second stage of this conversation
that goes something like this. She struggled a really long time
with cancer. She battled it, and it wasn't
the cancer that got her. She just died. Or she was just
so young and so full of life, we couldn't believe that she
died. Of all people, there was no way she was going to die.
And then the third part of this is something along the lines,
and I get less of this, and I think part of that is because they
don't get the response that they're hoping for in the first two parts
of this when they're telling me. But something along the lines
of, you know, I know right now, though, she's looking down on
us. You know, she's, at the funeral, they were singing Amazing Grace,
and boy, she could sing. You know, she could sing, and
she's singing now. And I'll give another one or two here, and
I hesitate to do this, because I don't want to sound, like,
trivial or anything with this, but you hear things such as,
you know, she was, you know, she or he was such a great tennis
player. I bet she's playing tennis in heaven right now. You know,
things that you hear, and it's just like, just, I mean, it makes
your skin crawl. Well, thinking about that conversation
that I've had numerous of, and there's a certain individual,
I feel like I have one with him almost every time I talk to this
person. And I started thinking the foundation of this conversation.
And the question I came to is that people are trying to answer
a question. They're trying to answer the
question, what happens when we die? They're trying to figure
out salvation. Just like anything else that
when you start to think about it, when this came into my mind,
I started noticing everything around me that was dealing with
this. I started seeing articles on the internet that I wasn't
searching for. I started seeing TV shows advertised. I started
seeing conversations around me and billboards all talking about
this kind of thing. And two nights ago, before I went to bed, I
was watching a movie trailer. I love movies, and I just watched
this trailer, and it came across. Never seen anything about this,
and it's a movie that's coming out, a big budget movie, and
the premise is an individual has proven that there's an afterlife. And when that happens, millions
of people start committing suicide. It befuddled me because of the
time I'm spending doing this that I saw that at the time I
saw it. And the first thing that came to my head was how much
interest there must be in this topic for them to spend hundreds
of millions of dollars to make a movie about it. Because millions
of people are going to go watch this. And the other thing that
hit me was There is so much proof right here that there is something
after this, that this is just a vapor, a breath. But with all
of that, it's not too surprising that there's this much topic
and conversation about this because we sure do love ourselves. And
how much is it important for everyone to know the answer to
the question, what happens when we die before we die? I took
from this these three things that I came from it. Now, I told
you the three things I wanted you to get that are important
in salvation is His life, His death, and His resurrection.
But in these conversations and in the world, the topics actually
have a little different twist to them. The first one is, how
did you live your life? That's the part of life that
is talked about. The second is, how did you die, and what is
going to happen in your rebirth? It's more about us. Now, let
me first say, when I answer this question, what happens when we
die, or an answer to salvation, I'm not going to be talking about
Things such as what we feel, we hear, we see. All these things
that are so important in all this stuff. Do we see a light?
Is it warm? Is it cold? All these things
people talk about that are unimportant. They don't matter. And I'm not
smart enough to answer those questions. And the last thing
you need is me standing up here talking about anything, just
trying to give you a guess. So now, we'll focus on the first
one. The first thing that's important is life. When it comes to life,
the question always asked of people in this world is, how
did you live your life? What did you do? What is your
reward going to be? Let me give you a quick answer
on that, and we got most of these Wednesday night from our pastor.
When we talk about us as man, Psalm 39.5 says, every man at
his best state is altogether vanity. Psalm 116.11 says, all
men are liars. James 4.14 says, for what is
your life? It's even a vapor that appeareth
for a little while and then vanisheth away. And Ecclesiastes 7.20 says,
for there is not a just man upon earth that doeth good and sinneth
not. The Bible is really clear on
the state of man. Yet in religion today, there's
such a great effort and emphasis put on this topic of how you
live your life. The problem is that how did I
live my life? That question has absolutely,
the answer and the question, has absolutely no bearing on
salvation in any way, shape, or form. Just like everything
else in religion, we try to insert ourselves in the middle of everything.
Any question that's asked, we want to find a way that we can
be the answer. The first important thing when answering what happens
when I die is related to life, but the question isn't how did
I live my life, but instead, how did the Lord Jesus Christ
live his life? Turn now to John 19. John 19, and we'll start in verse one. Then Pilate therefore took Jesus
and scourged him. And the soldiers plaited a crown
of thorns, and put it on his head, and they put on him a purple
robe, and said, Hail, King of the Jews! And they smote him
with their hands. Pilate therefore went forth again
and said unto them, Behold, I bring him forth to you, that ye may
know that I find no fault in him. Then Jesus came forth wearing
the crown of thorns and the purple robe, And Pilate saith unto them,
Behold the man. When the chief priests, therefore,
and sinners saw him, they cried out, saying, Crucify him, crucify
him. Pilate saith unto them, Take
ye him, and crucify him, for I find no fault in him. The Jews
answered him, We have a law, and by our law he ought to die,
because he made himself the Son of God. The Lord Jesus Christ
was without sin. He lived his life perfectly.
Those who hated him and his message could not even find a judge that
would condemn him, but they did so themselves. And our Lord did
many, many great things during his life. He healed the sick. He raised the dead, performed
countless miracles, so many more than we even have recorded here.
He taught and preached to thousands and thousands, and many that
heard his message were converted and understood and believed.
The Lord Jesus Christ became a man for one reason, because
his chosen elect, his children, they needed to be saved, and
he was the only one who could save them. When it comes to salvation,
only one life matters. It's not mine, it's not yours,
it's the Lord Jesus Christ. Turn over to Hebrews 4. Hebrews 4 verse 14, seeing then
that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. For
we have not a high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling
of our infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we
are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
into the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy and find
grace to help in time of need. It's important to note that the
Lord endured things that we endure. He did not sin, but He was tempted. He felt things that humans feel.
And look over on the next page over, Hebrews 5, verse 7. The
Lord, who in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up
prayers and supplications with strong crying and tears unto
Him that was able to save Him from death, and was heard in
that He feared, Though he were a son, yet learned he obedience
by the things which he suffered, and being made perfect, he became
the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey him.
He was made a man, tempted, tried, as we are. Yet where we continuously
fail, where we come up short constantly, He never wavered
and lived perfectly without sin so that when the day came, He
would be the perfect sacrifice for sin. So the first thing we
need to know is the life of the Lord Jesus Christ is necessary
for salvation. He had to be perfect. He had
to live without sin. He had to, in order to give us
a sacrifice, Now when the world looks at death, the world's focus
is oftentimes on the circumstance and the specifics of a person's
death. The more unique the situation, the more focus we give to it.
The more that the mystery surrounds it, the more the scrutiny intensifies
and we want to know more and more. Tell us what happened.
And I don't want to sound insensitive when I say this, but it's important
to make this point. It doesn't matter who it was
who died. whether it was someone you know
really well, whether it was a stranger. It doesn't matter if they died
while reading the Bible or if they were committing a crime.
It doesn't matter if they were 100 years old or one month old. None of these specifics matter. It also doesn't matter if that
individual believed in the gospel or didn't. The thing that matters
with death and every death is that death is because of sin.
That's the cause of death, no matter the other specifics. In
Genesis 2, 17, a very familiar passage, but of the tree of the
knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it. For in the
day that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt surely die. Adam sinned,
therefore condemning all of us to death by sin. And it doesn't
matter if we protest how it happened. It doesn't matter if we don't
believe that's fair. Nothing matters along those lines.
We can even argue that I wouldn't have eaten at the tree. Whatever
we want to say, it happened and it's there. Now you're fooling
yourself if you think that you wouldn't have done the same thing.
But I'm a sinner, and you're a sinner, and everyone's a sinner. And because we're all sinners,
we will die from sin. In Romans 5.12, It says, wherefore,
as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin,
and so death passed upon all men, for that all men have sinned. So, we've looked at life and
death, and let's take a quick second to look at our predicament.
Let's analyze what our problem is. We are full of sin, and we
can't stop sinning. So, Romans 6.23 says the wages
of sin is death. I've given a few scriptures.
I've said a few things here. Sin has to be punished. We are full of sin and we can't
stop sinning. So what do we do? The question
is, how can my sin be punished but me not get the punishment? Turn to Romans 6. Romans 6 verse 23. I just said
the first part of this verse, for the wages of sin is death. But the next part, but the gift
of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord. How can that be? How can we be
sinners? Sin must be punished, but right
here it says the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus
Christ our Lord. Well, it's very simple. The only
way for eternal life is through Jesus Christ our Lord. Look at
Romans 5 right across the page. Romans 5 verse 6. For when we were yet without
strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly. For scarcely
for a righteous man will one die, yet peradventure for a good
man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth His love toward
us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more, then, being now justified
by His blood, we shall be saved from wrath through Him. For if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, Much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life, and not only so, but we also joy in God through
our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement."
Verse 9, much more than being now justified by His blood, we
shall be saved from wrath through Him. The only way we can avoid
the punishment of sin and eternal damnation is through the blood
and the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus Christ. And it's important
to note here that it says we were without strength, we were
yet sinners, we were enemies. It's not enough that we didn't
have the ability to help in this, that we didn't have any part
in it, but it actually says we were enemies. We were fighting
this. We don't want any part of it.
Our nature puts our fists up and says, don't you dare put
salvation in your hands. I'm the one who's going to do
this. And the word reconciled is a really appropriate word
here. It's used twice. In verse 10, It says, for if,
when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death
of His Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved
by His life. The word reconciled actually
means to force someone to accept something they don't want. That's
a great way to describe the sinner, a chosen child of God. Everyone
has this. We're all sinners by nature.
We all sin. And we all don't want any part
of the Lord Jesus Christ saving us. But by His grace and by His
mercy, He forces us to accept something they don't want. And
it goes beyond that. It's not just Him forcing us,
it's He gives us a new nature. He puts it in our heart. It's
no longer when the Lord does a work in His children, they
don't fight against Him at that point. He gives them grace and
mercy and faith. Until God forces us to see our
sin, we're oblivious and we hate Him. Until God shows us who He
is, we worship ourselves instead of Him. And until God gives us
a new heart and a new nature, we just feel like we're doing
fine on our own. The Lord Jesus Christ, our God,
is a force. And I like that word, a force
that cannot be controlled, moved in any way, shape or form. It's
something we can't see. We don't know when it's around
us. We don't have any awareness of it, except when the Lord opens
our eyes just a glimpse and lets us see how much he is in control
and how much he's doing. Thankfully, his way is unstoppable. His life is perfect. His death
was our atonement and reconciliation. and His resurrection was undeniable. So our first two things we have
to remember. Salvation begins with the life of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It comes to the cross where He died on the cross bearing
our sin. He was made sin for us, being
our propitiation that we would be in Him when He died. Now in
salvation we have those two things. The third thing we need, the
final step, is we need regeneration. Romans 6, we're right here. Look at verse 4. Therefore, we are buried with
him by baptism into death, that like as Christ was raised up
from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should
walk in newness of life. For if we have been planted together
in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness
of his resurrection. knowing this, that our old man
is crucified with him, that the body of sin might be destroyed,
that henceforth we should not serve sin. For he that is dead is freed
from sin. Now, if we be dead with Christ,
we believe that we shall also live with him. Knowing that Christ,
being raised from the dead, dieth no more, death hath no more dominion
over him, For in that he died, he died unto sin once, but in
that he liveth, he liveth unto God. Likewise, reckon ye also
yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God
through Jesus Christ our Lord. It's not just that Christ bore
our sin. He conquered sin. Death has no
more dominion over him and us if we're in him. And because
of that, we are dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through
Jesus Christ our Lord. Turn over to Hebrews chapter
10. Hebrews chapter 10. In 1 Thessalonians 4, it's written,
for if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so
them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring them with him.
Here Hebrews 10 verse 14, for by one offering he hath perfected
forever them that are sanctified. For by one sacrifice throughout
the Old Testament there are just thousands and thousands of sacrifices. And if you add it up and do the
math I've heard crazy numbers of how many thousands and tens
of thousands of goats, and lambs, and cattle, all these animals
that were sacrificed. They had to be done over, and over, and
over again, the offering was. Because that offering didn't
do anything, it was a symbol for the offering to come. But
here it says, for by one offering the Lord Jesus Christ on the
cross He hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. This
one offering has made perfect all of those that are sanctified.
His children are all perfect through His sacrifice. Turn two
pages over to Hebrews 13 and look at verse 20. Now the God of peace that brought
again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of
the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting covenant,
make you perfect in every good work to do His will, working
in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, through Jesus Christ,
to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen." Now, I started this
message talking about these three things that are so important.
And I ask the question that I feel like so many people wonder of,
what happens when I die? Well, the answer to that is,
are you looking at your life, or did you live in Christ? When
you die, did you die with Him? Did He pay for your sins? The
three things we need to know is, His life, the Lord Jesus
Christ is our only hope for salvation because He lived perfectly. His
death, the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross bearing our
sins so that we wouldn't have to pay the eternal punishment.
And His resurrection, Him ascending on high. My hope is that when
He lived perfectly, satisfying the law, I lived in Him. When He died victorious over
sin and death, I died in Him. And when he rose from the grave,
ascending to glory, that I was in him." That's the answer to
the question, are you in the Lord Jesus Christ? Now turn with
me over to Jude. The book of Jude, right before
Revelation. Look at verse 24. We'll close
with these two verses. Jude verse 24, Now unto him that
is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless
before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy, to the only
wise God our Savior, be glory and majesty, dominion and power,
both now and ever. Amen. Dwight?