All right, let's go to the third
chapter of the Gospel of John, John chapter 3. Let's deal with
the subject, the necessity of the new birth. The necessity
of the new birth. Well, this fellow's name is Nicodemus,
and he's no stranger to you. You've read about him and studied
about him a lot of times, but this passage will bear looking
at again and again. We said last week that the last
few verses of the second chapter, there we looked at people who
made a profession of believing the Lord Jesus, It wasn't real
faith. It wasn't really embracing the
Lord Jesus as Lord and Savior. It wasn't a forsaking of their
righteousness and looking to the righteousness of Christ Jesus
alone. This was a shallow faith. It
wasn't real faith. Now, we couldn't tell that. You
can't look at somebody who professes faith in Christ and say, well,
I know your faith is real or your faith is a false faith. We don't have that ability. But
our Lord does. He reads the heart. He sees things
as they are. Maybe I'll say it this way, as
He sees them, that is how they are. Because he sees right through
any hypocrisy. He sees right through any veneer
of religion. And he looks deep down into the
soul. Lord, thou knowest all things. That's what Simon Peter said.
Thou knowest that I love thee. Lord, I appeal to your knowledge. You know me. You know me. You know my struggles. You know
my sinfulness. You know how much I wrestle with
the flesh. Lord, You know my doubts. Lord,
You know my fears. Lord, You know how unfaithful
I am. Lord, You know how my motives
aren't right so often. Lord, You know there's sin in
everything that I do. But Lord, You know also that
in my soul, in my heart, I believe You. I rest in you." I hope that's
what God sees within us tonight, real faith. And if there is real
faith within us, He put it there, He gave it to us. Because faith
is a gift of God. So if we embrace the Lord Jesus,
if we look to Christ Jesus as our wisdom and righteousness,
sanctification and redemption, it's solely because God has done
a work of grace within us. And the work of grace that God
has done within us, God is well pleased with His work. And he
who began a good work in us, he will finish it to the day
of the Lord Jesus Christ. These people at the end of John
chapter 2, he hadn't done a work of grace for them. Theirs was
just a shallow, shallow faith. And as we begin to look into
the third chapter, It's as though the Spirit of God were saying
to us as to these whose faith was just a false faith, just
a shallow faith. It's as though the Spirit of
God were saying, now here's a case in point. Here's an illustration
of a man who got all caught up in the miracles of Jesus of Nazareth,
and he said he believed Him. But our Lord saw his heart. And
our Lord exposed the deadness of his heart. God exposed his
spiritual, lifeless condition. And He says to this man, you
must be born again. Now, when I think about Nicodemus,
and of course I've been looking at this for a couple of days,
yesterday and today again, So I look at this fellow, I sort
of think there are others with him. Or at least he's a representative
of these others. Because of what he says in the
second verse. John 3 verse 2. Here's this man,
the same came to Jesus by night. He said unto him, Rabbi, we know. We know. As though he's the spokesman
for the group. He's the spokesman. He's the
one who's speaking out on behalf of all of these who profess faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ, but it's not a real faith. And he
says, we know that thou art the teacher come from God, for no
man can do the miracles that thou doest except God be with
him. Now of this much we're absolutely
certain. This is not any kind of chance
meeting of Jesus of Nazareth with Nicodemus. This is not just
a coincidence. It is not just coincidental that
the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the Lord of Glory, it's
not coincidental, it's not just mere chance, it's not Nicodemus'
good luck that his path is now crossed by the Savior. Oh yes,
Nicodemus came to Him by night, but he came to the Savior by
night because the Savior was drawing him to Him. Now listen,
everything that happens about our conversion, everything that
happens about our regeneration, everything that happens about
our experience of grace is ordained of God. But even more than that,
everything that happens is ordained of God. And so here's a man who,
of his own volition, He seeks out Jesus of Nazareth at night,
not realizing that the reason he is seeking the Lord is because
the Lord is seeking him. The Lord is going to confront
him with a serious, serious subject. This man is religious. This man
is moral. This man is educated. This man's
a teacher of the teachers, he's a preacher of the preachers.
He's a real scholar of the Old Testament. But he doesn't realize
this. He's dead in trespasses and sins. He has no idea of that. And he
has no idea that he must be born again. There will be no genuine
faith There will be no resting in the Lord Jesus Christ. There
will be no looking to His blood for the pardon of sin. There
will be no looking to His righteousness for justification by a holy God. There will be none of these things
realized in the soul unless and until you're quickened by the
power of God. The Savior said in verse 7 to
him, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. You've got to be born again. Now we know that God has ordained
the salvation of a vast group of people. We know that this
salvation is in, it is by, and it is through the Lord Jesus
and His substitutionary justice satisfying death and resurrection. In the book of God, in the book
of God, we read that in order for a sinner to enter into everlasting
glory, in order for fallen sons and daughters of Adam to be able
to abide in the presence of a holy God, There are several things
that have to happen. Several things must happen. They must. First of all, Christ
must die. He must die. This is a divine
imperative. Read at your leisure Luke chapter
9 verses 18 through 22. The Savior says the Son of Man
must be lifted up. He must suffer many things. He
must. He must be. This has all been
determined by God. The Son of Man must die. There
is no forgiveness of our sins. There is no way we can stand
righteous before a holy God unless the Lord Jesus Christ lays down
His life as the substitute who dies on the behalf of His sheep. He must die. The death of our
Lord Jesus was no accident. It was not something that came
to pass because man was in charge at Calvary. The death of the
Savior was not because the Jews wouldn't let Him be their King.
The Lord Jesus died because He must die at Calvary. God ordained
that He die. He must die. Listen to Mark chapter
8 and verse 31. And He began to teach them He
said the Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected of
the elders and of the chief priests and scribes. He must be killed
and after three days rise again. He must suffer many things. He must die and He must rise
from the dead. The Son of Man must be lifted
up. Why is that? Why is that? Well, I'll give you several reasons
why he must die. Because number one, it's God's
eternal purpose for him to die. The Lord ordained that he die. Acts chapter 2 verse 23, being
delivered by the determined counsel and for knowledge of God, Peter
says, you have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain.
Why must He die? He must die secondly because
He stood for us as our surety in the covenant of grace. He
was honor bound to His own covenant engagements and promises and
vows. He was honor bound. to die for
us. He must die for us, because He
said, All that the Father giveth Me shall come to Me, and him
that cometh to Me I will in no wise cast out. That being true,
the Savior must die for us. He must lay down His life. He
must give Himself a ransom for His people. He must redeem us
from the curse of the law. No wonder we read in Hebrews
chapter 7 and the 22nd verse, by so much was Jesus made a surety
of an everlasting covenant or a better testament. You remember
when Joseph was in Egypt and he kept Simeon and he sent the
other brothers back, the other sons of Jacob back home and of
course Benjamin was still at home with Jacob. And they got
home and they said, listen, dad. That guy's heading up all the
greeneries of Egypt. He's got charge of everything.
I don't think he believes us. We're brothers of the same Father
and we're innocent. We're not trying to do anything
bad. We just need food. And we told him that we were
your sons, Dad. And he kept simeon and he said,
if you guys are really just the sons of a man over in Israel,
you bring your youngest brother back. They said, we've got a
younger brother back home with Dad, his name is Benjamin. He
said, if it's all on the up and up, bring Benjamin back with
you. And so they went back to Dad and they told Jacob, they
said, we've got to bring Benjamin. And Jacob said, I can't do that.
Joseph is no longer with me, and Simeon, he's off there in
Egypt somewhere, and now you want to take Benjamin? And Judah says, wait, Dad. I'll be surety for him. I'll
bear responsibility for him. I'll take care of him. Listen
to what Judah said as he promised his father. He said, Send the
lad with me and we will arise and go. This is Genesis 43, 8
and 9. That we may live and not die,
both we and thou and also our little ones. I'll be surety for
him. Of my hand I shall require him. If I bring him not unto thee
and set him before thee, then let me bear the blame forever.
Our Lord had to die because He is our surety. He bore responsibility
for us. Understand this, the salvation,
the redemption. The reconciliation, the forgiveness
of our sins, the bringing of us back to God. That responsibility
has always laid upon the capable shoulders of the Son of God.
In old eternity, He said, I am the surety for the elect. All
of those given to me by the Father, I receive them as a gift. And
I'll save them, I'll redeem them, I'll reconcile them, I'll put
their sins away, I'll make them righteous, I'll bring them all
safely home to heaven, blameless, without spot or wrinkle or any
such thing. Father, I will do it. He must
die because he's the surety. He must. And then he must die
because the Scriptures prophesied it. You remember when those fellows
came to arrest the Savior. Simon Peter, he pulled out his
sword and he was going to split somebody's head wide open and
he went after the high priest's servant. His name was Malchus. He went after Malchus. And he
missed splitting his head open and he got his ear. He cut his
ear off. And the Lord Jesus picked up that ear and put it back on.
He said, put your sword up. Put your sword up, Simon Peter. Here's what he said. How then
shall the Scripture be fulfilled that thus it must be? It must be this way. It must
be because it's written in Scripture. So the Savior said in Mark 14,
49, I was daily with you in the temple teaching and you took
me not, but the scriptures must be fulfilled. What did the Apostle
Paul say in 1 Corinthians chapter 15? He said how that Christ died
for our sins. What was the next statement?
According to the Scriptures. The Scriptures. That He was buried,
that He arose again the third day. According to the Scriptures. What the Scriptures said. And
then He must die because it's the only way we can be safe from
sin. Look down here at verse 14 in John 3. He said, and as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. You know, and here's a little
outline for you. Here's ruin. We're ruined by
sin. You know, the Savior said to
Nicodemus, He said in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. And it's dead. It's spiritually
dead. We're ruined by sin. Well, what's
the remedy? What's the remedy for our malady? What's the remedy for our disease? The disease of leprosy, the disease
of sin, the disease of our wickedness. What's the remedy? Even so, as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. There's the remedy. Well, what's
the reason for all this? That's in verse 16. Here's the
reason. And you know, people, they put
on their bumper, John 3.16, just believe John 3.16. John 3.16
is not the gospel. It's the reason for the gospel.
The reason for the gospel is to be discovered in John 3.16.
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. Back behind it all, here's the
reason. Here's the reason our Lord Jesus
was lifted up to die. Because of the love of God. Here's
our ruin. Here's the remedy. Here's the
reason. The love of God. Our Lord Jesus
had to die. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness. You know how the children of
Israel, they were fussing about everything and they finally,
they spake against the Lord and they said, we're absolutely sick
and tired of this manna. We don't have any water. And
they spake against the Lord and they spake against Moses. And
the Lord sent fiery serpents and they started biting the people
and people started dying. Oh, there were a lot of homemade
remedies. I'm sure people had some homeopathic
cures, but nothing would work. Nothing would work. Moses went
to the Lord on behalf of the people. Oh, God show mercy. God
said, Moses, lift up a serpent of brass on a pole. And whoever
looks to that will live. Well, even so, our Lord Jesus,
He came into this world. Just like that serpent of brass,
it was made in the image of the serpents that bit the people.
Our Lord Jesus, He entered into this world and He was made like
unto those that He came to save. He was made like into sinful
flesh. He had no sin, He did no sin,
but He looked just like sinful flesh. He looked just like an
average man. But He must be lifted up to die. He must be. Because there is
no other way to be saved from sin. There is no other way for
God to be a just God and a holy God and save us. No other way
for our sins to be washed away. No other way for our sins to
be covered. And then He must be, not only must Christ die,
but Christ must be raised from the dead. In John chapter 20
and verse 9, the disciples had forgot that He said that He must
be raised. He must be. He must be. You know why He had to be raised
from the dead? You know why He must be raised from the dead?
Because that's God's stamp of approval of what He did. There
is our assurance. And if you want to go to something,
As the real evidence of the reality of Christianity, you take a long,
hard look at the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. And
as you get to the book of Acts, you'll notice that over and over
and over again, they were emphasizing the resurrected Savior. Yes,
He died. But He arose again. He arose
again because of our justification that He had completed by His
death. He must be raised from the dead.
And then, here's another one. Mark chapter 13 verse 10. He
said the gospel must be preached around the world. What's absolutely
necessary in order to take us to heaven? Well, Christ must
die. Christ must be raised. And guess what? The gospel must
be proclaimed. The gospel must be preached.
We know and we're thankful that there's a people in this world
who belong to God. They're God's elect. They're
the redeemed of the Lord Jesus Christ. But understand this,
the same God who ordained our salvation, the same God who ordained
that the Lord Jesus Christ die on the cross in order to put
away our sins, that same God has ordained the means whereby
the message is conveyed to us. Preaching of the gospel. This is not shallow stuff we
are doing tonight. This is not meaningless something
or other. This is not just idling away
a few minutes of our time. We are preaching the gospel because
God said the gospel must be preached. It must be. How are they going
to hear without a preacher? to please God by the foolishness
of preaching to save them that believe. And so one worm gets
up in front of other worms and preaches the great King of Glory
and His work of redemption on behalf of four worms. And God
saves whom He will. These things must happen. Christ
must die. Christ must be raised. The Gospel
must be preached. And I'll tell you this, God's
elect must be saved. Look over in John chapter number
10. Look at John chapter 10. Look
at verse 16. What the Savior said. John chapter
10 verse 16. And other sheep I have which
are not of this fold, they are not of this immediate fold. He
says, them also I must bring. I must bring them. The Father
gave them to me. He entrusted them to me. I must
bring them. And they shall hear my voice. And there shall be one fold and
one shepherd. I tell you, the gospel must be
proclaimed and God's elect must be saved. The Savior said, I
must bring. I must. You remember when our
Lord, He passed underneath that sycamore tree. And old Zacchaeus
was up the tree. Have you ever been treed by the
Lord? He was up the tree. The Savior
stopped underneath the tree. Jesus looked up and He saw him
and He said, Zacchaeus, Zacchaeus, make haste. and come down, for
today I must abide at thy house." I must. Go back over to John. Look at John chapter 4. He must
save all of his people. There must be a confrontation
between the lost sinner and the powerful, omnipotent, saving
shepherd. Look at John chapter 4, verse
4. And he must needs go through Samaria. Why is that? Some of
his elect were there. First of all, that woman that
he would meet at Jacob's well. And then some others as well.
I'll tell you what else has got to happen. We must be born again. We must be born again. That takes
us back to our text here. In our text, the Lord Jesus is
speaking to this religious scholar about something which must happen
and something that will happen to elect redeemed sinners. And this is something that can
only be known by its evidence. The issue at hand is the new
birth. And the evidence of the new birth
is believing on the Lord Jesus Christ. The people at the end
of John chapter 2, and this includes Nicodemus, of course, they didn't
have true faith in Christ Jesus. So what needed to happen to Nicodemus? Well, the Savior said, you must
be born again. You must be. You must be born
again. In the new birth, The sinner
is inactive and God is active. And I know if you want to get
really, if you want to fine tune this, if you want to get real
particular, in conversion we do, we turn away from our idols
to Christ Jesus. But that's the result of the
new birth. That's the evidence of the new
birth. God has to first give us life. What is our problem? What is our problem? We're dead. We're dead to God. We're dead
to the things of God. We're dead to the gospel. We're
dead to eternal issues. Oh, we're very much alive to
the things of this world. And we're even very much alive
to the things of modern religion. But we're dead to God. We're
dead to the Word of the Gospel. We're dead to the things that
have to do with eternity. We're dead to the glory of Jesus
Christ. We're dead to the necessity of
His sin-atoning death. We're dead to the fact that we
must be born again. We're just dead. That's our problem. D-E-A-D, dead. That's the problem. And you can paint it up as much
as you want and try to make out that we're just not so bad, but
it's like the prodigal son's father said, this my son was
dead. And now he's alive. I know that men have invented
various words to set forth our spiritual condition. Well, we're
bad off. Well, we are. And we wandered
afar. Yeah, we wandered afar. But the
Lord just says, you're dead. You're dead. And then natural
man says, well, I wouldn't go so far as to say that. We've
gone astray and we've messed up. But the Lord says, you're
dead. And what can a dead man do? Nothing. That's our condition. And this
is what Nicodemus doesn't know. This is what he doesn't realize.
He's a teacher in Israel. And our Lord said, Art thou a
master in Israel? Are you a teacher of the teachers?
Are you the scholar in Israel? And you don't know these things?
No, he doesn't know them and he'll never know them unless
God teaches them to him. Oh, look at this. Let me ask
some vital questions here real quick. First of all, who must
be born again? Who must be born again? In verse
7, ye, ye must be born. That's a very personal word.
It's not saying y'all. It's you. You. Oh, but I'm a master in Israel. You must be born again. But I'm
a Pharisee. Well, you must be born again.
But I live my life by the law. You must be born again. I'm a
very moral person. You must be born again. But I
have a high standing in religion. You must be born again. You! So I've been coming to this church
for years and years. You must be born again. But I
put money in the offering plate. You must be born again. But I
sing the songs. You must be born again. But I
read my Bible. You must be born again. That's
what the Lord says. After you're born again, you
do those things, but you don't do those things to be born again,
but because you are. That's a very personal word.
You who are watching, you who have your Bible, you must be
born again. Well, I hope the preacher is
born again. Well, me too. Well, what about you? You can't
do anything about me. And I can't do anything about
you. And you know what? You can't
do anything about you either. And I can't do that by me either.
You must be born again and that's not a work that we do. We make
no contribution to the new birth. You must be born again. The Lord
just sets forth this statement. What must happen to you? What's
got to take place? Well, you must be born again.
The word must is an urgent word. You must be. It's a very demanding
word. You must be born again. You see,
nobody is going to glory who hasn't been born again. Is that
right? Nobody's going to glory if they
haven't been born again. Now the new birth is not the
reason that you go. The reason that you go is the
substitutionary death of the Lord Jesus Christ. But the evidence
that Christ died for you is you're made alive unto God. You see, the new birth flows
out of the redeeming grace of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's the
result of His work of redemption. God's going to take me to glory
because I've been born again. That's the reason He's going
to take me. No, He's going to take you to glory because of your
substitute and His work of redemption which will be evidenced by the
fact that He works by His Spirit in your heart. And He brings
forth life where there was once just death. This is a very demanding word.
Well, why do you have to be born again? I'll give you three reasons.
Why do you have to be born again? Well, number one, I say, I'll
give you three reasons. The reasons are right here in
the Scripture. Number one, if you're not born again, You can't
understand the things of the Kingdom of God. That's what the
Lord Jesus told Nicodemus. Look at verse 3. Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see, he cannot know, he cannot perceive,
he cannot understand the Kingdom of God. You see, the natural
man is absolutely void of spiritual knowledge and spiritual understanding. And you may be a very logical
thinking person. You may be very reasonable. You may be very rational in your
thinking and in your understanding. You may have a real high IQ. You may be a well-educated person
among men. But when it comes to the things
of God, you're as ignorant You're as unknowing as every other son
and daughter of Adam by nature. But I have a college degree.
Wonderful! You still can't understand things
concerning the Kingdom of God apart from the new birth. But I have an IQ that's higher
than yours. Maybe you do. That ain't saying
much. It's not how smart you are. See, when it comes, it's not
how smart you are with things in the world. You've got to know
the Lord who is life Himself. He is life. You've got to know
Him. And you know something about
the Kingdom of God. Our Lord Jesus Christ said, except
a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. He can't
perceive it. And we use that word see. It
doesn't mean can you see me with these eyes. It means you see
what I'm saying. You get what I'm saying. You
understand what I'm saying. Well, you can't understand the
things of God. You can't see these things unless
you're born again. Then watch this, why do you have
to be born again? Number two, because unless you're
born again, you can't enter into the kingdom of God, into the
kingdom of heaven. Look at verse five. Jesus answered
saying, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of the Spirit, he can't enter into the kingdom
of God. Not only can you not see it,
but you can't enter into it apart from the new birth. You can't
enter into salvation and you can't enter into that everlasting
kingdom, the kingdom of heaven. You can't enter in there unless
you've been born again. And thirdly, why do you have
to be born again? Here's the third reason. Because
your flesh and flesh is spiritually dead. He said you must be born
again. Again, which tells us we were
alive at one time. If you got to be born again,
it means there was a time when you were alive. Well, I must
have died at the age of accountability. Whatever that is. No, you died
in Adam. Wherefore is by one man sin entered
into the world, and death by sin, and so death passed upon
all men, for that all have sinned. That is all sin in Adam. Romans
5 verse 12. We're spiritually dead. That's
why the apostle wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter 15, For as in Adam all
die, but in Christ Jesus shall all be made alive. And if we're dead, that means
repentance is an impossibility. It means faith is an impossibility. If certainly we call on people,
I call on you not to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. I call
on you to repent of your idolatry and of your dead works." Who's going to do that? Somebody
who's alive. That's the only one who can do
it, somebody who's alive. Well, who's that going to be?
Whoever God speaks to in life, giving power and authority. Why do we have to be born again?
Because we're born wrong the first time. The first birth was
in sin. The second birth is in righteousness. The first birth was to physical
life. The second birth is to spiritual
life and everlasting life. The first birth was to enslavement
of sin. The second birth is to liberty
in the Lord Jesus Christ. You've got to be born again. Well, then
it brings us to this question. How does this new birth happen
to sinners? Well, it's not a result of something
the sinner does because if you look at verse 7 again, the Savior
said, you must be born again. This is not something you do. The work of being born again
is not something the sinner accomplishes. The sinner isn't active in the
new birth. The sinner is passive in the
new birth. You're acted on. You don't act. It isn't believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and get born again. It's no telling how many books
have been written on the new birth, how to be born again.
The Savior didn't tell Nicodemus, well, you've got to do thus and
so to be born again. You read what the Savior has
to say. Pour over every word as we should. And you'll never
find that the Lord Jesus instructs Nicodemus to do anything to get
the new birth. He just tells him about it. Well,
how is he going to be born again? By the Spirit of life at work
in his soul, which is what verse 8 says. The wind blows where
it listeth. You hear the sound thereof, but
you can't tell Whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth, so is every
one that is born of the Spirit." You are born of the Spirit. Look back at verse 3 again. 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. And if
you go over into the And then comparing that with verse 7,
you go into the middle column in the center of my Bible, it
says, again, or from above. Does your Bible say that? From
above. You must be born from above.
It's not be born from beneath, but born from above. You're already
born from beneath, because you're born of corruptible seed. You
know in the book of 1 Peter where it says, it talks about being
born again not of corruptible seed. You know what the word
corruptible means? It means perishing seed. We're all born of corruptible
seed naturally. You know what that means? We're
dying. That's what that means. Corruptible
seed means seed that corrupts. Seed that perishes. Look it up.
That's exactly what it means. Seed that perishes. That's why
we're all physically perishing. We're all dying. Why am I dying, preacher? I'm
young. I'm healthy. I'm strong. But you're going
to die because you're born of corruptible seed. It's seed that
perishes. We must be born of an incorruptible
seed. That's a seed that won't ever
perish. That's everlasting life. That's
a life that will never end. How does this life come to us? Well,
it's miraculous. It's mysterious. But the Lord
uses the word of the gospel. And suddenly, we're made alive. And went on, you know, oh, I
felt tingles all over me. Well, maybe you just had a chill. That's not the new birth. Well,
how do I know if I've been born again? You see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. He gets your attention. He fills
the whole view before you. Suddenly, He becomes your life
and your all. And if He's everything to you,
I can tell you why. You've been born again. You've
been born again. The Lord's done something for
you. We have everlasting life. When
does this new birth take place? When it pleases God. That's what
the Apostle Paul said in Galatians chapter 1. When it pleased God,
He revealed His Son in him. It's when the Lord speaks life.
What is this life? He is this life. Did you know
that? He is this life. Listen to the
Apostle Paul. I am crucified with Christ. This
is Galatians chapter 2 verse 20. I am crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I live. Yet, not I, not I, but Christ
who liveth within me. He's our life. When Christ, who
is our life, shall appear, then we shall be like Him. We shall
be with Him forever. When Christ, who is our life...
Who is your life? He is. If you have any life,
if you have spiritual life, if you have eternal life, if you
have everlasting life, that life is not just something, that life
is somebody. Christ Jesus. And that's why
if He were to ever forsake you, which He won't, He said, I'll
never leave you and I'll never forsake you. That's what He said,
right? I'll never leave you and I'll never forsake you. But if
He were to ever leave us, you know what? We'd be dead again.
We'd be dead again. Well, how can you say that, preacher?
Because He's our life. He's our life. Are there evidences
of this life? Yeah, we believe. It's just like
evidences of physical life. We breathe. Those who are born
of God, we breathe. We breathe to the Lord in prayer.
What's an evidence of physical life? You eat. An evidence of
spiritual life is you feed on the word of the gospel. An evidence of physical life,
you want to be around people who are alive. I tell you, I'm
going to be worried about you if you just spend all day in
the graveyard. You want to be around people
who are dead all the time? Well, that's like the demoniac
of Gadara, right? He just spent all his time in
the graveyard. He spent all his time with dead
people. Well, I know we have to be with dead people sometimes,
but the people I'd much rather be with are alive people, wouldn't
you? People who are alive under God. People who come together and
worship the Lord in spirit and in truth. This is the necessity
of the new birth. You must be born again. It's
not optional. And it's not something you do. That's the reason we pray. This
was prayed back in the office before the service. We pray now.
We continually offer this prayer to God. Oh Lord, do something
for our loved ones. Oh Lord, would you quicken them?
Oh Lord, would you give them an interest? And the reason we
pray that way is because only He can do that. He's got to give
life. And where He gives life, it's
life everlasting. It's a life that will never run
out. This is not perishing seed. This
is the incorruptible seed. And this is what He uses. This
is the means right here. The Word of God. That liveth
and abideth forever. Let's stand and sing.