Here's my subject this morning,
a heart prepared for the gospel. A heart prepared for the gospel. And my text is one that I suppose
all of you could quote. You've heard it again and again,
but let me read it for you. It's found in John the third
chapter and third verse. It says, Jesus answered and said
unto him, Verily, verily, or truly, I solemnly declare unto you,
except a man be born again, or born from above, he cannot see,
that is, he cannot understand, he cannot comprehend, he cannot
be acquainted with the kingdom of God, except a man be born
again. Now you would think that men
who are engaged in the business of the kingdom of God would care
enough for themselves and for their heroes and for their generation
to give diligent study and concentrated study on the methods of our Master. It looks like men who are engaged
in this business of preaching the gospel would study how our
Lord Jesus Christ dealt with men, what he said to men, how
he dealt with each one. And the Lord didn't deal with
everybody alike. Our Lord knew all men, and he
knew that while all men are sinners, yet all of them are not alike.
Men are different, and our Lord met men where they were. He didn't
deal with everyone the same way. As one old-time preacher used
to say, he didn't give every sick man the same pill, but he
met men where they were and dealt with them according to their
needs. In other words, the Lord talked to the Samaritan woman
about her vain attempts at worship. He said, you worship, you know
not what. And he dealt with her about her
sinful life. He said, go call your husband.
And she said, I've had five, and the man I'm living with now
is not my husband. And he said, in that you've spoken
the truth. You have no husband. He dealt
with her about her vain attempts at worship. About her sinful
life, but he didn't deal that way with the rich young ruler
He talked to him about his idols He talked to him about his about
his covetousness his selfishness He knew that this young man had
great possessions and and he loved those possessions and he
and he hailed to those possessions and our Lord told him go and
sell your possessions and Give them to the poor And then you
come and take up your cross and follow me." And the young man
went away sorrowful. Our Lord didn't deal with him
about an outwardly wicked life. He had a wicked heart because
a selfish heart is just as wicked as an adulterous heart. A covetous
heart is just as evil as an idolatrous heart because covetousness is
idolatry. But our Lord didn't deal with
him about his vain attempts at worship or about his sinful practices. He dealt with him where his problem
was, where his point of rebellion was. You've got a point of rebellion.
And our Lord dealt with men in that particular area, where their
point of rebellion was. And then he dealt with the religious
leaders about their self-righteousness. He didn't talk to them about
selling what they had. and giving it to the poor, they
didn't have anything. He didn't talk to them about
their many husbands or wives. They didn't have any. Many of
them. Some of them only one. They were
religious, moral men. Self-righteousness. So our Lord
dealt with them about their self-righteousness. And here's what he said to them.
He said the publicans and the harlots are going to enter heaven
before you. Now you think about that. That's
where he dealt with them. And then when he dealt with the
centurion, he talked to him about faith. He said to this man, he
said, if you can believe, all things are possible to them that
believe. And I could go right on through
the word with Zacchaeus and Mary and the harlot and all these
different ones and point out how Christ dealt with each one
where he was needing his particular need. And all the soul winners
and Bible teachers and preachers go forth just giving the same
ABC and 1, 2, 3 and dealing with all people as if they were all
the same. They are all sinners and they all need a Savior. But
you'll find them in different areas. Our Lord talked about
a farmer. He said a sower went forth to
sow. Now we can learn from the farmer. The farmer just doesn't
go out with a handful of seed on April the 1st and start slinging
seeds. So the farmer, first of all,
plows the land. And then the farmer discs the
land, and then he breaks it up, and then he lays it out in rows,
and then, after the ground is prepared, he begins to sow the
seeds. There's a time for everything.
There's a time to leave the ground alone. You don't put a plow in
the ground in the middle of December, not around here. There's a time
to leave the ground alone. There's a time to plow, to break
it up, to deal ruthlessly with it. to tear it up and disk it
and break it all to pieces. And then there's a time to lay
it out in rows. And there's a time to sow your
seed. And there's a time to stand back. And don't go dig a hole
and see if the seed has sprouted yet. You know, dig a little hole
and pick it up. Well, it hasn't sprouted, so put it back. You've
lost it. There's a time to leave it alone,
and back off, and let the rain fall on it, and let the dew of
God fall on it, and let it germinate, and let it, as God himself gives
it life, let it grow. And then there's a time for harvest.
There's a time to reap. But this generation, this day,
this generation of preachers, I don't understand them. We haven't
studied the methods of our masters. There's a time of harvest. He's
the Lord of the harvest. And you just don't go out and
there's people listening to me. And I'm trusting and praying
that the Holy Spirit will take each separate message and meet
each separate need according to God's will. But you meet men
where they are and you deal with them as they are. There's a time
to leave men alone. Some of you wives want your husbands
to be saved and you just keep nagging and nagging and nagging
and keep sowing seed and sowing seed and sowing seed. He might
need a little law work. He might need some preacher to
cut his legs out from under him and strip him of his self-righteousness
and point out his rebellion and commit him to the judgment of
God Almighty and show him that God's not obligated to save any
man. God doesn't owe you anything. There's a time to leave the ground
alone. There's a time to leave them
alone. That's what our Lord said of the Pharisees. The disciples
said they were offended. He said leave them alone. Leave
them alone. This is the time to leave people
alone. And this is the time to plow. This is the time to take
the Word of God and plow and dig and tear up the ground and
ruthlessly deal with it. Some people feel like some of
us preachers are too plain. We just, we got to be gentle.
We got to be kind. We got to be loving. This is
the time to be gentle and kind and loving. This is the time
to be ruthless. This is the time to yell fire. When the building's
on fire, you don't go around whispering and say, now I love
you and I don't want to disturb you, and I wouldn't want to add
to your woes. But if you find it convenient
and it's not too much trouble to you, if I were you, I'd get
out of this building because it's on fire. Now that's not
the way to warn men. The way to warn men is to scream
fire, to get out, to get away from the judgment. The building's
falling down. There's a time to deal with men
with the law of God, to strip them and to to break them and
to knock their foundations out from under them and to whip them
with the law of God. Then there's a time to lay the
rose and sow the seed of the gospel. And when that seed's
been sown, don't keep inquiring and digging and pulling the seed
up, looking to see if it's doing any good and bearing any fruit.
Leave it in the, leave it alone. God must make men live. God must reveal Christ to men's
heart. God Almighty's got to do the
saving. We're just sowing the seed. We're just planting the
seed. That's the seed of the Word of God. And God has to make
it live. And I'm not going to make it
live by keeping on inquiring if it's doing any good. I plant
it and leave it alone. And pray that God will send the
rain. And pray that God will send His
Spirit. and quicken that seed and make it live in that sinner's
heart. And I'll tell you this, if God
Almighty germinates the seed and makes it live, it won't be
long. You'll see some evidences. You'll see some fruit. It'll
bear fruit if it lives. It'll bear fruit and it'll come
up. And that's the way our Lord dealt.
And I don't know a better illustration than John chapter 3 to study
the method. of our Master with a real diligent
study. Let's just get our minds right
on what Christ is doing here. Now, I want you to watch this.
It just pictures our generation. It's such a good picture of this
day. First of all, Nicodemus was a religious man, not a godly
man by no means, a ruthless man, a self-righteous man, a religious
man, not a godly man, and not a saved man, and not a man who
knew Christ. but a religious man. And that's
what we've got today. We've got religion, we've got
more religion per square inch than we used to have per square
mile. This whole world's got religious indigestion. There's
religion up to our ears all over the world. Religion of every
brand, sort, and contraction you can think of. Religion, religion,
religion. Not godliness, not righteousness,
not truth, but religion. And not only was Nicodemus a
religious man, but he was a man who felt he had a knowledge of
spiritual things. He said, Master, we know. We know. And you know, an empty
vessel is hard to find today. A fellow that doesn't know everything
is hard to find. It's hard to find somebody that doesn't know
everything about God and about the Bible and about salvation.
People always tell me, well, I'll tell you what I think. Or
I'll tell you what I believe. Or I'll tell you what I know.
Everybody knows something. They haven't studied. They haven't
been taught, but they know. And that's the way Nicodemus
was. He knew. Master, we know. We know. At
least we think we know. Everybody I'm trying to preach
to knows. They know about all there is
to know. There's not many folks that are teachable. You know
what a disciple is? What is a disciple? It's a learner. That's what a disciple is. A
learner. Are you a learner or are you a knower? Nicodemus was
a knower. He said, we know. Master, we
know. And then something else about him, he thought he knew
God. He said, we know your teacher comes from God. Why he didn't
know God? Christ said to those Pharisees,
he thought he knew God. Our Lord said to those Pharisees,
you neither know me nor my father. You don't know God. You don't
know God. He told them that. You don't
know God. Men know the God of their imagination. Men know the
God of their denomination. Men know the God of their own
thinking, the God of their own creed. That's the God they know.
But the living God? To know the living God is to
have eternal life. This is eternal life, that they
might know Thee, the only true and living God. Do you know the
living God? Men know the God of their fathers.
They know the God of their imaginations. They know the God of their thoughts.
They know the God of their denominations. They know the God of their creeds.
But not many people In their heart, know the living God. Christ
said, I know the Father. I know the Father. You don't
know him. You don't know him. But Nicodemus thought he did,
and I'll tell you something else about Nicodemus. This is our
day. It's a beautiful parallel. But
Nicodemus was impressed by what he saw. Not by what he heard. Not by what he felt. But he was
impressed by what he saw. He said, Master, we know that
your teacher comes from God. For no man can do the miracle
you do, except God be with him. Master, we know that no man can
do these miracles. He was impressed by what he saw,
not by what he heard, not by what he felt. But he was impressed
by what he saw. What's our generation running
after? They're running after the entertainers. They're running
after the miracle workers. They're running after the folks
that are putting on a good show, the things that appeal to their
eyes, the things that appeal to their flesh, the things that
appeal to their sight. That's nicotine. All right, let's
see how our Lord dealt with it. Now here's this religious man
who thought that he knew spiritual truth, who thought that he knew
God. He was a judge of who came from
God and who didn't come from God, who was saved and who wasn't
saved, who represented God and who didn't represent God. And
he was a man who was visibly moved and tremendously impressed
by what he saw, not by what he felt, not by what he heard, but
what he saw. It impressed him. And that's
what impresses men today. We need to put a few more flowers
around and have some more horns blowing and have some folks walking
up and down a gangway, you know, put on a good show because people
and and put a few folks up here and break their break their Walking
sticks and crush the wheels on their wheelchairs to give people
something to see something to impress them But that's Nicodemus
and our Lord answered him, but you know, what's the answer that
he gave? He said Nicodemus I assure you that except a man be born
again born from above He cannot see, he cannot know, he cannot
understand, he cannot comprehend the kingdom of God. Now that's
a strange answer. Someone said to me one time,
what Christ said to Nicodemus is totally unrelated to what
Nicodemus said to him. No, it's not either. It's exactly
what Nicodemus needed to hear. Exactly. Our Lord brought him
to the heart of the whole matter. He said, Nicodemus, You profess
to know about God. You profess to know about spiritual
matters. You profess to know about a relationship
with God. But what you profess to know
is based upon the darkness of human wisdom. It's based upon
the darkness of human understanding, of human judgment, and of human
knowledge. And this is the confusion from
which most men speak. Nicodemus, you're speaking from
darkness. You're speaking about things
you do not understand. And what our Lord is showing
Nicodemus is that his natural fleshly wisdom and understanding
would not enable him either to discern or to understand or to
enter into the kingdom of God. In order for any man to understand
spiritual truth, he must be born again. He must have a totally
new nature. There must be the begetting of
a new nature. Nicodemus was talking about things
that the natural mind understood. A man to see the kingdom of God,
to understand the kingdom of God, has to have a spiritual
mind. Nicodemus was speaking from a
natural heart. A man who understands and comprehends
the kingdom of God must have a new heart. Eye hath not seen,
natural eyes, ear hath not heard, natural ears, neither hath it
entered the heart of a natural man, the things that God has
prepared for them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his Spirit, for the Spirit searches the deep things of God.
No man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man
that's in him. Even so, the things of God knoweth no man but the
Spirit of God. And the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit, their foolishness to him." He
cannot discern them, he cannot understand them. And this is
what Christ said in the Nicodemus, here this religious man, this
man who thought he had spiritual knowledge, this man who thought
he had an understanding of God, this man who was impressed by
what he saw, said this, said as much. And our Lord said, you've
got to be born again to even comprehend, to even understand,
to even in any way enter into the things of the kingdom of
God. A new man must be begotten, a
new nature, a new heart, a new mind. Well, what was Nicodemus'
reaction to this? His reaction to this statement,
you must be born again. You cannot understand the kingdom
of God unless you're born again. His reaction was the same as
we get today. He ridiculed. He mocked. He made fun. He said, I never
noticed that before. Yes, he did. Now you listen to
him. Our Lord said, Nicodemus, truly,
I solemnly say unto you, except the man's born again. He doesn't
have the mind to comprehend the kingdom of God, a heart to understand
the kingdom of God, ears to hear the words of the kingdom of God.
And Nicodemus said, well, how can a man be born when he's old?
Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born? Ridicule. Mocking. Well, my friend, remember
this. You don't destroy the truth by
mocking it. You don't do away with the truth
by ridiculing it. That's what a lot of people do
in debates and arguments, you know. If they don't like the
doctrine of election, they'll ridicule it. If they don't like
the doctrine of perseverance, they'll make fun of it. If they
don't like the doctrine of God's power to heal, they'll make fun
of it. If they don't like the power
of God in ruling over the universe, they'll make fun of it. They
don't like the idea that God's sovereign in all things. They'll
say something like, well, what if I run out in front of a truck
and a truck hits me? That'll mess up God's plan. You
can't do away with the truth by making fun of it. And that's
what Nicodemus, he's mocking. He's saying, well, how can a
man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Well, mercifully, the Lord
answers. And the Lord didn't cut him off.
He didn't say, well, if you're going to ridicule and mock and
make fun, you can be gone. No. He said, Nicodemus, if you
could go back to me, your mother's womb and be born again, you'd
still be flesh. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. You see that? If you could go back to me, if
you could, after he's full grown, be born a second and third and
fourth and fifth time. You'd still be flesh. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh. And it comprehends fleshly things.
It understands fleshly things. It moves in a fleshly kingdom.
But salvation, eternal life, a relationship with God, is not
of the earth. It's of heaven. It's a spiritual
kingdom. It's a kingdom of righteousness
and peace and justice and mercy and truth. We're not talking
about earth and sand and sea and stars and water and the elements
of this world. We're talking about the things
of God. And that which is flesh is flesh, and it understands
flesh and comprehends flesh, and it enters into the things
of the flesh. But that which is born of the
Spirit is spirit. It's from above. You're talking
about two kingdoms, two separate worlds, a world of flesh and
a world of spirit. And that's the reason he said
a man must be born again. That's the reason a man must
be born again. The natural flesh understands the things of the
flesh and the things of this world. But the things of the
kingdom of God knoweth no man except that man who has life
from above, begotten of God, conceived of God, enlightened
by God, illuminated by God, born of God. A new nature, a new nature. All right, we're not through.
Nicodemus, the Lord has dealt with him ruthlessly, whittled
him down. He brought him to the place where
he just about got his mouth closed. He said, well, how can these
things be? Do I detect the proud religious
man who just got through saying, Master, we know, we know, we
know. Do I hear this man saying how
and why? How can these things be? I don't
understand. Oh, that's the sweetest music
in all the world. When a man, when a sinner, when
a guilty sinner is brought to the place where he asks somebody
who knows something about it, well, how can a man be born again? How can these things be? How
can God be just and justify the ungodly? How can he be clean
that's born of a woman? How can God in his righteousness
and truth and holiness look upon me and love me? How can an ungodly
person like me enter into the holy presence of the living God?
How can a son of sin be made a son of God? How? Isn't that
beautiful? But the Lord's not through with
it. And I'll tell you this, if you'll study how our Lord dealt
with men, he dealt plainly. He said, I thought you were a
master in Israel. Are you a master? Are you a teacher? You've got a degree in theology,
he said. You're a master. Don't you understand
these things? Don't you? Nicodemus, if I told
you of things of this earth and you don't understand, how could
you understand if I told you things about the counsels of
God, the mysteries of God, the kingdom of God? How could you
comprehend it? He said, there's one thing about it. Read on down
there. He said, no man's going to go to heaven and listen in
to the counsels of God and find out what it's all about. The
only way a man's going to learn is for the Son of Man who came
from heaven to teach him. And Christ said, that's me. You
ready to listen to the Son of Man? You ready to shut your mouth?
Are you ready to unlearn all of your natural wisdom? Are you
willing to bring empty hands? In my hands, no price I bring.
Are you willing to bring an empty, broken heart? Are you willing
to come and sit at the feet of the Master and listen and learn
and learn? The walls of pride must be leveled. The traditions of men must be
laid down. The wisdom of men must be forgotten.
The heart, mind, ears, and eyes of natural flesh must be dismissed
and God Almighty must give us a new nature and a new heart
and a new mind to hear him speak who speaks through his word.
And then our Lord, after he brought this man down and stripped him
and broke him, he preached the gospel to him. The gospel is
presented now by our Lord in a picture. Now, Nicodemus was
familiar with the history of Israel. So our Lord said in John
3.14, Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.
Now you know about that Nicodemus. You know the sin of Israel, rebellion,
murmuring, finding fault with God. You know the curse of the
fiery serpents. The fiery serpents came down
in the camp and they'd bitten the people and the people were
dying. The curse of God, the wrath of God was upon them. And
Moses prayed to God for deliverance and God said, Moses, make a serpent
of brass, just like the serpents that had bitten the people, in
the same likeness. Lifted up on a pole, and whosoever
looketh shall live. Now he said as Moses lifted up
that serpent in the wilderness for a bitten, dying, rebellious
people to be healed, even so must the Son of Man, Christ is
the Son of Man, the Son of God and the Son of Man, even so must
he be lifted up. What was our sin? Rebellion against
God. We rebelled against God in our
father Adam. We rebelled against God in our
hearts and in our thoughts and in our deeds and in our words.
And God has sent the curse of the broken law. We're dying in
our sins. We're dead in our sins. We're
headed for eternal condemnation. But God made Christ in the likeness
of sinful flesh. What was it that bid us? The
serpent of sin. And Christ was made in the likeness
of our human flesh and lifted up on a cross between heaven
and earth, just like that blazing serpent was lifted up. that God
might be just and justifier, that God might be righteous and
merciful, that God might be holy and love, that God might have
man's sins paid for and be reconciled to man. And what's the remedy? Whosoever looketh on Christ shall
live. Whosoever looketh. Well, the
cause of all this, for God so loved the world. Christ didn't
come down here to get God in a good humor. He didn't come
down here to make God love us, he came because God did love
us. For God so loved the world of sinners that he gave, he sent
his only begotten son, that whosoever, that's a big word, a wide word,
believe it, not work it, believe it, on him, not on their faith
or on their works, but on him, should never perish but have
eternal life. Are you ready for that message, that God sufficiently
brought you down to where you say, Lord, save me, and I'll
perish? If you will, you can make them hope. Men have got
to be ready for that, but when they're ready, they rejoice in
it.