There's a good possibility that
this message can be of some help to some of you. I'm dealing with this subject,
a heart prepared for gospel truth. Emphasize each of those words
for a moment. A heart. Your heart, not your mind. but your heart prepared as a
preparation time before the seed is ever sown as a preparation
time. A heart prepared for the Word,
God's immutable, infallible, unbroken Word. The Word is the
seed, and it's not man's Word, it's God's Word. It's the Word
of God, not what you think or what I think. of what's been
handed down from our forefathers. It's the Word of God. We have
a deep, heavy, important, solemn subject, a heart. Being a prick
in the heart, salvation is a heart work. It's not a decision. It's not a theological position.
It's a heart work. This is what we're missing. We're
missing that heart prepared by God's Spirit. I write my word,
he said, on their hearts. Oh my son, give me thy heart.
God doesn't have anything about you he wants if he doesn't have
your heart. A heart prepared. It's a Holy Spirit work, it's
a preparation work. It's a heart prepared for God's
Word. Now it looks like to me, I don't
know why or not, but it just seems to me, you would think
that those engaged in the business of the Kingdom of God, Those engaged in the business
of the kingdom of God would take just a little time to study the
ministry of the master. You would think that, wouldn't
you? And learn to more effectively minister to their generation. Our Lord did not deal with all
men the same way. Barnard used to say Christ didn't
give everybody the same pill, but he met men where they were.
Our Lord met men where they were. If you've never been where they
are, then you don't know where they are. You've got to have spiritual
perception, understanding, to meet men where they are. Our
Lord, he talked to the Samaritan woman. Not about theology, not
about the new birth. He talked to her about her empty
attempts at worship. He knew where she was. He knew
the games she was playing. He knew about her sinful activities,
her messed up, confused life. He knew all about that. That's
where he met her. That's where he dealt with her. He didn't
run in and say, I'm the Messiah, believe on me and be saved. he
had to prepare her heart for the good news. There were some
problems to be dealt with. There were some areas to be probed.
And he dealt with her where she was. You see that? When our Lord
talked to the rich young ruler, he didn't talk to that rich young
man about, like he did the Samaritan woman. He didn't talk to him
about his girlfriends and sinful activities and violation of the
Sabbath day. He talked to him about his idols. He talked to him about his covetousness.
He talked to him about his neighbor's need and his affluent position
and his unwillingness to meet that need. He met him where he
was. When our Lord talked to the Pharisees,
He didn't talk to them about their riches. They didn't have
any riches. That was one of the things they
took pride in. They didn't have any riches.
He didn't talk to them about their sinful activities of life
because that's what they prided themselves on. They didn't. They
weren't adulterers and extortioners. We're out here with the same
shotgun taking a shot at everybody. and missing the whole outfit. Our Lord talked to the Pharisees
about their self-righteousness. That's what He talked to them
about every time He spoke to them. He whittled them down on
this point of self-righteousness. You tithe, He said. You fast,
you pray, you search the Scriptures. He didn't say that to the Samaritan
because she didn't. He didn't say that to the rich
young ruler because he didn't. He didn't say that to Zacchaeus
because he didn't. He didn't say that to the harlot
at his feet because she didn't. But he said it to the Pharisees.
You neglect the weightier matters of the law. And then he met the
centurion, Roman centurion, Gentile centurion. Talked to him about
faith. Here was a man who had authority. Here was a man in business, business
of running a nation, business of making war. He talked to him
about faith. If you can believe, he said,
all things are possible to them that believe. No farmer goes
out and scatters seed indiscriminately on the ground. He prepares the
soil. Farmers are wise. Preachers ought
to be. The sower is the son of man,
our Lord said. Seed is the word of God. But a farmer doesn't go out and
start throwing seed. He takes the plow and he cuts
the ground. And then he takes the disc and
he tears it all to pieces and he rolls it. And after he's done
all these other things, he prepares the land, lays it out in rows,
disks it, then he sows the seed. And there's a time for all things
if we do a little studying, if we're not too hasty and too quick
to demonstrate our ignorance. There's a time for all things.
There's a time to leave the ground alone. Did you know that? There's
a time to leave the ground alone. The farmer's not always doing
something to the ground. He sometimes leaves it alone. There's a time to break it up. There's a time to use certain
cutting instruments that after the seed is sown and begins to
come up, you don't go in and start disking and plowing. You
tear the seed up that way. There's a time to get in there
and cut it to pieces. Show it no mercy. Cut it deep
with the law of God. Turn it over. Turn it upside
down. Take that which is at the bottom
and bring it to the top. And that which is at the top
and put it at the bottom. Turn it upside down. Then is
a time to prepare it. Is a time to lay it out in rows
and then there's a time to sow the seed. And I don't know a
better illustration of that than John 3 if you want to look at
it. John chapter 3. I don't know any better illustration
of the preparation of the ground of the heart that's more applicable
to this generation than right here in John 3. Why do I say that? Well, there
was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Nicodemus was a most religious man. And this, my friend, will
anyone deny that this is a religious day? There's so many ways that
I could show you this is a religious day. Take Highway 52 and drive
by Arlington, Ohio and look at the steeples all over that city.
I wouldn't say that Arlington is a godly city, would you? But
they sure got a lot of signs of it sticking up in there. Ashland
doesn't have near as many steeples but twice as many churches. They're
everywhere. They're everywhere. Turn your
radio on. There's nothing but preachers on all day Saturday
and Sunday. Turn your television on Sunday. Every channel, they're
competing with one another. This is a religious day. It's
a religious generation. Religion is on the increase.
Nicodemus was a religious man. He was in the business of religion.
And just about everybody today is. All the politicians wouldn't
dare offend the churches. If they offend the churches,
they're dead. Used to be the churches were afraid of the kings.
Now the kings are afraid of the churches. And all of the entertainers,
they've got to close their programs with some kind of religion. All
of the sports heroes or religious fellows, you know, they thank
God for their muscles. And then Nicodemus, secondly,
Nicodemus felt that he was a man who had some knowledge on the
matters of religion. And here we are, this is us too. Nicodemus, first of all, was
a religious man. Secondly, Nicodemus felt that
he had some knowledge of the matters of religion. He said,
Master, Rabbi, we know, we know you're a teacher come from God.
We know. My friends, the hardest thing
in this world to find is an empty vessel. That's right. The hardest thing in this world
to find. We know. We believe. We think. We've got some knowledge of religion.
We know. That's what Nicodemus, he came
to the Lord that way. Master, Rabbi, we know. We know. We just let you add to our knowledge
or see if your knowledge fits ours or see if what you think
fits what we think. But we know, most of us know,
we know what we believe. And then Nicodemus felt he knew
God. He said, we know your teacher from God. I'll tell you this. If Nicodemus
had known God and been able to determine who was from God, Nicodemus
would have been a saved man, because eternal life's to know
God. If a man knows God, he's saved. If a man's not saved,
he doesn't know God. Is anyone here this morning that's
not a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ? Well, you don't know
God. You don't know God. I say to
you what Christ said to every Pharisee in his day. You neither
know God nor the Son. You're of your father the devil.
You don't know God. Now you think you do, but you've
got an idol. Is this right? Eternal life is
to know God? You know what Christ said, Charlie?
Eternal life to know God. He that knows God knows the Son. He that knows the Son knows the
Father. He that knows not the Son knows
not the Father. Now let's get this thing right. Nicodemus, a religious man, a
moral man, an intelligent man, a ruler, an influential man,
came to Christ. And he started off this way.
We know And that's, I'm going to show
you something in a minute, but that's the way he started off.
And that's the same way some of you start off. We know, I
know, I know, I think, I believe, and I know about God. Now we
know you're from God, we know this about God, and this about
God, and the other about God. And then Nicodemus was interested
in what he saw, the miracles you do. I'm impressed with the
miracles. I know you're from God because
no man could do the miracles you do except God. But Nicodemus
was impressed by what he saw. That's what appeals to the flesh,
what they see and what they hear. That's what appeals to this generation. What's our generation running
after? Well, you can bring some fellow. We're the overflow crowd.
Bring some fellow in that appeals to the senses, to the eyes and
to the ears. Let him work a few miracles or
profess to. Let him put on a stage show.
Let him impress people with his smile or his piety or his uniform. That's what impressed Nicodemus. That's what appealed to him.
The miracles you do. Now here's the picture. Here's
a A fellow that could fit maybe some of you. Religious. Moral. Influential. Ruler. Leader. That's right,
a leader of the Jews. And he knew some things. He thought
he did. I know. Master, I know. And I know God. I know you're from God. He didn't
know God at all. But he thought he did. And what
you do, now I'm impressed by what you do. What you do impresses
me. I'm a judge, you see, of religious
matters, and this impresses me. Listen to what Christ said. The
first words Christ said to him, what were they? In verse 3, Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Truly I assure
you most solemnly, Unless a man is born again, he cannot know,
he cannot understand, he cannot be acquainted with the Kingdom
of God. You say, Preacher, what Christ said to Nicodemus
is totally unrelated to what Nicodemus said? Wasn't what we
talked about, Bob, when we were talking about this scripture,
totally unrelated? No, it wasn't either. No, it
wasn't. It's the very heart of the whole
matter. The Lord Jesus Christ said exactly what Nicodemus needed
to hear. Nicodemus came up to him and
he said, I know you're a teacher come from God. No man could do
what you do except God be with him. And our Lord said, Except
a man is born from above, he cannot know. He cannot understand. He cannot be acquainted with
the kingdom of God. Nicodemus was speaking from the
darkness of human wisdom. Nicodemus was speaking from the
darkness of human understanding. Human conception of God, a human
conception of morals, a human conception of life, a human understanding
of eternity. And that's what all men speak
from. That's the reason the wisdom
of man is foolishness with God. The natural man is not irreligious,
he's religious. The natural man's religious. Because you are religious and
because you have moral principles and because you have a zeal for
God doesn't mean you know God. Paul said that in Romans 10.
I bear them witness. They have a zeal for God, but
not according to knowledge. They're being ignorant of God's
righteousness. Our Lord is revealing to Nicodemus
that his natural wisdom will not equip him for discerning
the things of God. That his natural wisdom will
not equip him to discuss spiritual truth. That he must be regenerated,
he must be awakened, he must be made alive
from above. What our Lord is saying are two
worlds here, Nicodemus. You're coming from one world,
I from another. They're totally separate. Well, Nicodemus' reaction to
this. Notice this. It's almost ridiculous,
but it reveals rebellion. It reveals ridicule. Cynical. Smart aleck. That's what he is. You listen to it. You try to
act out this whole thing and come from both Put yourself in
both positions. I put myself in this place of
Nicodemus. I come to Christ. I was brought
up in the church. I memorized the books of the
Bible. I took the sword drills. I know
who David was, and Solomon, and Isaiah, and Judas Iscariot, and
the twelve disciples, and did some Sunday school teaching,
some song leading, and all these things, and I come. I said, I
know. I know. I got a little religious
background, a little religious nuttiness, he had a whole lot,
a whole lot more than I had. That old boy was a Pharisee,
he was a ruler, he was up the top of the ladder. I know, I know you're from God,
I'm impressed by the plant you built and I'm impressed by the
congregation, I'm impressed with these things, our Lord said,
you can't even know anything about God unless you're born
again. You can't understand. Well, he says, how can a man
be born again? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? That was pretty smart aleck,
wasn't it? The natural man will mock and ridicule. Some of you
may be thinking the same thing. Preacher talks about the new
birth. How's a man gonna be born again? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and become a little baby? I noticed
in the newspaper yesterday they were making fun of Mr. Carter's
profession of being born again. They had him rising from a tomb,
you know, it had born again written on it. That's alright, friend. It's alright. You mock it, you
ridicule it. That's what Nicodemus did. That
shows your natural depravity, that shows your lack of understanding
of spiritual things. That shows the darkness from
which you're coming. That shows the pagan position
that you occupy. And that's exactly what our Lord
said. You must be born again. But he
was patient with Nicodemus. God give us patience with natural
men. But our Lord patient with him
and mercifully illustrates to him, he said, Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh
is flesh. When you were in your mother's
womb and you were born, they delivered you, you were flesh. You had a fleshly mind and heart
and fleshly life, fleshly wisdom. Flesh is broad, but it's still
flesh. The flesh may deal in science
or religion or politics, but it's still flesh. That which
is flesh is flesh. That's it. It's a world of its
own. That which is flesh is flesh.
It may be rich flesh or poor flesh, black flesh or white flesh.
It may be wise flesh or foolish flesh. It may be old flesh or
young flesh, but flesh is flesh and that's all it can be. Natural
world. And that which is conceived and
regenerated and miraculously begotten of God is spirit, and
it's another world. It's another wisdom. It's another
understanding. It's another way of thinking.
It's another spirit. It's another attitude. It's totally
separate and apart. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh and it can't ever be anything else but flesh. It thinks
flesh. It acts flesh. It's motivated
by the flesh. Its spirit is flesh and that's
all it is. But that which is born from above
Born of the water of the Word and born by the powerful influence
of God's Spirit is a new man. He thinks differently, he acts
differently, he talks differently, he understands differently. It's
another world. And let's see, do I detect in
verse 9 the old boy showing some interest maybe, huh? How can
these things be? Oh, here's a different Nicodemus. How can they be? You're not going
to do any good. I'm not going to do you any good,
and you're not going to do anybody else any good until these mouths
are stopped and we begin to ask, how can these things be? The
we knows you're not going to help. That's right. We know. Master, we already know. And
our Lord didn't give Mr. Know anything except shut his
mouth. You got to be born again. And then Mr. Smartily comes and
says, well, how can he be born when he's old? And our Lord said,
it's a different world, Nicodemus. And I'll tell you something else,
old boy. He said, they that are born of the Spirit are like the
wind. The wind bloweth where it wishes, and you don't have
any control over it. You can't even tell from whence
it's coming. You don't know where it's going.
And even so are they that are born of the Spirit. God will
save whom He will. God will regenerate whom he will.
God will make alive whom he will. You have no control over the
wind. You have no control over the spirit of the living God.
He comes and goes as he pleases. Isn't that what he says? Boy,
I tell you, you talk about shutting a man's mouth. You talk about plowing some ground. You talk about turning it upside
down. You talk about putting a top
on the bottom and a bottom on the top. You talk about cutting
it to the core. Our Lord whittled him down. He's
not through with him yet. He's not through with him yet. You think sometimes that the
pastor is a little bit tough. You ain't been in nobody's hands
till God deal with you. And the reason you think the
pastor's tough is you've never been dealt with by God. Our Lord told this man the Holy
Spirit would regenerate whom he would. He'll save whom he
will. And Nicodemus at last says, well,
how can these things be? Now watch it. The Lord further
humiliates him. He says to the proud man, I thought
you as a master of Israel. See that verse 11? Are you a
master of Israel and you don't know these things? I thought
you knew. You told me a while ago, Master,
we know. Now are you a master and you
don't know these things? You don't know the simplest things?
You masters of Israel, verse 11, I speak that which we know
and testify that which we've seen. You've got the scriptures
and you haven't received the witness of the scriptures. You
search the scriptures, in them you think you have light, there
they which testify of me. You have not received the witness
of the scriptures. You've been using the Bible for
an almanac, you've been using the Bible to prove what you already
believe, you have turned your back on the witness of God's
word. And if I told you things that
happen on the earth, right here on this earth, and you can't
believe, what would you do if I told you of heavenly things,
of supernatural things, of God's covenant and God's counsel in
all eternity? What would you do with that?
I've talked to you about the new birth, the simple little
thing of regeneration. And you can't understand it.
I've talked to you about resurrection, I've talked to you about life,
I've talked to you about a man being born again, a man being
changed and transformed and converted, and you can't understand it,
you can't believe it. Nicodemus, what would you do
if I opened the glories of heaven to you? You couldn't handle it. You couldn't handle it. And I'll tell you this, no man
hath ascended up to heaven That is, to go up there and find out
what's going on. There was a doctor sitting in
the backyard talking to a preacher one time, and the doctor said,
it sure would be wonderful if somebody from up there could
come down here and tell us what's going on, what it's all about.
And the preacher said, somebody did. Somebody did. And that's the
only way we're going to find out. No man's ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man, which is from heaven, he's come down here to reveal God
to us. Why don't we listen to him? Why
won't we listen? No, we're the master we know
bunch. We're the miracle seekers. We're
the folks that impress, are impressed so foolishly by what we see and
hear. We're the gang that's ridiculing
and making fun of something we don't understand. Our Lord said, Nicodemus, I'm going to preach some gospel
to you now. I believe you're ready to hear it. I believe you're
ready to hear it. After the heart is prepared,
sufficiently broken, you find out from whom you have to hear,
from whom you have to learn if you're going to learn, the one
who came down from heaven, the Son of Man which is in heaven. The heart is sufficiently prepared,
the walls of natural wisdom are leveled. The ears are open to the master. The vessel is empty. And then our Lord preaches the
gospel to this man. He says Nicodemus, he takes Nicodemus
back something he knows he knows about at least in his head. He
said in verse 14, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. Nicodemus, back yonder
one time, when your mom and daddy, great-great-granddaddy and grandmama
were in the wilderness, they had sinned against God,
they had murmured against God and rebelled against God, and
God sent the plague, the curse of fiery serpents down among
them, and they bit the people. And those people, because of
their rebellion and their murmuring, began to die. They were bitten
by the serpents and they began to die. They were under the wrath
and judgment of God. You know about that, Nicodemus?
Yes, sir. And Moses went to God and he cried, O Lord, spare the
people. God said, all right, Moses, I'll
be merciful. He didn't have to, but he did.
And he said, Moses, you make a serpent, a brass, just like
those fiery serpents that bit the people. And you lift it up
on a pole in the middle of the cave. Lift that serpent up on
that pole. And I say unto you, whosoever
looketh shall live. You remember that, Nicodemus?
Yes, sir. I remember that. Well, Nicodemus, even so must
the Son of Man be lifted up. The Son of Man, Son of God, Son
of Man, the God-Man. The people have been bitten by
the serpent of sin. From the Garden of Eden, the
venom, the poison of that asp, that evil serpent of sin has
been all through our bodies and our souls and our minds and our
hearts. Just like when the Israelites
were bitten by the fiery serpents, the poison just raced through
their veins and it went to their hearts and it was pumped out
to every part of the body. Even so, sin is in our nature. It's in our
hearts. It's been pumped out to every
faculty of our being. We're dying, dead under God's
wrath. God sent his son down here and
made him in the likeness, you remember that serpent of brass
was made a serpent of brass just like the one that bit, well the
son of God was made in the likeness of sinful flesh, he was made
a man like you and me. Five fingers on each hand, eyes,
ears, nose, mouth, he thirsted, he hungered, he knew what it
was to feel pain, He knew what it was to have calluses on his
hands, he knew what it was to sweat, he knew what it was to
be tired, he knew what it was to be disappointed, sorrowful,
upset, angry, tested, tempted, in all points he was a man made in the likeness of flesh.
And God put our curse upon Him, our sin upon Him. He didn't have
any sin in Him, but God put our sins upon Him. He took our sins,
He took our evil, and God lifted Him up on a cross. The Father
lifted Him up. It pleased God to bruise Him. And sin lifted Him up. Our sins
nailed Him there. And man lifted Him up. All right, what's the result?
That whosoever, verse 15, believe it, on him should not perish,
but have everlasting life. Not whosoever brings him a drink
of water, but believes. Not whosoever skedaddles around
town and tells about what's happening out yonder outside the wall,
no, believes. Not whosoever takes him down
from the cross and digs him a nice pretty sepulcher and buries him
in it. No, that's what we've done. We've
buried Christ in the sanctuaries, in the mausoleums called churches.
No, that's not the way. Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea
came and buried him, but that didn't help them toward God one
bit. It's believing on Christ. It's
receiving Christ. It's looking to Christ. That
whosoever, that's a wide word, the high muckety-muck or the
low man, whosoever the religious man or the pagan, whosoever the
man or the woman, bond or free, male or female, circumcised or
uncircumcised, religious or otherwise, whosoever, believe it, not worketh,
not is baptized, not is moral, not is a church worker, believeth
on him shall not perish and have everlasting life. A wide word,
whosoever a simple act believeth, a sure remedy, shall not perish. For God so loved the world. We didn't love him. He loved
us. We didn't seek him, he sought
us. We didn't know him, he knew us.
God loved and God gave that whosoever believeth. Now my friends, there's no reason in this world
for me ever planting any seed to have been some preparation
of the heart. You may not understand. Nicodemus
sure didn't. He came to get orders and instructions
and recipes and plans of salvation. And our Lord went to work on
him. He took him apart and butchered him before he ever told him the gospel.
And maybe that's what's never been done for some folks. Maybe
they've never been whittled down. I do know this, and I've said
this again and again. You may not know what I'm saying or what
I'm talking about. You've got to be lost before you can be
found. You've got to be slain before God will make you alive.
You've got to be abased before God will exalt you. You've got
to be emptied before God will fill you. And you may have a
little religion stacked in on the top of all that self-righteousness
and all that human wisdom, and you're just a conglomeration
of nothing like Nicodemus was. But you look at it this afternoon, see how God dealt with this man.
We know. We know. You don't know anything, Christ
said. You can't know unless you're born again. But how can these things be?
You're a master and you don't know that. If I told you things that take
place here and you can't believe them, how would you handle the
mysteries of the eternal covenant? But I'll tell you what it is.
It's simple. But this world can't handle a
simple gospel. They gotta have a complicated.
Give a man something complicated to do and he'll start doing it.
Tell a man to look to Christ. And he'll never do it. Until
the Holy Spirit turns his eyes on Jesus. Our Father, do with this message
what you will. We know that all things are in
thy hands. If we cannot prepare the heart,
it must be prepared by the Holy Spirit. We cannot make the seed
effectual nor grow to bring fruit to Thy glory. There is so much of the world
without us and within us, so little of Christ. May Thy Spirit open hearts, bring
men down to the feet of Christ. O for heart to love thee, Lord,
O for mind that dwells upon thee, O for spirit weaned from the
world, dedicated totally and completely to the Living God. As the heart panteth for the
water brook, so panteth my soul after thee, the Living God. Be merciful unto us. Open our
eyes and our ears for Christ's sake. Amen.