The Nail Everything Hangs On - Part B

Will you hang everything, present belief and future hope on Christ and Him alone?

That's really the issue, isn't it? And I'll tell you why you should do that. You should do that because that's exactly what God the Father has done. He hung all of our sin on Christ and then He hung His Son on a cross. And in so doing, in so putting His Son on those nails of the cross, God was saying, I am hanging the hopes of all of humanity on Him alone.

Welcome to Connect with Skip Weekend Edition. If you're going to hang something on just one nail, you can't just hammer it anywhere in the wall. Not unless you want that heavy and possibly valuable thing to come crashing down on the floor.

You need to find a stud in the wall in which to drive that nail, then it will be able to properly support everything you hang on it. Well, it turns out the same is true in our spiritual lives. If you're going to hang all of eternity on one thing, you better be sure it has a solid foundation. Well, today in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, we'll discover what exactly anchors the nail upon which all of eternity hangs on.

But first, let's see what's going on in the Connect with Skip Resource Center this month. Our lives are punctuated by defining moments, pivot points that shape who we are now and who we'll become, such as choice of marriage partner or where we choose to work as Skip Heitzig observes. There's predictable events that happens like in your life, but every now and then, life sort of hits you by surprise. It comes crashing down on you.

You are going a direction. Your day is planned out, but you get a phone call from a doctor or a friend. The news is not good.

The prognosis is not good. And you didn't see it coming. God's word has the direction to get you through the planned and unplanned pivot points in your life. The pivot point package speaks to marriage, death, depression, recovery, fear of the future and moving to a new location or job. Get these teachings that include written personal direction from Skip on each of these topics. You'll receive this package when you give $50 or more today to this Bible teaching ministry. We'll send you Pastor Skip's pivot points collection of six messages, plus an encouraging letter from Pastor Skip so you can strengthen your faith in defining moments. A faith that cannot be tested is a faith that cannot be trusted.

Get these critical pivot point messages today when you give online securely at connectwithskip.com slash offer or call 800-922-1888. We're going to finish up in John chapter three today. So turn there in your Bibles and let's join Skip Heitzig.

Oh, I love that little phrase. God is true. True. You can you can believe the testimony of Jesus and anybody who receives that testifies God is true. Say it.

God is true. But every now and then somebody will come along and say, well, it just doesn't work for me. I can't turn from that sin. I can't. I've tried.

It didn't work for me. I can't do it. I'm codependent. I can't rejoice evermore. I can't be happy. Don't you know I've been scarred as a child. I can't be holy. I know the Bible says that didn't work for me. I can't.

I'm married to a creepy husband. I can't do really anything. In spiritual sense, I can't.

I can't. Here it says God is true. In Romans three, verse four, it's even more emphatic. Let God be true and every man a liar. Well, God says rejoice evermore. God says be holy, for I am holy. God says let this mind be in you, which is in Christ Jesus. God says be thankful for everything. So when a person says I can't, I can't, I can't, I say you're a liar. Let God be true.

Because here's the deal. God doesn't give us a commandment without the power to do the commandment. His commandments are his enablements. If he says rejoice evermore, it's because he knows he'll give you the power to rejoice evermore.

It can be done. God is true. God is true.

So why is that? Well, because he's seen everything. He's heard everything.

He knows everything. It's not like, well, now it's the 21st century and so there's God going, oh, I didn't really know about codependency or addictive behavior. So you're right. You're right. You don't have to be holy or rejoice evermore.

It's an exception. He knows all. And if he gives a command, you and I can do it. And you'll find the power to do it by his command. Here's the third reason Jesus is so unique, so the irreducible minimum, so the nail by which everything hangs on is that he dominates the universe.

Here's his dominion. Verse 34. For he whom God has sent speaks the words of God. That's evidential. For God does not give the spirit by measure.

Now there's better translations of that. It's referring to Christ and it's saying when it comes to Christ, God the Father doesn't give to him the Holy Spirit in a limited measured form. It's unlimited.

It's unmeasured. And verse 35, the father loves the son and has given all things into his hands. Now, if you think back to the Old Testament prophets or even John the Baptist, they were led by the Holy Spirit. They were empowered by the Holy Spirit. And John the Baptist had the unique privilege, it says, of being filled with the Holy Spirit since when?

Since his mother's womb, since before he was born. But the Holy Spirit's ability to empower was limited by man's own sinful fallen human nature. Not so with Jesus because he had no sinful fallen human nature. He was God in human flesh. So when it comes to Jesus, the Holy Spirit operated in unlimited, unmitigated, full power. He doesn't give the Spirit by measure. That's why John the Baptist said, I saw the Holy Spirit descending on him and remaining on him. Jesus stood at the synagogue at Nazareth quoting Isaiah 61, which predicted the Holy Spirit's power on the Messiah. The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me because he has anointed me.

That is full, unrestrained, unrestricted, unlimited power. Now, I read something a couple years ago, a few years ago. I'm not going to tell you who wrote it because it'll be a mental diversion the whole time.

I can't believe he said that. And this is what the author said. When Jesus was on earth and performed miracles, signs, and wonders, he did so as simply a man filled with the Holy Spirit. So the author concluded, you and I likewise can do the same signs and wonders as men or women filled with the Holy Spirit. That is pure baloney. Jesus didn't do signs and wonders as a man filled with the Holy Spirit, but as the perfect God-man uniquely operating in full power because of his own nature.

Very, very different. Look at verse 31. There's something that is mentioned first of all.

We sort of ran over it. It says, he who comes from above is above all. It's a very simple statement. It means what it says. He dominates the entire universe.

It's said twice. He who is from the earth is earthly in comparison speaks of the earth. He who comes from heaven is above all.

Now verse 35 augments that. The Father loves the Son and has given all things into his hands. What things? All things. How much is all? All things.

But let's get a little more specific. All things from creation to consummation, from the creation of the universe to the consummation of the universe. All those things are in the jurisdiction of the Son. John chapter 1, verse 3. All things were made by him, Christ, and without him nothing was made that was made. That's the creation.

In John chapter 5, Jesus will say, for the Father has put all judgment into the hands of the Son. That's the consummation. Everything from creation of the world to the consummation of the world is under the authority of Jesus Christ.

So this is what it means. Put it all together quickly. Jesus Christ created the universe. God the Father through the agency of Christ created the world. He created all things. All things were made by him.

So he took the unformed mass, the chaos, and turned it into an ordered system, the cosmos. Jesus did that, number one. Number two, not only did he create it, he maintains it.

He sustains it. Hebrews 1, verse 3. He upholds all things by the word of his power.

Colossians 1, 17. In him all things consist or are held tightly together. He created, he sustains. And number three, he'll end it. He'll end it all. He'll fold it all up. How will he do it? I think he's just gonna do this. He's gonna let go.

He's gonna let go. We know that all matter is made up of rapidly moving particles that are held together. They're opposite charges many times, but they're held together. The big question people have asked for years is how does it all hold together?

I've had a lot of attempts to explain that. Listen to Dr. Lee Chestnut in his book, The Atom Speaks. Consider the dilemma of the nuclear physicist when he finally looks in utter amazement at the pattern he has now drawn of the oxygen nucleus. For here are eight positively charged protons closely associated together within the confines of this tiny nucleus.

With them are eight neutrons, a total of 16 particles, eight positively charged, eight without a charge. Now, if you're not scientific, you listen to this and go, who cares? So what?

Well, hang on. Because everything we know, we operate according to this knowledge. We operate according to Column's Law of electrostatic force and magnetism that says like charges repel each other.

So Lee Chestnut continues, what went wrong? What holds the nucleus together? Why doesn't it fly apart? And therefore, why do not all atoms fly apart? Well, if you're a biblicist, you have an answer.

Hebrews 1, 3, Colossians 1, 17. He holds it all together. He's the atomic glue, if you wanna use that term. So he created it, he maintains it, and one day he's gonna go, done. He who upholds all, he who comes from above, he who testifies perfect because of his superior origin will one day let go because it says all things are in his hands. There's a fourth reason. This is the best part. That he is the nail upon which everything hangs and that is he will ultimately determine your destiny and mine.

Now we look at his reception. Verse 36 is both an invitation and a warning. He who believes in the Son has everlasting life and he who does not believe the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abides on him. Did you notice here, and do you notice a lot, I bet you do in the Bible, how the Bible so often reduces everything to its irreducible minimum, you know, it puts all of humanity into two camps. Those who believe, it's one camp, and the other camp is those who do not believe.

Those who have life and those who do not have life. The Bible constantly does that. Moreover, notice that the reward for believing and the punishment for not believing is some far future thing, it's some present reality. It's present tense.

Notice this. He who believes in the Son has, that's present tense. It's not that one day you've got it now if you believe in him. It begins now.

Now it'll last forever. It includes heaven and the millennial kingdom and rewards and everything else, but it begins right now. And then notice it goes on to say, he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, that's future, but watch this, but the wrath of God abides, that's present tense, on him. So the idea is that not one day God will condemn those who have not trusted in Christ.

They're already there. They're living in a state of perpetual condemnation. And the only hope to be rescued from that is Jesus Christ coming from heaven to the earth and men and women believing in him. That's why the angel said, you'll call his name Jesus because he's going to save people from their sin. They're in a state of condemnation. The only hope for being rescued is to believe and most won't believe, but some will believe. That's what verse 32 and 33 are about.

No one receives his testimony, that's generally true, but it is also true, this blessed exception, he who has received his testimony is certified that God is true. See, to understand spiritual life, we have to understand spiritual death. It's not like people are born into the world and they're all wonderful, good people and you fan the flame of goodness and do good things and they get better and read books on how to be better and self-realization help, all that. No, the Bible says we were born into this world in what condition? Dead, Ephesians says.

You were dead in trespasses and sins. I got news for you, dead people don't do a whole lot. You could yell at a dead person and it won't get up. I can't believe you love me, no response.

You can poke it, you can prod it, you can hit it, nothing. Unless there's a resurrection of life, there is no response. God by his grace enables men and women to believe in him and when they do that and they receive him, then they are infused with life. You see, the world is populated with a bunch of dead people already under the sentence of the wrath of God and the only rescue is what Jesus Christ is all about.

That's why he's the nail that everything hangs on. Jesus said, I have come that you might have life and have it more abundantly. He said, I am the way, the truth, the life. He said, he who has the Son has life. So do you believe? Will you believe? Will you hang everything, present belief and future hope on Christ and him alone?

That's really the issue, isn't it? And I'll tell you why you should do that. You should do that because that's exactly what God the Father has done. He hung all of our sin on Christ and then he hung his Son on a cross and in so doing, in so putting his Son on those nails of the cross, God was saying, I am hanging the hopes of all of humanity on him alone. On him alone. On him alone.

The hopes of all people. I wanna close with a little story. I found it this week and again, I'm sorry, I don't know who wrote it but I like it. It begins by saying, there was once a little boy who had a bad temper. You know anybody like that?

If you don't, I'll introduce you to a few of them. His father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence. The first day, the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control his anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence. Finally, the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that now, the boy pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper. The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence.

He said, you have done well, my son. But look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, you leave a scar just like these. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out and it won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there. The little boy then understood how powerful his words were. He looked up at his father and he said, I hope you can forgive me, father, for all the holes I put in you. And his father said, of course I can.

Of course I can. Do you know who put those nails in Jesus' hands and feet? I did. I did. We did. He died for our sins.

He died in our place. And do you know why, when you say, I hope you can forgive me, God, do you know why God can say, of course I can. Of course I can. It's because of that, what happened on the cross. It's because Jesus hung on those nails on the cross. The perfect God man from above who was perfect, no sinful nature, and he paid the price so that all of our sin was dealt with. God can be just, but God can say, I forgive you. Of course I can.

Of course I will. So God hung everything on him. And John says, you know what?

You ought to do the same. If you do, if you believe in him, if you hang all of your weight on him, you'll have everlasting life. Well, he's the nail upon which everything hangs. The question is, have you hung everything on him?

If not, would you like to know how you can? Would you like to know how to enjoy everlasting life through Jesus Christ? We'll explain to you exactly what that means when you contact us at 1-800-922-1888. Ask your questions.

Let us help clarify for you what this all means, and then make a decision that will change your life and fate for all eternity. Well, we're just about out of time for today, but before we go, here's Skip and Lenya with some tips to help us more effectively share the good news of the Gospel. Believe 879 has just been a great series. It's the Gospel of John, 879 verses, right? That's where we got the title and the theme. Is Believe. That's right, in John's Gospel. So if we were taking key verses or ideas from John to share our faith, to witness to others, what verses might we focus on or be useful in witnessing and sharing with others? Well, the most obvious is John 3.16.

That's the big one. But there's so many great stories that John fleshes out in his Gospel, unlike so many other parts of the Bible. John is typically the Gospel we tell people to start reading when they're going to read the Bible. We tell them to get into the Gospel of John because it presents Christ and His glory and His humanity. Some of the greatest teachings and examples come from the Gospel of John. The deity of Christ is set forth in the first chapter, and it's just a great place to begin. I guess when it comes to sharing your faith with people, the first thing to do is just to take the first step, initiate, you know?

Get out of your shell and be willing to start a conversation. That's awkward for some of us. If you remember when we were dating, we used to go out to the pier. Oh, my goodness. You were so great, and I stand still. And I said, we're going to go witnessing, and you go, what is that? And we're going to share our faith publicly, and you just watch millennia and just pray, and then eventually you wanted to start doing it.

And you're such a people person, you were really a natural at it. But it's just going up to someone and saying, hey, do you mind if I talk to you for a moment about God? You know, just kind of get it out on the table.

Don't dance around the issue. And then as you're sharing, inquire. Ask them some questions. Have you ever thought about this, or what do you think is happening with all that's going on in the world in the Middle East? Does that ever bother you?

Or just ask some leading questions and be honest and be forthright, and people typically will respond well to that. I think, too, the highlights of John are all those I am statements. And we live in such an ambiguous world and a world that nothing is concrete anymore. And I am the light. I am the truth. I am the bread.

Those are such great... The living water, et cetera. Yeah, jumping points into sharing the gospel gives us those opportunities. And people still think Jesus is a very compelling figure. You talk to the most secular of persons, they would have a respect for Jesus and find him compelling.

And I think John is so lucid in his presentation of Christ. That's a great place to start. Well, thanks, Skip and Alenya. And that's just about all the time we have for today. But if you'd like to ask for a copy of today's teaching, it's available for just $4 plus shipping when you call us at 1-800-922-1888. Or when you visit connectwithskip.com. Next time we'll move on to a new chapter in the book of John and discover something rather refreshing right here in Connect with Skip Weekend Edition, a presentation of Connection Communications. Make a connection, make a connection at the foot of the cross and cast all burdens on his word. Make a connection, a connection, a connection. Connecting you to God's never-changing truth in ever-changing times.