R897 The Greatest Question You’ll Ever Ask

There is such great power in questions. Today, Dr. Wilton talks about the greatest question you and I will ever ask. Welcome to The Encouraging Word with Dr. Don Wilton, well-known author, evangelist, seminary professor. He's been my pastor for years. He was the pastor for the last 25, 30 years of Dr. Billy Graham's life. And today, let him pastor you.

I'm not saying take over from your pastor, but let him be an additional pastor and teacher in your life as we open God's Word to the book of John chapter 4 together in just a moment. We also want you to know that our phone lines open. Love to pray with you. 866-899-WORD will connect you with us anytime, day or night.

That's 866-899-9673 or online at www.tewonline.org. And now today's message, the greatest question you'll ever ask with Dr. Don Wilton. Now I wonder if you've ever had a similar experience to me.

I have no doubt that you have. I know that we can all identify with times in our lives when someone has done something for us that is just so special and you really don't know how to say thank you. And all of us can identify with times like that. I mean whatever it is that has been done has been so special. It's not the magnitude necessarily, the size of it, but it's just so special. And you just don't know how to truly respond.

You know, it takes my mind back. My wife and I had just arrived in America and folks, I just want to impress on you that we didn't know anybody. I mean we didn't know anybody.

Now let me put that in southern terminology. We didn't know nobody. Some of you now understand what I'm saying. Now boys and girls, that's not good English.

I'm going to learn you much better than that. We didn't know anybody. And Karen and I arrived by faith. God had called us and we arrived. And really the first place that we came to in reality was in the great state of Mississippi.

And it was a town called Columbia, Mississippi between Hattiesburg and Macomb. That's where we arrived, in essence, to begin this incredible pilgrimage that we knew nothing about. And the first day that we were there, it was a Monday, and a family, a couple, invited Karen and I to come to their home for dinner that night.

And I'm going to say this a number of times because I really want you to understand this. They didn't know us. We didn't know them.

I had never heard of them. And I didn't know really how they knew us. I came to understand that the one person that we did know had told them about us.

Are you getting all this connection? And this dear couple invited us to come to their home for dinner. And so we did. My wife and I often think about that because it was that evening that I was first introduced to iced tea. I couldn't get over it, folks, that somebody could do something so awful to a jolly good cup of tea.

And that was my introduction to iced tea. A lot of things happened to me that night that I remember with great affection in my heart. And this couple were just so precious to us. And we got to the end of the meal and threw me a set of motor car keys.

Literally, I can still see him in that home. He just tossed them over to me and he said to me, Ron, here's your motor car. And I did not comprehend what he was saying to me.

There was no connection there. He said, I've got you a motor car. Well, he invited the two of us to go outside. We went outside and looked at this motor car. And I'm telling you, it was the biggest American gas guzzler I had ever seen on any movie, folks. I tell you exactly what it was. It was a Plymouth Grand Fury.

It had about 65,000 miles on it, two doors. The front part of it was like a long drink of water. I mean, folks, it was the stuff.

Do you understand that? I mean, coming from where I had come, this was unbelievable. I took pictures of it this way and that way to send back to my brothers in Africa just to brag to them about this American motor car. I really thought this was quite something for me. And I looked at it and he said to us, look, take it.

Take it for a drive. Of course, we got in and the steering wheel was on the wrong side of the motor car. And all of this was just an incredible experience. We went driving. I remember it so clearly. Went out into the country. I thought everybody was looking at me saying, I came to learn later on nobody was looking at me, you know. I mean, what was a Plymouth Grand Fury?

To me, it was everything. I remember kind of getting low on gas and looking up and seeing a sign at a gas station that said self-serve and full-serve. And I turned to my wife and said to her, well, what do we do? She said, well, we want to fill it up, go to full-serve.

Ask the person next to you if you're struggling on this one. And I also remember I'm telling you a lot of things, but I'm going somewhere with this and I want you to listen. I also remember the price of gas back then was about 71 or 70 cents a gallon. And the fellow that put the gas into my motor car was complaining. I mean, he was moaning and fussing and I couldn't get over it because where I'd just come from gas was $6.50 a gallon.

I couldn't get over that this chap was complaining like this. And it was just an incredible experience. Well, we went back to the house. I said, thank you for letting us drive this motor car. He said, no, it's yours. And it didn't connect with me. He said, no, that's yours.

I'm giving that to you. Now, how did he know that I didn't have a motor car? Now, I know you can't put motor cars on airplanes. But he didn't know me. And I hadn't asked him for the car. I didn't write him a letter or I hadn't even dropped a hint.

There was nothing that I'd said or implied, nothing. He just gave me, he said, no, my wife and I just want to give you this gift. And I didn't know what to say. We didn't know what to say. He said, it's yours.

Take it. And I remember driving off in that Plymouth Grand Fury. I drove it for three or four years all around the country. Loved every minute of it. And I remember how many times my wife and I felt like we should thank them. So we did what we usually do. I think we must have written at least three or four thank you notes. And that's a very important thing to do. Thank you so much for this precious gift.

Thank you. It's like we just didn't know, we just wanted to make sure that they knew how much we appreciated their gift. And it was like it wasn't enough. We thought about, well, should we get some special chocolates from Switzerland and send them to them or send a bouquet of flowers? I remember driving up to Columbia and trying to establish a friendship. But I do remember on one occasion and I said to him, this is now three, four, five months later, I said to him, I just don't know how to thank you for this gift of this car. And he put his hand on my shoulder and he said to me, Don, he said, you don't have to thank me anymore for this. He said, I know that you are grateful and I want to set you free. I said, but James, there's got to be something that I can. He said, all right, there is something that you can do to say thank you.

I thought that's it. He's going to ask me to come down to his dealership and work there on Saturdays, helping him to clean up the shop. He's going to ask me to run errands. Folks, that didn't worry me. I'd always worked for everything I had. I'd never been given anything that I hadn't worked for.

And work was part of my life. That's why I struggled with this gift in my heart. And he said, no, he said, there's nothing you can do about it. He said, but I'm going to ask you in return for my gift that you do one thing. That you serve the Lord Jesus Christ with all of your heart for the rest of your life.

That's all I ask you to do. He wanted nothing in return, excepting that I would serve the Lord Jesus with all of my heart. What a gift. And if you open your Bibles to John's Gospel in chapter three and be reminded that the Lord Jesus came to Nicodemus and said to him, Nicodemus, the one decision that you need to make, which is the most important decision that you could ever make, is to give your heart and life to Jesus Christ. And when you give your heart and life to Jesus Christ, it is the greatest gift that you will ever receive. And it's an amazing thing here in this passage, because if you go down to verse nine of John chapter three, Nicodemus, that we discover later on, has given his life to Jesus, is standing there and he can't understand this.

It's not soaking in. Here he's been forgiven of his sin completely, forever. Jesus said to him, Nicodemus, when you are born again, you have God's permission to enter his kingdom. And Nicodemus is standing there saying, wow, I was memorizing scripture to try and get into God's kingdom. Wow, I went to seminary to try and get into God's kingdom. I became a ruler of the Jews in order to try and get into God's kingdom. And here you are telling me that you're just giving this to me and all of this is very well and good, but it's just a gift. Take it.

And Nicodemus, in a sense, when we get to verse nine, can you just see Nicodemus standing there saying, but how can these things be? Why would you give me a motor car? What compelled you to do this? And while I'm asking you that, how did you know?

I needed one. How did you know that I needed eternal life? Nobody else seems to know it because they're all impressed by what I wear. Nobody else seems to know it because they're all impressed by what I say.

Nobody else seems to know it because they're all impressed by what I do. I'm a respected person and you come to me and say to me, here's a gift for you. Take it, Nicodemus. Take this gift of eternal life. You're going to be forgiven of your sin. And you're going to be given the keys that unlock the key to being in the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ forever. And I'm going to give you the vehicle that you can drive in. And His name is Jesus.

How can these things be? Well, here it is that Jesus begins to explain this to him and he gets all the way down to that wonderful verse in verse 16. And you can see it there. This is how Jesus explains it. He says, well, for God so loved the world that He gave His one and only, His only begotten Son, who could do this, that whoever believes in Him, in the Lord Jesus, will not die, but will receive eternal life. And then watch verse 17. He says because God didn't come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might receive this gift and might be saved forever. Do you know, as I began to think about the story of this man who reminds me so much of myself, I began to think about the way in which the Lord Jesus was explaining His love to Nicodemus. That's what the Lord Jesus was doing. And He was saying to him, first of all, Nicodemus, this free gift that comes to you in me, the Lord Jesus Christ, is coming to you because of my inherent love.

It's just simply because that's who I am. You know, when my children were growing up and even to this day I like to do it, I'm going to just confess to you, I love to go every now and again when I have time into a pet's mart or place where they keep pets and you walk in there and, I mean, there's festivities going, I mean, there's stuff going and flying all over the place and you look over on one side and there are all these cages and it's got all these puppies and kitties in it. And you know what happens when you look over and you look through and then suddenly you see that one puppy and he's just kind of sitting there and written all over him as, please take me home with you.

I mean, how can you resist me? And you want to go and open up the cage and just take that little old chubby little puppy out there and just carry him home. It's kind of like when your baby's born or your grandson or your granddaughter. You know, when you look into the face of that little one, that little girl or that little boy and you say, just look at all that love and you can't explain it. You know, we kind of feel like that with our grandmothers, don't we, and with our mothers and with our daddies.

When Jesus spoke here to Nicodemus in this passage, when he began to try to answer his question, how can these things be? He said, let me tell you how it is. It is because that's who I am.

If I could put it into modern day terminology, I can't help myself. By the way, did you know that God loves you because he can't help himself? Please forgive the interruption.

Dr. Don insists I remind you we're available. Oh, what a powerful phrase. I hate to interrupt that because God does love you so very much. Too many times we listen to other voices that would say that, oh, because you've done this, you've drifted too far, run too far, done this.

God's love is so much greater than whatever you feel like has distanced you from God. And we'd love to talk to you about it. This is again why Dr. Wilton insists I interrupt because he wants you to know we're here to talk, to have a conversation, to pray with you on the phone right now at 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673. Or meet us online at TEWOnline.org.

That's TEWOnline.org. We're here for you. Now back to today's message with Dr. Don. You know, there is a sense in which on a human level, which cannot ever come into the level at which we find our Lord and Savior. My friends, all those years ago in Columbia, Mississippi, I'm trying to say to him, why would you give me this motor car? I mean, why would you do something like this? And he was looking at me and saying, I just can't help myself. God just put it in my heart. And all I want you to do is just serve the Lord. There's no strings here. It's got nothing to do with what you do for me. I don't need anything. I'm just doing this because I can't help myself.

Even if you didn't want it, I would still have to do it because I can't help myself. And the Lord Jesus speaks about the love of which He is. God is love. My friends, I want you to know that God loves you because that's who He is.

He's not this big monstrous condemning being that's up there somehow walking around, scolding and shouting into people's faces and pointing fingers and condemning. God is love and He loves you. And He made you with the express purpose of receiving that love. So He spoke about His inherent love. But I think in trying to answer the question of Nicodemus, He also spoke about His spoken love. Now you and I are reading about the spoken love of God, aren't we? By the way, Jesus said, for God so loved the world, that came right out of His mouth.

And if you go to the Bible, Jesus many times right throughout the Bible speaks about His love. You know, I had a man come to me some years ago and he said this to me. He said to me, Pastor, do you know that I have never ever heard my dad tell me that he loves me? My daddy has never said to me, I love you, son.

That's what he told me. And it's a kind of a, Jesus here was talking about, yes, His spoken love, which is written down for us. He wants us to read it. He wants us to hear it.

I want to make an announcement today. I want to tell you what Jesus said. God loves you because that's who He is. But you know, He went even beyond that. And He not only spoke about His inherent love and His spoken love, but He spoke about His demonstrated love.

God so loved the world that He gave His only Son. Now we know about that. You know what we call it?

Practicing what you preach, doing what you say. We know the difference. You know how many times, those of you who are married, you know that, I know that. You know how many times?

I know. I tell you, you can, how many times do we not, men, all the men look at me, and me, I'm included in this. Sometimes we say, I love you, I love you, I love you. I'm telling you, I remember one time just leaving home in the morning, go to the office, got in my motor car, off I went. Spent a busy day, come back home. My wife, I'm going to be careful what I say here. She was kind of just a little out of sorts when I got home, you know. It's like there's a vibe. I mean you there, but there's just something missing.

And so finally you get down to where you turn, you say, well, honey, what seems to be the matter? Have you had a hard day? No.

What happened? Did the dog bite you? No. Something's wrong, tell me about it.

No, it doesn't matter. Oh, no, wait a minute now. I've got to know it.

And finally she looks at me and she says, well, it's quite simple. You didn't tell me this morning that you loved me. Oh, you silly woman.

That is absolutely the most preposterous thing I have ever heard. You don't know that I love you? I mean, what is it? Just think about what I've done for you.

I mean, what is this? I mean, I even allowed you to marry me. I mean, look at what I've done, I've done this and I've done this.

And so you begin to stack up all of these things. She said, but you didn't tell me that you loved me. Say, oh, that is just ridiculous.

You know I was in a hurry and I had to get to that meeting and all those kinds of things. She said, you didn't tell me that you loved me. So you turn to her and you say, okay, I love you. She says, no, you don't. Now watch this, folks.

Watch it. We know the difference, don't we? Jesus talking to Nicodemus, he said, and he says to you and me, he says, look, my inherent love is I love because that's who I am. I just can't help myself. That's my nature, it's my essence, my holiness, my righteousness is love. And I want you to remember my spoken love.

I've told you this. How many more times I got to tell you that I love you? But I didn't stop there. I demonstrated my love. I put my love into action. God so loved the world.

What was that demonstrated love? That in that while we were yet sinners, the Lord Jesus Christ died for us. Here's the Lord Jesus, who is God. The Bible says in the beginning was the word and the word was with God. And get this, the word was God. He was always God. And because of God's plan of redemption for mankind, Jesus Christ, the Son of God, the only one who could do this, laid aside the privilege of the glory that he had with God from before the world even began and took upon himself human flesh. And he was born by the Holy Spirit of his mother in Bethlehem in that manger. And he ministered on this earth and he practically demonstrated his love. And it culminated right there when he stood in John chapter 17 and turned to the Father moments before he crossed over the Kidron Valley and went into the Garden of Gethsemane where Judas was waiting to betray him. And he said, Father, my hour has come.

It's time for the ultimate demonstration of my love. Glorify me right now by letting me go to the cross because you have given me the authority to give to all people the gift of eternal life. And this eternal life means that all people through this gift can know you. What a powerful message on this eternal life. But I pray that you and I would not miss out on the very first step. Before we go deep into the concept of eternal life, let's talk about how God is ready to change your life right now for this life and for eternity.

Here's Dr. Don Wilton. Are you ready? Would you pray this prayer with me right now? Dear God, I know that Jesus loves me and that he died on a cross for me. Today I repent of my sin and I confess my sin to the Lord Jesus and I give him my heart and my life. In Jesus' name I pray.

Amen. If you've prayed that prayer from your heart and you've given your life to Christ, I welcome you to the family of God. You are my brother, my sister in Christ. Let's get engaged together because we are connected together forever as believers in Christ. If God has stirred your heart, let's talk. Let's pray together at 866-899-WORD. If you've given your life to Christ or rededicated your life, Dr. Don has wonderful resources he wants you to have for free at 866-899-9673. Or meet us online at TEWONLINE.org.

That's TEWONLINE.org for great resources like this. We are living in a rapidly changing world. What is this new normal today? How do we as believers hold firm? How do we press on? We press on by resting in the safeguards of our faith. When you have a history of God's faithfulness in your heart and spirit, you can walk boldly and unflinchingly through the midst of trouble.

Why? Because God has proven himself to you. With your gift of support to The Encouraging Word this month, you will receive Dr. Wilton's faith-building message, The Safeguards of Our Faith. This four-message set will help equip you to stand firm on the foundation of Jesus Christ in these not-so-new normal days. Call us at 866-899-WORD and request The Safeguards of Our Faith, available on CD or DVD today. The Encouraging Word is a viewer and listener-supported ministry. Thank you for listening today. Our time's gone for today, but we're staying connected online at TEWONLINE.org or this phone number, 866-899-WORD. That's 866-899-9673.