"Nic" at Night!

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Here is your host, Mike Zwick. appears to be this phenomenally complex issue and so Delving into Nick at night and how Jesus shared it as simply as it could be put you know Something that is just beyond beautiful. You know something's been on your heart lately, right Mike? Yeah I mean, I've heard heard a story actually about a guy who had always wanted to see John Wesley preach and And so one time he finally got the chance to go see John Wesley preach and John Wesley preached on John chapter 3 You must be born again And he thought the guys thought it was so good that he went to go see John Wesley again a few months later And John Wesley preached on John chapter 3 you must be born again And so guys said all right, I'm gonna see him one more time So he travels to this guy and he sees the guy one more time and he sees John Wesley preach on John chapter 3 You must be born again, and so afterwards this guy goes up to John Wesley, and he says look He says I think you're preaching is great.

He says, but I want to ask you. Why are you always preaching? That you must be born again and John Wesley kind of looked at him with a twinkle in his eye And he says because you must be born again And friends there there is no other way to get to heaven other than by the precious blood of the Lord Jesus Christ and You were talking about it a little bit before I think sometimes when we we want to talk to people about Jesus or whatever sometimes We may have a tough time articulating exactly what we want to say, but like you said is exactly right It's a very simple message and when you go actually to John chapter 3 It's starting in verse 8 it says the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it But I cannot tell where it comes and where it goes So is everyone who is born of the Spirit Nicodemus and Jesus So is everyone who is born of the Spirit Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things?

Most assuredly I say to you we speak what we know and testify what we have seen And you do not receive our witness if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe How will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Has ascended to heaven but he who came down from heaven that is the son of man who is in heaven And as moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up That whosoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life For god so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him should not perish But have everlasting life and for a long time. I never really knew what he was talking about When he was talking about robbie moses being lifted up on the snake But what would I think it was the snake being lifted up by moses the snake being lifted up by moses But where it actually comes Where it actually comes comes from is numbers chapter 21 Verses four through nine and it says that they traveled from mount hora along the route to the red sea To go around edom, but the people grew impatient on the way They spoke against god and against moses and said why have you brought us out of out of egypt? To die in the wilderness.

There is no bread. There is no water indeed and we detest this miserable food Then the lord sent venomous snakes among them and they bit the people and many israelites died So i'm going to pause right there for a second and we talked about this before I think we look at Gripping and complaining as something that's way low on the totem pole of things that god hates Things that god hates But as we see right here, it's it's it's it is very it's it is something that's big but going on ahead with that Uh, the people came to moses and they said that we have sinned when we spoke out against the lord And against you pray that the lord pray the uh, pray that the lord will take the snakes away from us So moses prayed for the people The lord said to moses make a snake and put it up on a pole Anyone who is bitten can look at it and live So so moses made a bronze snake and put it up on a pole Then when anyone was bitten by a snake and looked at the bronze snake They lived so what you see is you see in the old testament Moses put up a snake the people who were dying they looked at the snake And they lived and in the new testament. Jesus is saying in john chapter 3 That just as when you look to look to the look to the snake and live now if you just look to jesus You'll have everlasting life. You just believe in jesus So in the old testament, it's looking and then in the new testament It's believing and I don't know of any other way that I can tell you You must believe in jesus christ as your lord and savior if you want to you want to have everlasting life but you know kind of kind of like we were we were saying before is that You know, what if what if somebody robbie would have said Well, you know I uh, I believe that you can look at the snake and live But you know, I believe there's lots of things that I can look at You know, I could look at that grass over there and i'll live or I I could look at the mountain about there and I could live There's lots of things that I could look at and I could live While they were looking at those other things They would have died And some of you are listening or saying or saying to yourself today Well, I can look to buddha and be saved or I can look to mohammed and be saved and jesus is saying no you look to jesus And you'll be saved, you know and other people i've talked to you say well i'm gonna wait till the end of my life You know, what if those people who are looking at the snake said? Yeah, I I know I know i've been bitten by the snake But you know, I still think i've got some time left I want to live my life. I want to do what I want to do and then right at the very end before i'm going to die Right at the very end before i'm going to die i'm going to look to the snake and lived They would have died um And in the same way i i've talked to so many people over the years who have said Mike, I know I want to believe in jesus someday But I want to live my life the way that I want to live it and I want to do whatever I want to do Right now and then at the very end of my life i'll look to jesus and i'll be saved You know tomorrow is not promised.

I mean we we've had we uh, you know, my dad died suddenly I mean, we've known several people over the past year. You never know that you're you're guaranteed another day. So Uh today is the day of salvation.

But robbie you said you've studied this and a month ago. You said you came up with something Yeah, there's there's so much here and actually as I was just listening to you read it again You know god just it's alive man. It shows you something you've never seen before but And I don't know how many times i've studied it because i've always found it fascinating But the thing that just showed up right the second as you were reading it is that people didn't ask to be Healed from a snake bite. They asked did you take the snakes away? Which is the age-old question why god no kill devil Friday asked robinson cruso that question and and it's a it's something to ponder why god no kill devil. Well You know the very beginning when eve was tempted she was tempted by this same serpent Which in hebrew the word? for what tempted eve and the word for what's used here to You know bite these people same word and you might remember That eve's problem is not unlike the israelites there in the desert, right? She thinks that god's holding out on him There must be something about this knowledge of good and evil that I need and god's not giving it to me and that allowed her To be deceived and so she was snake bit by the original serpent now Unfortunately, the israelites were bitten by the same snake And very much because of the curse and so were you and I by the way Because the curse when you think about what satan got cursed with he's going to be on the belly all the rest of his days And he will eat Adama, okay So when you look at in hebrew when it says you're going to eat adama, that means dust Well, what's man made from adama, you know, you get the adam thing coming out of it and you can see that. Oh my goodness We're dust and satan like a roaring lion has been out there devouring these people but they need to see They they don't need the snake taken away from them They need to see that god is not holding out on them. God can cure them from a snake bite They need this they they don't need the snake tame taken away. They need to see that god's bigger than a snake They they need to see that there's some way better Right and and that oh that manna you've been eating people For for centuries will wonder what the man that must have been some good stuff.

We don't get manna Wait, god's holding out on me. I don't get to eat any manna I could complain about that if I wanted to So when jesus is is doing that what I found the other day that just just blew me away It's like I never had realized that when jesus is making this reference in john chapter 3 He's setting up john 3 16 which most of us know but he's setting it up so that you see That oh my goodness He literally is the snake that bit me. Yeah, I mean I was bit I was bit so were you at birth and i've been continuing to fall victim to These temptations of god's holding out on me and my bad attitude the rest of my life And when I do that I am literally right Causing the death of christ.

Yes, because he had to die so that I could be free of that snake bite And again, he didn't god didn't take the snake out of robbie's life But he did give me the ultimate The ultimate solution to it Which is my strength and it seems like I gotta be in the desert and I gotta be Grumbling just like the israelites. I can point my finger at them all I want But I realize i'm exactly those people but it's at those Places where I am snake bit and if I will take and look at that and realize that I have sinned Like they went to moses and say I want to turn from that And if I look at it and see how horrible it is that jesus had to die for me in order to pay for this Then I begin to see that. Oh my god is god not only not holding out on me He is he loved me so much he's willing to die for me And and that is the gospel that's the gospel and you know I i've met a lot of people robbie over the years who said well mike You know, i'd love to trust in jesus and stuff like that, but i've i've just done too much And and god's not going to forgive me of all the stuff that i've done. But uh, you know, and they think that they've I guess that they've gone too far Um, and I don't think that they really understand grace Um, matter of fact luke 18, uh verse nine one of my favorite passages in the bible. It says to some who are confident Of their own righteousness and look down on everyone else jesus told this parable Two men went up to the temple to pray the one of pharisee and the other a tax collector The pharisee stood by himself and prayed god.

I thank you that I am not like other people Robbers evildoers adulterers or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all that I get But the tax collector stood at a distance He would not even look up to heaven but beat his breast and said god have mercy on me a sinner I tell you that this man rather than the other went home justified before god for all who exalt themselves Will be humbled and those who humble themselves will be exalted and you know, it's funny when i'm reading that passage I don't know if i've ever thought about this before but the fact that you're saying I don't think god could ever forgive me or i've done too much you're about ahead of 50 of the people out there because a lot of the people that we talk to robbie then They'll say well i'm a good person I'm getting it and that was the first guy, you know, and and he prayed a more eloquent prayer. It sounded better I mean he was putting this other guy down. He was saying i'm a good person and jesus is like no That guy didn't say the right way.

It was the guy who was saying God have mercy on me a sinner. So if you think you're a sinner, you're a sinner So if you think you've done too much or you you you you say man I've i've really messed up a lot. It almost sounds like you're halfway there because you realize that you're in need of a savior The second part is this is that there's nothing that we can do to earn god's grace. It says ephesians 2 Verses eight through nine it says for it is by grace that you have been saved through faith and this is not from yourselves Is It is the gift of god not by works so that no one can boast For we are god's handiwork created in christ. Jesus to do good works, which god prepared in advance for us to do It's interesting. I wrote I read verse 10 as well because that we're here to do good work. That's not why we're saved We're saved By grace and i'm going to go another verse right here second corinthians five verse 21 god Made him Who had no sin?

to be sinned for us So that in him We might become the righteousness of god You know and i've heard you say before robbie all the other religions of the world they spell Salvation is do If I do this if I do that if I do this do the other do the other then maybe At the end of my life god will kind of weigh my works And if I do enough good and I don't do enough bad I can kind of get into heaven But with christianity with jesus, it's d o n e done Jesus paid it All all to him I owe sin had left a crimson stain He washed it white as snow Uh christian businessmen's committee has a video series that they did on lifestyle evangelism called living proof It was absolutely amazing. I don't know how many times i've watched it because i've taught it so many times but And in that there's a group of christians and they go to a bible study, but there's this one lady That's the wife of actually the main character And she's sort of that churchy person right and so when they go calling on people that are you know Like I can't talk to them. They're sinners, you know, or they would go in to a bar Well, I can't go into a bar. There's sinners in there Sinners in there. What if I was seen in there with these people all my friends at church would shun me Yeah Yeah And and this goes on throughout the whole series that you know this lady You know, she doesn't want to be seen with these people. She doesn't want to be associated with these people, you know, she just essentially You know is Self-righteous you can't miss it And and they do a good job of illustrating it at the end of the series when finally the guy that they've been witnessing to You know She has sort of a spat with him over his behavior And then You know, she goes into a deep depression wakes up the next morning and tells her husband. I just realized That it wasn't jerry that needed to be saved. It was me because I thought i'd never done anything. Yes that needed to be forgiven yeah and That she was really Trusting her salvation on what a great person she was Even though she knew the gospel She said I didn't think i'd ever done anything.

I've never forgotten that line. I never thought i've done anything that needed forgiving And like oh my goodness The thing That you see in this particular snake bite scenario of the bad attitude, right? Like god is holding out on me Like god didn't give me what these other people got and all that. It's just such a slap in god's face.

It's unbelievable because here Is your creator yeah here is your father, right? He has orchestrated your entire life some of it in my case in deep desert places Yes, because I desperately needed to lose the attitude And he knew there's no way robbie's losing the attitude right and until he's flat on his back um You know, i'll tell Another story real quick when I lost the dealership lost all my money You know Won't go into how that happened But I I was fairly wealthy had a beautiful house kids in private schools all this stuff And then one day i'm totally broke and not only i've been going broke for a little period of time so I could i'm losing my house and I have to find a rental house and I got to pay the Deposit for duke power and i'm in my 50s at this point in time I mean, this is not a high place in robbie's career and a pretty easy place to say, you know, god, really? And so I started throwing newspapers because I needed to get the money together in order to be able to Um pay the duke power deposit so we could get power on in the house that we were renting after owning our house And you had to get up at like three in the morning and this happened to be in the winter and I was Running up and down these apartments in the ice Throwing papers while I was running across, you know trying to get because I got to be out by five o'clock.

Sure So as i'm running man, I slip And totally bust it. I mean as my pants the long under I was because I was freezing, you know I was I was all cut up and laying in the middle of the street and I looked up at god I'll never forget it. I feel like The israelites in the desert had nothing on me because i've looked up at I said really is this really where it's all come to? Like i'm down here on my face in the freezing weather and the holy spirit says Yes So And it wasn't long after that it was valentine's day And I just found a way to hang newspapers On these old ladies doors.

They had these little hangers, but the previous guy would throw the papers at the door So I thought well those poor ladies they're gonna have to bend over to get their paper So I hung their paper on the little door thing And well, they all left me a tip All these little ladies and they left me beautiful notes and they said along the lines of you're the best paper boy I've ever had of course. They'd never seen me because they were they were up at the time But I realized that man I can do one thing I cannot run a dealership obviously i've you know Done this that but I can throw papers really good Good and I thought about that place where I found myself on the ground looking up at god saying Really? Is this what my life come to comes to to the point of actually in humility going? Hey You know god gave me Something here that really is a treasure that i'll never forget and I didn't get it You know on a yacht somewhere in the caribbean I got it on a ice Covered street, you know throwing newspapers. Yeah, and and you know It's funny when when god was giving the people really everything that they needed in the book of numbers 21 they were complaining and crying against him, but when things got really bad Then they cried out to god, you know, it seems almost counterintuitive sometimes I mean but you know what what you're talking about looking up to god i'm thinking about mark chapter 2 verse 17 and And jesus says on hearing this Jesus said to them it is not the healthy who need a doctor But the sick I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners Well, i've always heard that and i've said well god is here to call the the the people who are sinners the bad people whatever But in romans 323, it says that all have sinned and come short of the glory of god And what I realize now more and more is that all of us Are the sinners who are sick in mark 2 17?

It's that only some of us realize it Right and the ones who realize it are smart enough to cry out to jesus To realize that they desk to realize that we desperately need him and that if we're too proud of we're if we're living the lie that we're good people that That no one seeks after god. It says no one seeks after god Um, but uh that that being said, I mean that you know, once you realize all of this It makes me want to tell people in any way I can you know Whether it's the radio or this or that and and speaking of the story I haven't told the story of the year, but i'll tell the story So when I first started doing this radio show, uh, it was a little over a year ago I was I started doing this I was doing the radio show and I had come up with this strategy robbie Yeah, where I was making all this money in the stock market Um, the uh, so I I I ended up uh ended up I was trading options this and that And then I said, oh i'm getting really good at it and then covet comes around Last february or march and I just lost a boo-koo of money And uh, you know what the people will say what the stock market can come back Well when you have options there's an expiration on those options. So once the money is gone, it's gone and um I remember having the thought and the thought came to myself Well mike you could just stop doing the radio and that would save you a little bit of money and I said no I'm not going to do that And so, you know you and I were talking that the the radio show if not for god's doing really well and i'm grateful for that But I felt the lord speak to me the other week and and he said mike he said so You lost a bunch of money last year. He said but the ministry your radio show is doing really well He said would you rather it be the other way around? Would you rather have made a bunch of money And the ministry floundered and and and and nobody's getting to hear the good news each week Um, we I mean you and I never knew that this was going to happen when we started this I use it mike That would be a huge understand you want to you want to have a radio show.

What do you want it to be about? I don't know you know what I mean, but But that spoke to me so Yeah, I mean it's just It's an amazing thing and there's a relationship That jesus taught about that blessed are the poor in spirit right for theirs is the kingdom of heaven And in the hebrew language, there's a letter called a gimel and a letter called a dollad Well, that gimel is the rich person who is chasing after the poor person, which is the dollad which david's name is dollad Bob dollad, so blessed are the poor in spirit Right, because the only way you can get is if you have a need right if you don't think you need anything You're not asking for and so david was constantly since he was dollad valve dollad about us But I don't know if you've ever thought about this So the rich person is chasing after the porpoise person to give them alms but the way the jews teach this which is beautiful Is that the poor person in taking that is even blessing the rich person more because now they're going to get 10 times as much Blessing because that person received so when you ask the question, is it better to give her to receive? I'm going to say that it's better to receive because if I take the alms that you're giving me I'm giving you a blessing of 10 times Whatever it was, right? Yeah, it's beyond cool And so but now let's think about the ultimate gift It was god And it blesses him 10 times more for you to receive What he did for your sin than anything.

I in other words. He's your father. He wants to spend eternity with you You can bless him unbelievably But in order to do that you have to be able to receive and this particular gift You got to think you need it. You got to think you needed the gift of eternal life Um, and we'll say it again john chapter 3 verse 16 for god. So love the world That he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believes in him shall not perish but have everlasting life and and If if you're unsure if you have eternal life or if you've never given your life to jesus, would you pray with us right now? Dear lord, uh, I know i'm a sinner You say all have sinned and come short in the glory of god and i'm one of the all um, but lord, I I I Receive you as my savior. I believe in you. I believe in you. I believe in you Lord, I I receive you as my savior. I believe in you I repent I turn from my sins and I look to the cross and i'm believing you for eternal life Thank you. Jesus if not for god This is the truth network