Well hello everybody and welcome to live with Lon this weekend. We are going through a study in the Gospels as you know and we're in a little tiny mini series on the plan of salvation growing out of our study in the Gospels of John the Baptist and we've been looking at the plan of salvation from the north the east the south the west and from each direction we can describe God's plan of salvation a little differently and this is the beauty of it in all of its facets and and I'm doing this even though I know almost everybody listening to me is a believer nonetheless I just thought it would be wonderful for us to take some time and really um revel in the depths and the riches of what God has built into the plan of salvation for us and really unpack it in all of its complexity and yet simplicity and I hope you've enjoyed our study. Last week we talked about the blood covering of the Lord Jesus Christ and of course there are many great hymns of the faith talking about our Lord's blood what can wash away our sin nothing but the blood of Jesus redeemed how I love to proclaim it redeemed by the blood of the Lamb but the one I'm gonna play for you now done by the singing group Selah is just one of the sweetest hymns about the blood of Jesus anywhere that's ever been whit written it's an old hymn but it is a powerful and beautiful hymn and it's called there is a fountain filled with blood drawn from Immanuel that is the Lord Jesus's veins I hope you enjoy it drawn from me man they're guilty The dying thief rejoiced to see that fountain in his day And there, may I, though vile as he, wash all my sins away Away, away, wash all my sins away Have sinned by faith, I saw the stream, my flowing wounds sublime The redeeming look has bade my feet and shall be till I die The redeeming look has bade my feet and shall be till I die Wash all my sins away, wash all my sins away The redeeming look has bade my feet and shall be till I die Wow, what a beautiful hymn and what a great rendition of it. Last week, we talked about looking at our salvation as through the lens of the blood covering that the Lord Jesus' blood shed on the cross provides for us in the sight of a holy God.
But that was part three. In part one, we looked at the plan of salvation through the lens of switching races from being in Adam to being in Christ, all growing out of our discussion that week of the virgin birth. And then in part two, we talked about substitutionary atonement. Our sins are atoned for by the death of an innocent substitute. As John the Baptist said, Behold, the Lamb of God. There's our innocent substitute who takes away the sin of the world. And today we want to finish up our look at the plan of salvation by looking at it from not the north or the east or the south, but from the west and looking at it part four in the idea of looking at it from being born again, which is also a part of the plan of salvation that the Lord Jesus Christ provides for us. Now, I hope that our talk about the blood of Christ doesn't concern you, because as we showed you last week, the blood of Jesus is an integral component part of God's plan for us to get to heaven and take the blood of Jesus out of the plan of salvation.
You have no plan of salvation. And if you don't understand that, go back and listen to my message from last week. But today we're going to move on and talk about part four being born again. You know, I'll put this up on the screen for you. I ran into an article in USA Today this past week about a doctor in New York and an experience that she had in the hospital as a result of the coronavirus.
So let me read this to you. It says the patient, a middle aged accountant in New York with a wife and a child, looked Dr. Cunningham in the eye. I know I'm going to die. He said she had seen this patient a couple of days earlier. He was a healthy looking man who basically came in with a fever and a cough, but otherwise was fine. Within two days, he became so short of breath. He was really struggling to breathe, she said.
The doctor. We were very worried about him. The patient in the bed next to him had just died. She saw the fear in his eyes as he told her he believed he too would not survive. She said, I felt a tear in my eye and that's never happened to me before. Several hours later, he was intubated, put on a ventilator, got sent to the ICU and then about 10 days later, he died.
The words resonate with her to this day, the article said. I know I'm going to die and I didn't have anything to say to him, she said. Wow.
Wow. And this made me feel so sad because those of us who know the Bible, we would have had something to say to him. We would have said to him, first, John one seven, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin. We would have said to him, Ephesians one seven. And in Christ, listen to this. We have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins. We would have said to him, John three sixteen, for God so loved you that he sent his one of a kind son, that if you believe on his son, that you will not perish, but you will have everlasting life.
Friends, what a great plan of salvation we have. Oh, that more people knew it. Oh, that more doctors knew it so they could tell dying patients about it.
Oh, that we would tell more of our friends about it. But in this time of the coronavirus, we certainly must pray for them. So let's do that before we dig into the word. Dear Lord Jesus, we are dying men and women who live among dying men and women. And Lord, I pray that you would help us to live our life in light of eternity, to understand that people like this dear man are going out into eternity every day. More now with this coronavirus around the world. And they are terrified. Of course they are.
They have no idea what's going to happen to them. Jesus, I thank you for giving us the word of God. And I thank you for giving us the plan of salvation in the word of God. Lord, I thank you that we have a confidence and an assurance about what's on the other side of the grave, that people outside of Christ cannot have, do not have. So Jesus, help us to be so grateful to you for this confidence that comes with being saved and being covered with the blood of Jesus and make us bold in sharing it with others.
Father, especially in this time of crisis. Father, we pray for men and women around the world with the coronavirus. Have mercy on them, Lord Jesus. And we pray for the whole world that you would have mercy on the human race and that you would stay this plague like you did in 2 Samuel 24 with the plague in David's day. Lord Jesus, we ask you for that mercy for ourselves and our children and our grandchildren, our people that we love and care about, Lord Jesus.
Oh God, please we beg thee, help there to be a vaccine soon or treatment soon or even may you just stop this plague by your divine command. Lord, we call out to thee, we cry out to thee and we thank you Lord Jesus that you hear our prayers. Answer them we pray in mercy. Now Father, we commit our time in the word of God to you. We pray that we, as we marvel over this beautiful plan of salvation you've made for us. Lord, make us bold in sharing it. And we pray this in Jesus' name and everybody said Amen.
All right. Well, I've been telling you we're having a venti Bible study, not a tall Starbucks or grande but a venti. And I had someone who wrote me an email and said, by the way, Lon, did you know there's actually a bigger size than venti? There's a trenta, which means triple, venti means double in Italian, trenta means triple. There's a trenta size at Starbucks that a lot of people don't know about. I'd never heard of it. I looked it up.
Sure enough, this person was right. So I have to change and say we're not having a venti Bible study, we're having a trenta Bible study. Praise the Lord. And we're trying to go deep into the word of God expositionally, deep into the word of God exegetically, and dig out great truth in the word of God and then apply it to our lives with so what. We're going through the gospels.
And as I said, we're about to finish up this little mini series called God's plan of salvation. Part four, the new birth. Now, in order to talk about the new birth and we've sometimes it's referred to as being born again, sometimes as the new birth, sometimes as regeneration. These are all words that come out of the Bible to describe this being born of the spirit.
But it's all the same thing. And so what exactly does the scripture mean when it says that when we come to Christ, we are born again? Well, I'd like to take you to John Chapter three to the very famous passage when Nicodemus, the great rabbi at the time, comes to see Jesus privately at night. He came to him privately at night because he didn't want all his friends to know that he was coming to see Jesus.
He was a very prominent Jewish rabbi. And you may be familiar with the story, but just in case you're not, let me read it to you. And of course, we are using the New King James Bible. And so I'm in John Chapter three.
Follow along, please. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. That is, he was on the Sanhedrin. Very prominent man. And this man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.
Now look here for just a second. Friends, the rabbis weren't willing to admit this for the most part. Almost uniformly, the rabbis did not believe he came from God. So why would this very prominent rabbi say, we know that you are from God.
Why would he say this? Well, he tells us back to the back to the passage. He said, we know you are a teacher come from God, for here's why I say that.
No one can do these signs, these miracles that you do unless God is with him. You know, I've told you before that only 31 days of the Lord Jesus's public ministry is recorded in the New Testament. Of three years, 36 months, only one month of his miracles, his deeds, his sermons, whatever, are recorded in the New Testament. Wow, this is why John said if we wrote everything down, John chapter 21, there wouldn't be enough books in the world to hold it.
Jesus filled 35 more months with miracles that we don't have recorded in the Gospels. But this is why Nicodemus said, we know that you are from God. Nobody can do these miracles that you do unless they're from God. You know, praise God, at least Nicodemus was intellectually honest enough to say, I'm going to look at the evidence. And when I do, there is no way in the world I can say Jesus is anywhere except from God himself. Indeed, he is God himself.
Folks, we have not believed a cleverly devised fable, as Peter said. But even the rabbis, as much as they didn't want to admit it, an honest rabbi still had to admit it that Jesus indeed was God or he couldn't do all the things he was doing. Now, Jesus didn't say, oh, thank you very much. I'm so flattered.
That's so very nice of you to say that. Jesus said, I do not receive praise from men. He wasn't interested in what in getting some kind of praise from Nicodemus. He knew why Nicodemus had come to see him. Nicodemus had come to see him because even with all of the tremendous rabbi works that he had and the rabbi credentials that he had, Nicodemus still didn't know whether he was going to heaven or not. So Jesus cuts right to the chase.
And look what he says to him. John Chapter three, verse three. Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, Nicodemus, I say unto you, unless a person, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless you are born again, Nicodemus, you will not get into heaven. You will not see the kingdom of God. Now, Nicodemus is confused.
Look what he says. He says, verse four, how can a man be born when he's old? How can he be born again?
Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Now you say, OK, Lon, I'm a little confused myself. What is Jesus saying here?
Friends, it's very simple. Jesus is saying, Nicodemus, you don't need to go back into your mother's womb and be born physically a second time. That which is the flesh is flesh. You've already been born of the flesh. You've already been born of water. Talking about amniotic fluid that you did that.
That's OK. That's not what I'm talking about. Jesus said, I'm talking about a spiritual birth, being born of the Spirit. That's what I'm talking about, Nicodemus. And Nicodemus didn't know what that was.
Look what it look what happens here. Jesus says to him, do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it. But you cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. And Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be?
Jesus said to him, Nicodemus, listen, the wind blows. You feel it on your skin. You know it's real. But you can't tell where it comes from.
You can't tell where it's going to. You can't explain it and all of its particulars. But that doesn't mean it isn't real. Nicodemus being born of the Spirit is real. You can feel it when it happens to you. You know that it's authentic, but you may not be able to explain it.
But that doesn't mean it's not real. And Nicodemus said, I don't I don't understand what you're talking about. And look what Jesus says to him. Jesus says to him, you are you the teacher of Israel and you do not know these things?
Nicodemus, you're supposed to be a great teacher of the Old Testament. And you don't you don't know this because this is in the Old Testament. You say, where, Lon, where is this in the Old Testament? Well, Ezekiel Chapter 36.
Let's go there. Let me read that to you. Look at Ezekiel Chapter 36. God says, I will sprinkle clean water on you.
Verse twenty five. And you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from your idols.
Watch. I will give you a new heart and I will put a new spirit within you. Here's being born again, being born of the Spirit.
I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh. And then in Ezekiel, thirty seven, God goes on to describe the valley of dry bones where these dead, dry bones become immediately become alive by the Holy Spirit moving on them as an example of what it means to be born by the Spirit. Now, the whole Bible understands and teaches that we must be born anew, afresh, again, born of the Spirit, regenerated. Listen to these verses from the New Testament.
Here we go. John Chapter one, verse 12. But as many as received him, that is Jesus, to them, he became the right, gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who, look at this, were born. You say, well, they were already born.
I know. But this is a second birth who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh that already had happened to them, nor of the will of man that had already happened, but of God. They were born of God. Second birth, spiritual birth, born again.
First Peter one twenty three. Look, he's talking about believers and he says, having been born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible through the word of God, which lives and abides forever. Believers were born again by the word of God. And look at Ephesians two one. It says, and you who were dead in trespasses and sins.
That's how we come into the world, my friends. Dead in our trespasses and our sins and our spirit. Verse four. God, who is rich in mercy because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses. Look at this. He made us alive together with Christ. By grace, you have been saved.
Look here. This is the second birth. Remember, Jesus did not come into the world to make bad men good. And he did not come into the world to make good men better. Jesus came into the world to make dead men and women alive. The Bible says Ephesians two one that when we are born, we're born in Adam, in Adam's race, and our spirit is dead. First Corinthians, first Thessalonians, rather five says that we have a body, a soul and a spirit.
We're a tripartite being as human beings. And and in that, when we are born physically, our body comes alive and our soul comes alive. Animals have souls, too. They have emotions. They have feelings. They have thoughts.
So do we. But different from animals we created in the image of God as human beings, we have a spirit. Animals don't.
And it's this spiritual part of us that is able to connect with God on a spiritual level. This is what was alive in Adam and Eve before they disobeyed God. And when they disobeyed God, God says to them, in the day you eat of that tree, you shall surely die. But they didn't die physically the moment they ate of the tree and they didn't die in their soul the moment they ate of that tree. No, they died spiritually in the moment they ate of that tree.
Immediately their spirit died. And that spirit's connection with the living God was interrupted and died. And that's why Adam ran away from God. He was afraid of God.
He'd never been afraid of God before and hid in the garden. Something had changed inside of Adam. And what had changed is that his spirit was now dead and unresponsive to Almighty God. This is how we come into the world with we're alive physically, we're alive in our soul, but we're dead spiritually. This is what the Bible says. And Jesus, when he comes into our life, let's look at the verse again.
Ephesians chapter two, verse four. It says, God, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. He gives our lifeless spirit life again. He vivifies it.
He brings it to life again. And this is what Colossians chapter two says, look, and you being dead in your trespasses and the uncircumcision of your flesh. This is us before we came to Christ. He has made alive together with him, with Christ, having forgiven you all trespasses. And this is why Titus chapter three, verse four says, but when the kindness and the love of God, our savior towards man appeared. Look, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us.
How? Through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom he poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior. He regenerated. He gave life again to our spirit. And all of a sudden we come alive spiritually. All of a sudden we're reconnected with God. We have a new relationship with God that we didn't have before. We now are able to communicate with God and we now are the children of God by adoption in Christ. And we now we're not afraid of God anymore. And we see God everywhere we go and we read the Bible and the Bible comes to life.
Why? Because we're spiritually alive for the first time in our life. We're regenerated.
We've been made to be born again and to be born anew. I remember when I was a student in Chapel Hill and I first came to Christ in the spring of 1971. I was like, it was unbelievable. Suddenly I felt God everywhere. I saw God everywhere. When I prayed, I knew God was in my life. My heart was on fire. It was burning with the presence of God. I read the Bible.
I could understand the Bible. It was like somebody had flipped on a light switch spiritually. And I remember telling Bob Eckhart, the man who brought me to Christ, that this had happened to me and that God had suddenly started transmitting to me.
And he corrected me properly so. And he said, oh, no, Lon, God hasn't just started suddenly transmitting. God is transmitting every day of every month of every year of every century of every millennia. He has been transmitting to the human race. What happened, Lon, is that your receiver was broken and God suddenly in rebirthing you, he fixed your receiver and now you're able to receive all that God is transmitting. God didn't just start transmitting, Lon.
It's just that your receiver just started working. And, folks, that's what happens when we're born again. God makes our receiver spiritually come alive and suddenly we feel him. We see him. We know him.
We sense him. We understand the word of God. Everything changes for us spiritually because we are now alive. We are now alive spiritually. Now, this is what being born again is all about. It's about God taking our sins, nailing them to the cross, covering us with the blood of Jesus, transferring us from the race of Adam to the race of Christ, allowing Jesus to substitute his death for ours, for sin, and then suddenly flipping on, turning the switch on our dead spirit so that we spiritually are now alive in our relationship to God. This is being born again.
And you say, well, which comes first? I mean, does he transfer our race? Does he regenerate us? Does he atone for our sins? Does he cover us with the blood? What comes first?
And scholars argue about this for pages and pages. No, he regenerates us first. No, he borns us again first, if that's such a word.
No, he covers us with the blood first. Folks, the Bible doesn't give it in one, two, three chronological order. I don't know if it isn't chronological order. Maybe it happens all at once.
I don't have any idea what the order is and what difference does it make? As long as God does it all, who cares what the order is? But by the time he has done saving us, it's all been accomplished. We are moved into Jesus's race. Our sins are atoned for by the Lord Jesus Christ on the cross. We are covered with the blood of Jesus forevermore from God's holy judgment on sin. We are born again and alive spiritually with Christ. It's all ours in the Lord Jesus.
Wow, isn't that beautiful? Again, Paul said, oh, the wisdom and the riches of the surpassing understanding of God. Who could make such a plan like this except for God himself? Now, that's what it means to be born again. And that's what it means for us to be saved, is to come to life. And I hope you've really appreciated this look at the plan of salvation and in all of its intricacies and all of its facets.
It's beautiful to know all these things went into God's thinking when he saved us. Now, that brings us to our most pressing question. And that question is and you know it. So I want us to scream it together. Are you ready?
One, two, three. So what? Yes, ma'am. Yes, sir. You bet.
And as Jackie Gleason used to say, how sweet it is. Yes, sir. Yes, ma'am. So you say, Lon, this is this is great. This is great.
Monday morning. What differences make to me? Well, it makes a lot, friends. And I want to tell you how in closing, one of the things that happens when we are born again and we come alive spiritually, is that the Bible says the Holy Spirit comes to indwell and live inside of us. The Bible calls the Holy Spirit not just the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Godhead, but it also calls him the spirit of holiness. The Bible is trying to impress upon us that the Holy Spirit, this is not just a name. This is a description of of of him.
He is holy, just like God the Father is holy, just like God the Son is holy. This is the spirit of holiness who comes to dwell in us. And I love what Robert Murray McShane said.
And here here's what he said. Robert Murray McShane said, I hope you feel, writing to a fellow Christian, a real desire after personal holiness, for this is the truest mark of being born again. Now, why would he say that? This is the truest mark of being born again. He said it, my friends, because when the spirit of holiness comes to live inside of us, the spirit of holiness brings to us an internal, an instinctive desire to be holy on a personal level, like God is holy. Now, this is what Peter said.
First Peter 1 15. But as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, for it is written, be holy for I am holy. Peter says that when we come to Christ, there should be inside of us a a a driver, a piston that is always driving us towards holiness in our mind, holiness in our thoughts, holiness in our behavior, holiness in where our eyes go, holiness in where what our mouth says, holiness in the way we react with other people, holiness in filing our taxes, holiness in everything in our life.
Why? Because we are indwelt with the spirit of holiness. And he provides this internal motivation that doesn't come from our spirit. It doesn't come from our sinful nature. There is nothing in our sinful nature in their nature that wants to be holy. Nothing. But the spirit of holiness, when he indwells us, gives us this impetus in our hearts.
Watch. The Bible says First Thessalonians 4 7. For God did not call us to uncleanness as believers, but to holiness. And Second Corinthians 7 1. Therefore, my writing to Christians having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. The Bible says that if you know Christ, if I know Christ, if we are truly born again and regenerated, and if the Holy Spirit truly indwells us, and this is what Romans Chapter eight says, for if you don't have the spirit of God, you do not belong to him. This is the true mark of a person that's really saved, really born again, really has eternal life and really going to heaven. The Holy Spirit lives inside them. And how can you evaluate whether the Holy Spirit lives inside of you? It's very simple.
He will bring to your life and my life a passion, a zeal, a desire, a drive to be holy, like the Lord is holy, to hate the sin that we do and to want to live above our sinful nature. Now, can we do that perfectly? No. Can we do that almost perfectly? I can't.
I don't think you can. I miss the mark every day. And that's why every night I confess, I have sins to confess. And that's why all during the day I have sins to confess.
Why? Because all during the day I'm missing that mark of personal holiness. But there is a drive inside of me, a zeal inside of me, there is a passion inside of me, an impetus inside of me that feels bad when I let the Lord down, that feels bad when I do something unholy and sinful and depraved and that regrets it and that wants to make it right with God and that wishes I could do better in my personal holiness. That's inside of me. And that's a sure mark that the Holy Spirit himself is living in you because your flesh will never, ever have that desire to live holy. And you never had that desire to pursue personal holiness before you came to Jesus. No way. I remember when I first came to Christ the very first week after I prayed my salvation prayer, I was in Chapel Hill.
Tar Heels. And I got down by my bed. Many of you know my testimony. And I said, Lord Jesus, I'm going to give you my life for a month. And if you can prove to me that you're really who you say you are, you can have my life for good. What a great salvation prayer. But I'm glad 1 Samuel 16, 7, God looks on the outward appearance, the man looks on the outward appearance, God looks on the heart. And I'm sure he said, Solomon, that's one of the worst salvation prayers I ever heard in my life because I said to him, if you can't prove to me you're who you say you are, I reserve the right to cancel this deal of giving my life to you in a month. I'm going to cancel it.
So God said, well, not a great salvation prayer, but the man's heart was right and God honored it. You know, that next week, my whole world changed. And you say, wow, what? Did you stop smoking dope? Nope.
Did you stop dropping acid? Nope. Did you stop drinking? Nope. Did you stop cursing? Nope. Did you stop gambling? Nope. Did you stop sleeping with your girlfriend?
Nope. So how can you say your whole life changed? I'll tell you why. And I've said this before, I'm not just saying it for this message. That next week, the first week after I prayed that salvation prayer, all of a sudden my conscience came alive with a vengeance, with a fury, and things that I could do the week before, sinful things, wrong things, unclean things, profane things, depraved things that I could do the week before and not even give it a thought. Now, the next week, my conscience was beating me up. I felt so bad about doing these things and I knew this wasn't coming from me.
I knew this was coming from some other force inside of me. I'd never felt this before. I'd never had this kind of conscience before.
I was completely profane as a person. I had taken a hot iron to my conscience, as Paul says to Timothy. And all of a sudden I couldn't get away with doing the sinful things.
I could get away with the week before. And that's how I knew that something supernatural had happened in my life and that something different had taken place in my soul because suddenly I had a desire for holiness and I had a regret for unholiness that I'd never had in my life before. And I told that to Bob Eckhart and he said to me, well, that's a great sign. That proves that the spirit of holiness has taken up residence in your life.
Friends, almost 50 years later, I've still got that. Am I closer to living a holy life in every part of my life? I wish I could say I was. I'm not. I may be a little better.
I'm trying. But my heart is broken when I don't do it and I have to confess it to God. And I wake up every day saying, Lord, I'm going to try to do better today with a zeal to try to be holy today. Now, if you have that and it just comes from inside of you, then, friends, that is probably the single greatest marker that the spirit of holiness lives in you and that you are truly born again.
And if you don't have that, if you can sin and do impure things and think of impure things and act in impure ways and unholy behavior and it really doesn't bother you all that much. I don't care how much you come to church. I don't care whether you sing in the choir. I don't care whether you teach Sunday school. And I don't care if you read your Bible in the morning.
Friends, there's something wrong. I'm not sure you got the real disease. Now, Robert Murray McShane's quote again, I hope you feel a real desire after personal holiness, for this is the truest mark of being born again. And this is why Paul said Second Corinthians 13 five, examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.
Test yourselves. Folks, I've thought if if I were on my deathbed and someone asked me, how can you be sure that you're born again? I would say to them, because I can't get away with doing the sin that I used to be able to get away with doing. The spirit of holiness lives in me and he disciplines me. He takes me to the woodshed when I do unholy things. I hope you can say that. I hope that's really true.
Only you know what's really going on in your heart. But Paul says it's a good thing to test ourselves and make sure that we are really in the faith. I'll leave you with one of my favorite quotes from John Newton, the man who wrote Amazing Grace. Before he came to Christ, this man was a slave trader. He would go to Africa and kidnap people.
Half his cargo would die on the way over to the Americas. He was a drunk. He was a profane, debauched individual. And then he came to Christ and, of course, wrote Amazing Grace. But here's what he said towards the end of his life.
He became a preacher as well as a hymn writer. He said, when I get to heaven, he said, I'm going to be surprised by three things. Number one, he said, I'm going to be surprised by the people who are there that I never thought would be here. He said, number two, I'm going to be surprised by the people who aren't here that I was sure were going to be here. And he said, number three, I'm going to be surprised by the fact that I'm here at all. Praise the Lord.
Man, I can relate to that. I'm going to be surprised by the fact I'm there at all, that God's mercy and grace saved me. And, wow, that's, you know, but the part of that quote that scares me a little bit for you, for all of us, is I'm going to be surprised by the people I was sure were going to be here, but they're not. You know, they came to church every week. They served on the usher committee. They were deacons in the church.
They were always saying hello, praise the Lord, whatever. But they're not here. Folks, I want you to make sure you're going to be there. I don't want to show up in heaven and look around and you're not there.
And I'm like, oh, man, I was sure they were going to be here. And that's why today I'm calling you, like Paul said, to examine yourself, make sure that you're in the faith. Test yourself. Do you have that spirit of holiness? Do you have that inborn, inbred, intrinsic drive for personal holiness that you know doesn't come from you? That when you are off the rails and off the reservation in your behavior that this internal compass beats you up because you are doing profane and ungodly things and drives you back to God.
Do you have that? Test yourself. And if not, fall on your knees and say, oh, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus, I want the spirit of holiness in my life. I want to be born again. Let's pray. Dear Lord Jesus, I thank you that the spirit of holiness. The Holy Spirit.
Has distinct and clear markers. By which we can test ourselves and see indeed whether he lives in us. I thank you, as Robert Murray McShane said, the most significant of those is this internal drive for personal holiness that is intrinsic in our being. It's not something that we make up or that we generate.
It comes from him. Lord Jesus, help us to test ourselves, make sure we're in the faith. And help us to strive to be holy every day as you are. Thank you, Lord Jesus. For making us alive with Christ. And thank you that heaven is the place where everybody who's spiritually alive comes to spend eternity. Lord Jesus, we love you for the plan of salvation you made for us. For your mercy and your grace. And thanks these last weeks, we can take we could take that kind of real hard look at it that we've done so that in all of its facets. We can appreciate it more and love you more. For creating it for us. And we pray this in Jesus name.
And everybody said a man. Okay, next week we're going on in the Gospels and we'll look for you for our Trenta study in the Gospels. God bless you. Have a good week. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Whisper: medium.en / 2023-06-09 22:14:19 / 2023-06-09 22:30:52 / 17