If you come tomorrow night, you can hear even more. There is no greater investment that we can make than to teach our children to love God and to serve Him. That was a great blessing. Thank you so much for that. This morning, if you would turn with me to John chapter three, John chapter three. And this morning I wanna talk about illustrations of divine deliverance. We're not gonna make it through all of these verses today, but I hope to hit the high points. First of all, this is for those of us who do know the Lord Jesus Christ as personal savior. And I hope that is everyone in this room. It's for us because we need to be reminded of it every single day of our lives. We need to be thankful for it. And we need to give this message to others. But then it's also for those who are lost. You see, some people think that they are saved, but they are not. And it's the word of God that shines the light upon our hearts. It's not our intention to make anyone doubt who is truly a child of God, but it is our intention that perhaps there is one who needs to be shaken out of spiritual slumber. Maybe you thought you were saved, but you don't really know exactly what salvation is. And that's what I want to talk about this morning. And so I want to begin with John chapter three, starting in verse one. John three and verse one, the Bible says there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus. a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Let's pray. Father, be with us as we go through this passage of scripture, which deals with the most important topic that a human being could ever meet with. Lord, I pray that this would be clear, and I pray that it would be understandable. I pray that you would speak to us as your people, those who have accepted Christ, that we would give this message to others, that we would be thankful for it every moment of our lives. Lord, for that one in here who may be lost without you, we pray. that the message would get through, that you would shine your light upon that heart, that the Holy Spirit would illuminate the truth to them. And Lord, we pray all of these things and ask all of these things in Jesus' name, amen. What do you do when a fortune is just within reach, but you can't quite get to it? Well, there was a man named Stephen Thomas. He was a programmer in San Francisco. He had two guesses left to figure out a password that is worth $220 million. The password will let him unlock a small hard drive known as an iron key, which contains the private keys to a digital wallet that holds over 7,000 Bitcoin. By the way, I don't know how much it's worth now. But the problem is that years ago, Mr. Thomas lost the paper where he wrote down the password for his iron key. Anybody ever go through this these days? With all the passwords you have to have? But it gives users 10 guesses before it seizes up and encrypts its contents forever. Now, Mr. Thomas is on the eighth try. And so far, nothing has happened. By the way, I don't know what happened in this story. But Bitcoin has made a lot of its holders very rich in a short time. But the cryptocurrency's unusual nature has also meant that many people are locked out of their Bitcoin fortunes as a result of lost or forgotten keys. In fact, one person has given up entirely. He says, I don't want to be reminded of what I lost. That is the question. What do I have to do to gain access to great wealth? Well, that's a question a lot of people ask in this life. Well, in this passage, we have a man named Nicodemus. who knew somehow that Christ held the answer to what he had been looking for. And here was his question. And my friends, it's more important than any question about the things of this life. Nicodemus' question is, what must I do to go to heaven? What must I do to gain eternal life? And obviously, he had doubts himself about whether or not he was ready or he would not have come to Jesus. You see, Christ gets right to the point. Nicodemus comes to him. We know that you're a man sent from God because of these mighty miracles that you do. God has to be with you. Jesus cuts right to the heart of the matter. Nicodemus was a man of high moral character. He was a man of deep religious hunger, and yet he was spiritually blind. My friends, what hope is there for the rest of us if a man like Nicodemus can fall short? Now, in order to instruct Nicodemus in the basics of salvation, our Lord used four different illustrations. And here is the first that he used. And that is in verses one through seven, the illustration of birth. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. At first, Nicodemus did not know what Jesus was talking about because he was thinking about physical birth. But Jesus was talking about spiritual birth. You see, a man's first birth was of no help in this question of eternal life. Now, this is important because Nicodemus represented the best that the nation of Israel had to offer. And may I say that he was probably, arguably, the best that humanity had to offer. He was a Pharisee. If we were to translate that, it would be something like a separated one. He was a man who was holy externally. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. For a man of that day to get to the position he was at, he would have been a wealthy man. And so here he was, a fine, upstanding member of the community. A leader, in fact, the Bible says that he was the teacher in Israel. In verse 10, Jesus calls him a master, but that could be translated the master in Israel. If anyone had the credentials to be righteous and to gain access to heaven, then Nicodemus would have it. Years ago, I went on a missions trip to New York City. And the man who took us, a Christian man, he had us meet with several religious people, and one of them was a Jewish rabbi. And the one who took us on this trip, he asked this Jewish rabbi, he said, if someone were to come to you and to say, you know, I want to go to heaven, how would I do that? How would I go about getting to heaven? And the rabbi thought for a moment and he said, you know, I've never really thought about that very much. He said, I'm Jewish. I've been born Jewish. I would say, well, maybe he could observe the Torah or the Jewish laws, maybe be a good person, but there were no guarantees that he could give. But as far as he was concerned, he was born okay the first time. You know what? He's not alone. There are a lot of people in this world who think that. Now, my friends, I want to get this across very lovingly and kindly. No one is born a Christian. No one. In fact, the Bible tells us just the opposite. And it's something that we as human beings do not like to hear. But these are the words of our Lord Jesus himself. Jesus spoke in John 8, 44 to a group of Pharisees, again, like Nicodemus, very religious people. And you know what he told them? He says, you are of your father, the devil. Before we're saved, before we are believers in Jesus Christ, we are children of the devil. And that is the word of our Lord. Now you can be a very religious person or a non-religious person, it doesn't matter. What matters is, have you been born again? Have you been born again by the Spirit of God? Our first birth is of no avail. David said in Psalm 51 5, in sin did my mother conceive me. When you as a Christian are dealing with a lost person, and by the way, I hope that you do witness. I hope you ask the Lord to put you into situations where you can witness to lost people. That's why God has put us here. It's not just the pastor's job or the deacon's job or the missionary's job. That's the job of all of us. But one of the challenges, maybe the chief challenge that you're going to face when you witness this to a lost person, and that is to get them lost in the first place, if you know what I mean. Before they can ever understand their need of salvation, they have to recognize that they are lost. Number one, I must confess with God that I am a sinner. Confessing means agreeing with him from the heart. I am a sinner. Number two, I must acknowledge that I can't do anything about it. I'm a sinner, but turning over a new leaf is not enough. Yes, I can quit smoking and quit doing drugs and I can quit drinking. In fact, I can start going to church. I can be baptized. I can go through the ritual of water baptism. I can do good works to others, acts of mercy. In fact, I can do, if I'm a lost person, I can do better than a lot of Christians in that area. But it doesn't matter in the end. The Bible says you must be born again because there is nothing that you can do about your sin in and of yourself. You see, number three, we must accept God's way. And we'll talk about that in a few moments. But number one, you have to agree with God, I'm a sinner. Number two, I can't do anything about it. That was my first birth. And this is what Jesus is telling Nicodemus. He says, what you need is something that you can't provide for yourself. And no one on this earth can do it. It is a rebirth from above. It is a spiritual transformation. And this is why, and the Old Testament even says this, Isaiah 64 and verse 6, if you want to turn there with me. Isaiah 64 and verse 6. You say, you mean I can't do enough good works? You mean a baptism or a ritual or anything else? Well, this is what the Bible tells us. Isaiah 64 and verse 6. This is the nation of Israel speaking. This was God's people. This is what Isaiah says, but we are, anybody know what the next word is? Can you read it? All. We are all as an unclean thing. And all our righteousnesses, in other words, all of our righteous deeds, the best we can do on our best day are as filthy rags. That's in the sight of God. And we, what's that word again? All do fade as a leaf. And our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away. We are undone in the sight of God. We have no defense. We are subject to His law, and we have fallen short. And it doesn't matter if you were born into a Christian family or Christian community or a so-called Christian nation. Individually, you have to confess with God, I am a sinner. And there is nothing that I can do about it. Ephesians 2 and verse 1 says that we are dead in trespasses and sins. In other words, we are separated from God spiritually. The Bible calls us in Ephesians 2, the children of disobedience. In other words, by our very nature, we are characterized as rebels against God. A lot of people call me rebel because I'm from the South. In God's eyes, spiritually, all of us are rebels. It also says in Ephesians 2 that we are the children of wrath. Because of our sin nature, we deserve the wrath of God. The wrath of God is upon us. Romans 5.10 says, before we are saved, in other words, before we become a member of God's family, we are enemies of him. How can we ever rectify this situation? Well, in John 3.5, Jesus says this, if you'll look there with me, go back to John 3.5. And Jesus tells Nicodemus, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Again, he repeats his words, truly, truly, verily, verily. Now, a lot of denominations and religions have interpreted this as water baptism. There are some who say that you gotta be baptized by water in order to be saved. That's not what this verse is talking about. First of all, Nicodemus would have never understood such a reference. New Testament baptism was not practiced. There was the baptism of John, but that was a baptism of repentance, but that's not what Jesus is referring to. He's using water here as a symbol of cleansing, the cleansing that only the Spirit of God can accomplish. Turn with me to Ezekiel 36. Now, Nicodemus should have known these things. Ezekiel 36, that's why Jesus upbraids him. Nicodemus cannot follow what Jesus was saying. And Christ says, look, it's in the Old Testament. You ought to know what this is saying. Ezekiel 36 and verse 25. Ezekiel 36, 25. The Lord says to Israel, then will I sprinkle clean water upon you. and ye shall be clean. From all your filthiness and from all of your idols will I cleanse you." Now, here's what he's talking about in verse 26. A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. Do you see here that he's talking about spiritual transformation? He says, I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh And I will give you a heart of flesh. I will give you, he says, the ability to hear my words and to respond. We're talking about something that God does for us. It's not a ritual that we do. It's not a work. And by the way, we're baptized to symbolize what God has done for us. And baptism is important, but it doesn't save you. And good works don't save you. It is the Spirit of God which convicts. It's the Spirit of God that brings new life. It's something that God has to do or else it's not going to be done. Being born again means a complete change of heart. It's something that I didn't have anything to do with. We can see how Jesus would use this illustration because it is such an apt one. I had nothing to do with my first birth. My parents were the proximate cause, but God was the ultimate cause, because He's the author of life. In fact, He can create something out of nothing. God is the one who gave me my physical life, and I had nothing to do with it. I didn't wish myself into existence. I mean, that's a paradox if you think about it. How could I? I didn't exist. Well, with my spiritual birth in the same way in 1992, December the 20th, God saved me when I put my trust in the Lord Jesus Christ. It was not something that I did. I simply responded and accepted the free gift of faith that God had offered. And that was because the Holy Spirit had been working in my heart. And friends, when the Holy Spirit convicts you, you must respond. It is God who does the work. John 1 and verse 12 says this, but as many as received Him, in other words, to as many as received Jesus as Savior, to them gave He power or authority to become the sons of God. That's how you get into God's family. Even to them that believe on His name. That's what it means to receive Jesus. which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man." Can you make it any clearer than that? It's not something that we do, it's something that God does. It is of God. Jesus gives a second illustration here to show that the Spirit's work is from above. And it's the illustration of the wind. This is in verses 8 through 13. If we'll go back to John chapter 3, notice this illustration that Jesus uses here in John chapter 3. John 3 and verse 8, the Bible says, the wind bloweth where it listeth, or it blows wherever it pleases. And thou hearest the sound thereof, you can hear the wind whistling through the trees, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Like the wind, the Holy Spirit is invisible, but he is a person. He is powerful, he is God, the third person of the Trinity. You can't explain or predict his movements any more than you could explain or predict the wind. And here's the important point, you can't control it. The Holy Spirit is the person who brings about new life. Well, how does this happen? Well, here's the third illustration, and that is the serpent on the pole in verses 14 through 18. How many of you like snakes? And I saw a few hands. Okay, most people run in terror when they see any kind of snake. Well, the Bible here refers to an incident in Numbers 21 verses four through nine. The Israelites were grumbling. So the Bible says that God sent fiery or venomous serpents among them. They began to bite the people. This is what Jesus says in John 3, 14. He says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. You say, well, what is that talking about? Well, as the serpents bit the people, they began to die. And God told Moses to fashion a serpent out of bronze, a bronze serpent, and to put it on a pole. And anyone who looked at that serpent, that's all it took. would be healed. They would be totally restored. So the solution to the serpent problem was not killing the serpents. It was not having snakebite kits. It was not pretending that they weren't there. That's what a lot of people do with sin and its consequences. They just pretend it doesn't exist. It wasn't in passing anti-serpent laws. You didn't have to climb the pole. The Bible says that what was required was looking in faith to that serpent that was lifted up. Now, we know that it wasn't any power within that serpent that healed them. It was God who healed them. But they looked in faith to that serpent, and it was a symbol of our Lord Jesus Christ being lifted up on the cross. You see, I didn't have to work for my salvation. Jesus did the work on the cross. He did all that was demanded. And that's why when he died, he said, it is what? Finished. And no one can take away and no one can add to. That is the only way of salvation, looking in faith to the Savior. That brings us to the last illustration, and that is light and darkness. Jesus said in John 3 and verse 19, and this is the condemnation, or it may be John's comment afterward, but either way, this is the condemnation that light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. When I was a child, we had some cinder blocks behind my house. And one of the things that I always liked to do is to lift up one of those cinder blocks and see all the little critters scurry away. Once you expose them to the light, they would always head back to the darkness. Do you know that's what we as human beings do when we're faced with the true and living God? Now, we make up our own conception of God, one that is more to our liking, but you see, without the work of God, we'll never come to Him. The Bible says, there is none that understandeth, and there is none that seeketh after God. The Lord must come after us, and He must shine the light in the darkness. Maybe you're a Christian here today. You say, I've been witnessing to my lost relatives and maybe friends and neighbors, and they just don't seem to get it. You ever had that problem? There was a man I would witness to, and I would try every trick in the book. You know, it's by grace, through faith, through faith alone. John 3, 16, boy, what a great verse that is. That's in our text, John 3 16, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever what believeth in him should not perish. A perish doesn't mean being an annihilated. It means being separated from God in the fires of hell for all eternity. My friends, that's a fate that no one wants. but anyone who believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. I would repeat verses to them like this, and then at the end, this one man in particular, he would say, well, preacher, I'm doing the best I can. I'm a good person. Went right over his head. I can identify with that some because for 20 years I rebelled against God. And really what I was saying the whole time is I'm good enough. You see, this is a question where you can't sit on the fence. And there may be one here today and you say, well, God, I'm not against you, but I just don't want to go all the way. I don't want to become one of these religious freaks. And maybe some other time, maybe at the end of my life, when I don't have things to do, maybe then I'll accept you. If that's what you're saying, you might as well say no. There's no sitting on the fence. You either accept Christ or you don't. There is no in between. Let me ask you this final question. If you were to die at this moment, and if you were to appear outside the gates of heaven, and a voice came out and said, why should I let you into my heaven? What would you say? If I gave each person in this room, almost like an exam or a test, if I were to give you a piece of paper, what would you write down on it? What would you say? I can tell you what I would say. Well, first of all, let me tell you what I wouldn't say. It's not because I'm a preacher. I'm afraid to say there's going to be preachers in hell. I don't say that with any relish. that I'm afraid that that's the case, just like there'll be Pharisees and other religious people. And it's not because I, in my eyes, I'm a fine, upstanding member of the community and I try to do good to others. That has nothing to do with it. It's not because I've been baptized. It's not because I'm a member of the church. And all of those things are good, but none of that is enough to get into God's heaven. You see, his standard is absolute perfection. And there's only one who's ever met that standard. Let me ask you, who is it? The Lord Jesus Christ. I am depending upon his righteousness and his righteousness alone. That's where my trust is. That's where my faith is. My faith is in the Lord Jesus, in his person and work. I'm a sinner. There was nothing I could do about it. So there was a time in my life, and you may not know the exact date, but you ought to know that there's a time. It may be that you were young and your parents didn't write it down, but you need to make sure that there is a time that you can remember, that it's not fuzzy or unclear. When you accepted the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior, when you said, God, I can't get myself out of this mess, I can't do anything about my sin, Is there a time when you accepted Him as your Savior, when you believed that He died for your sin, not just other people's, but your sin? And then He was buried. He actually died. That was the penalty for sin. That was the importance of that. He had to die. He couldn't just swoon or pass out. He died in His humanity. And then he rose again bodily the third day, and that proved he is who he says he is. Have you done that today? If you haven't, please see us after the service. This is the most important question of all, because it not only concerns this life, it concerns all eternity. My friends, you can't get the answer wrong. You just can't. And I beg you, if you have any doubts at all, make it sure today. Let's pray. Father, work in hearts today. Lord, you know each of our hearts, the things that we would not share with anyone. And I pray that if there is one here who is uncertain, that they would not worry about those around them, what they would say. Lord, this is not a matter between anyone else but the individual and God. And I pray that they would make that decision, that they would make it right today. In your name we pray. Amen. Just before Brother Ben comes, I want you to think about this carefully. Make sure that