Reformed Baptist Church in O'Fallon, Missouri
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The New Birth

Sermon Transcript

The following is a lightly edited transcript generated from the audio; it may contain small errors.

Super Bowl Sunday, and John 3

Good morning. Hey, did anybody go to the March for Life? Stand up. Who went to the March for Life? Faith and this crew. Awesome. Did it go well? Awesome. Great. You’ve got to be careful doing that because it reminds me of a politician. If you get it, you didn’t get it. Okay. We’re gonna take the Lord’s Supper a little bit, but we’re gonna talk about the word first. Help your Bibles, if you would, to John 3. So, you know what today is, don’t you? Yeah. What’s today? You were supposed to say Super Bowl Sunday. Okay. I don’t know why I said that. Yeah, Sean knows me, he’s like, I know these are trick questions when he does this. Have you read any fun facts about Super Bowl Sunday? For example, I read this fun fact. This is amazing. This is like so America. Listen to this. 28 million, not thousand, 28 million chips will be consumed. Listen to this, 1.25 billion chicken wings will be eaten too.

Billion, billion. And eight million, not thousand, eight million pounds of guacamole are consumed. Austin’s like, yeah, that’s me. I’m doing all that. We have wings, guacamole, yeah. Wow, America. America the beautiful, huh? Well, today you’ll see we’re both Sunday, but better than that. It’s just a Sunday, which means it’s the Lord’s Day, and we get to celebrate the Lord and His goodness, amen? John 3, a well-known passage. some of you probably have parts of John 3 memorized, but I’d like to start on verse one and read through verse 21 together. It says, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you’re a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. And Jesus answered and said to him, truly or most assuredly, I say to you that unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 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. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. Nicodemus answered and said to him, how can these things be? And Jesus said to him, are you a 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. No one 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 whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life.“ How many of you have John 3:16 memorized? [audio unclear] “world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.” Now, if you remember, John, you see this theme all the way through of light versus darkness. The opening chapters of John, he refers to Jesus as the light that lightens every man that comes into the world. Verse 20, for everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, as deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be clearly seen that they have been done in God. Let’s pray. Father we thank you for your word. We pray that your Holy Spirit would teach us, illuminate us, convict us, shape us, encourage us, motivate us, compel us, or for that your word would find good soil today in our hearts, receptive soil, that it might bear much fruit in our lives for your glory. And we pray in Jesus’ name, amen.

The New Birth: God’s Remedy

So in this, it’s a long section. There’s two main, well, there’s a lot of things going on here, but two main things that we see. One, Jesus in the opening part of John three talks to Nicodemus about the new birth. And then he shifts his focus from the new birth specifically and then talks about the necessity of faith in his, really in his atalement, in his gift. So I would like to talk briefly about both of these. First, the new birth. Jesus said that a man must be born again. What does it mean to be born again? To be born again means that a person, an individual, soul which is by nature dead in trespasses and sins and dead means cut off from the eternal life of God separated from communion and union with God this soul is quickened or made alive by the Holy Spirit that enters that soul enters Here’s the soul. So Paul compares the new birth to a resurrection. And so when we think of resurrection, we think of the body, right? The body dies, a person’s dead, they come back from the dead, we call that a resurrection. But when someone’s born again, they’re actually being resurrected. but they’re being resurrected spiritually because their soul is dead in the sense that it is cut off from the life, the eternal life of God. Now they have natural life because they’re alive, but they don’t have spiritual life or eternal life. And so they do not communion with God, they’re not, they do not have communion with God, which we’re celebrating, because they don’t have union with God. And when you read the book of Romans, Paul emphasizes in Romans 6, 7, and 8 the fact that what happens in salvation, one of the things, many things happen. One of the things that happen is that the believer is united to Christ. There is now a union between Christ and the believer, and then his death becomes our death, his resurrection becomes our resurrection. Now we will be resurrected in the future physically. We will be fully glorified. I’m going to get a new body. I can’t imagine one looking any better than this one, but it’s going to be better. That’s what I read the Bible, so I believe it. It’s going to be better. No, I need a new one because my back’s enough. The older I get, the more I look forward to the new body part. When I was young, I was like, yeah, that’s cool, but it’s really cool now. So we’re going to be resurrected physically, We know this because we’ve already been resurrected spiritually. In other words, the Holy Spirit has given to us, Paul says in Ephesians, as a down payment, an earnest. Okay, so you’re gonna buy a car, you’re gonna buy a house, you make a down payment. I’ll be back and I’ll give you the rest of the money. So there’s a down payment that the believer receives as a guarantee of the fullness of the purchase, the fullness of redemption and the down payment that God gives us This is his Holy Spirit. So the Holy Spirit that comes into the believer’s heart, his soul, his mind, his inner man, his inner being, the real ego of the person and makes it alive. That’s a spiritual resurrection, a spiritual quickening. That is what the new birth is in essence. And the result of that new birth is that the individual being changed inwardly, being now united to God through Christ, through the union with Christ, that individual now is changed, really changed. So whereas before, the human disposition in its dead state is toward self, toward the world, toward evil, if you will will, that when the Holy Spirit comes into a person’s heart, there’s a quickening and making a life, and now the things that the person used to love now they hate. So whereas they used to love sin, now they hate sin. That doesn’t mean they never sin, but they hate sin. Whereas before, they really hated God, now they love God. I mean, if you would have told me when I was unsaid, someday you’re going to love reading the Bible, I would have said, you need to be committed. Because you are out of your mind. Because I despised Christians. And I despised Christianity. Well how did someone who despised Christianity end up loving the Bible, loving God, loving God’s people? How did that happen? Well because his soul got quickened. He was raised from the dead. Paul’s a great example. Look at first Timothy one. We’re gonna come back to John. In first Timothy one, Paul’s a great example of this. In fact, we all are, really. But Paul says that he specifically I specifically was chosen by God to be an example of this in 1 Timothy 1. Paul starts with verse 12. He says, and I thank Christ Jesus, our Lord, who has enabled me because He counted me faithful, putting me into the ministry, although I was formerly a blasphemer, a persecutor, and an insolent man, or could be translated violent man, formerly, but I obtained mercy because I did it ignorantly in unbelief and the grace of our Lord was exceedingly abundant with faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners. Jesus came to save sinners. He says, of whom I am chief. However, for this reason I obtain mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show all long suffering as a pattern to those who are going to believe on Him for everlasting life.

Paul is saying God chose me to make me an example to demonstrate God’s long suffering toward people. That God would take somebody who was not just indifferent if you will but someone who is Hostile to the faith hostile to Jesus not only hostile but so hostile hostile that they were violent Toward Christians and as we know Paul was there when Stephen was stoned Paul was consenting to his death Paul then was was commissioned by the Sanhedrin to go and to round up Christians to either throw them in prison or have them killed and then God took that man, quickened his soul, and then simultaneity became a servant of the very church that he was killing. That’s the new birth. That’s the kind of reversal that happens when someone is born again. And the contrast as Jesus says later in John 3 is from one of darkness to one of light. The The change is real and the change is ultimately dramatic. Now some people are confused about the new birth because some of you were raised in Christian homes and maybe you came to faith when you were young and so you’re like, well, yeah, I believe in Jesus but I didn’t have one of those big, crazy, wild conversion experiences because I was seven years old. That’s fine. I think the earlier you save the better actually I got saved at 20 after living hard and the change in my life and I know some of you are the same I know my wife’s testimony was dramatic dramatic change radical some of you being raised in a Christian environment maybe you You can’t give that kind of testimony. That’s okay. Because the evidence of our new. New birth isn’t what happened years ago. The evidence is what happens today. The evidence is how we live now. That’s why Peter says in first Peter, he says, make your calling an election sure. Okay. By looking at how you’re living now, not if you walked the aisle 20 years ago. What are you doing now? Fruit in our lives is the evidence of our new birth. Now let me say one more thing, since I mentioned people raising Christian homes. You know, if you read, if you read news, and especially Christian news, you see these articles, they come in waves, you know. New study, peer research, X percentage of Christian students lose their faith in college. You know, you get these kind of reports. And there’s no question that many people going college saying I’m a Christian and then by the time they leave they would not say they’re a Christian. So have they lost their faith? Well I guess they have. But I firmly believe based upon 35 years of experience in the ministry that many of the kids that went in saying I’m a Christian were not Christians. Now they were Christianized like milk being pasteurized, you know. They’re Christianized. They have some basic Christian concepts. Yeah, God’s there. Jesus was, yeah, you know, kind of this generic frame of reference kind of Christianity.

But it’s like, you know, I want to call it an intellectual construct, but that almost elevates into something really important in their mind. It’s just not important in their mind. Okay. raised with it, they believe it in the sense that they haven’t formally rejected it, but the fact of the matter is they’re not Christians. And I’ve mentioned many times before in this very pulpit, I have led many people to Christ, dozens if not hundreds over the years, and many of them were people that said, I’m a Christian before they became a Christian. Many of the people that I have led to Why? Because they’ve been Christianized. Now, this is changing more and more in our culture because we’re finding, if you go out and give people a gospel trek or a gospel of John and we continue to encourage you to give these out, you will find more and more people that have never read, may not even own a Bible. Now, when I was first saved, you could pretty much assume that if you talk to somebody, there’s probably a Bible in the house somewhere, okay? And many of the people had been exposed to some kind of churchianity. Now that can be its own problem, right? Churchianity becomes a problem because a lot of people are religious. I go to church and people say things like, I need to get back to church. Well you need to get back to Jesus, okay? Church doesn’t save you. Jesus saves you. Now if you know Jesus and you’re saved by Jesus, by all means, you need to go to church. You need to be in an environment of community, you need to be under the preaching of the word, you need to be engaged in corporate worship and prayer, all of that. Yes, that’s part of the Great Commission. But church won’t save you. Your Christian parents won’t save you. As my old pastor used to say, God has no grandchildren. In other words, the fact that I’m saved or my wife is saved does not guarantee that any of my children will be saved, because we don’t save them, God does. God saves them, so they’re his children, not his grandchildren. Being born, as my old pastor used to like to say, being born in a Christian home, no more makes you a Christian than being born in a bakery makes you a bagel. And I remember when I started doing ministry outside of my local church and I started doing youth work, the very first meeting I had, at the end of the meeting I was talking to some teenage kids and I said to this young girl, I said, are you a Christian? And the first thing she said was, I was baptized. But you see, I didn’t ask her, are you baptized? I said, are you a Christian? In her mind, yeah, I’m a Christian because I was baptized, and I go to the church where my parents go. Well, she got saved later, because she wasn’t a Christian. She was Christian.

Another favorite thing: we have to have our hearts changed. Okay? The heart has to be changed. When the Bible talks about salvation and talks about it in two, you could divide everything it says into two categories. Categories that deal with our condition and those aspects of salvation that deal with our position. Okay, and our condition is that we’re spiritually dead morally corrupt physically mortal and we need new life We need the life of God to come into our hearts The reason so many Christians quit the race so many people end up denying the faith is they’re trying to be Christians without Christ You can’t live the Christian life apart from Jesus Because he’s the power to do it. It’s not just the example to do it, he’s the power to do it. We can no more be like Christ, be like him, without him, it’s impossible.

A Must, Not a Maybe

We have to be changed on the inside. So the new birth is God’s remedy for our condition, our spiritual deadness, our moral corruption. God gives us the Holy Spirit in our heart, quickens us, resurrects us. This new life then changes us, empowers us, gives us new passions, new desires, new power of will, right? To do what is right, to conquer what is wrong, and we are changed on the inside. Any, Amen’s? Now the second thing I want to point out about the new birth is that it’s not optional.

Jesus said that, go back to John, you all in John? John 3, in verse 3. Most assuredly I say to you, or in the old King James, verily, verily, which is the way Jesus introduced something very important when he says most assuredly or truly, this This is a formula he uses over and over when he’s going to say something important. So this is important. Unless one is born again, or unless a person is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. In other words, Jesus is saying that the new birth is absolutely mandatory.

It is imperative. It is a necessity. What other word can I use? It’s a must, not a maybe. Not optional. There aren’t some that get into heaven unborn again and then some that get in born again. It doesn’t work that way. There’s not the unborn again Christians and then the born again Christians. It doesn’t work that way. In order to see the kingdom of God we must, must, must, must, must be born again. So the question of the new birth for each Each of us individually is something that must be settled for sure. It must be. Or we have no assurance of our relationship with God. And we have no assurance of our future destiny. Now, one one of the beautiful things about the gospel and the Bible is that it actually provides assurance. Now, I was raised in a, when I say raised in a church, that gives me a, well, whatever.

Assurance, and Eternal Life Now

I was raised in a Christian tradition which did not teach assurance. The gospel was muddied by all kinds of works righteousness. Okay, if you do this, you do this, you do this, then you might go to heaven after you’ve suffered a long time, that kind of stuff. That’s not the gospel of grace, which is the biblical gospel. And so one had no assurance of one’s destiny. You could never really know Because you never knew if you were good enough. How good is good enough? It was never really clear. So he had no assurance, does God love, truly love me? Is God smiling at me or frowning at me? Am I in God’s family or am I kicked out today because I was bad earlier today? What is my standing with God? If I die today, will I go to heaven or will I go to hell? Where will I go? You had no assurance. But the biblical gospel is the gospel of assurance. That when a person is born of God’s spirit, they do see the kingdom of God because they enter it. When someone is born again, they’ve already passed from death to life. Look at this, later on in John, look at John five. He says this in verse 20, starting in verse 20, “for the Father loves the Son [audio unclear] In other words, present tense. And shall not come into judgment, but has passed from death to life. Jesus is saying that he that believes has already passed out of death into life, already. Therefore, they shall not, future, come into judgment. When someone believes in his true faith, they’re born again at that moment, at that moment they are born again, They are now passed from death into life now.

They receive eternal life now. And so now they know their future destiny that they will not come into judgment because they’ve already passed out of judgment into life. It’s already happened now. It’s not believe in Jesus and then wait and see what happens to you later. That’s not the gospel. The gospel is that God wants to give the gift of eternal life to those who will believe in His Son Jesus Christ, and, He gives it to them now. Their life changes now. I mean, if the gospel was believe in Jesus and then just, you know, hang on till the end and maybe you’ll get there, well, that’s not good news. When I got saved, I needed a new life. Because my life was a mess. And many people you know, their lives are a mess. Now, you’re thinking, well, I don’t know, people I work, they got good houses, they got good cars, they got this. Their life’s a mess. Because their heart’s a mess. And many people that externally look like they’re doing great are actually doing miserable. Okay? Their marriages are in trouble, their kids are in trouble, their lives are in trouble. They can have all the external trappings of success, but I can assure you, they don’t have love, they don’t have joy, and they don’t have. -peace, because these are gifts of God’s spirit. So they may be substituting all kinds of of worldly things to make up for that. But they don’t have the gift of eternal life. So they have an empty life. And I believe many people know it. I think many people know it. But we get fooled by the appearance of things. We think that people don’t wanna hear the gospel.

The Divine and Human Witness

And sometimes people that I’ve shared and even led to Christ when I initially showed the gospel, they didn’t want to hear it. But the more I talk to them, the more they listened. Sometimes people will test you, you know. They want to see if you’re the real deal. Okay, if you’re going to talk to me about Jesus, well, I’m going to treat you really lousy for a while and see what you do. I’ve experienced that in the workplace. Listen, the Word of God is powerful. Jesus says when He’s talking here about the new birth, He says the Holy Spirit blows where He wills, and we don’t see it. You can be at work and God can be convicting through His Holy Spirit the person sitting right next to you, and you would never know it. Because you can’t see in their heart. But I know too many times that I’ve shared the gospel with people that said, it’s really strange you’re talking to me about God because I was just thinking about God yesterday. Or I had this dream, or I had this experience, or this or that. And clearly the Holy Spirit is dealing with them, convicting them. As Jesus said that he would, right? He said, it’s good that I go away. Why? I’m going to send the Holy Spirit. And whereas when Jesus was on on earth he was limited to one place at one time. Now he says the spirit is coming into the world and he can be in every one of us and he can be out convicting the entire world. And that’s what he’s doing. because he is still today drawing men to Jesus Christ. That’s what he’s doing, he’s drawing people to Jesus Christ. And he says to us, he says, I’m sending my spirit to be my witness, and then he says, but you also will witness on me. And that word also is key. In other words, there’s two agents here witnessing, divine and the human, and they go together. They go together. God is witnessing to people. [audio unclear] He’s witnessing in a way that we never could in that He’s dealing with their minds and dealing with their hearts, convicting them of sin, showing them the emptiness of their but he wants his church then to witness with the content of the gospel. So the people know where to turn in their quest. I mean, we live in a multi, really a polytheistic culture now.

Where you can talk to people that believe in all kinds of gods and supernatural powers and different things and different angelic agencies and these sorts of things.

Why is this so? Because man is fundamentally religious and he seeks answers and he seeks consolation, if you will, to his lack of peace. And so when God’s convicting people, he’s drawing them to himself, but they need to hear the gospel. But the gospel is the power of God into salvation. Amen? The gospel says because the spirit uses the preached word, the spoken word, the shared word, takes that word and that word in the scripture is called a seed and he takes that word and he plants it in the soul and it brings eternal life. And the soul is resurrected. they have the new birth. It’s a glorious thing that God does, amen? So there’s two things I wanna say in conclusion, then we’re gonna take the Lord’s Supper. And I wanted to speak on John today because the Lord’s Supper is a regular reminder of the gospel. Now, there’s many things symbolized in the Lord’s Supper, about covenant, about communion, about many things about the church, But the fundamental thing is it’s to remind us of the atonement of Jesus, right? So Jesus says, he said, excuse me, when he gave the, celebrated what’s called the first supper, or some people call it the last supper, he says, do this in remembrance of me. And I, and I pointed out before how odd it is that the Lord would have to say, remember me, like we’re going to forget, like, hey, did you forget who Jesus was this week? Well of course not. But the truth is, we can forget. We can forget the fundamentals. Now fundamentals are looked at two ways. When I talk to you about things that are basic, some of you are like, you roll your eyes on me. Like, I know that. But fundamentals are important because everything’s based on them. And the word says if the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? Nothing.

If we’re preaching a false gospel, then don’t preach the gospel. You know what I’m saying? The fundamentals are important because they hold up everything. And that means not only fundamental doctrine, but fundamental practice. My wife and I were having a discussion about discipleship the other day and talking about the fact that when you reduce it all down, there’s basic practices that every Christian should be doing, and it doesn’t matter whether you’ve been saved a day or a thousand years. You have to be in the Word. You have to be praying. You have to be in community. You have to be sharing the gospel. These are elemental, okay, simple but the most profound because of their impact on everything else.

I probably shared with you before, when I had this conversation with a guy, came into my office for this many years ago, so I’m not talking about him in the room, don’t worry. He was kind of struggling spiritually and I’m like, and I always ask people the same question initially, all right, well tell me about your, you know, your basic practice. so you’re in the word. Are you in prayer? You know, the basics, right? And he says, yeah. I said, so is he in the word? He’s like, well, I read through the Bible once, and I had never heard that before in my life. I had never heard that answer. I heard people say, yeah, I’m not been the word lately. Or, yeah, I’m reading but not like I should, or, you know, whatever. I said, can you explain what you, do you mean by that? He said, yeah, I read it through and I read the Bible. I’m like, don’t you know like you’re supposed to read it regularly? Like over and over. I’m thinking, well, no wonder he’s struggling. He read the Bible, closed it and left it on the shelf and walked around for years without reading the Bible. Are you surprised he’s having issues? A basic thing is fundamental as reading your Bible. can never be dispensed with. Prayer can never be dispensed with. Community can never be dispensed with. Witnessing can never be dispensed with. Because these things are fundamental and axiomatic to the Christian life. Let me just say this. Some of you are bored. You’re bored with your faith, you’re bored with Jesus. And part of the boredom is you’re not witnessing anybody. It’s true. You want to get some excitement in your life? Take [audio unclear] What? The fans. The team with the heart wins. You put two skilled players against each other. Ultimately it gets onto the heart, the will, the desire, the passion. That’s what gets onto. And the Christian life is fueled, obviously, by any act of obedience, but it’s fueled partly by reaching out to the lost because it forces you to get your head in the game. Get your head in the game. Something coaches will be saying all day today, get your head in the game. It’s so easy in the Christian life to You get distracted with this and this and this. And then, you know what? When you sit back and calmly evaluate, a lot of the things that over here that have been getting emotional energy and time and worry and anxiety aren’t that important. But the eternal things are getting neglected. eternal life, the gift of eternal life, is kind of up there and is important, you think? Any, any, any Amen’s? Kind of important. And yet, we forget. We really do.

We forget about the most basic things which end up being the most important.

And that’s why the Lord, I see more and more as I get older in the Lord, the wisdom of Him giving us an ordinance to keep on reminding us. We got to keep on reminding what’s really going on, what’s really important. So we have this ordinance which speaks of the broken body and the shed blood of Jesus. right? The atonement that he made, the sacrifice for our sins, that so when we believe we can be born again. We’re invited, we’re invited to come and the table is a great illustration. God sets the table, in other words, the Lord makes the provision, and the provision was the sacrifice of his Son. He provides everything necessary for the spiritual feast, which is being born again. But we have to come to the invitation now. We can all have a discussion later about, you know, whether how much we can come without the Holy Spirit and all that kind of stuff. But that’s not the important thing at this point. The point is we must come. We must believe. We must. As I said earlier, there’s not two kinds of Christians. And so, as I invite you to the table, I want to invite you first to Christ, to come to Christ. And some of you may not know if you’re born again. You may think you are, but you’re not sure. Jesus said that if you believe on Him, you will receive eternal life. And that is a promise. You will pass from death to life. That is a promise, you will not come into judgment, that is a promise. Faith the means taking him at his word. Taking him at his word. Whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. And saved means, but one of the things it means, that we’ve highlighted today, it means being born again. That means the soul change. That means the ability to have communion with God through Jesus Christ because your spirit is alive unto God. Any here been born again? Some might not be sure. Well, I encourage you to make it sure and to settle it, resolve it.

One more story. I know I’ve gone long, I apologize. We don’t have another meeting, do we? Today? We’re pretty sure it’s five o’clock. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Okay. Thought it was 5.30. I want 30 more minutes. No. Um. Um. Um. So, uh, a number of years ago, I was asked to go teach and preach at a Methodist church out in Illinois, so I went and actually spoke like three days in a row at different events and spoke of the church service. And although the Methodist denomination has really gone liberal, there’s a lot of individual Methodist churches that are still very biblical and very conservative. And this was a conservative church. It was kind of out in the boonies, if you will. As a beautiful, beautiful church, beautiful group of people, three generations were in the church. So you had the founders, then you had their children, which were now adults who had children, and their children were already teenagers, so they’re approaching getting to four generations in this one community church. It was pretty cool. And I spoke to different groups on different days, but then I was asked to speak at their Sunday morning service. So I spoke, and I forget the text I spoke on, but I gave an invitation at the end of the service. And, wow. It was amazing how many people responded. Because I asked for a physical response. I either asked them to raise their hand or to come forward and do something I forget. But it was amazing. And some of them were second generation and some of them were third. Third generation and maybe even one was in the first generation. I hear people that have been going to church and have been building a church community for probably 75 years, maybe 100 years. sitting in a church week after week after week, taking the Lord’s Supper, I believe, in their case, weekly, and they weren’t born again. That’s what happens when we forget the basics. That’s what happens when the things that are of minor importance become major importance and vice versa. The most important thing, of course, is God’s glory, but he’s glorified through the salvation of men and women and children. Each of us must have a personal transaction with God. Each of us, each of us. I can’t do it for you. I can’t do it for my kids. I can’t do it for anybody else. I can pray. I can encourage. I can teach. I can’t stand in your place and receive Christ for you.

Come to the Table

I can’t stand in your place and believe for you. No one can. They can’t. Jesus took your place on the cross.

That’s been done. Any punishment that you or I deserved for our many, many sins, and they are many, Jesus Jesus took that upon himself so we would not have to take it. He died and he rose from the dead, demonstrating his power over sin and his power over death. And he offers to us now all the fruit of what he accomplished on the cross and through the grave and through the resurrection. He will give eternal life to those that receive his offer. Now some of you may end up not taking Q and you say, I don’t know, but I’m inviting you.

Maybe you feel like you shouldn’t because there’s a sin in your life or you have a broken relationship with somebody. I don’t know. But you’re invited. But more importantly, you’re invited to Christ.

Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. So listen, we’re gonna bow our heads before we take the Lord’s Supper. I’d like you to bow your head and close your eyes. Just take a moment for you to settle in your own mind and heart, your relationship with the Lord Jesus. Can you truly say you’ve received a major Savior? Do you know you’ve been born again? Use your own words, but essentially, Lord Jesus, save me, be my Savior, give me eternal life. I believe you died on the cross from me and rose from the dead. Lord, I believe.

Settle it now, today is the day of salvation.

If before God you believe you’ve accepted Christ, then you’re welcome to the table to celebrate Christ’s finished work. Jesus, we thank you that you are who you claimed you were, the Savior of the world, the way, the truth, the life, the life and, and the resurrection, the bread from heaven, the bread of life. We thank you, Lord, that you are sufficient for all of our needs. We thank you, Lord, that you’ve taught us in your word about the new birth. I pray for everyone here, that everyone here would truly be born again of your spirit, truly have eternal life. We thank you for this reminder of your great finished work through this supper. And I pray that as we take the elements, Lord, would truly commune with you. And we pray this in your name, amen.

Are you invited to the Lord’s table now? Lord Jesus, we thank you for your great gift of salvation and for the gift of eternal life. Lord, we ask that not only would each one of us here truly be assured of our own salvation, but Lord, that we would labor for the salvation of others. I pray Lord, that you would remind us of the very simple, simple, simple truth that everyone must be born again. That we have family members, friends, coworkers, neighbors that have not been born again yet, Lord, they need to hear the gospel. And I pray that we as your church would be faithful, just to make us faithful, Lord, to be your witnesses. So I pray that you would, as we’re, reminded of the great gift of eternal life, that we would be, were motivated to share that gift with, with others. We ask it for the glory of Jesus name. Amen.