Since Jesus Came Into My Heart — John 3

0:00 All right, while the slides are coming up, I wanted to just give a little thank you, actually a very large thank you. On behalf of Mrs. Reeder and the Reeder clan and my wife Miriam and I just want to say thank you for all the kindness that was shown to our family. These past three years have been quite a wild ride as we had the blessing of serving Mr. And Mrs.

0:27 Reeder. Well, dad Reeder had Alzheimer's and the church of course was very, very involved with that. We thank you so much for your encouragement and your blessing. We especially want to thank you for the week before and after his graduation to heaven. It was a a special time.

0:44 It was a painful time but a blessed time and I just want to say thank you on behalf of the family. So, thank you. The title of today's message is actually actually called Since Jesus Came Into My Heart, the New Birth. We sang that song a few songs back this morning and I just wanna read to you the the poem that was then set to music. What a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart.

1:15 I have lied in my soul for which long I have sought since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy o'er my soul, like the sea billows roll since Jesus came into my heart. I passed from my wandering and going astray, and my sins which were many are all washed away since Jesus came into my heart. There's a light in the valley of death now for me, and the gates of the city beyond I can see since Jesus came into my heart. I shall go there in that city.

1:49 I know. And I'm happy so happy as onward I go since Jesus came into my heart. I have four questions for us to ponder today. Has Jesus come into your heart? Have you received Jesus as your savior?

2:08 Do you recall the moment you first were convicted of your sin? You repented of your sin and received Jesus Christ as your savior, that he washed away your sin? You are forgiven and you have eternal life. And lastly, if you have been rescued from your sin by the blood of Jesus, do you have joy because of his indwelling presence in your life? Let's pray.

2:38 Heavenly Father, we do thank you so much for this special time of the week where we get to sit, and listen or be very involved with the proclamation of your word. I do pray that right now this would be all about you, Lord Jesus, and very little of me. There are going to be pictures shown and thoughts provoked, but Father, what really has the power is only your Holy Spirit and the word therein. So Father, I pray that right now that your word would shine forth this morning. And Father, if there be any in this room or any who hear this message in a future time that have never received the gift of salvation.

3:18 May today be the day that they are saved and experience the new birth. We pray this in Jesus name. Amen. There's something special about birth, Omi. Is that right?

3:31 You just spoke about another great grandchild, am I right? That's right. And as you see through some of these slides, we've had the blessing of being involved with a new birth back on August twentieth of 'twenty two. Our daughter Katrina had little Willie. And Willie has grown up and many of you have gotten to meet him.

3:52 He was the therapy baby during the last week of Mr. Reeder's life. He came down and whenever was crying, said, You need the baby. And what an encouragement he was to us all and even his cousins were able to be with him. Special time, new birth.

4:08 Isn't it amazing when you think about life? Well, we had experienced something else that goes beyond just the family. It goes into the church. So we I only have some of this. Now you said, had a picture with him.

4:43 It was designed to lead a person through exhibits that would challenge the cultural abortion issue with the truth from God's word that we were created fearfully and wonderfully in God's image. As we walked through the display, we noticed their artists had created exquisite models showing the development of a child from the fertilized egg through birth. Some models were even translucent and that allowed the viewer to see the development of the organs inside the baby. They also had four d ultrasound video footage of babies in the womb. It was an amazing display of God's wisdom and beauty in creating human life.

5:37 There was also a factor that was displayed about the opposite side of birth and that was abortion. And it was handled in a very gracious and loving and compassionate way about forgiveness. So I just would encourage you if you have never been to the Creation Museum, this display is still there and I would encourage you to go if you would like to go specifically talk to Miriam or Heidi. We know of some free guest passes you can get. There's also something about birth that is it's short, isn't it?

6:13 All you women out there yell, yes, it is short. Praise God. But those nine months leading are difficult. But isn't it fun to be around a baby? So our little Willie is now six months old.

6:26 And as you see, he's not a baby as little as he was anymore. He's still a baby, but it's kind of like that also with spiritual birth. There was a passage in scripture that you're familiar with I'm sure where Jesus met with a Pharisee at nighttime. His name was Nicodemus. He was a religious ruler of the Jews and he had come to talk to Jesus because he wanted to investigate the relationship Jesus had with God.

6:56 He says something about Jesus was unique to him. And so he spoke to Jesus and Jesus responded with some of the most important words that were in his earthly ministry. He said, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's John chapter three verse three, a very famous passage in scripture. Well, Nicodemus was so surprised by Jesus' answer that he asked a really silly question.

7:27 A really silly question. He said, how can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born. Can he? Just the fact that he actually said can he probably made all you women who've given birth cringe.

7:44 I mean to even ponder that. But it just showed how much confusion he had. Fortunately, maybe some of you chuckled like I did when I read that, Jesus did not laugh. Jesus did not laugh. Instead Jesus answered in John three :five-eight, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

8:09 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 and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the spirit. As I pondered what I saw in the Creation Museum exhibit, I recall when I was a little boy.

8:40 Now some of you, your eyes just lit up when you saw this. Some of you might have never seen this photo. Well, shocked me as I did a little research on this. This was April 1965. April 1965, there were already photographs of embryos in the uterus and they were very much alive.

9:02 Well unfortunately just eight years later abortion was legalized in spite of the knowledge that there is very much life beginning at conception. But this 18 year old embryo that we see here reminds us of the fascinating design of God in the physical sense. But also we can be reminded of the fascinating design of God in the spiritual sense. Well graciously, Nicodemus did not leave... I'm sorry.

9:53 He needed salvation. He knew he was very familiar with the sinfulness of man. Being a Pharisee, he knew the law. And the law dealt with sin. Jesus knew and Nicodemus knew that God hated sin.

10:12 And those who were not forgiven were under God's judgment. Some examples of that in the Old Testament were great catastrophes such as Noah's flood, the worldwide flood, the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, the earthquake that swallowed up Korah and his followers when they basically confronted Moses. The plagues of Egypt and the evil that came upon any oppressor of Israel. These were all displays of God's judgment in the Old Testament. Nicodemus was also familiar with what God had set up to deal with forgiveness, and that was the sacrificial system.

10:58 Nicodemus knew all about the lambs that were selected out of the flock that had to be perfect and unblemished. He knew all about how they had to be killed and that the blood had to be shed for the covering of their sin. And yet Jesus knew that he himself would become that sacrificial lamb who was born a man, born a baby, should say, and became a man and would later take away the sins of the world when he died on the cross and gave himself for us all. Could we please turn to John chapter three and read a little bit more about this conversation? John chapter three starting at verse nine, we read continuation.

11:51 Nicodemus answered and said to Jesus, how can these things be? Jesus answered and said to him, are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak that which we know and bear witness of that which we have seen and you do not receive our witness. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, even the son of man.

12:20 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up that whoever believes may, sorry, that whoever believes may in him 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 eternal life. For God did not send the son into the world to judge the world, but the world should be saved through him. He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.

13:00 And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God. Jesus reminded Nicodemus in this passage, Excuse me. It's called pushing a button you shouldn't have pushed.

13:51 I usually print out my sermons. Apologize. Okay. So Jesus reminded Nicodemus of this account in scripture where the Israelites had sinned against God And he'd sent judgment in the form of poisonous snakes. And God gave a very simple task for them to do, but it required two things.

14:24 Required them to believe and to act. To believe and to act. And Jesus pointed this out when he said that I will be lifted up. That the son of man will be lifted up. And so what they did was they took this bronze snake and put it on a pole and raised it up, and if anybody who had been bitten by the snake looked at the bronze snake, they were healed.

14:47 A miracle. But what did it require? They had to believe. I'm not going to look at that snake, and then they would die. But if they said, I will believe, and I look at the snake and I'm healed.

15:22 Have you been saved from your sin? The Bible talks a lot about sin and a lot about salvation. I'm just gonna go through a few of these verses here that maybe you've memorized even. I know some of these would be, have been in a wanna. Romans three twenty one to 26, but now apart from the law, the righteousness of God has been manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ for all those who believe, for there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, being justified as a gift by his grace through the redemption which is in Christ Jesus, whom God displayed publicly as a propitiation in his blood through faith.

16:10 How did God display Jesus publicly? How about the most common walk by area in the city of Jerusalem? The place of the skull. Jesus in between two thieves. That was public and it was the full payment of the blood that needed to be shed for forgiveness of sin.

16:31 First Peter one:three-five, blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to his great mercy has caused us to be born again, to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance which is imperishable and undefiled and will not fade away, reserved in heaven for you. We sang about that, didn't we? That I know that city out there and that's where I'm going. You are protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. Romans 10, a very familiar passage.

17:06 If you confess with your mouth Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation. For the scripture says, whoever believes in him will not be disappointed. For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek, for the same Lord is Lord of all, abounding in riches for all who call on him. For whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved.

17:38 Now one of my fears is when we look at scriptures like this, we become almost numb or immune. I I I've heard that since I was a child. I haven't heard that since I was a child. And we can also get complacent, and we don't realize what the differences are between being still in your sin and being saved. So I'm just gonna challenge you as we look at a couple more verses.

18:07 What's it like to be really dead? And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you formally walked according to the course of this world. According to the prince, the power of the air, the spirit that's not working in the sons of disobedience. Among them we too all formerly lived in the lusts of our flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and we're by nature children of wrath even as the rest. Now, it would be a long day if each of us came to the point where we started to confess our sins of the past to each other.

18:48 It'll be a long day. I know my list would be very, very, very long, and that's just the ones I'm aware of. Aren't you glad we don't have to do that to each other? Now there are times when I think it's appropriate, especially if we've sinned against one another. But it is very appropriate to confess your sin to the Lord.

19:46 But it says right here that each one of us, when we get to heaven, is going to be kind of a trophy to the Lord Jesus. I'd like to introduce you to this person, and I'd like to share how I've shown grace to this person. How about this person over here? Now, you might think that this person is more sinful than that person, but you know what? All it takes, as we all learned in Awana, that if you are guilty of one sin, you're guilty of all.

20:12 God can only take perfection in heaven, and that's why it took the blood of Jesus Christ to cleanse us from all our sin so that we could be saved. The last few verses. For by grace you've been saved through faith and that I'm not of yourselves. It's the gift of God, not as a result of works so that no one may boast. For we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.

20:44 What do we need to do? What is our act of faith that, you know, the people said, well I have to just look. That's what he said, look. But took faith and then believed and then they were healed. What do we do?

20:58 Well, if we confess our sins, he's faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. And at that point, we can look not at the law. Not at the law, but by faith through grace. By grace through faith we've been saved. Verse 20 of Galatians two says, I've been crucified with Christ, it's no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me.

21:27 And the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God who loved me and gave himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God for, listen to this, if righteousness comes through the law, then Christ died needlessly. Think about that. Think about that. If righteousness comes through the law, in other words, our good works, if there's any way we can be declared righteous from our good works, why did Jesus die?

22:01 And the answer, of course, is that when we fully understand our sin, we will fully understand our incredible need for forgiveness and salvation that only comes through Christ. So back to the questions earlier. If we have been saved and we have lost that joy since Jesus came into my heart. Floods of joy are my soul. Like the sea billows roll since Jesus came into my heart.

22:32 What if that's missing? And you say, honestly, Todd, or honestly, Lord would be better. I don't have that joy. I'm gonna ask you to consider two things. Have you truly pondered your sin lately?

22:49 Have you truly pondered what sin really does and did? What sin continues to do in our world, in your life, disease, death, divorce, other things that start with d. Terrible, terrible things that sin does. And what did sin do? Well, sin separated God from man.

23:56 But we will in the future. When the new Jerusalem comes, we will experience a place where there's no pain, no suffering, no tears need to be cried because it's all gone. And life has been restored to what God intended it to be before sin entered the world. So, again, to challenge us, if the joy's not there, perhaps, like I said, two things. One, we're not knowing how bad sin was, and then not realizing how great salvation is.

24:34 How great salvation is. He saved us not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to his mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, who he poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our savior. So that being justified by his grace, we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. This picture represents World War two. This day represents 02/23/1945.

25:12 According to the account of Cyril Brooks, who was a British citizen at the time and had been a missionary since 1922 in The Philippines. And where he and another family by the name of the De Rees family and thousands of others, civilians have been incarcerated at a place called Los Banos. He said, got up in the morning and we took a tin can and we were lighting a fire. We were going to cook our breakfast, a little portion of rice. All of us who had been there for years and had been incarcerated for three years, either house arrest or now at Los Banos, had become so thin and frail, we already had the strength to do anything.

26:15 But all of a sudden, out of the sky came parachutes. We thought that allied forces were dropping food for us. And then we realized they were paratroopers. And all the guards, the Japanese guards of this prison camp, had just started their calisthenics. All their weapons were in a pile.

26:39 Of course, it was all scouted out. And it was the... It became what the historians who studied military history, the greatest rescue in American history. Every single person who was in this camp was rescued, found out in the paperwork left behind by the Japanese officers that they were to be machine gunned down later that day when they appeared for roll call. And that's how they were rescued because someone had gotten out a couple weeks earlier, gotten to the Allied forces and told them what was going on at the camp.

27:28 And they were then told that these things had already occurred at some other prison camps. Again, civilian prison camps as well as military prison camps. These machines that you see up here on the left didn't even exist at the beginning of World War II. They went across a lake. They were amphibious landing craft which you've all seen on D Day, right?

27:55 But these were actually considered as tanks to the folks that were in the prisons. And all of sudden, these tanks show up on a beach. And that's how they got to ride away in safety. This family was the DeVries family, and the young man in the bottom left became the father of one of the Faith Academy first students. This family in bottom left is Cyril Brooks, the man who wrote the book of his time in The Philippines called Grace Triumphant.

28:28 Both of them appear in the book called Escape... I'm sorry, Rescue at Los Banos. An amazing story. Both of them were involved with starting Faith Academy. Sorry.

29:15 First Peter two:nine, but you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he's a new creature. The old things passed away. Behold, new things have come. One of the accounts of the DeVries family was the young man who was, I think, a first grader at the First Faith Academy in 1957.

29:55 He became a pilot. I think those airplanes meant a lot to him. What does God have in store for you? If you've never known Christ as your savior, you have so much to gain from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You who have Christ as your savior, remember your pain.

30:22 Don't dwell in it. Remember the sin of your past and rejoice that he has taken you from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom of light. You are a new creature. And if that joy isn't in your life right now, you can start today and say, I'm gonna live for Christ and I'm gonna live with that joy or my soul like the sea billows roll, since Jesus came into my heart. It's a decision.

30:47 It's an act based upon faith. In John chapter 20, to conclude that gospel, John wrote this. Therefore, many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. To conclude, just wanna review these questions again.

31:19 Has Jesus come into your heart? Have you received him as your savior? Do you recall that moment you were first convicted of your sin? You repented of that sin. You went the other way.

31:35 And you received Jesus Christ as your savior, knowing that he has now washed away your sin. It's as far away as far as the East is from the West, according to scripture. It's cast into the depths of the sea, never to be dug up again. You're forgiven. You have eternal life.

31:59 And if you can claim that already, that you have been rescued, you have a life in front of you. You have a life in front of you. The blood of Jesus has paid for your sin. It's no longer holding you back. To be used by him and for him, and he wants you to not just have joy.

32:23 He wants you to have an abundant life. In John ten ten, Jesus said, I came that they might have life and they might have it abundantly. May he bless you even today to say with the apostle Paul, rejoice in the Lord always. Again, I will say rejoice. Let's pray.

32:51 Heavenly Father, only you know the moment of physical birth. The moment that life begins. We call it fancy word called conception. But forty weeks later, we get to hold a little teeny tiny completely dependent human being, and we rejoice. Heavenly Father, but that's not enough.

33:32 You said you have to be born of water and the spirit. That's what you told Nicodemus. And so Lord, I pray that each one of us would either reflect today on that moment that we were born again, and Father, I pray that you would ask that we would be able to receive that joy of our salvation that we had back then. That you would refresh it, you would renew it. That we would recognize how awful sin is, how terrible it was to be in that condition, dead in our sin, and remember what it was when we realize it's gone.

34:11 I'm a new creation in Christ and I get to live forever with him Here on earth first, but all eternally in heaven. Father, what a wonderful thought. And for father, for anyone, again, we've talked about this already, but if there's anybody that still has not received Jesus as their savior and Lord, father help them to realize they're still in their sin. And according to your word, hell was designed for Satan and his angels, not for people. You desire that none should perish, That none should remain in their sinful condition because of the fall that occurred in the Garden Of Eden when Adam and Eve disobeyed you and their pride led them into sin.

35:07 Oh, that's what it would be, wouldn't it be? It'd be pride that would keep someone away from this free gift of salvation that you have already paid. Jesus is not gonna go on the cross again, are you? It's already taken care of. Father, so I pray for that individual that today they would repent, recognize their sinfulness.