John 3:1-21 - A Brand New Start

Main Idea: We must choose to receive Jesus’ new life through faith.

WE FIND NEW LIFE IN JESUS (vs. 1-13)

• We are birthed into God’s family. (vs. 1-6)

• We are given God’s Spirit. (vs. 7-8)

• We are given a new perspective. (vs. 9-13)

WE FIND NEW LIFE IN JESUS ALONE (vs. 14-18)

• Jesus is the cure for sin. (vs. 14-15)

• Jesus saves us from Hell. (v. 16)

• Jesus is our only rescue. (vs. 17-18)

WE FIND NEW LIFE AS WE TURN TO JESUS (vs. 19-21)

• We turn to Jesus from sin. (vs. 19-20)

• We turn to Jesus by grace. (v. 21)

Sermon Transcript (Auto-Transcribed by YouTube)

We've been going through John 1-4, and over from like 2024 to 2026, it may bleed a little bit in 2027 as well. We're going to be going through the Gospel of John, and we're starting off with these four chapters. And right now, we're in chapter 3.

And the Gospel of John was an eyewitness account of one of Jesus' followers, one of his disciples, John, the son of Zebedee. And this was the last written of the Gospels.

And there were a lot of things that had already been talked about, a lot of miracles, the Lord's Prayer, Sermon on the Mount, all sorts of things that the other gospel writers had written.

And so John is kind of writing to fill in a couple of things that maybe some of the other writers hadn't included in their accounts of what they had seen or what they had heard from eyewitnesses about Jesus' life and ministry here on earth.

And here is one of those portions of John's gospel that we don't read about in some of the other ones.

This was a special conversation that John was aware of, either because he was there or Jesus told him afterwards, or even possibly that Nicodemus later talked about this conversation with John.

And I'm really, really excited to dive into this portion of the scripture. This has like the most well-known verse in the Bible, perhaps.

John 3.16, that many of you learned as kids, or you saw like painted on Tim Tebow's eye black or something like that. And we're gonna see what surrounds that verse in scripture. Like, why is it said?

Who said it? What does it mean? Why would a, you know, college semi-pro athlete two thousand years after the events of this write basically that verse on his face?

The truth is because what we're gonna talk about today is life changing. Like, if Lord willing, if my plane to Tennessee went down in a fiery crash tomorrow morning, if I've given this message, I'm good.

I've given you guys what God has for your life. If all you had was John 3, that would be a whole life worth lived. These are truths that you need, that I need.

This is why Jesus came. Have you ever started a conversation with someone and immediately wish that you could start over?

Have you noticed the amount of movies that there are that consider the possibilities of being able to begin a day over again, like Groundhog Day, Edge of Tomorrow, 50 First Dates?

Very rarely in our lives do we feel 100% certain and great about all of our choices and words and actions. Like we all wish that we could have a new star to do over.

Have you also noticed sometimes that the people that really should regret or rethink their actions are the ones that have the least amount of desire to do it over again?

This could be something like C&B put on his shirt or his pants backwards in the morning, asking him if he wants to fix it in here. No, I'm good. Like, okay, but you kind of look like a goober a little bit.

Or you have the Dunning-Kruger effect, where the people have the least knowledge or competence in a particular area, far overestimate their understanding or ability of what it entails.

In today's passage, Jesus interacts with one of the highest-ranking religious leaders of his day, one of the Pharisees. The Pharisees were incredibly intelligent men who had memorized and known the Old Testament since childhood.

They knew all 613 commandments of the Torah and all of the stacked laws and rules from centuries of rabbis on top of those 613 laws.

Their goal was to help Israel not wander away into idolatry and sin again, in the hopes that Israel would not again be exiled from their land.

However, if you've been around the Bible or the New Testament for long, you know that Jesus didn't fit well into this system. Instead, the Pharisees were perhaps Jesus' greatest enemies. During His earthly ministry.

And that's what makes John 3 such an interesting anomaly. In the 21 verses that we're going to cover this morning, a Pharisee comes to Jesus not to entrap him or to condemn him, which is most of the rest of the time. That's what they're trying to do.

But here, this Pharisee comes to question who Jesus is, and find out what his end goal is.

As Jesus tells this leader of ancient Israel, his purpose is to bring humanity new life, a new start, because we have been heading the wrong way, as we learned last week, and we need not just like a new day or a new program or a new set of rules, we

need a whole new life. And what Jesus tells this leader is that this new life cannot be humanly accomplished. It can only be received from God by personal belief and adoption.

That is, we, not just them 2000 years ago, we must choose to receive Jesus' new life through faith, through believing in him. Today, we'll discover with Nicodemus the Pharisee, where we find this new life and how it can become our own.

How do we start our life over in the way that God intends us to? Let's pray, and we'll begin. Dear Jesus, thank you for today.

I pray that you would speak to hearts this morning as your word is declared. I pray that we would see our need to personally believe in and follow you. This isn't something that we can pass off to our parents or grandparents.

This isn't something that we can trust that our spouse did for us. This is something we need to do. God, I pray that we would see your call to personally share you with others.

And I pray that you would give me the words to say and the words not to say. May you be glorified in your church this morning. Amen.

So first, where do we find this new life that Jesus tells this religious leader about? Well, we find this new life in Jesus. Let's read through.

We'll kind of look at verses 1 through 13 to start off with about this new life in Jesus. And we'll see where we go from there. There was a man from the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.

This man came to Jesus at night. It's not stated why, if he was maybe trying to get in when the crowds weren't there, if he came at that time because he was afraid of other people seeing him interacting favorably with Jesus.

It doesn't tell us, but he came at night and said, Rabbi, teacher, we know that you are a teacher who has come from God, for no one could perform these signs you do unless God were with him.

Here Nicodemus acknowledges like, okay, Jesus, I realize, we realize that this is God's working in you as you're doing miracles, as you're turning water into wine, as you are healing the death and making them able to hear, as you are healing lepers

from their sicknesses. Like it's obvious that God is doing something here because there's no way that you could do these things unless it was really God. God brings real life. God doesn't bring cheap tricks.

Jesus replied in verse number three, truly I tell you unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Okay, as I read that verse and I see what Nicodemus said to him, it feels like I'm doing a full whiplash, which I'm certain Nicodemus thought of as well, that Nicodemus is like, hey, we know you're a teacher who's come from God, you do miracles.

And Jesus doesn't say like, yes, you're correct, I have come from God. Instead, he pivots right to what Nicodemus actually needs to know.

He says, here's, right now, you're kind of skirting around the edges, you're paying some compliments, but here's what you're really curious about. Like, why is Jesus here?

Why is John the Baptist proclaiming that Jesus is the lame of God and that he's come? What is all this heading towards? It is that we need to be born again.

The real point of Jesus' ministry, more than teaching new truths or doing miracles, was to bring new life to un-living, to spiritually dead people. Ephesians chapter 2 says that we naturally are dead in our trespasses and sins.

We are not in a relationship with God. That's not how we start off our life. We start off separated, both when we're born.

That's all of us. And sin separates us from God, but it's not just our actions. Like we are as humanity, we are separated from God through what our ancient ancestor Adam did, that in the garden, as God says, here is perfection.

Here's just this one thing you can't do. Adam and Eve, as all of us do, go, oh, one thing I can't do? I'm going to do that.

And so all of humanity is apart from God. And so Jesus says, I've come to bring new life. Like your first birth, that didn't get you into the kingdom of God.

Yes, you live here, Nicodemus, you live in the land of Israel. There is a king over Israel, but that's not the real kingdom of God. The real kingdom of God needs spiritual rebirth.

Obviously, Nicodemus, as many of us, if we ever heard that phrase for the first time, we go, born again. So, verse number four, he says, how can anyone be born when he is old? Nicodemus asked him.

Can he enter his mother's womb a second time and be born? He goes, wait, what in the world does born again mean? I don't get any of this.

This is one of the interesting things that John is doing in John 2 through 4. There's four different circumstances that Jesus is in. He turns the water into wine.

He purifies the temple. He talks with Nicodemus, and he talks with the woman at the well. At the wedding, there's a misunderstanding from the head waiter officer of the feast, and he's like, you guys held the good wine until now.

He didn't understand. It was new wine. When Jesus comes into the temple and purifies it, they're like, hey, what are you doing?

What authority do you have to do this? He's like, hey, tear down the temple, and in three days, I'm going to raise it back up again.

And they're like, this temple, we, it took like 46 years to build this thing, and you're going to build it in three days? And he wasn't talking about the old temple. He was talking about the new temple of his body.

Here, the birth. Nicodemus thinks he's talking about physical birth, the old birth, and Jesus is talking about a new birth, a spiritual birth.

And in John 4, that we'll see in two weeks, he asks this woman for water from a well, and she talks to him, and he says, hey, if you would have asked of me, I would have given you living water. She's like, you don't have a bucket.

How are you going to get this old water? And he's like, no, no, this is new spiritual water. So John does this throughout these chapters, just illustrating like misunderstandings and how Jesus is showing us spiritual truths as a result.

So verse number five, Jesus answered, truly I tell you, unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Some people have thought maybe that water is like your initial physical birth and then the birth of the Spirit.

Often in John's writings, he'll make some references to like how we entered into our Christian faith, that as we believed in Christ, we experienced salvation, we publicly declared that through baptism.

So there's also some thoughts that it might be talking about those that have repented, those that have followed the Lord, that have been saved, that they've received the Spirit, that they have said like, hey, I am a Christian.

They've declared that publicly through their baptism, that that might be a portion of what's being described there. What's not being said here is, you need to be baptized in order to be a part of the kingdom of God.

Many other portions of scripture would enlighten us as to that. But here Jesus says, someone needs whole new life to be born of the Holy Spirit, to enter into the kingdom of God. And then he goes on to explain some of this.

Verse 6, whatever is born of the flesh is flesh. Something's physically born to this world, whether it's us, a dog, a cat, whatever, that is a physical object. He says, but whatever is born of the Spirit is Spirit.

When we're initially born, like we're condemned, we are sinful, we have a fallen nature, we rebel against God.

But when we receive the new life of Jesus, when we turn to him, when we believe in his name and in his work on the cross, then we are born spiritually. We're reconciled. It's a whole different ballgame.

That who we once were, we are now no longer. We are completely new. If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.

The old is gone, the new has come. Verse number seven, he says, Don't be amazed that I told you that you must be born again. He says, the wind blows where it pleases, and you hear its sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.

So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. He says, God's work in you, God's new life, his salvation that he wants to bring out in you is not something that you can manufacture on your own. It's like the wind.

You can't see it. You can't trace. This is how Owen was one way, and now he's a whole different way.

You know, maybe Fern used to cuss Ron out all the time, and now she talks nicely to him. And I don't think this is an accurate example. This might be one of those things of the, like the Spirit leading.

So I don't know. I know some of your kids and some of your grandkids. That's all I'm saying.

What God does in our life, his salvation that he brings, it's not something we manufacture. It's something that the Holy Spirit does inside of us. He changes us from the inside.

It's not just moral actions that we used to not give to charity, and now we give to charity, or we used to punch puppies, and we no longer punch puppies. What God does in us is he changes us on the inside.

It is a hidden work of God that naturally you change to where your desires are new. What you think is like acceptable, it becomes new as the Holy Spirit changes and works in your life. Love it there.

The wind blows where it pleases, and you hear it sound, but you don't know where it comes from or where it's going.

Can I tell you, maybe you're struggling in your spiritual walk with the Lord, and you've been battling it out, and you've been losing some of those fights. Don't give up. It's not based on your successful subduing of all evil in your heart and life.

This is God's work. And if God saved you, God will see it through. God is the one who puts in you both to will, to desire, to do good, and to accomplish it.

Verse number nine, Nicodemus asks a great question. How can these things be? This is whole new information.

I have the benefit standing before you today of having read the rest of the book. So I know all the other things that Jesus is talking about, but for Nicodemus, this is brand new information.

Jesus says, are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things? Jesus replied, are you stupid? You're supposed to be teaching people.

How do you not understand this? He says, truly, I tell you, we speak what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but you do not accept our testimony. He says, I've been telling you guys exactly who I am.

Jesus' favorite way to talk about himself in the gospels is to call himself the son of man, that is the Messiah, the one who was going to come, reign on God's throne forever and ever, the one that would reign victorious over all of earth's kingdoms,

all of that. He didn't hide who he was. He says, but you guys don't listen to me. You don't want me to be the son of man.

So even though you see me talking like God talks, doing what God does, doing miracles like God does miracles, you guys aren't listening to me. You won't accept my testimony.

Don't you hate it when you try and like give incontrovertible evidence to someone and they just won't believe it? I have two toddlers. That happens every day.

I won't go into any more detail. I'll get in the flesh. When you look at John 1 with Nathaniel, like he heard Jesus say, hey, I saw you when you were at the fig tree.

And Nathaniel goes, you are the son of God. You are the king of Israel. It was obvious to those that would listen to Jesus' testimony who he was, as Jesus in John 4 interacts with the woman at the well.

He says, you know, you've not had one husband, you've had five husbands, and the person you're living with right now isn't your husband. And she goes and she tells everyone, hey, like we found the Messiah. He told me everything that I've ever done.

Anyone that wanted to listen to Jesus' testimony, they experienced salvation. They knew exactly who Jesus was. But here, Jesus is rebuking Nicodemus, going like, hey, you guys aren't listening to us.

I'm giving you everything you need to know, and you're not accepting it yet. In verse number 12, he says, if I've told you about earthly things and you don't believe, how will you believe if I tell you about heavenly things?

No one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven, the son of man. So here, Nicodemus, Pharisee, knows all of the Old Testament, hasn't memorized, knows the laws and laws and laws and laws.

Now Jesus gets real direct and goes, okay, let me show you in the Old Testament scriptures exactly what you're dealing with. Here, no one has ascended into heaven except the one who descended from heaven.

Here, he's referencing Proverbs 30 and verse 4. Who has ascended into heaven? What is his name and what is his son's name, if you can tell, who established the foundations of the earth?

Here, Jesus says, hey, you know Proverbs 30? I'm the one that ascended into heaven. I'm the one that has descended from heaven.

I am God. And then he says, I am the son of man from Daniel 7, the one who reigns victorious over earth's kingdoms.

So, Jesus, to this very religious guy, the dude who did a lot of things, knew a lot, Jesus says, you have to believe and be born again. We find new life in Jesus today. What kind of new life do we have?

Well, we are birthed into God's family. That's verses 1 through 6. You must be born again, born of the Spirit.

Ephesians chapter 2 says, for through Jesus, we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.

So then you were no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of God's household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. It's very simple today.

We'll actually hear just a little bit more about it next week. If you have not received Jesus, if you have not repented from your sin and turned to him alone as your Lord and your Savior, you are not part of God's family.

If you have received Jesus, you are part of God's family. I love that he says that we are born into God's family. We're not just like part of God's club.

We're not just a soldier in God's army. We are birthed into God's family. You cannot be un-birthed from a family.

You are permanently God's son or daughter today. There's no take back sees with your salvation. Today, have you accepted Jesus?

Not are you religious? Not do you serve in a ministry? Not even just do you believe that Jesus existed and died and was buried?

Have you been born again? Have you turned from your own way, calling on Jesus to be your Lord and Savior, accepting His righteousness alone for your standing before God? So we find new life in Jesus.

We're birthed into God's family. Once we are in His family, there's no getting out. It is a whole new existence.

That which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. Then from verses 7 and 8, we are given God's Spirit.

Those of you that were in the Basic Beliefs class today, remember when I talked about like, hey, as you read through scripture, you're going to see the Father loves us, the Father gave us the Son, the Son died for us, the Spirit makes us part of

God's family. It is all interconnected. Romans 8 and verse 9 says, if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to him. When you are saved, when you accept Jesus as your Savior and your Lord, the Holy Spirit comes into your life.

He baptizes you, He immerses you, He places you in the family of Christ.

He is the down payment, the earnest, as paul would say in Ephesians 1, he's the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchase possession that the Holy Spirit lives in your life until you either die and are reunited with God or until

Jesus returns and you are in God's kingdom forever. My wife and I put down our earnest stuff this past week on a house over in Essex. And if we back out, we lose that earnest money. If God backs out of your salvation, he loses the Holy Spirit.

And that's nonsensical. That will never happen. God has said, I am guaranteeing your salvation.

I'm so thankful for that. The Holy Spirit is not just a force or a power or good vibes from God. The Holy Spirit is God himself, his own presence, the third person of the Trinity.

And when we're saved, God's Spirit lives in us. The application to us from 1 Corinthians 6, paul says, the Holy Spirit lives in you. You are now the new temple of God.

Do you know this building is not a temple. I know our name is Tabernacle Baptist Church, but in one sense, this building is not a tabernacle in the Old Testament sense. God doesn't live here.

When we leave, there's not like a secret altar or place where God lives. God's Spirit lives in you.

Some of you might get real upset if someone, you know, sprayed graffiti on the floor in here, or if, you know, maybe kids were running around or something. Have some respect for the place where the Holy Spirit lives. You are valuable.

Your body is valuable. You should care about your health because the Holy Spirit lives inside of you. What paul tells the Corinthians in 1 Corinthians 6 is, hey, you guys are being immoral, and I want you to realize that the Holy Spirit lives in you.

Don't make the Holy Spirit participate in your immorality. Today, will you view God's Spirit? Will you view the temple of God's Spirit, the tabernacle, where the Spirit lives as an important place?

That also should influence how we talk about other tabernacles, other temples where God's Spirit resides. If people came by and were trash talking, you know, maybe our building or something, you'd be like, hey, that's rude.

This doesn't belong to you. You know, why do we need so many churches in this area? Well, this isn't my church.

It's important to me. We belong to God. So have a care and a love in how you talk about other believers and other people who are made in the image of God, and we've talked about that at length.

Lastly, not only are we birthed into God's family and given God's Spirit, but we're given a new perspective.

And this is what Jesus goes over in verses 1 through 13, basically saying, like, I've told you about, like, earthly things and you don't get it.

So if I'm trying to tell you about heavenly things, how in the world are you going to get what's going on? But we are given a new perspective when we receive Christ, when we have been made new, when the Spirit does live inside.

2 Corinthians chapter 5 says, From now on then, we do not know anyone from a worldly perspective. Even if we have known Christ from a worldly perspective, yet now we no longer know him in this way.

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old is passed away and see the new has come. Perspective can be an amazing thing.

If you've got, like, red tinted glasses, everything you see is going to be red. No matter what it's true or actual color is.

And if you switch out those red tinted glasses for some green tinted glasses, you're going to see the world in a whole different way. You're going to describe all of the colors differently.

I have here just a fun thing on perspective that maybe some of you have seen before. How many of you see a duck facing left? And how many of you see a rabbit with its ears behind its head?

Based on how your perspective is, you're going to see two different things. Or maybe if you're tired and you had 16 hours of seminary classes, maybe you might not see anything there. Maybe you see the inside of your eyelids as you're nodding off.

God gives us a new perspective. He changes how we think about our world, how we think about our trials and difficulties. He changes how we think about other people.

Start looking at your life today in the light of your relationship with God.

Your hard times might be opportunities for you to witness to a car mechanic, or to comfort another grieving person, or to show your unsaved spouse or loved one what it looks like to go through unimaginable hardship with Jesus.

Realize that the worst day or week or decade of your life is an infinitesimal blip in your everlasting life that you will spend with God, free from sin and pain and death and heartbreak forever. Then once you realize it, talk about it, post about it.

Let other people begin to see life from the perspective of a child of God. There's an old kid song, this little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine. Hide it under a bushel?

No, I'm gonna let it shine. Let's have that new perspective, that new outlook on our life based on spiritual reality and truth. And then let that affect how we talk and think and treat others.

Not only do we find new life in Jesus, but we find new life in Jesus alone. Verses 14 through 18, Jesus continues, he ended with Proverbs 30 and Daniel 7.

He's gonna give Nicodemus some more Old Testament stories to help him understand what's going on. He says, just as Moses lifted up the snake in the wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up.

If you've not been around church, you're like, what story is that? So in the wilderness, the children of Israel, they had escaped from Egypt through the 10 plagues that God had brought on Egypt. They passed through the Red Sea.

You can either read in the Book of Exodus about that, or see the DreamWorks movie, Prince of Egypt. And that will get you like 40% of the way there. Then as they're wandering through the wilderness, they begin complaining to God.

They're like, oh, man, we had stuff so much better in Egypt. We know we were slaves there, but at least we didn't have to walk or something like that. And as they're going through, then there is a judgment that comes.

And some poisonous snakes, they start attacking. And they want to live, as many of us do. And so God instructs Moses, hey, I want you to make a bronze serpent.

I want you to put it on a stick. I want you to put it up in a high spot. And anyone that looks at this bronze snake is going to live.

I go, okay, that's kind of weird. What's going on there? Jesus says this was pointing to a bigger reality.

He says, I am, if you will, that bronze serpent that is going to be lifted up. And by looking, believing, turning to Jesus, people can be saved. Not just from snake bites, but from what actually ales our souls, which is sin.

Verse number 15. So he says, just as Moses lifted up the snake in this wilderness, so the son of man must be lifted up, so that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God loved the world in this way.

He gave his one and only son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish, but have eternal life. He says, for God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him.

God's desire is not for your condemnation, but for your rescue. God is not against you. He does not have any desire to see you go through your life or your eternity without him.

He has been on a rescue mission since day one, and he invites you. He invites you in the person of Jesus. He invites you through the Holy Spirit working in your heart right now to come to him to experience forgiveness and redemption.

Verse number 18, anyone who believes in him is not condemned. He says, but anyone who does not believe is already condemned because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God.

Here, Jesus lets Nicodemus know our natural state and cause is not like in a neutral cake and my good outweigh my bad. He says we are naturally born into condemnation, but God has pursued us to rescue us, to run to us, to bring us back to life.

So we find new life in Jesus alone. First, that Jesus is the cure for sin, just like that snake in the wilderness. Jesus said in John 12 and verse 32, he says, as for me, if I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all people to myself.

As we realize that Jesus paid the price for sin, that sin deserves punishment, justice. Jesus died on the cross in cosmic justice and punishment for the sins of everyone. As we realize Jesus paid the price for sin, he invites us into new life.

He puts his Holy Spirit in us and he gives us a new perspective. We're challenged to look to him and find healing moment by moment, day by day from the sin that is our most fundamental enemy.

What you most need from God is not a new house or a new job or a new spouse or kids. You need victory over sin. You need your unbridled anger or lust or lying turned to self-control and truth-telling.

You need your alcoholism turned to sobriety. Your idolatrous love of pleasure or recreation turned into desire to serve God and others. Jesus didn't just come to give you a home with him once you die.

He came to give you an eternal life here and now that looks like his own life with his righteousness. Thankful that he is the cure for sin, that just as they looked in the Old Testament and that snake bite was cured, that venom was gone.

So when we look to Jesus, we find victory. We find our ultimate victory, obviously, in our sins being taken away, the Holy Spirit sealing us, us being justified with God forever.

But we can find that even as we turn our eyes upon Jesus, looking full in his wonderful face and finding that the things of earth grow strangely dim in light of his glory and grace. So Jesus is the cure for sin. He also saves us from hell.

2 Peter 3 and verse 9 says, The Lord does not delay his promise to return again, as some understand delay. But he is patient with you, not wanting any to perish, but all to come to repentance. Today, if you're wondering like, hey, where's Jesus at?

Like, I figured he'd be back by now. Like, do these Christians really know what they're talking about when they see Jesus is coming again? The reason Christ has not returned yet is because he wants more people to be saved.

And Jesus is that salvation from hell. God's not looking to destroy you, but to save you from your path and destination of ruin and destruction. The illustration here is a doctor when he says you've got diabetes.

Is he giving you diabetes? No, he's telling you the path that you're already on and where it will end up. He's giving you the cure.

So when God tells us about our eternal destination, he's not saying like, hey, I really hate you and I just really wish you would go to hell. He's saying this is the path you're already on and here is the rescue.

Today, have you ever accepted Christ as your Lord and your Savior? You can do that today and you should do that today. Realize first of all that you are a sinner, that you have done, said or thought things that go against God and His law.

Realize that Jesus died on the cross for your sins in your place as your substitute. He rose from the dead and he wants to be in charge of your life as your Lord and your Master. Call on God in prayer.

Tell him that you believe what the Bible says about Jesus and that you want him to save you and to give you his new life. He promises that he will never throw out anyone that comes to him.

If you have some more questions about that, I would love to talk with you after the service today. I would love to set up an appointment for like Friday or Saturday of this week after I get back. I'll talk to you on the cell phone.

I'll text you. I'll Facebook messenger you. If you've got questions about Jesus, about salvation, that is why I am here.

I would love to talk with you about Jesus. And lastly here, Jesus is our only rescue. Here where he says like belief in Jesus, those believing in the name of the Son of God, those are the ones that experience salvation.

There's no other rescue. Galatians chapter 3 says, all who rely on the works of the law are under a curse. You are not good enough to overcome your sin.

But paul says the promise is given on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ to those who believe.

Your natural state and condition is destruction and condemnation, and there's only one thing that can save you, believing in Jesus and His righteousness alone.

You can live your entire life attending church, being catechized, giving to charity, getting baptized, but none of it can redeem you. It is Jesus and Jesus alone. It's an old hymn that says, My faith has found a resting place, not in device or creed.

I trust the ever living one. His wounds for me shall plead. I need no other argument.

I need no other plea. It is enough that Jesus died and that He died for me. You can't straddle two horses when the trail diverges, and the trail does diverge.

In one path, there is your works. On the other, there is faith in Jesus.

If you try and just like straddle the thing and go, okay, well, I'll put some of my faith in Jesus, and I'll put some of my faith in my good works, or some in Jesus, and some in my charity, or some in Jesus, and some in my background, and I'm just

hoping like one of these horses will take me where I need to go. When it splits, you end up on the ground. You don't end up in the path that leads to life by trying to maintain, okay, I need a little Jesus and a little something else.

It's Jesus or nothing. I think I said many months ago now. It's Nerf or nothing.

It's Jesus or nothing. You can either trust your works, your religion, your church, your baptism, or you can trust Christ's righteousness and His finished work on the cross. So we find new life in Jesus.

We find new life in Jesus alone. And lastly, we find new life as we turn to Jesus. Jesus says this, This is the judgment.

This is why there is condemnation. The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. Our problem is sin.

This is for everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it so that his deeds may not be exposed. But anyone who lives by the truth comes to the light so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God.

This is our uttermost problem is sin. And it is only overcome as we do not avoid the light of God's holiness that shines the. We read on our sin and says, this is condemnable.

This will alienate you from me forever, but Jesus paid the price. And so now as you come, it shows, hey, your righteousness, your worthiness to come into God's presence, to be a part of God's kingdom, it is because of what Jesus has done.

That and part of the verse, so that his works may be shown to be accomplished by God. God is the one that does the good works. We turn to Jesus from sin.

1 Corinthians 6 says, don't you know that the unrighteous will not inherit God's kingdom? Do not be deceived. Here he gives a list of some sins.

He says, no sexually immoral people, idolaters, adulterers, or males who have sex with males, no thieves, greedy people, drunkards, verbally abusive people, or swindlers will inherit God's kingdom. And he says, and some of you used to be like this.

He says, but you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. We might have plenty of sins, but he's got more than enough mercy and cleansing and forgiveness and grace for us.

If we don't turn from our sin, if we don't hate it, if we don't desire to not do it, but instead live in it and find comfort in it, we ought to be concerned about our spiritual state. Have I really turned to Jesus?

The basis of Christianity is that we believe what God says, and so we repent. We turn from sin and no longer pursue it. When was the last time that you gave up a sin in your life?

I know you sinned this week. I know some of you. I know I sinned this week.

Y'all know me. But is there something, some sin that you're holding on to, refusing to say, God, I'm sorry for this? Unforgiveness, hatred, greed.

Let's keep on doing what we did at the beginning of our Christian life and repent and believe in God. We turn to Jesus from sin and we turn to Jesus by grace.

Mentioned at the beginning, it's God who works in us both to will and to do according to his good purpose. It is not your goodness that keeps you in God's family. You don't get free new life then have to earn to keep it.

It is God's loving favor that bought you, God's loving favor that gave you his spirit, and God's loving favor that gives you the desire and the ability to turn from sin to him day after day.

Will you thank God today for the fact that he saves you and that you don't have to save yourself? Today, we've got like this amazing offer from the Lord of a brand new start. Have you begun that journey?

Have you turned to Jesus for salvation, making him your Lord and your Savior? Are you living like Jesus is calling the shots for your days? Like he's telling you how to talk to others, how to spend your time, how to spend your money?

You're part of God's family. You've got the Holy Spirit in you. He's given you a new perspective.

Are you operating like any of that's true? Are you telling other people about Jesus in your life? If he really is the cure for sin, our Savior from hell and our only rescue, then we've got to tell others.

That's like Christianity 101. Go and make disciples. Tell other people what you've seen.

Are you turning from sin to Jesus? Are you fighting your faults or just throwing up your hands and going, eh, it's not that bad, or this is just who I am? Or are you turning from sin to Jesus?

Today, we must choose to receive Jesus' new life through faith.