The Great Need

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Transcript:

John chapter 3. I told you tonight that we were going to continue on with discussing reasons for sharing. If you’ll remember last week, we talked about the first reason for sharing, and these are not necessarily in order of importance, just in the order that I thought of them as I was working out the series outline.

We talked about the first reason for sharing was that Christ commanded it. It was the Great Commission. And the fact that Christ told us, Go ye therefore, teach all nations, or as we would read it in an extremely literal translation of the Greek, having gone, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, and lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.

And so our first reason for sharing, for sharing the gospel, for leading people to trust Christ, And leading people to follow Christ, our first reason for doing that is the very simple and easy to understand reason that Christ commanded us to do so. That’s reason one, the Great Commission. Tonight I want to talk to you about the great need.

Talked about the Great Commission, I want to talk to you about the great need tonight. You know, people have tried to sell me things, and I’m sure have tried to sell you things for years. Most often for me, it’s been the newspaper.

Even since we’ve moved here, they’re calling my cell phone and calling up at the church, wanting to know if I want to buy the local newspaper, and I’ve thought it over, but I haven’t done it yet. But at home, they would try to sell me the newspaper. Kids would come to my house knocking on the door all the time, no matter where we lived.

They’d come knocking on my door all the time wanting to sell me the newspaper. And they’d call the house. They’d catch you out places, put flyers on the cars.

And they trained these kids as they would go around knocking on doors, trying to sell us the newspaper, telling us, you know, all the great things about it. And the newspaper was just the greatest thing in the world. And I used to, I was a weird kid, I’ve told you that.

I used to read the newspaper when I was younger, and then the newspaper kind of got on my bad side for several reasons, and I quit reading the newspaper. I realized it was not the greatest thing ever, but they’d come and tell us all the great and wonderful things about the newspaper, the way it was going to change our lives, the coupons, you could find out about events that you couldn’t find about anywhere else, and just all these things, and how great the news was that they had in bringing us and telling us about this newspaper. The fact is, I didn’t need the newspaper.

I had gotten to the point where I read what I wanted to read of the news online, and what I couldn’t find online, I’d flip to the news channels. They had a local 24-hour news channel, but I just watched what I wanted to know about. And so it didn’t matter how great this newspaper was.

I didn’t need it. So I didn’t care about all the things that they had to say. And they, unfortunately, you tell them, well, you know, it’s too much money.

They had an answer for everything until I told them that I wasn’t going to buy the newspaper because I didn’t appreciate the wannabe Marxists who ran the editorial page. They didn’t have a prepared response for that one, and they didn’t come around so much after that anymore. But it didn’t matter how great the offers or the specials were or what they were offering us.

I didn’t need the newspaper, so I didn’t care to hear about it. People try to sell us stuff all the time that we don’t need. People try to give away sometimes even things that we don’t need, and they may be great products.

If we don’t need them, we’re not interested. There’s no reason for us to listen to it. On the other hand, if I had some kind of virus that just wiped out everybody that contracted it, and I was infected with this virus and they thought it was incurable, but somebody came up with a treatment, with a cure for this virus that just destroyed everybody, obviously I would have a need for that cure, wouldn’t I?

It would be foolish if somebody, and I know people don’t go selling medicine door-to-door anymore. I hear they used to. Not door-to-door, but they’d have the peddler men drive into town and sell what they.

. . They don’t do that anymore, but if somebody did come up to me in town and say, hey, I’ve got this cure for you, you need this, and tell me all the great and wonderful things that it did, and I needed that because I had the virus, I would be stupid not to listen.

What’s more, if they had figured out the cure for this virus, and that everybody who had this virus needed, not only would I be stupid not to hear them out when they came to talk to me, and if you see where the analogy is going, no, I’m not calling the lost world stupid, but it would be cruel on their part if they had the cure, if they had the medicine. and didn’t come tell me about it. If they just let millions die of their virus without ever telling them of the cure, because there’s a great need.

Folks, the gospel that we have to share with people is not like that newspaper back home. And notice I didn’t tell you which newspaper it was, and I won’t. It’s not like the newspaper back home that, yeah, they can tell us all kinds of great things about it, but we don’t really need it.

So many of the things that we’re told about that are the greatest things ever that will change our lives and that a lot of times we’ll fall for and say, yeah, give me that, are like that newspaper. We don’t really need them. On the other hand, the gospel that so many people in the world treat like that newspaper that we don’t need is like the cure for the deadly virus.

Because the entire human race is infected by a deadly virus, if you’ll pardon the analogy, called sin. It’s transmitted like a plague to every member of the human race and that will destroy us. It is destroying men now, even while they’re still alive, and will destroy them but for the cure.

And there is but one cure, which is Jesus Christ. And we have something. I won’t say a product because it’s not a product. But we carry something with us that is a universal need for the entire world.

It’s kind of redundant. That’s what universal means. Everybody needs it.

And yet I said, and you all agreed with me. Some of you, amen. Some of you shook your heads.

We agreed that it would be cruel for them to withhold this life-saving cure from the people who needed it. We hold the cure to this curse of sin. And it’s no less cruel, probably even more so, that we withhold the gospel from them.

Ladies and gentlemen, our second reason tonight, why we share the gospel with people, and why we make disciples, is not only has Christ commanded it, but he commanded it for the very reason that there is a need for it. Tonight I want to talk to you about the great need for the gospel. We’re actually going to start in John chapter 3, verse, you know what, just for context, we’re going to go up to verse 4.

It said, Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old? Jesus has just told Nicodemus he needs to be born again. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And that does not mean born of water as in baptism.

Because of verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. He talks about being born of water and Spirit. He talks about flesh and Spirit.

It’s most likely, I believe, that he’s talking here about physical birth. Marvel not that I said unto thee, You must be born again. Nicodemus, don’t be so thrown off by that that you must be born again.

The wind blows where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. It’s only normal, Nicodemus, for you not to understand this any more than you can see where the wind comes from or see where it goes.

And Nicodemus answered, verse 9, and said unto him, How can these things be? And Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, I knowest not these things. Nicodemus, you’re a teacher of God’s people.

You’re a leader of God’s people, and you don’t understand these basic spiritual truths when I tell you you’ve got to be born again. Verily, verily, truly, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. In other words, telling Nicodemus, you can stand there and scratch your head and have your jaw wide open in surprise all you want.

You can doubt and question what I’m telling you all you want, but I’m telling you about things that I know and I’ve seen, and you don’t believe it. You don’t listen to the witness of the people who would know these things. Verse 12, If I had told you earthly things and you believed not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?

He’s talked to Nicodemus about the weather, the wind blowing, and not knowing where it comes from or where it goes. If Nicodemus had asked Jesus a question about the weather, had asked him a question about most other earthly topics, he would have believed what Jesus had to say. He’s saying, here, you believe me about these earthly things, And yet you’re doubting what I’m saying about spiritual things when I would know.

How shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. Verse 14, And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life.

We need to go back and look at John chapter 3 more often because we can quote John 3, 16, and it’s a good verse. It’s a good verse to summarize the gospel. But there’s so much important context to it that it’s really more powerful even, I think, than just the verse by itself.

But he tells Nicodemus, okay, let me give you another example. He said, just as Moses raised the serpent up from the earth, so must the Son of Man be lifted up from the earth, so that those who believe in him should not perish but have eternal life. And what he’s comparing himself to is another one of those typological prophecies that I mentioned this morning, the types or pictures of Christ in the Old Testament.

The story is found in the book of Numbers. I don’t remember the chapter offhand, but it’s found in the book of Numbers, where as the Israelites were wandering in the wilderness, because of their disobedience, they began to be plagued by these fiery serpents. And now there’s debate over what the Hebrew word means, if it’s actually some kind of crazy-looking fiery serpent with literal fire.

God could do that if he wanted to. Or if it means a serpent that the design of the body looked like flames. You know, they all have weird patterns on them.

Or if it was a serpent that bit and the bite felt like fire. And people spend a lot of time discussing and debating which it is. I say it doesn’t really matter.

Because the Bible says that these fiery serpents came and bit the people of Israel as they were there in the wilderness because of their unbelief. And the people were dying because of these snake bites. And so Moses, talking to God, is told to fashion a bronze serpent.

Not as any kind of idol, but is told to fashion a bronze serpent and to put it up on a pole. Incidentally, I told this story in Norman, and my wife said, that’s where they get that snake on the pole for the doctors, for the medical stuff. I said, that’s exactly right.

So if you’ve ever wondered where that came from, it’s a biblical allusion there. He was told to make a bronze serpent and to put it up on a pole. And he was told that he would raise it up in the midst of the camp, and anybody that was bitten would be healed if they simply would turn and look on that bronze serpent.

And he compares himself to this serpent and says, even as the serpent was lifted up in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. And the parallel there really is great between Jesus and this bronze serpent because when they look, it’s not the physical act of their looking that heals them. I believe it’s their faith at believing God’s promise that He would heal them.

Because if they didn’t believe it, why would they look? And yet all they had to do was believe God on His promise and turn and exhibit that faith by turning and looking at this bronze serpent up on the pole and they would be healed. What I also think is an interesting parallel in the story is that in the Old Testament story, the very thing that afflicted them was the very thing that was put up there on the pole.

Just as in the New Testament, when Jesus was put on the cross, the Bible says that God made him to become sin for us who knew no sin. He took our sins on himself and was crucified. And our sins in him were nailed to the cross.

And so for us too, the very thing that afflicts us is the very thing that was put up there. If we’ll turn and trust in God’s promise, then we’ll be healed of the same thing. It’s a great parallel that Jesus points out here to Nicodemus.

Nicodemus, being a leader of Israel, should have been familiar with this story. And he says, The Son of Man, just like this, must be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For, because God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life.

And he ties this into what he’s been talking about with the bronze serpent, that all of this was done by God because of God’s love. Because God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son to be this one who would become sin for us, who would be placed up there, who would be lifted up from the earth, that those who believed on Him would not perish but have eternal life. Verse 17, For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

Jesus could have very easily come as He will come one day. He could have come the first time as the righteous judge just to set things right and to mete out justice on the people who deserve justice. But he says he didn’t come into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.

Jesus being God, being one with the Father, and thus being a God of justice, well, doesn’t that leave off justice? No, he says in verse 18, he that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. So the Son didn’t come into the world to condemn the world.

He says here in verse 18, the world is already condemned. didn’t need added condemnation from God the Son when he came into human form. What the world needed at that point was somebody to save them from the condemnation they were already under.

He that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is that condemnation. By the way, people, atheists will claim that it’s a monster of a God who would doom people to hell for not believing in him.

Folks, our crime, our original crime was not that we didn’t believe in Jesus. Our original crime was sin. and we were under condemnation already by default, and when we don’t believe in his name, we’re still under that condemnation.

The atheist likes to believe that the God taught in the Bible fired the first shot in this war. That’s not true. It was our rebellion.

And he says, and this is that condemnation, that light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. And everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. So he says, here’s a picture of that condemnation.

This light has come into the world. Now, if we read in John chapter 1, the Bible calls Jesus the light, calls him the word also. And he was come into the world and he was not received.

He was not believed in. The Bible says here and in John chapter 1 that men loved the darkness rather than the light. But folks, even before Jesus came, men loved darkness instead of the light.

This wasn’t something that started when Jesus came into the world. Wherever God has revealed himself to men at any time and place in history, there have always been those who have rejected what they knew of God. Romans chapter 1 talks about the entire world being without excuse because what they knew of God, they chose not to remember.

They chose not to retain God in their knowledge. The Bible says they worshipped and served the creature rather than the creator. Because of this, God allowed them, ties in with his permissive will, he allowed them to run wild with their thoughts and imaginations, and their hearts were darkened.

Throughout history, people have always rejected what God did reveal to them, with very few exceptions. Men loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. He says the reason they loved the darkness rather than the light was because their deeds were evil.

And it’s easier to hide your evil deeds in the dark than it is in the light. That’s why most crime occurs at night. It’s easier to hide under the cover of darkness.

And if we came close to the light of God, light reveals things, and we would see ourselves and how wicked and how ugly our souls are before God, how ugly our deeds are before God. He said, they hate the light, and neither do they come to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved, lest they would be judged and corrected. And he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are also wrought in God.

But he who does the truth, he who follows God and does the truth, comes to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that his deeds may be shown, that they are wrought in God, that they are worked in God. And this is where he leaves off with his conversation with Nicodemus, at least as far as what’s recorded. But in this, Jesus has left us with three very important points about the great need that men have for the gospel.

And if you’re wondering, I always tell you it seems like sometimes there are four points, but it seems like most of the time I give you three points. And a lot of times that’s by design, because three points are easier to leave here and remember and do than the seven, eight, and nine-point messages I used to preach when I started preaching. So if you wonder, why is it always three points?

It’s not that that’s all I see, but I want to give you stuff that’s easy enough to remember, put into practice. The first thing that we see here is that without Christ, men dwell in spiritual darkness. Without Christ, men dwell in spiritual darkness.

We see that from verse 19, where he says that this light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. Before the light came into the world, they were already in darkness, and as soon as the light came, they still loved the darkness. Men are kind of the opposite in a spiritual level, are kind of the opposite from moths.

Moths flock toward the light, and we seem to flee from it. Not to beat us down too much, but in that regard, we’re more like cockroaches than moths. We flee from the light.

But without Christ, men dwell in spiritual darkness, and we love it. I mean, let’s just be honest about it. We love it.

The Bible says it. We know it from experience to be true. We know it from seeing the world around us.

Men live in spiritual darkness. What are you talking about spiritual darkness? It’s a good church term, but how does it apply to the real world?

What it means is that men are completely ignorant or unwilling to face their true spiritual condition. When we are in the dark and remain in the dark, we can’t see just how bad we really are. When we’re in the dark, we can’t see just how bad we really are.

I quoted my youth pastor this morning that joke about the fatalist falling down the stairs. I remember another, not a story, but an illustration he used to give about this very topic and talked about when he was younger having acne real bad and talking about there being a long hallway at their house. And if the light was on in the bathroom at the end of the hallway where you could see the mirror and the light was down there, you stood at the very end of the hallway, the very other end, and the light was off in the hallway.

You could see yourself down there a little bit in the mirror, and he said, things look pretty good. Things look pretty good. But the closer you got into that light, he said you began to see the spots and the scars and the blemishes.

Folks, we live in spiritual darkness without Christ. The world around us needs to hear about Christ because they’re in spiritual darkness, and without the message of the gospel in such spiritual darkness that they don’t even realize they’re in the darkness. They don’t even realize that there’s a problem with the darkness. I think from time to time, people may feel some sense of longing for something, may feel some sense of incompleteness, something lacking in life, may even think that they need a closer walk with God.

But the idea, I’ve never heard of the idea occurring to people. And maybe there’s somebody out there, but I’ve never heard of the idea occurring to somebody that has not heard the gospel, hey, I’ve sinned against God and I need a Savior. Usually that idea comes about because of hearing the gospel.

And apart from hearing the gospel, which the Bible calls in Romans chapter 1, the power of God unto salvation, we’re in complete darkness. We’re separated from God and we’re so accustomed to that darkness and separation that we don’t realize there’s anything wrong with it. We may realize that we may get to a point in our lives where we hit what we call rock bottom and realize our lives aren’t working, there’s something missing, there’s something wrong, and go looking for a solution, but we’ll find a temporary fix and be happy with it.

And think, okay, that fixes everything until the next time we hit rock bottom. And it doesn’t stop. We don’t realize, even though we may be able to see the light in the distance, we don’t realize either the spiritual darkness that we’re in or that it’s a problem until we hear the gospel.

Because the Bible says that we love the darkness. We love living in that dark And that ignorance About the fact that we’ve sinned against God And that we need a Savior And folks, the first reason that there’s a great need For us to share the gospel with people Is that a lot of people They may realize they’re far from God But they may not realize that there’s an opportunity To come back into fellowship with God They may not realize that that distance That separation from God Is a result of their own sin And even if they do that So many people, even if they do realize it So many people in the world think If I can just be good enough will never realize the depth of the darkness that they need a Savior.

So the first reason for this great need is that without Christ, men live in spiritual darkness, separated from God and unable to even see the depth of their own lostness, the depth of their own hopelessness. The second thing tonight is that without Christ, men live in wickedness. And we see this also from verse 19 and also verse 20.

Men love the darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. These are pretty linked, these two ideas of living in darkness and of living in wickedness.

People may want to change their ways. And as I said a minute ago, a lot of times people will feel some kind of longing and may even go looking for God, they think, when they hit some kind of rock bottom, when they hit their lowest point, and think, man, if I could just do better, if I could just get in better with God and I could live a better life and I could do all these things. But folks, if we don’t come to God through Jesus Christ, we’ll never get there.

And if they say, I’m going to try to get closer to God and I’m going to try to do better and don’t do it through the person of Jesus Christ, it’s hopeless. It’s absolutely hopeless. And without Christ, we live in wickedness.

We’re born in sin. We’re conceived in sin. And we grow up the same way.

I feel like I’m kind of repeating myself from this morning. We have this wickedness and we think sometimes I can do better, I can live an upstanding life, and I can try to fix it myself. But without Christ, all we will ever be able to do is to stubbornly persist in the same wickedness that we’ve lived our whole lives in.

We may think, okay, I’ll do a little better. I’ll clean myself up over here. In the meantime, we ignore the sins that are over here.

And what we do better on, we slip back into the same old habits on that too. We are powerless, folks, to overcome sin on our own. When I say we, I’m talking about humankind in general because I recognize on a Sunday night that most of us have trusted Christ as our Savior.

I’m talking to you about the people that we’re coming into contact with who need to hear the gospel and why they need to hear it. Because a lot of people out there are looking for, how can I fix my life? How can I fix my relationships?

Why can’t I break these bad habits? Why am I doing this? And we’ll try to fix themselves.

We’ll try to become more moral. And without Christ, it’s just futility. Because we can do nothing but, like I said, to stubbornly persist in the same wickedness. The same wickedness that we’ve been living in as a result of our sinful nature since the time we were born.

The wickedness that destroys us every day we’re involved in it. And the wickedness, that is the reason we’re condemned to hell in the first place. We can’t get out of it apart from Christ. And folks, there are people out there who need to hear because they’re busy.

They’re knocking themselves out sometimes. Or maybe they’ve given up completely, trying to live a better life, trying to be better people, trying to do something so that they will feel better about themselves and so God will accept them, and it’s not going to work. Because without Christ, men live in wickedness.

And it’s not something we can overcome. And this wickedness not only will destroy them in the life to come, but it’s destroying them now. And even if they’re not to the consequences of it yet, because the Bible says sin is fun for a season, but it also talks about consequences down the road.

If they’re not facing the consequences now, the consequences will eventually destroy them. So we owe it to them because their great need is that they are in wickedness. Just like they’re in darkness and they are unable to see what their need really is, they’re also in lives of wickedness and powerless to do anything about it apart from the gospel.

Folks, the gospel is powerful. Romans calls it the power of God unto salvation. The power of God unto salvation is not me preaching at them.

It’s not even you telling them. It’s the gospel itself is the power of God unto salvation. We think about it being so hard to go and talk to people.

Oh, I might not know what to say. They may not like me. It doesn’t matter.

We’re not the ones converting them, so to speak, anyway. We’re not the ones doing it. Jared Byrns is not the power of God unto salvation.

Phil Meisenheimer is not the power of God unto salvation. I won’t call on any of the rest of you. He’s probably named names before too, so I’ll do it to you.

None of us, the gospel of Christ. Romans 1. 16, For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation, unto the Jew first, and also unto the Greek. Doesn’t matter whether we get every word just so.

I’m not talking about getting the gospel wrong, but it doesn’t matter if we don’t pick exactly the word that they want to hear. It doesn’t matter if we don’t come across just the right way. What matters is the message of the gospel.

That’s what penetrates men’s hearts. That’s what the Holy Spirit uses to convict men of sin. But without it, men dwell in darkness and dwell in wickedness.

And that would be bad enough if it was just limited to the need that men have here on earth. But the third thing, the most ominous of the three, and the one that as I was looking over my notes again tonight and praying about this message, and the more I thought about it, the harder it got to breathe, thinking about the reality. We say this all the time, but our actions don’t necessarily betray the fact that we believe it, is that without Christ, men are condemned to hell.

It would be bad enough, and it would be enough of a tragedy if men lived their entire earthly lives in darkness and wickedness because we didn’t tell them the gospel, and then that was the end of it. That would be tragedy enough. But what ought to get under our skin, what ought to prick us in the hearts, and what ought to drive us to do something about it, is the fact the greatest of these three needs is that men are condemned to hell without Jesus Christ. Verse 18 could not be clearer.

He that believeth on him is not condemned. That he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And that’s not just condemning like we think about condemning somebody today in the sense of judging them.

That one day God is going to call them up and they’re going to stand before him and he’s going to list all the things that they’ve done. and then he’s going to give them a stern look and shake his finger at them and then let them on into heaven anyway. The Bible talks about the soul that sins shall be cast into hell and every nation that forgets God.

I believe that’s from the book of Psalms. If people never hear the gospel, folks, then there is no chance, there is no chance that their eternity will consist of anything but the fiery torment of hell. Zero. And we don’t tell people the gospel.

We’ll talk about this in a few weeks. One of the fear