Faith, Rebirth, and Salvation Through the Cross

We are here in a realm where all our natural faculties and propensities are not sufficient. Here we are entering the spiritual realm, and we have to realize that at the very beginning because if we come here to these things with our natural minds, with our ordinary reason and understanding and ability, well, we'll make nothing of it at all. [00:39:37]

The whole glory and marvel and mystery of the doctrine of the person of the Son of God, Jesus of Nazareth, Jesus the Son of God, the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the things. Where are we, my friends? Are we clear about this? These are the things about which he spoke to Nicodemus. These are the things that are vital to us. [00:08:00]

The message is this: we are bearers, they say, of glad tidings. What are these glad tidings? The glad tidings are these: unto you this day is born in the city of David a savior, which is Christ the Lord. That's the message, and it's the first announcement that is made to these men after his birth. [00:13:21]

The whole world is under the wrath of God. Oh, but men can't receive that. How shall he receive if I tell you of heavenly things? And the world doesn't. The world hates this above everything else, and yet it's our Lord's own teaching. The world, I say, has a greater objection to this doctrine, this biblical doctrine of the wrath of God, than perhaps of any other single aspect of truth. [00:25:35]

The wrath of God is set against sin and evil. There is no sense in the Old Testament if you reject this doctrine. But as I say, it's not only in the Old Testament. You turn over the pages, and you come to the New Testament, and you look at that first preacher, John the Baptist. What was his message? This was his message. [00:28:50]

The Apostle Paul talks about the wrath of God ten times in the epistle to the Romans alone. Do you remember him writing about that great day in the first epistle to the Corinthians? Do you remember what he says in the second letter to the Corinthians, chapter 5? This is how he puts it: knowing the terror of the Lord, we persuade men. [00:31:40]

The wages of sin is death. I admit very freely that I would have no reason for preaching like this in this pulpit were it not that I believe that we are all by birth spiritually dead because of sin and that unless we are saved, we will go on to eternity in that state of spiritual death. [00:36:01]

The Son of God here told Nicodemus, and he's telling you at this moment that he came into this world to be crucified to save you from your sins, from your sin and all the dread consequences. He died. He was lifted up on that cross, that pole, in order that you and I need not go to hell. [00:47:35]

If you believe this, if you believe that the Son of God came from heaven to earth to taste death for you, to die the death that you deserved, to bear the punishment of your sin in his own body on that cross on Calvary's Hill, I tell you in the name of God, you shall not perish. [00:48:38]

You are saved. Your sins are forgiven, not because you've done anything, but because he's done it all for you, and you simply, in your helplessness, look to him and cast yourself upon him and what he says. You believe it because he's saying it. You accept it. You rely upon it. You rest upon it. [00:49:44]

We have his own word for saying that as you do so, you are that moment healed from all the consequences of sin. You are pardoned. You are reconciled to God. You become a child of God and an heir of everlasting bliss. That's his own message to Nicodemus, not miracles, not teaching, but this salvation question. [00:50:09]

He has come about that, and his way of dealing with that and of solving the problem was to suffer the disgrace, the ignominy, the agony, and the suffering and the shame of a death upon a cross. But he has done it, and whosoever believeth in him shall not perish but have everlasting life. [00:51:31]