Thank you, thank you, thank you my friend for inviting us into your home to study the bible, in Search of the Lord’s way. It isn’t often but we sometimes hear ministers and other people speak about being saved or being lost. What are they talking about anyway? That’s our subject of study today.
Oh, we’re so glad to be guests in your home today by radio or television, just to study the bible together. You know that bible of yours is God’s word for us living now in this 21st century after the death of Christ on the cross. It’s a precious book, a very precious book. It’s the only message from God that we have friend. All of us need to love and to read it with reverence and awe. And think about it, it’s a marvelous thing too that we can have in our very own language. The bibles been translated into more languages and dialects than any other book. And it’s a best seller in our country year after year… still is, after all these centuries. Let’s give God thanks for it. There is so much confusion and misunderstanding, I just need to take the time to clarify something for you today. There is really a big difference between us, the churches of Christ and the United churches of Christ that you are reading and hearing so much about in the news media today. One reason for their getting so much press is that one of their members is a leading candidate for president of the United States. And another is there extremely liberal agenda. The United churches of Christ are the 1957 merger of the congregational Christian churches and the Evangelical Reform Churches. They are more numerous in the northeastern part of the US than elsewhere. They appointed their first gay pastor in 1972. They support same sex marriages and all other such liberal behavior that is contrary to bible teaching. If you would like to know more about us the churches of Christ, please write me or call me and I’ll send you a copy of this little booklet titled Churches of Christ – Who are they? They are free of course and I’ll give you our address and telephone number a little bit later. And you may have one also in the Spanish version if you would like. Now we have a guest speaker today. Russ Dyer is with us for the second time. We like him and you received him well the other time he was here. He is the son of a preacher Herschel Dyer who lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma and is really respected there. Our speaker is one of the fine preachers here in Oklahoma City. He preaches at Southern Ridge Church of Christ here. He is in here 7th or 8th year there now. He is married to Paula and they have 3 grown children. He is co-founder and co-owner of Clarity? publications and gospel material and co-author and editor of the very popular book, Redeeming the Times. You are going to appreciate his message about what it means to be born again after the congregational hymn. I’ll be back for bible reading and prayer and then your speaker will be Russ Dyer.
We are reading today from the gospel of John, the third chapter. We will begin at verse one and read through verse five. “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him. Jesus answered and said to him, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to 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, Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.” And now let us go to God in prayer. Our merciful and all loving Father in heaven, we bow before You now with thanksgiving for the privilege and the blessing of being able to visit with so many people in their homes today by means of this program so that we can lead them in the Lord’s way. We pray, Father, Your blessings upon the service today; and bless brother Dyer as he speaks to us on this subject of being lost, really lost. We pray Your blessings upon him that he will have really a good message for us and give us something to think seriously about. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.
Hello! I am Russ Dyer with the Southern Ridge Church of Christ in Oklahoma City. The first several verses of John 3 tell us of the encounter one night between Jesus and Nicodemus. Nicodemus was a leader of the people. He was also a Pharisee, which meant that he was one who tried to observe the Old Testament law in a closely guarded and precise way. From his words we know that he knew something about Jesus. Evidently he wanted to know more about this man who simply had to be from God. When the learned teacher and respected leader of the people came to Jesus, he received far more than he could have anticipated. He learned about being lost. He learned about his own need to be saved. That had to be difficult for someone who thought he was doing all that God wanted him to do. And so by coming to Jesus, Nicodemus came in direct confrontation with the reality of his own status before God. There were many people who came to Jesus with questions and desires for help. Some of them like the rich young ruler in Matthew 19 wanted to know what it would take to gain eternal life. Whether or not his inquirers considered themselves to be lost Jesus made them aware that everyone needs saving. That was and is a fact that is startling to some. It is not a popular idea, but it is real. It is like the lady who was in the middle of a Bible study with a friend. After reading several passages she spoke directly to her friend and said, “It appears that you think I am lost and need to be saved.” Her friend responded, “It is the Bible telling you whether you are lost or not. Being saved will come from what it teaches.”
Several years ago there were a couple of very nice young men who knocked at my front door. As I opened the door, they introduced themselves to me. They further mentioned that they were from a certain denominational church in the area. I had a pretty good idea what it was that they were wanting and I thought it might be a good opportunity for us to have a good healthy exchange. So I asked them what I could do for them. They said that they had a question they wanted to ask me. I said, “All right, ask it!” One of the young men then asked, “If you died today, do you know whether you would go to heaven?” He had asked the question I wanted them to ask. It is a good one, but I was ready for it. I responded, “Yes, I do!” The young men seemed a bit startled by my reply. “You do?” they asked. I further responded, “Yes, the apostle John tells us these things-- I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life.” One of the young men stared at me and said, “That is right. That is from John 5 and verse 13.” The young men wished me a good day, excused themselves and went to the next door. Still their astonished look remained with me. I think I can rightly assume that they had not encountered many people who had held such an assurance of salvation.
It is a common thing for people to express a lack of assurance about their own salvation, especially when it is called into question. Even people who regularly attend church services will answer the question of salvation with a lack of certainty. Then there are many who give it almost no thought. Because we do not like to dwell on these aspects of salvation, these aspects of our lives in which we lack confidence, it may be that we tend to simply put them out of our minds.
I knew of a man whose car was making a terrible racket. When asked what was wrong with his car, he declared that he did not know anything about it. He would simply turn up the volume on his radio until he could no longer hear the problematic noise. Now we know that ignoring a condition of life does not make it disappear. The only place from which it is removed is from our own minds.
So when it is called into question, especially our salvation, our honestly may cause us to answer that we simply do not know. Let us go back for a moment to the story of the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus. We do not know what Nicodemus was seeking when he came to Jesus that evening. I have no doubt though that he received far more than he could have imagined. This Jewish leader was confronted with the teaching that he must be born again. He could see the physical impossibility of it and wondered at the meaning. Jesus pressed the need to be born of the water and spirit to help Nicodemus and help you and me as well, that we might know that there is a real change of a person’s nature involved. A new birth is a new beginning. It carries with it a new reliance and a new direction for your life. Paul describes this changing event of life in Romans 6. He tells us that when we are baptized into Christ we die to what we have been and are raised to a new life. Simply we are born again. It really is a marvelous thing to see how faith in Jesus can bring our lives to this point of change in that act of baptism. We gain a new birth and a new life. The new direction of life becomes even clearer in other teachings of Jesus as Jesus is confronted by that rich young ruler in Matthew 19 and verse 16. They share a common appreciation for the godly teachings of the Old Testament. That young man claims to have been an adherent of the law of God from the earliest days of his life. Still, here he is asking that there is not more he needs to do to inherit eternal life. Jesus does not miss the admirable nature of this man’s desire. Now we do not know the full motivation of this young man, anymore than we know anybody’s motivation. Perhaps he wanted confirmation of his saved status. Perhaps he just wanted to make sure that he had not missed anything. Whatever his motives might have been, they disappear as Jesus points him to the greatest opportunity. Go, sell, give and come follow me. We all need to see that Jesus was pointing to himself as the opportunity of salvation to a man who did not really know that he was even lost. After that young man left, the words of Jesus are striking. “Assuredly, I say to you that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven. And again I say to you, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Now when his disciples heard it, they were greatly astonished, saying, Who then can be saved? But Jesus looked at them, and said to them, With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible” (Matthew 19, verses 23 through 26).
We need to emphasis that the ability to be saved is from God through Jesus, for the following verses remind all disciples of Jesus that are in Him, that in Him are found all the blessings of his life and the promise of eternal life. It is not uncommon for us to put our trust in places that cannot hold it. That is why Jesus taught that real treasure should not be stored here on earth but established in heaven (Matthew 6:19 and 20). It was sometime later that Jesus clearly addressed the importance of coming to Him as He prepared his closest disciples for His departure from them. He reminded them that He is the way and the only way to God. His words were, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14 and verse 6).
Then after the church is established his disciples continued to confirm that salvation is only found in Jesus. Peter presented exactly that message to the very men who promoted the death of Jesus. Without fear and with absolute certainty Peter claimed, “Nor is there salvation in any other for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved” (Acts 4 and verse 12).
There may be many of us out here who find ourselves in a similar situation to Nicodemus. We readily recognize the beauty and the honorable nature of Jesus. We may even claim that everyone ought to know Jesus and that He is from God. Still it is the personal reflection that ought to reach into our hearts. “Do I have a certainty from the Scriptures that I am saved?” It could be that many of us, a good portion of us have not considered whether we are lost or not. Have you? There was a group of 16-age boys I knew about who went into the hills of eastern Oklahoma to hunt deer during that season one year. They arrived at a good place, left their car behind, and they hiked until they found a good place to put their camp. It was about the middle of the afternoon when they had finished establishing the camp. And as they were not familiar with the area, they decided to hike further into the hills in the hope of finding some deer trails and good places to hunt. For over two hours they hiked along creeks and over hills. They laughed, talked and spotted some good possible places to set themselves before morning light. They enjoyed themselves greatly as it was good to be out in nature. Then one of the boys commented that it would be getting dark pretty soon and that they should head back to camp. It was at that point that these adventurers realized they did not know where they were. These were city boys. No one had brought a compass. None of them had watched exactly where they had gone. Their wandering had been so random that even knowing a compass direction would not point them toward their camp. For a few minutes they argued about who was responsible for the situation, and when they finally realized that standing there arguing was not going to get them back to camp, one of the boys struck on an idea. He climbed a tree at the top of one of the hills and as he reached a high point in the tree, he began to scan area around, clear to the horizon. At first all he saw were more trees and hills. Finally he noticed a dark stretch of blacktop road beyond the next hill. Since the boys had determined that they did not know where they were, the road was their only viable option. And so as it grew dark, the boys made it to the road and quickly found they were only about a half mile from their camp. That night they agreed together that they would not again wander into the hills without knowing where they were in relation to the camp.
There seem to be a lot of us who are wandering and do not really know the way to go. We do not consider ourselves to be lost. We just don’t know the way to salvation. We may be leaning on the general consensus of the society around us like Nicodemus. He was a good man and lived by the law. He had status, and was respected in his society. Still, Jesus addressed his need to be born again. We may even be leaning on our own good works and accomplishments like that rich young ruler. He saw himself as a doer of the requirements. He could fill a check list of things that he had done. He could then see all the rich blessings that were in his life and consider that he must be fully on the right track. Jesus told him that he needed to rid himself of these things that held him back, and become a follower. It is even possible for us that we are a lot like those boys who wandered into the hills. The day was pleasant. They saw no reason to think that it was not all well. It was only the sinking of the sun that made them aware of their lost state. To such as these, Jesus points to the road. He reminds all of us that He is the way, and the only way to God. And when we think of who God will see as lost, our minds might commonly run to a certain set of people. We might think of the vile and contemptible, the people who we want to put behind bars. They make us fearful for our own safety and for the safety of our loved ones. When we think of the lost we may think of those who are criminals. There should be no doubt that these people need salvation, but aren’t there more? What about you and me? The apostle Paul writes in the book of Romans that sin has affected us all (Romans 3 and verse 23). So as we have said all people need saving. All people need the one who can save us and bring us back to God. All of us need Jesus. With Him, we can be born again. We can through faith, repentance, and baptism be born of the water and spirit. We then have someone to follow. We have the way to where we need to go. Be sure that you are saved. If you died today do you know that you would go to heaven? You can know for sure. So let us pray. Our Father and God in heaven, we want to thank You for Your word and its guidance to us, for Jesus who is our way of salvation and our way to You. And now, Father, we thank You for all who hear these words this day, and may we all lean upon You for our hope, our opportunity and for our salvation. And it is in Jesus Christ, our Lord, we do pray. Amen!
Brother Dyer we are so grateful to you for this very fine gospel message. We will pray it has fallen on some receptive ears and responsive hearts so that someone or perhaps many someones will be moved from the lost state to the saved state. Thank you Russ for being with us and may God bless you in your work. If you would like a free CD or an audio cassette tape of today’s program or if you’d like a printed copy of Brother Dyer’s message today, or the booklets on Churches of Christ – Who are They that I mentioned earlier either in English or Spanish, simply mail your request to In Search of the Lord’s Way, P.O. Box 371, Edmond, OK 73083. Or by email to searchtv@searchtv.org. And if you prefer to simply pick up the phone and call, please use our toll free telephone number, it’s 1-800-321-8633. Let me tell you about our free bible correspondence course before I leave. It consists of 8 colorful lessons that take the student through the bible in a systematic way. You do it all at your own pace. One lesson a week, or two a week, or one every two weeks, or one a month, whatever you choose, whatever meets your schedule. All you need to do to enroll is just simply call us. We’ll enroll you and get you started at once. And we’ll send you lessons one and two. And you do lesson one, mail it in, in the envelope we provide for you. And while you do lesson two, we’ll be grading lesson one and we’ll return it to you with lesson three. And there are 8 lessons. Would you like that? It is so important that we all read and understand the bible. It is God’s message, God’s word for us. And all this month, we are featuring guest speakers on this program, so you won’t want to miss one of them. And tell your friends about this special series also. And we’re looking forward to our 28th Anniversary program. And that will be the week of September 2nd. That will be the first full week. Some of these programs are broadcast on Sunday and sometimes it’s through the week. But in your area whatever it is that will be our anniversary program. I am looking forward to that. We’re planning to be back next week at this time and we hope that you can be with us then too. And, say, you might lead a soul to the Lord, if you told somebody about this program, invited their attention to it also. We try to present the saving gospel of Jesus Christ in every message and people all over the country that we hear from, some up North and some in the South, who are becoming Christians. God Bless you now. We love you.
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