True Friend

Are you truly saved?

Before we get started, and while I bring this message, I want us to think about this question, think about it really hard. Are you truly saved? I don’t want to confuse anyone, and I don’t want anyone who is truly saved to doubt their salvation, but just because you have been in church all of your life does not mean that you are saved. If the rapture happens on a Sunday morning, around 11:00 when the majority of the churches across this country are full, there will be a surprisingly number of people still sitting in the same pew they have been sitting in for years, and years.

Matthew 7:21–23 ESV

“Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?’ And then will I declare to them, ‘I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.’

So you may ask, if going to church, and doing this, doing that, going here, and going there, blah blah blah blah, if these things don’t save me, what will, Well it’s very simple, kinda, and it goes like this.

John 3:16–21 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

16 “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God. 19 And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil. 20 For everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed. 21 But whoever does what is true comes to the light, so that it may be clearly seen that his works have been carried out in God.”

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Jn 3:16–21). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

I am sure you have heard this before about studying scripture, but anytime we see for, or therefore we have to go back a few verses to see what it is there for.

If you have a red letter edition Bible you know that this is Jesus speaking. So, lets take a look back and see what Jesus is saying. Verse 1 of gives us an introduction to who Jesus is speaking to. He is speaking to a man named Nicodemus. Mark this spot in your Bible because we will go back to it several different times today.

Verse 1 also says Nicodemus was not just any man he was a Pharisee, and in addition to being a Pharisee he was also a member of the Sanhedrin, or as this scripture calls him "a ruler of the Jews".

If we back up a little further and look at John Chapter 2: verses 23-25 we read that while Jesus was at the Passover Festival a lot of people trusted in the name of Jesus because they saw for their own eyes some of the miracles Jesus was doing.

But it says Jesus did not trust them. Why do you think that was? The last part of verse 25 tells us that Jesus didn’t trust them because He knew what was in man. What does that mean, He knew what was in man?

He had just witnessed what they had done to the temple. They were being disrespectful to their God by turning the Temple into a place to make money. They had let greed make them focus more on making money, than to focus on Worshipping God.

More importantly the people there were being "religious". They were more focused on the miracles Jesus was performing, and what He could do for them, than focusing on Jesus Himself. They were not concerned at all with what they could be doing for Jesus.

If we are not careful, if we don’t remain spiritual, if we don’t keep our focus on God, and how we can love Him back, how we can be his true friend, we can get caught up in "religion" ourselves.

Going to church, teaching a Sunday School class, singing hymns, and songs, even preaching can be just religion. I am here to tell you, religion, or being “religious"does not save us folks.

Now don’t take me wrong, doing these things, or anything else for God is good, but, it’s all about our motive for doing these things, and more. It’s about our attitude, our being a friend to God, out of pure love for our God should we do these things. As a matter of fact in it says everything we do we should be doing out of love, and admiration of our one and only Holy God.

Colossians 3:23 ESV

Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men,

With that being said back in our text, if anyone could have been "religious" Nicodemus, a Pharisee could have been like a lot of his colleagues, and be hung up on the law, and other "religious" practices, but instead, unlike the others Jesus spoke about in John 2:24-25 He trusted Nicodemus, because He knew Nicodemus heart. Nicodemus was searching for a true relationship with his new friend.

Social media has ruined our societies thoughts about friends, and what a friend truly is. Used to a friend was someone we had a relationship with, and a love for, someone we would do anything for. A friend would die for another friend. Now, a friend is just someone on a list in front of us on a computer screen. It is someone we may, or may not have a relationship with.

Verse 2 says Nicodemus came to Jesus by night. It was the custom in those days to not be out at night. Nicodemus knew he could go see Jesus if he went at night after all had went to bed and not get caught by the other Pharisees'. In the same verse he calls Jesus Rabbi, or teacher. That would take a lot from a Pharisee to call someone not in their group who doesn't have their education a teacher, or Rabbi.

Nicodemus was educated enough in the scriptures, and was sensitive enough of them to recognize Jesus as coming from God, and that God was with Him.

Nicodemus had gotten a long ways in his Bible learning, he probably wanted Jesus to recognize how much he knew and was really buttering Jesus up hoping maybe to get some recognition for his effort, but instead in verse 3 Jesus shuts him down on his theological arrogance and replies with a confusing statement for Nicodemus. He let's Nicodemus know that he doesn't know all the answers, and can't tell him how he knows things about heaven, and how God had sent Him.

I am going to give you what Jesus says to him in the SW Missouri translation of this scripture “I'm not going to lie to you, unless you are born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God”.

Jesus uses confusing statements a lot in scripture so that He can make it a teachable moment for whoever He is speaking with.

The Greek word translated born again is eh noth en, which means from above, or born again from God above, you cannot see Heaven.

Jesus sets him up for failure, knowing he is going to automatically think in the human way, not the heavenly way. He was right because Nicodemus in verse 4 asks a fleshly question, and not a spiritual question, a dumb question of how can someone go back into the womb of their mother? Jesus effectively showed Nicodemus he didn't know everything spiritually, a matter of fact he was not very spiritual at all.

Jesus did however want to set him up for success when it comes to his salvation. He did not want him to think he was saved, and really was not. Jesus knew Nicodemus, knew who he was, and the miracles He had performed, but he wanted to make sure he knew the Holy Spirit on a more personal level. How many are in the church as a whole today who think they are saved but really are not? More than you would think. I am talking the church as a whole, not just this church. People in churches across this country just show up to be fed, sometimes just physically. I know I have been a part of a church that the only time we drew a crowd was when we had food involved, or maybe a band or something to offer them.

Verses 5-6 Jesus makes it really clear to him that he has to be born of the Spirit, he has to have the Spirit residing in him. When we recieve the Holy Spirit we are baptized in the Spirit meaning we are fully filled with Him.

Jesus sums it all up to him in just a few short words in verse 7. You must be born again. The Greek word for you in verse 7 is plural. You must be born again. Since the you is plural that means we, all, must be born again to see the Kingdom of Heaven.

No one is exempt from this. Being a good person, showing up to church every week, giving to the poor, serving, none of that matters if we are not born again.

That takes us down to Chapter 3 verse 1 again. For God so loved the World! He loves everyone, not just us sitting here in this church building, or Risen Ranch Cowboy Church, or the millions of other churches across this globe. God loves the ones who are not in church. He loves those who are sitting in a prison cell, He loves those who are beating their children right now, those who are stealing, you get the picture.

God So Loved The World

Most translations say God "so" loved the world. I know till I did this study I was reading this wrong. The way the word is used in the Greek means instead of God loving so much, that God loves us in this way, that He sent His Son into the world to die for the world.

It says in verse 16 that He sent His only Son. This was the only Son who could do what He did for us. You know we are considered to be God’s sons, a part of is family, it was that Jesus is the only Son who could die for the sins of the people so that they can be saved.

In verses 14-15 it says that just as Moses raised up the serpent in the wilderness, Jesus was lifted up on the cross to die once and for all our sins, the whole world's sins. We just have to have faith and believe, then be filled with the Holy Spirit to be saved.

You find the story of Moses and the snake in the wilderness in . Moses made a bronze snake and raised it up on a pole, similar to the medical sign we see today. The people were plagued by snakes because of their sin of complaining and many were bitten. If anyone who was bitten by a snake would look at this bronze snake would be completly healed.

This was not just those who didn't complain, this was everyone, and anyone could benefit from this. This was a sign in the Old Testament of Jesus Christ being raised up on the cross to save anyone who would look upon Him for salvation. This was available for all of Israel. Just like the salvation of Jesus is available to anyone in the World.

When we hear Paul comparing the bronze snake on the pole, to Jesus on the cross it makes me wonder how Paul, who knew the Old Testament very well, how he felt when he realized that the bronze snake he had read, and studied about was a prophecy of Jesus on the cross that had been fulfilled.

There is another comparison from this story in Numbers, and that is we are plagued with sin. We have been bitten by sin like a bite from a poisonous snake. Sin has overtaken us, and has doomed us to death, unless we look at not a bronze snake on a pole but the real deal, and that is Jesus who was raised up on the cross. Just like being saved from the snake bite was offered to anyone who looked, Jesus was raised up on the cross, and was offered to anyone who looks to Him for salvation. Anyone means anyone. This offer of salvation is for the whole world if they would just accept it. It doesn’t matter what the person has done in the past, all that matters is that we truly believe in His healing power, the power to heal the wounds, any sin has left.

When our wounds are truly healed, we will have a desire to want to serve Him, we will want to be like Him. We will love Him, and hate sin just like He does.

Sin is an enemy of God, and when we don’t allow Him to heal us of our sins we are His enemy. But when we do allow Him to heal those sins, when we allow Him to cast them out as far as the East is from the West we will become His friend and not an enemy.

As a friend we will want to be like Him. We will want to act like Him, we will want to please Him. We will want to serve Him. As His friend we should hate sin as badly as He does. Enough we will want to eliminate as much sin in our life as we can. That doesn’t mean we will not sin, just that when we do sin it will bother us to the point we won’t want to repeat it again.

God loves the whole world, and wants us to be the same. This means we need to knock down any racial, or social boundaries we have set up for ourselves when it comes to loving and helping others.

Tell story of growing up with a racist attitude. Church camp, Grandpa with no filter.

Jesus does not condemn,...... yet!

We are also sometimes bad as a church whole at condemning people. There are people out there who hatefully protest gays, and lesbians, they get hateful when approached with different views than what they were taught from the Bible, and their parents.

Verse 18 says whoever believes in Jesus is not condemned. There is only one unpardonable sin, only one sin that will condemn a person, and that is not suicide as you may have heard at one time. The unpardonable sin is rejecting the Holy Spirit.

The verse goes on to say but whoever does not believe is condemned already. Why rub salt in a wound that is already there by condemning a person for their sin? I am not saying we should accept what they are doing and ignore it.

We have to truthfully, and lovingly educate them on what they are doing is against what the Bible says, but at the same time we have to love the person who is committing the sin. I know it is hard sometimes but if that is what Jesus does why can't we?

Attacking someone who is already condemned to eternal punishment and hell with harsh words, and hateful attitudes does nothing but turn them off of Jesus, and Christians. It will push them deeper into condemnation. It can even cause you to sin. Matter of fact if you hate a person you commit murder in God's eyes and that is murder.

says

Romans 12:18 ESV

If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

18 If possible, so far as it depends on you, live peaceably with all.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ro 12:18). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

Instead if we were to approach someone who is sinning with love, kind educating,Spiritual words, and allow the Holy Spirit to do His job of convicting them they would be more likely to want what we have, and that is the love of Jesus Christ within us.

We can load ourselves down by condemning ourselves. If we have sinned in our past and we have asked God for forgivness and we don't move on from it and forget it like God has it will eat us up. The stress alone will kill us.

says

Psalm 103:12 ESV

as far as the east is from the west, so far does he remove our transgressions from us.

For as high as the heavens are above the earth,

so great is his steadfast love toward those who fear him;

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Ps 103:11–12). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

One of the tricks of the Devil is to make us regret something. He will find something that causes us regret and harp on it, till it drives us crazy.

Philippians 3:13 ESV

Brothers, I do not consider that I have made it my own. But one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and straining forward to what lies ahead,

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version. (2016). (Php 3:13–14). Wheaton: Standard Bible Society.

God will forget it we need to as well.

We have all and will all do something wicked, that is just our sinful nature. What we have to do is rely on each other to tell the other brother when they are sinning, but do so in a loving and caring way.

Verse 20 says that everyone who does evil stays away from the light. If you have ever been in law enforcement, or at least listened to a scanner you will know that night time is when all the crazys come out. The night time is full of evil in the streets of larger towns. Why is that?

Because whenever someone is up to no good they don't want to be seen, so they do it in the night where they can hide better.

But as verse 21 says when someone does something good they want a spotlight on them so everyone would see.

Closing

What about it, do you spend your life in the dark hiding what you do in secret? Do you know God has night vision? He can see everything that is done good or bad.

Are you a pretend Christian, do you know for sure that you are going to be in heaven someday.

told us that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. To be a true friend of God we are to believe in God’s Son. The Greek word believe in this context only shows up in Johns Gospel. The word Faith is in all the other Gospels. The difference between Faith, and believe is that the Greek translated here in John has a preposition after the word believe to show that the word is not static, but that it requires action. To “believe” in the Lord Jesus is to put our faith into action.