In Touch Ministries

Dr. Charles Stanley: My friend, if you do not believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, you've never been born again. You say, "You mean to tell me that I've got to believe that Jesus is God?" Let me ask you a question. If he were not God, who was he?

Jesus was a great teacher. Jesus was a great man. Jesus was a great philosopher. He loved the children. My goodness, he was a wonderful man. No. Either you believe that he's God, or you've got to believe that he is not God, he's a fake.

Guest (Male): Many people think of Jesus as a philosopher and great moral teacher but don't believe that he's God. Today on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley will take a closer look at who Christ really is and his qualifications as the Savior of humanity. Here's part two of "The Only Door to Heaven." Let's listen to Dr. Stanley's message.

Dr. Charles Stanley: Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God nor can he enter into it." He says, "Marvel not that I said unto you, you must. Not that you might, not that you ought to, not that you could, not that you should. You must be born again or you will never get to heaven." There is only one door, and that door is the person of Jesus Christ. The way a person gets to heaven is by the experience which Jesus called the new birth.

Now, let's look at it for a moment. What in the world did Jesus mean when he said, "Except a man be born again"? The new birth is an experience. It is a spiritual experience. A person may have many events in their life that lead up to it so that we could say that it may cover a period of time, but the experience itself is an instantaneous, momentary experience.

At that given moment, a person recognizing their sinfulness and acknowledging that Jesus Christ died on the cross for their sin and paid their sin debt in full, confesses and repents of their sin. They acknowledge their need of Christ, their dependence upon him for the forgiveness of their sin, and receive Jesus Christ by faith as their personal Savior for the forgiveness of their sins and commit themselves to the person of Jesus Christ, recognizing that Jesus Christ is none other than God himself.

That is what is called the new birth experience. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation. The truth is that the new birth experience is exactly what God says it is. It is a new beginning, a new birth.

Paul said, "If any man be in Christ, he has become a new creation in Christ," so that a person who is born again, not only is there a forgiveness of the sin, not only is there a wiping away of the guilt, but there is the coming of the Holy Spirit into that person's life to give them a new spirit. Something transpires whereby a person who is born again cannot ever be what they were because they have been born into a new life. Now they have a new spirit, a new life, and that life is the Lord Jesus Christ, and that spirit is the Holy Spirit living and abiding and dwelling within them.

Now, it's interesting what Jesus said. Because with all that in mind, he said to Nicodemus, "Marvel not that I say unto you that you must be born again." Then they get in this discussion about this experience being like the wind. You can't tell where it's coming from and where it's going. That is, you can't really see the new birth experience, but you can see the results of it. It is a new life, a whole new perspective.

But then Jesus begins to tell us, what is it that man must do? That is, if this is a new birth experience whereby God does all this for us, what is our responsibility? I'm going to take you through some verses of scripture and I want you to follow me if you will in your Bible. I want you to notice that every single one of these verses has the same word in them. I'm going to let you figure out what that is. I don't think it'll take you very long.

And we're going to move into three or four chapters here: five, six, seven, and eight, where Jesus is having real conflict with the Pharisees because you see he has one goal. Listen to this. Jesus has one goal in mind, and in the Gospel of John, you see this theme all the way through. All the miracles had one ultimate goal behind them.

Not just to heal sickness and disease, but one goal higher than healing behind all the healing. Behind all the miracles Jesus had something in mind. It was something he wanted to happen to them. Look if you will in verse 14. We'll come back to this in just a few moments. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes may in him have eternal life."

Eternal life is life that never ends, which is the gift of those who've been born again. Verse 16: "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life." He says in verse 18: "He who believes in him is not judged. He who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

Look if you will now at the same chapter, verse 36. Look to see what he says: "He who believes in the Son has eternal life. But he who does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides in him." So he's putting believing and obeying here in the same category.

Look if you will in chapter five and verse 24. Jesus says here: "Truly, truly I say to you, he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life and does not come into condemnation or judgment, but has passed out of death into life." Look if you will at that 38th verse, same chapter: "And you do not have his word abiding in you, for you do not believe him who sent me."

Then chapter six, all through these verses. Verse 40 of chapter six: Jesus says, "For this is the will of God." What is the will of God? "For this is the will of my Father, that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in him may have eternal life, and I myself will raise him up on that last day."

Chapter seven, verse 37. He says now on that—speaking of the feast day here—now on that great day of the feast, he says Jesus stood and cried out saying, "If any man is thirsty, let him come to me and drink. He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being, from his spirit, shall flow rivers of living water." What does he mean by that? So he interprets that: "This he spoke of the Spirit, of the Holy Spirit, whom those who believed in him were yet to receive because Pentecost had not come yet. For the Spirit was not yet given because Jesus was not yet glorified."

He says those who believe in him, "out of their innermost being, out of their spirit shall flow rivers of living water." That is, the Spirit of God will flow through and out of the life of one who has been born again. Now, what Jesus is saying here, "but as many as believed in him," the Bible says in John chapter one, "became the sons of God. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved."

For God so loved the world that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. So the new birth experience is the result—that is, it happens in a person's life when they express faith in Christ. You say, "Oh man, I got it made. I've been believing in Jesus since I was a kid. So I thought you had something really big deal coming up. If you just talking about believing in Jesus, that's no problem."

Let me ask you a question. Believe what? What does it mean to believe in Jesus? Does that mean simply to give intellectual assent to the fact that you believe that he was born? Born in Bethlehem, born of a virgin, grew up as a young man, became a great teacher and became the Savior of the world and all the things that your grandmother and your grandfather and your mother and your dad taught you?

Is that what the new birth is all about? Is that the way a person experiences the new birth by simply believing that all these things happened? Not really. Here's what Jesus wanted them to believe. He said, "If you have seen me, you have seen the Father. I and the Father are one."

My friend, if you do not believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh, you've never been born again. There are cults today who will tell you they believe the Bible, they've got their own Bibles. Yes, they believe in God the Father, God the Son, God the Spirit. Then you ask them this question: "Do you believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh?" "Oh no, wait a minute now. I believe in God and I believe some things about Jesus and I believe some things about the Spirit, but no, don't tell me they're God."

If you do not believe that Jesus Christ is God in the flesh as he came here upon earth, if you do not believe in the deity of Christ, that Jesus Christ is God, you're lost. You say you mean to tell me that I've got to believe that Jesus is God? Let me ask you a question. If he were not God, who was he?

Now watch this. I know what you're thinking. You're saying, "Well, Jesus was a great teacher, Jesus was a great man, Jesus was a great philosopher, he was a great benefactor, he was a great healer, he loved the children, he had friends, my goodness, he was a wonderful man." No.

Listen. Either you believe that he's God, or you've got to believe that he is the biggest liar and the biggest fraud and the biggest fake and the biggest counterfeit who ever walked this earth because, you see, he claimed to be God. Now either he is God or he's a fake.

You can't say, "Oh yes, I believe all that about Jesus, but I don't believe he's God." How can you believe he's a good man if he's running around claiming to be God? How can you believe that he's a good man if he used some kind of supernatural power whereby people were healed and things happened to them? If he's not God, he's a fake.

And if he's not God, you have no business believing in him. But if he is God, does he not have the right to say, "I am the door. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man comes to the Father but by me"? Do you understand what we do? There's a whole world of people out there who are your friends and people you work with. If you ask them, they'll tell you Jesus was a great guy.

Well, if you trust him as your Savior? "No, I'm coming to that part." Well, if you believe he's such a great fellow, why don't you trust him? "Well, you know, I just don't believe that's the only way." Well, then Jesus is not a very good man. Jesus said there's only one way. He's a liar or he's God. That's what you need to understand. Jesus Christ is a big fake, a big liar, or he's God. Either forget him or turn your life over to him.

All this willy-nilly dealing around and hem-hawing around and all this conversation about what he is and a great fellow. He's not any of that. He's either God or he's a counterfeit. Amen? There can be no other choice. And I'm telling you, my friend, that there are multiplied millions of people who are terribly deceived and who think they're going to heaven.

I want to tell you, if you have refused to acknowledge that Jesus Christ is God, you are lost. You are not going to get into heaven. There is only one way, no matter what you say. God himself who created heaven and provided the Son Christ said there's one way and his name is Jesus Christ, the Son of the living God, who fulfilled every single Jewish prophecy concerning the coming of the Messiah. All the shedding of the blood of all of those lambs, Christ is the fulfillment of that. Either Jesus Christ is God or he's a fraud.

Now, where does that put us? You say, "Well, I do believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And I do believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sin. And I do believe that he paid my sin debt in full. I do believe that he's God's only begotten Son. And I do believe that if I ask him to forgive me of my sins, that he will do that. I do believe." But what does it mean to believe?

It's very interesting. You take the Bible through the New Testament, and you can go through every time the word "believe" is used—that is, where ever Jesus or the apostles challenge somebody to believe. Every single time a person expresses faith in Christ, there is a change that takes place.

You see, now think about this. If you acknowledge that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and you really believe that he's God, believing is more than in the mind; it is a commitment of a person's life. Now let me make something very clear.

Jesus Christ comes into our life through the Holy Spirit. That's the new birth experience, in order that you and I may live godly and holy before the Lord. And to believe in Jesus Christ is not merely to give intellectual assent to him as a person, but to acknowledge in our spirit that he is God. And being God, we confess and repent of our sins to him, and confessing and repenting of our sins to him, we choose to follow him as our Savior and our Lord.

A lot of folks are worried about eternal security. I'm not worried about that. Because I know that if you've been saved by the grace of God, you're eternally secure. Now their problem is this. They look at people out here who say they've been saved and living like the devil. A lot of those folks have never been saved.

Let me ask you a question. Let's go back, we put all this together in a moment. First of all, we said the new birth is a new experience whereby there's a total transformation. That is, we have a brand new spirit, a brand new life because we've become somebody we were not. Christ Jesus has become our life. The Holy Spirit has made us alive unto God. New hunger, new thirst, new destination, new sense of direction, new affection in our heart. Jesus Christ who is God is now living inside of us.

How in the world can you be born again? New life. Christ living on the inside, the Holy Spirit living on the inside to gift you—that is, to give you those spiritual gifts—teach you, encourage you, comfort you. Whose responsibility it is also to convict us of our sin, to convict us of the righteousness, the adequacy of the life of Christ to atone for our sin, and to convict us of the judgment of God to come.

I'll tell you how you can know whether you've ever been born again or not. Not how many churches you've joined, how many times you've been baptized, immersed, sprinkled, or poured on, how many times you go to church, how faithful you are, how much you give or how much you pray, how many times you read the Bible.

The ultimate criteria of whether you've been born again or not is this: that the Spirit of God is indwelling you. And if you have been born again and you've got God's spirit and God's life, when you sin against God, you are going to be convicted, smitten in your heart, and convicted of your sin. If you can sin against God and you're not convicted, you're not smitten with conviction, you're not upset about it, you're not grieved about it, and you can go on in your way, more than likely you are not indwelt by the Holy Spirit. You have not been born again, and you are going to hell no matter how many times you go to church, no matter how many good things you do. Without the presence of the Spirit of God, which is God's guarantee of the new birth, you're not going to get there.

Now I say that to say this. There are a lot of folks out here running around who are living in sin, disobeying God and claiming to be saved. Now let me explain something. A person who is saved can get into sin. Trapped by sin, get into an evil habit that may go on for weeks and months and maybe even longer than that. A person who does not know how to be freed and liberated.

So I understand how a person can get trapped by sin. But I want to tell you something, no matter how trapped and no matter how into sin a person gets, if they've ever been born again by the Spirit of God, the same Jesus Christ who came and indwelt them the day they were saved is still living on the inside. The Holy Spirit is still there and he's still doing his work of convicting of sin, of the righteousness of Christ, and the imminent judgment and discipline of God that is coming upon their life.

What I want you to see is this: there's only one door to heaven and Jesus said, "I'm it." And the way you get there is expressing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. The faith in Jesus Christ isn't simply a mental assent to, it is a commitment. Faith in Jesus Christ is a commitment to one in whom you believe is God and whose life becomes your life and transforms you. Doesn't mean you will not sin, but you'll never be able to sin again happily, undisturbed, without conviction. That's part of what comes with the great gift of God's grace: the warning bells, the Holy Spirit convicting us of our sin.

So I want to ask you a question. Do you really believe that Jesus is God? Would God lie? No. Well, Jesus said, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see nor enter the kingdom of heaven." Do you believe that? Well, if he's God, he told the truth, sure. Have you ever been born again? "Well, I believe in Jesus." What do you believe?

The belief of the Bible is a belief that carries with it a commitment of one's life. Not just some intellectual assent to the fact that he is. And I want to challenge you right now wherever you are and whoever you may be. You know that your righteousness will never match God's requirement for holiness.

You'll never get to heaven but by one way, and that's by acknowledging that his death at Calvary took your sin and you desperately need him. There's no other way but through Christ. Confessing your sin to him, asking him to forgive you, and telling him that you're placing your faith in him as your Savior, your Lord, and your life, and that you choose from this day forward to follow Christ. I plead with you to do that.

Listen, you don't have to get his attention; he's all ears when you're confessing your sin to him. You may not fully understand it all, you don't have to. Your understanding will grow as you commit your life to him. I want to plead with you in Jesus' name because there is only one way. Jesus said, "I am the door." Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, the life." And Jesus said you want to go to heaven when you die—and you're going to die—you want to go to heaven? You must be born again.

Guest (Male): Thanks for joining us on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley. The Bible makes it very clear, the only way to enter heaven is through Jesus Christ. If you haven't yet trusted in him for salvation, now is the time to begin that relationship with him. To know more about receiving Jesus as your Savior, go to intouch.org or listen again by following the link to "Today on Radio." And stop by our online bookstore if you'd like to order a copy of today's complete message, "The Only Door to Heaven." Again, log on to intouch.org or you can call or text us at 1-800-INTOUCH. To write to us, address your letter to In Touch, Post Office Box 7900, Atlanta, Georgia 30357.

Sin is something all of us are born with, and it must be dealt with. In today's moment with Charles Stanley, you'll hear how you can have the slate wiped clean and be forgiven forever. That's coming up. The cross was not something that God gave us as a point of decoration; the cross is the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

But what is it about the message of the cross that can transform you every day of your life? In his book, *The Gift of the Cross*, Dr. Charles Stanley walks us through scripture to show us how to see the cross in a new light. *The Gift of the Cross*, order yours today at intouch.org/store.

You're listening to In Touch. If you're not a Christian, your salvation is just a humble prayer away. Here's a moment with Charles Stanley.

Dr. Charles Stanley: If you've never accepted Jesus Christ as Savior, don't go another day without saying yes to him. It's the most important decision of your life, one that will change you for all eternity. And I'd like to invite you to make that decision right now. You can do that if you'll follow this prayer that I'm going to pray and pray it meaningfully and sincerely.

Heavenly Father, I know that I've sinned against you. Forgive me of my sin. Not because I deserve it, but because you promised it. I do believe that Jesus Christ died on the cross for my sin, paid my sin debt in full. And I here and now receive Jesus as my personal Savior and surrender my life to him. Amen.

Now that you've prayed to receive Jesus Christ, there are some things you need to do. First, get a copy of God's word and begin to read it and read it every day. You might want to start in the Gospel of John. Then pray. Talk to God so you'll know him and his wonderful plan for you because, you see, that's the way you and I learn to communicate with him. He listens to us and he answers our prayer. Thirdly, find a church or a group of fellow believers who can encourage you and help you grow in Christ. But let me just say this to you: be sure that you find a church that the man who stands behind the pulpit is preaching the true word of the living God.

Guest (Male): Learn more about salvation and living as a Christian at intouch.org. And if today's program has prompted you to consider how you could share the grace of God with others, let us know what you do. On our next program, Jesus didn't just die to save you; he also lives to be your hope. Hear more about that next time on In Touch, the teaching ministry of Dr. Charles Stanley.

This program is a presentation of In Touch Ministries, Atlanta, Georgia, and remains on this station through the grace of God and your faithful prayers and gifts.