The Debbie Taylor Williams Podcast

Debbie Taylor Williams: Father, how we do thank and praise You. And Oh, Lord Jesus Christ, our holy, holy Master and Savior, thank You for speaking the words to Nicodemus that You spoke to us. Thank You that Nicodemus searched. Thank You that we can search and find You and be saved from condemnation into eternal life. I pray You bless Your word, anoint it with power, as if You, Jesus, were speaking it. For it's in Your name we pray, Amen.

Oh, I am so glad to be with you every week. I cannot wait to get together with you and us open the word together. So if you have your Bible, open John 3. We are looking at how Jesus tells Nicodemus he must be born again to enter the kingdom of heaven. And there are listening guides that are being passed out for those of you who may not have received one. If you need a listening guide, get one because it has our key verses and our doctrines, which today is on the Holy Spirit.

As you see, if you're following along with me, that the Holy Spirit is one of the persons of the Trinity. He is a 'He', not 'it'. He is the Spirit of God the Father and of Jesus Christ. He, the Holy Spirit, is full of majesty and opposed to all impurity. He, the Holy Spirit, convicts of sin and righteousness and is the means of being born into the family of God. He seals believers for eternal life and eternity in heaven. And we say thank You, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. Amen. This is the sign for Amen in sign language, and so if you don't like saying Amen out loud, you can just sign it. And so we say Amen to that.

As we look at John 3, I'd like for us to go ahead and read John 3, the very first part of it, together. And we'll spend most of the time on it. Even though you've read it, I love reading the word aloud with you again. All right: Now 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 have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that You do unless God is with him." And Jesus answered and said to him, "Truly, truly, 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? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?" Jesus answered, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not be amazed I say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit."

Nicodemus said, "How can these things be?" And Jesus answered and said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony. If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man."

"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so the Son of Man must be lifted up so that whoever believes in Him will have eternal life. For God so loved the world, He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send the Son into the world to condemn the world, to judge the world, but that the world should be saved through Him. He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

"This is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and men love the darkness rather than the light for their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and does not come to the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But he who practices the truth comes to the light so that his deeds may be manifested as having been wrought in God." And we say Amen to the words of God.

Is this a relevant topic? This topic of eternal life, this topic of belief? Yes, it is. Is it of concern what happens to a person's soul after they die? Yes, it is. Is the soul eternal, or does the soul die when the body dies? If your soul is eternal, then what provisions should you be responsible for? You're the only one who can. What responsibility and what should you be doing for the provision of your soul? Because the Bible teaches, and man inherently knows, that our soul goes on.

It doesn't matter: Hinduism, Buddhism, many new age religions teach reincarnation. That the soul does continue to live on when the body dies, but that the soul is going to be incarnate, reincarnated, reput into another body, into a baby body. And there is a works that they try to do to establish that place of Nirvana where they are not touched and their conscience is not defiled by lust, anger, anything like that until they reach the ultimate Nirvana where they are not conscious of anything. That is not the good news that we have of the gospel.

But today, there are many people who are seeking not to die. The picture that you have of the man, his name is Brian Johnson. He is a tech entrepreneur, and that is his marketing director. And he is standing in this photo in front of a light system, and he says, "I don't think there has been any time in history where homo sapiens could say that death may not be inevitable." That is what he believes. Of course, Dr. Phineas Cohen, Dean of the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, says death is written in our genes. And it is correct; we do believe that.

But who's right, the doctor or this man? Well, both are right. Because our body is going to die. Death is written into our physical genes. But God has made our soul eternal. Both are right, and our soul will either live in the kingdom of God or it will remain under the condemnation that it is because of sin. In John 3:1-21, Jesus says to Nicodemus that he must be born again of the Spirit. And when you see here where it says this man of the Pharisees, this word Pharisee means 'set apart'.

He was a ruler of the Jews. He came by night; he wanted personal time with Jesus. Jesus was surrounded by people during the day, and he wanted that personal time. Sometimes when I'm speaking at a conference, somebody will slip me a note, or they will say, "Can I visit with you for a few moments alone by yourself?" They want to have a one-on-one conversation. And Jesus no doubt honored and appreciated that Nicodemus wanted to have some one-on-one time with him.

But look at how he approaches Jesus. He says, "Rabbi," and in the Greek, this word truly means 'master'. Nicodemus is coming and he is coming to Jesus to learn something. That is why you go to a Rabbi. And we've got two Rabbis: Nicodemus and Jesus. Two who are masters of the scriptures. They have the Pentateuch, they have the first five books of the Bible memorized. They, in addition, have the Talmud, which is the explanation of the scriptures and the rabbinical debates and decisions that were made where there were areas of gray and they needed to figure things out.

These are two scholars of the scripture sitting there having this conversation. And that's why Jesus says, "Nicodemus, how are you doing?" Jesus answered the question that he knew Nicodemus wanted the answer to. The only thing that mattered was the kingdom of God. And so Jesus got right there. And that ought to be the primary thing you and I need to know is how we are in the kingdom of God, and it should be the passion, the burning passion of our hearts: every single person we know, are they going to be in the kingdom of God?

Because if they are not, then they are in a place of condemnation. It is like they were born in jail. My husband, who's a senior state judge, retired now, has unfortunately had to sentence so many people to jail. And there have been people in jail, not necessarily that he has sentenced, but there are sometimes women in jail who give birth to babies in jail. It is like because of Adam and Eve and the sin passed on to us, we are already in jail. We are already in the prison of our sins. We are already in condemnation.

We're not going to get out unless Jesus comes to our jail door, our cell, and opens it up, and He has done that. But if I'm in jail and I choose to sit in jail, that is not Jesus's fault. So these people that say, "Well, I don't think Jesus ought to send anybody to hell. If God was loving, He wouldn't send anybody to hell." People are already in condemnation. And we have the good news to tell people that they don't have to die because Jesus has died for them. That is the message, and that is what Jesus is communicating with Nicodemus here.

In John 3, as we continue, He says three times, "truly, truly, truly, truly." And I shared with you a couple of weeks ago what it means: at the end, it's a Greek word, Amen. So if it's said at the end and you say Amen, you're saying you agree. But if somebody says it at the beginning of a sentence, "truly, truly, I say to you," and that's what Jesus always says with his truly, truly. Truly, truly, I say to you. And that means not 'may it be fulfilled', but that means what I am telling you is truth. It is truth. It is firsthand knowledge that I am communicating with you come from heaven.

And so here is this question. "What are you talking about, being born again? I don't understand it," he says to him. And now, I want you to look at something that I think is very interesting. In verse 9, Nicodemus says, "How can these things be?" And Jesus said to him, "Are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand these things? Come on, Nicodemus." So I want us to go through and I want us to look at the things that Jesus said, "truly, truly," to him about, and you don't understand these things.

You don't understand about the Spirit. You don't understand about the Son of God. You don't understand about the world. You don't understand about the judgment. You don't understand about Moses lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. You don't understand these things, Nicodemus. So let's look at what these were. In the first thing he said, "Are you the teacher of Israel and you don't understand about the Spirit of God? Nicodemus, you've got it memorized. Genesis 1:2: 'And the Spirit was moving over the surface of the deep.' The Spirit was the source of creation, Nicodemus."

You know about the Spirit with a capital S. "Nicodemus, you know Joel 2:28: 'I will pour out my Spirit on all mankind.' S with a capital S. You know Ezekiel 11:19, Nicodemus: 'I will give them a new heart and put a new spirit in them.' Nicodemus, think, Nicodemus, think. Nicodemus, you don't know about the Spirit of God. Nicodemus, in verses 9-13: 'Come on, Nicodemus, I've said I am the Son of Man.' And how can you say that you don't know about this? Verse 13: 'No one has ascended into heaven but He who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.'"

I read to you last week the scriptures on Daniel 7:13-14, where this is a prophetic, double-fulfilling prophecy of Jesus coming. Not just the first time, but also the second time where He is identified with us as the Son of Man. "Come on, Nicodemus, think. The serpent, Nicodemus, was in the Garden of Eden. He was the deceiver. Come on, Nicodemus. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness when the people were complaining and the serpent caused people to die because of the serpent's sting."

"Nicodemus, as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness and the people who had faith to look to the serpent lived and did not die, even so the Son of Man will be lifted up on the cross so that the sting of death is not effective on them. Jesus took the curse that was made in Genesis for man's sin. 'Cursed be the ground, cursed be you Satan, cursed...' He took that curse. Come on, Nicodemus, put it together." And friends, I want to tell you, people that say that the Old Testament is irrelevant to the New Testament, I disagree.

You have to take that up before God, but there are too many times that Jesus used the Old Testament to explain himself. Verses 16-18: "The Son, the only begotten Son, Nicodemus. Genesis 22:2, Zechariah 12:10." And I want to read Zechariah 12:10 to you. It says, "I will pour out on the house of David and on the inhabitants of Jerusalem the Spirit of grace and supplication, so that they will look on me whom they have pierced, and they will mourn for him as one mourns for an only son, and they will weep bitterly over him like the bitter weeping over a firstborn. Nicodemus, put it together. Put it together, Nicodemus."

Master teacher to Rabbi master teacher, but this one is telling him things from heaven because He is the only one who has descended from heaven. And Nicodemus is listening. Will Nicodemus make a profession of faith in John 3? No, but he is there with the aloe and the myrrh at Jesus's burial. Yes, Jesus, Nicodemus became a believer. Not only did Jesus talk to Nicodemus about the Spirit of God, the Son of Man, the serpent, the Son who was the only begotten, He talked to Nicodemus about the world.

And he said, "Nicodemus, think back. Think back from the very beginning. The word has spoken about the whole world. Psalm 86:9 says, 'All nations...' Well let me go back up to verse 8: 'There is no one like you among the gods, Oh Lord, nor are there any works like yours. All nations, world, all nations whom you have made shall come and worship before you, Oh Lord, and they shall glorify your name. For you are great and do wondrous deeds; you alone are God. Teach me your way, Oh Lord, and I will walk in your truth.'"

The God of the world who loves the world. And so that's why He, Jesus, says to him the verse that is the most famous verse in all the Bible: "For God so loved the world, world, world, world. The salvation came through the Jewish nation, through the Jewish Messiah, but for the whole world." All of these verses are so poignant for us. And as I've already mentioned, the purpose is salvation from judgment. In Ecclesiastes 12:14, it says, "God will bring every act to judgment, everything hidden, good or evil."

There are so many passages on the judgment. Think about this, Nicodemus. Think about all of this. The bottom line, as we know, is this: for God so loved the world, the world that is under judgment, the world that is under condemnation, that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever in the whole world believes in Him will not die but have eternal life. Will not have soul death in the sense of no longer existing, but will not have the abundant life of being in the presence of the life-giving God but instead being in darkness.

When Jesus says the judgment, in verse 19, is because people love the darkness for their deeds are evil. Many times when you're talking to someone and they say, "Well, I just don't believe that," or, "it doesn't make sense," or, "I think there's any way that we can get to heaven." Those are excuses. Those are excuses. People don't want to be a follower of Christ because they do not want to adhere to Christ. They do not want to adhere to Him. The word 'believe' is used over 100 times in the book of John.

I gave you all of those key words the first week, but I didn't give you the word 'believe'. It's used more than any other word in the book of John. Believe. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And that is why in verse 18, look at that verse with me again. It's key: "He who believes," we saw it back in verse 15, "whoever believes." We see it in verse 16, "whoever believes." Verse 18: "He who believes in Him is not judged, but he who does not believe has been judged already because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son."

And I shared with you before that this word 'believe' means to entrust. It's not just head knowledge; it means you entrust yourself over to Him. Don't you understand these things, Nicodemus? We need salvation from judgment. This word 'judgment' in the Greek is crisis. Yes, it is from where we get our English word crisis. And this is a crisis. Every single human is under judgment, that jail sentence. It is a crisis. They may not acknowledge it, they may not know it, but that crisis is overcome through the light, through Jesus Christ.

Nicodemus had asked that question in verse 4: "How can this be? How can it be?" Think with me for a minute. Jesus was born physically into this world by the Spirit. Do you remember? Mary had asked the question, "How?" People are spiritually born into God's kingdom by the Spirit. We have an exchange. Jesus came from heaven by the Spirit hovering over Mary and impregnating her and him being born physically onto the earth. You and I, from the earth, through the Spirit hovering over and coming into us, make us spiritual, able to be children of God.

It is a divine exchange. You must be born of the Spirit. Mary had said, "How can this be?" I'm going to read it to you. I know you already know it, but Nicodemus and Mary both said the exact same words. Please get this. Please get this. When Gabriel came and told Mary that she was going to be the mother of the Son of God, in verse 34, Mary said to the angel the exact words Nicodemus said. She said, "How can this be? How am I going to bear God's Son? I am a virgin."

And the angel Gabriel said, "The Spirit. The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you, just like in creation. And for that reason, a holy child will be called the Son of God." And Nicodemus says, when Jesus says you must be born of the Spirit, and Nicodemus says, "How can that be?" and He says, "The Spirit will come upon you." Friends, there are too many people sitting in church that think because they sing 'Holy, Holy, Holy', they're people that think that they are Christians.

Have they been converted by the Holy Spirit? That is the question. We conceive Jesus by the Holy Spirit coming upon us. So we see this principle: Jesus was born by the Spirit in order to come to earth in a physical body as the Son of Man. And we must be born by the Spirit in order to go to heaven in a spiritually resurrected body as the child of God. Do we get this? Romans 10:9: "If there's somebody listening says, if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord and believe, entrust yourself in your heart, that God raised Him from the dead on behalf of your sin after He sacrificed His life, you will be saved. You will be saved."

Brian Johnson: He's doing all these health things. He takes 110 pills. He stands in front of this light. He's in constant communication with his doctors. I have a question for Brian: What happens if he gets run over by a car? What happens if he gets struck by lightning? What happens if he's in an earthquake? What happens if a building collapses on him? As we look quickly, I'm just going to give you the takeaways for John 3:22-36.

When John the Baptist says that he must decrease and Jesus must increase and he points people to the bridegroom, the first takeaway is in verse 22-27. And that is: while I have the light, I'm to focus on the work God has given me rather than compare myself with what God has given others to do. You've read the story; you've read the account. John's disciples were concerned because a whole lot of people were going to Jesus. It was like, "But what about our ministry? We have a ministry." And John did not concern himself with that. He did what God had called him to do.

Our second takeaway is that Jesus is my bridegroom and He is my joy. We're not going to find joy in the temporal things of the world; we will find joy in Him. Our third takeaway, and this is my Bible verse: "I must decrease." Oh my, the Lord has convicted me of that. I must decrease. Myself is of no account except that it is used for the glory of my Lord Jesus Christ. That's why last week I told y'all that the thing that the Lord wanted to overturn in my life was if I have selfish, when I am selfish about my time. "Oh, I'm already doing this Lord, are you really sure you also want me to take on this?" The Lord has said, "Oh, no, we need to spring clean your soul. We need to spring clean your mind, the way you think of things, Debbie."

I must decrease. He must increase. And Oh, there is nothing I want more than for the Lord Jesus Christ to live through my skin and take my mind and use my mouth. And this is what John the Baptist said. In 31-34, Jesus said that he is above, or John the Baptist said, Jesus is above all, and Jesus speaks what he has seen and heard, the true words of God, and he gives the Spirit without limit. Ladies, you cannot get overfilled with the Spirit. Although sometimes we feel like we just want to jump up and down, we are so filled with the Spirit, right?

Fifth: The Father loves His son Jesus and has given all things into Jesus's hands. The one who does not obey Jesus will not see life. Sixth: The person who believes in Jesus, entrusts himself to Jesus, has eternal life. Brian, who is standing in front of that light source, needs to know the true light, the true light. And seven: The Holy inspired word of God does not hide it from us or shield it from us. The wrath of God is on the person who does not obey Jesus, and they will not see eternal abundant life in heaven. If you choose to stay there imprisoned in sin and deny the light that the Lord God gives to you in Christ.

I want to give you some real quick encouraging takeaways for you to write down on your listening guide. First, I can go to Jesus as Nicodemus did with tough questions. I applaud Nicodemus. Even though Jesus said, "How can you not know this?" He then went on and explained. So go to Jesus with your tough questions. Two: I can conceive of the Holy Spirit and live eternally in the kingdom of God by looking to Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. I can pass out of judgment into eternal life. So if you are not a Christian, that is for you. Three: I can tell others, and friends, I pray that is the passion of your heart.

This is in big green, it's my big takeaway: "I must decrease and Jesus increase." I pray. And five: I can be filled with the Spirit. And it is through that means that Christ increases in my life. Isn't this exciting? I can be filled with the Spirit without limit. I can obey the Son of God. Our golden nugget: What is your golden nugget takeaway? Please write it down. Because when you think it and you write it down, it becomes more sealed in your mind. So take a moment and record your prayer in light of it.

And if you are not sure that you have passed out of judgment into eternal life, if you have questions about: have you been born of the Spirit? And it is not something that you may remember the day; you may not remember having a, quote, 'experience'. But you know in whom you believe. And you know you have been forgiven of your sins. And you know you are saved by grace. You know you have passed out of judgment. But if you do not, then please come see me. In addition, there are some little leaflets that y'all can pick up that I've brought before to share with somebody, to leave in a doctor's office. What's your golden nugget takeaway from Jesus talking to us today?