The Healing Word

Pastor Jack Morris: Our Christian life is not always lived on a high plane. We drop down into valley, cloudy experiences. Perhaps often in the valley and the cloudy experience because we do not continue in the presence of God with this ongoing daily relationship with the Lord. Again, I hear more Christians sighing than I do rejoicing.

Guest (Male): From the very beginning, God desired fellowship with mankind. Today on the Healing Word, Pastor Jack Morris is here and shares the message, "Fellowship with God." Through the story of redemption, we'll discover how Jesus Christ removed the barrier of sin so we can once again walk in relationship with the Father.

Pastor Jack Morris: God wants fellowship with us. He really does. He made this known from the very beginning of human history. He wanted to walk with Adam and Eve. He did walk with them as long as they allowed him. Did you hear that part? As long as they allowed him, as long as they permitted him, he walked with them. That was his great desire. Every day they communed and it was a beautiful, wonderful experience until they decided they didn't want to commune anymore and they went against God.

But you know what? God wanted them back. God missed them. It seems to me, as I read this story, and I'm reading through the Bible again and I started over into Leviticus now and I'm having a wonderful time reading it through, but it really seems to me that God missed them more than they missed him because he came back searching for them and calling for them again.

Then as we read through the Bible, God comes now searching for his people, continually searching, continually looking. Again, it seems again that God wants us more than we want him. There are the prophets, the priests, the judges, the kings. God speaking clearly. God has never, now notice this, hear me, God has never made his plan and his will complicated. Never has he done that.

He has done all that he can to speak in the language of the vernacular and to communicate as clearly as he possibly can to his people, to show them the way of salvation, to show them his will, and to make it so simple. And anybody and everybody can hear it, read it, and obey it. But ultimately, he comes through Jesus Christ to make his plan very, very known and very clear.

Now, this is what happened when Jesus came. His purpose was to go to Calvary, to be judged for our sins, to be buried out of sight in a dark tomb, and then to rise from the dead. He was the one that was going to carry our sin away and move that wall, that barrier that separates us from God. God spoke to Adam and Eve by himself. God walked with them.

Then God spoke through the prophets, the priests, the kings, but now through Jesus Christ, always trying to get into us, get close to us, always pulling us to himself. And now God does it in the most visible way that heaven knew how to do it. He brings his only begotten son. Now, the ultimate way of moving the sin barrier that God might get close to us and have fellowship with us was through the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So when Jesus is starting his ministry, he symbolizes what's going to happen at Calvary and at the tomb by water baptism. He goes to John in Jordan and he says, "Ultimately, what I'm going to do figuratively today, I'm going to do ultimately through crucifixion at Calvary. But today you must baptize me. I will ultimately take the sinner's place and become sin for sinners and carry their sins.

And today I want to figuratively do that. I'm going to stand in Jordan as a sinner. I'm going to be a stand-in for you. I'm going to be your stand-in. I'm going to be Pastor Morris's stand-in. I'm going to stand here for every human being who will allow me to be called by their name and to be a stand-in for them. I'm going to be a stand-in sinner.

Now, John, you must. You can't question this. You can't try to argue me out of this. You must baptize me because I'm going to be a sinner for every sinner today. Ultimately, I'm going to be on the cross and I'm going to be a stand-in there, but today I'm going to figuratively be a stand-in." And Jesus then was baptized by immersion down into the water, symbolizing that in just three years, he would be judged and go into a tomb.

"Today I'll go into the dark waters, but then I will go into a tomb. And when I go into the tomb, I'm going to carry their sins and I'm going to go down into this water figuratively. There I will do it literally. And I'm going to carry everybody's sin that allows me to be a stand-in for them. And I'm going to take their sin, that which separates them, that which keeps God from fellowshipping with them so that God will now be able to fellowship with everyone.

I'm going to take their sin and I'm going to bury it in Hades. I'm going to take their sin back to hell, to that dark region of damnation that gave birth to it and I'm going to bury it and I'm going to leave it there, but then I'm going to rise with everybody's sin buried. So, John, you baptize me and take me down. Figuratively, I'm wrestling sin. I've got a grip on it and I'm taking it down.

You can't take it down. It'll take you down. It'll take your life down. It'll take your family down. It'll destroy you. But today I'm going to take sin down. And when I get it down there, I'm going to leave it there. And then, John, pull me back up because what you're doing today, ultimately when I go into the tomb, God's going to pull me out of that tomb. I know he is. I have faith in it. And I'm going to leave everybody's sin back there and there'll be no barrier anymore and there will be fellowship with God forevermore."

Now in John chapter three, Jesus had a conversation with a man named Nicodemus. But in verse three, Jesus answered and said unto Nicodemus, "Verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Kingdom of God and Christianity, those terms are synonymous. Except a man be born again, a complete change from the inside out, a death to self as baptism symbolizes and a rising to new life.

Unless that happens within, he will not enter into Christianity, he will not enter into the kingdom of God. He will never really have true fellowship with God. Now notice Nicodemus, it's not wrong to ask Jesus questions. Nicodemus saith unto him, "How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?"

Jesus answered, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into Christianity or into the kingdom of God or into fellowship with God." Born of water and the spirit. What's he talking about? Water and the spirit. Men and women and all mankind need cleansing. We have sin and sin has stained us and left a stain on our conscience.

It has permanently hurt us and stained us. And there are no enzymes but that of Calvary that can wash that stain away. People have tried to get rid of that stain by doing good, by going to church, by going through all of the holy services, but that stain is there forever. And so Jesus is saying there must be a washing away. Not a reformation, not turning over a new leaf, but a washing away.

Now, how's this washing going to take place? The spirit. He says the water and the spirit. Only the spirit of God can touch your heart, get in there where the stain is, get to that matter, and deal with it. For by grace are ye saved through faith. That means it's God's care, it's God's love, God's grace, and you believing in it. And that not of yourselves, it is a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast.

You can never reform enough. You can never get good enough to become a Christian and to get into the kingdom of God. It says in verse ten, "For we are his workmanship." It means God's got to get inside me, inside you, and work on you and make you over. And the scripture uses the term born again. It's his workmanship. It's his doing. Jesus, then, is the one that removes the barrier permanently and allows us to walk with God in fellowship with God.

Now, how does this happen? What's our part? We enter into fellowship with God according to Romans 10:9 and 10 by believing, by confessing, and by repenting. We believe. We believe that Jesus took our sins and he was our stand-in. And he took them all the way back to Hades and left them there and the barrier is removed. We confess, "Yes, I have sinned. I have committed sins."

However you choose to say it, I will no longer continue in sin. That's what repentance means. The scripture says in Romans 10:9, "If we confess with our mouth and believe in our heart that God raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation."

Do you want to know how to become a Christian today? I'll tell you how. Tell God you have sinned. Just tell it plain. That's how it is. Just say, "I'm a sinner." Tell God that you are thankful that Jesus took your sins. In so doing, that's believing. And tell God by his help and grace you're going to turn your back on that old way of life.

And when you do that, the Holy Spirit comes within you and cleanses you, the water and the spirit, and makes you that new person. And it can happen in a moment of time. I'm going to give my heart, my life, my will, my ambition, my emotions, my time, all there is, my heart. I'm giving it to Christ. Now, whether yours has been a more progressive or whether it's been more instantaneous, that isn't the important thing.

The important thing right now is that you can say, "I belong to him and he belongs to me." If you can say that in your heart of hearts, you may or you may not be able to write down a definite date. That's not the important thing. Some of you can, but that's really not the important thing. The important thing is that you can say, "I know I belong to Christ. I know if I were to die today, I would go to heaven today."

In my heart of hearts, I can say that. If you can say that, then you're a Christian. You've accepted Christ. The barrier that keeps you out of fellowship with God has been removed and you are now in fellowship with the Lord. Now, what happens? What do we do after we have accepted Christ, after Christ has come into our hearts and cleansed us from all sin?

There are two sacraments in the Bible that are given: the Lord's Supper, we're going to observe this in just a moment, and water baptism. Every Christian, these are not optional. There's too many things in the Bible that we form individual opinions about that are not optional. If it's optional, I'll be sure to tell you. I can tell you honestly your salvation can be progressive or it can be instantaneous.

There are some things there are margins that we can work within. But when it comes now to the Lord's Supper and to water baptism and serving Christ, that's not optional. The first testimony we are to give is that of baptism. And we're going to be doing it right here. It will be the very first time that I ever remember doing it on a Sunday morning.

We're going to immerse people in water that they'll give a testimony. Now, this is not the only way to be baptized. I want that to be very clear. I want my conscience to be clear before God and before man. The word "baptize" does mean "immerse," but there are three ways to be baptized: immersion, pouring, and sprinkling. Today, I'm sorry you're at 9:15, today you're going to see two: immersion and, if you stay to 11:00, pouring.

We're going to do two of the two ancient rites. Now, the reason that I'm holding to the immersion part as long as I have is not because it is the only way. Now, if I insist that this is the only way, if I insist that for a person to give their testimony, X number gallons of water are required, then I am placing insistence upon ritual. X number gallons of water does not cleanse sin.

Sin has already been cleansed by the Spirit. Only the Spirit can do that. But the reason I'm doing this today, the immersion, is that it dramatizes and it's more picturesque of burial of the old life, of the old sin, of sin going back to Hades, of Jesus carrying my sin in the tomb, and my believing and identifying with him, and then my coming up out of the water as John the Baptist brought Jesus out of the water and as God brought Jesus out of the tomb.

I'm leaving all my sin back there. I'm identifying with what he did. It's more picturesque of death, burial, and resurrection. It dramatizes it more clearly. It is an ancient rite, but it is a testimony of what has done. Then the next thing we do is the sacrament of the Lord's Supper or Holy Communion. Baptism in water says a new life begun. Holy Communion says new life continued.

We only have one birth. My mother only gave birth one time to me. I'm only born into the kingdom of God one time. But now I am continually, ongoing, nourished at the breast of God, continually taking God's food, meaning that I'm living in the presence of God, I'm reading the word of God, I'm studying the word of God, I'm worshipping with the people of God, I'm part of the kingdom, I'm part of the activity and ministry of the church.

This is an ongoing relationship. Jesus said, "As oft as you do this," meaning this is to be done often. That is to be done only once. That is my initial outward testimony. This is my testimony of this ongoing relationship with the Lord. Now, I will close very quickly, but I need to say this one more thing. And I'm sad that I have to say it, but you know it's true and I know it's true because I know me.

Our Christian life is not always lived on a high plane. We drop down into valley, cloudy experiences. Perhaps often in the valley and the cloudy experience because we do not continue in the presence of God with this ongoing daily relationship with the Lord. Again, I hear more Christians sighing than I do rejoicing. I hear more Christians complaining than giving thanks.

There are more Christians today who are going through the motions, but the sparkle has gone. They move through the mechanics of Christianity, but there's no joy. I don't, I want to make it as plain as I can be and as honest with you as I can be. There are Christians, not just here, but it's happened to me, too, and that's why I know it's happened to you. So I'm talking about myself.

There are more Christians who do not find joy in church like they used to find in church. They do not find joy in fellowship. They come, they shake hands, they know they should be there. They have to put forth that little effort because it's a drudgery. They are there when they can push themselves to be there. But listen, the koinonia of Christian fellowship and the joy is not there. It's really not there.

You see, we're a community. Let me put it plainly. We are a new village in Christ. But sometimes it's hard to become really a dynamic part of that village. There are Christians today who are in Christian service who are really finding it a real difficult time in Christian service. I mean, we have to today have many teachers teaching a Sunday school class.

And then when their Sunday comes, they will sigh to themselves, "Oh my, it's my Sunday again to teach." "Oh, I forgot. The choir's singing today. I've got to go to church." The joy, the sparkle is gone, the dynamic is gone. What is happening, then, when you come to this table with that attitude? This becomes ritual and meaningless.

When you come to this table it means, "I'm involved enthusiastically in fellowship. I'm involved enthusiastically in service. I'm involved enthusiastically in worship on Sunday mornings. I can't wait to be there to touch and to hug and shake hands. I'm involved. I'm part of this new village, this new community of faith. And I'm going to symbolize it by coming forward and taking communion."

"Oh, Pastor, if you knew my schedule, I just can't do it anymore. It's just more than I can handle right now." That's what I'm saying. The life, the enthusiasm, the joy, the sparkle, there's a mist that has come and this now has been reduced as that had in many circles, just to ritual. But I want you to know there's a born again new life experience behind that and this is a symbol of a new life born experience that is vibrant and ongoing.

It's alive. We light candles. We're moving. What's here is actually in here and my heart is beating with it with great love and great enthusiasm. That's why I can pray and say to my friends, "I'm connected. I have a sickness in my home. Pray for me. I have a family problem. Pray for me. I'm part of the village. I'm connected. It's no effort to come. I can't wait for Sunday to come. Is it time? Is it time?"

See, these are what the sacraments mean and this is what Christianity is supposed to mean. But there are times when that's why I have to become disciplined, set up a regular reading habit and regular churchgoing. I must confess, there are times that I'll look and say, "You mean I've got to get another sermon together?" I'm looking forward next week when Will Chevalier's going to be here and he's going to preach.

I don't hear very many sermons. I love to hear men preach and women preach because my soul is fed. It's not the person, it's the word that comes in and blesses and feeds me. I'm blind to the individual. People are so conscious of who they are and what they see. Faith cometh by hearing. And if it comes from the mouth of a babe, what's the difference? It's the word. It's the life, it's the joy, it's the enthusiasm, it's an infusion every Sunday morning.

Guest (Male): God's desire has always been to restore fellowship with his people. Through Jesus Christ, the barrier of sin has been removed and a new life can begin. You can visit The Healing Word online to hear additional messages from Pastor Morris, connect with a prayer wall, and discover the "Pray Now" feature for encouragement and prayer anytime.

Your financial partnership also helps this ministry continue reaching hearts with the gospel message across radio and digital platforms. Next time, Pastor Morris brings the message, "The Image of God," exploring humanity's divine purpose and how Christ restores what sin has damaged.