Hello, this is Brother Denny.
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Beautiful song, isn't it?
Greetings this morning in the name of the
Lord Jesus, precious Lord Jesus Christ.
Well, we want to sing that song this
morning, if I can find mine here.
I just want to encourage you sisters to
lift your voice up a bit more because
we're doing it back and forth and all
these strong men over here give their all
and you're counted down like this, it won't
be balanced right.
It should be a good strong sound on
the ladies' side as well as on the
men.
And please bear with me because I don't
know a lot about music, but in this
little song, the second time where we're all
saying it together, it goes up a little
bit.
You know, at the end it says, And
He shall lift you up.
And He shall lift you up.
Got that?
Don't ask me what notes those are because
I don't know.
Praise God.
Shall we try, let's stand and sing it.
From our hearts, in the spirit of the
words that were breathed out by the Holy
Ghost.
And He shall
lift you up.
Submit yourselves therefore to God.
Resist the devil and he will flee.
Draw nigh to God and He'll draw nigh.
Cleanse your hands,
ye sinners, and purify you.
Draw nigh, dear Lord, draw nigh to us
this morning.
Lord, we tremble before you.
We know, we know that we stand before
the throne of the Almighty God.
We're not here in this building, Lord.
We are before the throne of the Almighty
God of the universe.
And we're here to hear your word, Lord.
Oh, speak your word from your throne this
morning to our hearts, dear God.
We commit this session into your hands, Lord.
Have mercy on us, Lord.
Have mercy on us.
In Jesus' name, Amen.
This morning we're going to look at some
of the heart issues in discipleship.
Some of the foundation stones which hold up
the rest of the building.
It's very important that we view this whole
matter of being a disciple of the Lord
Jesus Christ in the right perspectives.
We must get first things first.
And I hope, young people, that you will
keep these things in proper order all this
week.
Because there are many different things that are
being said.
You're getting teaching from many different directions in
many parts of the Bible.
But I assure you that the heart of
every preacher and teacher that is giving you
instruction, all of them, their heart's desire is
that your heart would be fixed upon the
Lord Jesus Christ soundly.
And then from there, out of that heart
will flow all the many different things that
you're being taught this week.
I hope you will keep all of that
in perspective.
The issues of the heart is where it
all begins.
It is a matter of root and fruit.
Amen?
We will be discussing practical issues all through
the week, and that is the fruit.
But you can go home with a lot
of good ideas, a lot of new resolves,
a lot of fresh concepts to try.
But if you don't get down to dealing
with the root issues in your own heart
and your life, it will end in frustration
and discouragement and despair.
And there are young people who have been
to Bible schools like this, who went home
without the work being done deep in the
heart with resolves, and they're not here today.
They're not here.
So we want to strike the tuning fork
four times.
Today, looking at heart issues, issues of the
heart.
There are four of them that we will
look at this morning, and the first one
is the spirit of a learner.
The title of my message is The Spirit
of a Disciple.
I wasn't sure if I could take these
sixteen points and fit them enough into categories
to give titles to the next four messages,
but I have been able to do that.
And so this morning it is The Spirit
of a Disciple.
And the first point on that is the
spirit of a learner.
A disciple has the spirit of a learner.
And if I may put it in the
form of our confession, the confession of our
discipleship, it will go like this.
I have the spirit of a learner.
I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ, and I have the spirit of a
learner.
I want to learn.
I have not arrived.
I have many needs, and I need to
learn everything that I can.
This is the spirit of a disciple, young
people.
This was not a new concept in the
days of the Lord Jesus Christ when He
walked upon the earth.
If you remember, these words were used, the
disciples of John and the disciples of the
Pharisees.
It was not a new concept, this Master,
Teacher, Learner, Follower concept.
It was not a new concept.
And even Paul gave his testimony that he
was a disciple of Gamaliel before he came
to the Lord Jesus on the road to
Damascus.
He was also a disciple.
He sat at the feet of Gamaliel and
learned from him.
He was his disciple, and he listened to
what he had to say, and he followed
him.
And Gamaliel made a very good Pharisee out
of Saul.
But Jesus made a beautiful disciple out of
Saul and turned him into the Apostle Paul.
Hallelujah!
Thank God for that.
But even though this was not a new
concept, the Lord Jesus deepened the concept as
He walked upon the earth because He was
God.
And when God begins to speak into the
hearts of men and women and says, Come,
follow Me and be My disciple, yes, He
is going to deepen the concept of discipleship.
And so also we will be deepening the
concept of discipleship with this living God this
morning as we consider these things.
I think of the words of Peter that
time when Jesus said those hard words in
John 6.
You probably learned about them already this morning.
And Jesus turned to His disciples and said,
Will you also go away?
But the disciples had the spirit of a
learner, and Peter expressed all of their hearts
when he said, Where do we go, Lord?
You have the words of eternal life.
We have nowhere else to go.
We are the learners and You are the
teacher.
We are the needy ones and You are
the one that has it all.
We are the empty ones and You are
the all-sufficient one.
Where else can we go?
You have the words of eternal life.
And brothers and sisters, that's the way it
needs to be with us also.
We must have that same kind of an
attitude.
A learner.
And by the way, a learner is a
listener.
Not a talker.
Note that, young people.
A learner is a listener.
Not a talker.
Some time ago we were meditating in our
family devotions.
We've been going through 2 Timothy or 1
Timothy 2.
And we came to this verse which says,
Paul was admonishing the women.
And he said to them, Let the women
learn in silence with all subjection.
And as we studied that verse, we learned
that the word silence there means quietness.
Or, a quiet spirit.
Let the women learn with a quiet spirit
in all subjection.
And as I read that and meditated upon
it, in light of our subject this morning,
I thought that is exactly what a disciple
is.
That's the spirit of a disciple.
What Paul said to the women there is
the spirit of a disciple.
A quiet heart.
Which is a learning heart.
With all subjection under what I'm hearing.
A disciple.
The spirit of a disciple is the spirit
of a learner.
It is the lowly heart of one who
wants to learn.
And may I remind you that the Apostle
John refers to himself as a learner.
As he called himself the disciple, many times
what he was saying was, I'm a learner.
And you know, I pondered that early this
morning.
You know when John wrote those words?
He wrote those words after he had been
walking with Jesus Christ for 60 years.
He's 90 years old when he says these
words.
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ.
I'm just a learner, the Apostle John says.
We read some of the things that he
wrote and we think, you're not a learner,
you're a master, you're a teacher.
No, John says, no.
You haven't met my Jesus the way that
I have.
He's so far beyond me.
He's so much higher than I am.
He's so much deeper than I am.
I'm just a disciple.
I'm that other disciple.
That's who I am.
That's what John said.
And oh, young people, if somehow we could
get this one deep in our soul, you
will never get away from this point.
If you're going to go on with God,
you're a learner.
You're a learner.
You're needy.
You have a lot to learn.
A lot to learn.
Second of all, we want to look at
the attitudes of a disciple and to put
it in the form of a confession of
faith.
Number two, we find these words coming out
of our hearts.
I unite my heart with the lowly attitudes
of this Sermon on the Mount.
I am a disciple of Jesus Christ, and
I unite my heart with the lowly attitudes
of this Sermon on the Mount.
And if we could turn there and just
read those beautiful, lowly attitudes that the Lord
Jesus gave on the Sermon on the Mount,
you can turn there, Matthew 5.
And surely this second point flows right out
of and broadens from the first point.
Now picture the scene.
Matthew 5.
Jesus has been baptized in the river Jordan.
The Spirit of God came upon Him like
a dog.
The voice of God out of Heaven spoke
and said, This is My beloved Son in
whom I am well pleased.
He's gone into the wilderness.
He was tempted of the devil for forty
days.
He came out in the power of the
Spirit of God, and He's done a few
miracles, and all of a sudden He's got
His disciples around Him.
He's got their attention.
They're ready to listen.
You can be sure they're ready to listen.
What does He say?
What are the first words that comes out
of the mouth of the Lord Jesus as
He recognizes, I've got My disciples' attention?
What does He say?
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs
is the kingdom of Heaven.
Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall
be comforted.
Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit
the earth.
Blessed are they which do hunger and thirst
after righteousness, for they shall be filled.
Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain
mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart, for they
shall see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be
called the children of God.
Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness'
sake, for theirs is the kingdom of Heaven.
Yea, blessed are ye when men shall revile
you and persecute you, and shall say all
manner of evil against you falsely for My
sake.
Jesus begins His teachings to His disciples by
laying out before them the foundation stones of
the attitudes that every disciple has.
If he's truly a disciple, they will be
there.
If he's going to continue to be a
disciple, they will be there.
They were in the heart of John until
the day he opened his eyes in the
presence of God and saw Jesus.
Those beautiful, lowly attitudes of a disciple.
Now, in this day that we live in,
when everything is all upbeat, you know, even
among Christendom today, everything's got to be upbeat,
you know.
You've got to have an upbeat message.
It's happy-clappy time, you know.
And everybody's got to be happy.
And if the church doesn't go home happy,
we didn't go to church, you know.
But in the midst of all of those
things, these words ring true out of the
throne of God this morning, young people.
The lowly attitudes which are listed here in
the Beatitudes, the foundation stones of every true
disciple, they are still the way into the
reality of the blessed presence of the living
God.
They are still there.
It doesn't matter whether everybody else out there
wants to be happy-clappy and feel good
every Sunday morning.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, young people.
And that word blessed means the reality of
the living God and the salvation that He
gives upon everyone who is poor in spirit.
Don't forget it, young people.
That's what that word blessed means.
It doesn't just mean happy.
It's so much deeper than that.
It means the reality of a living God
in your life.
And I'm so glad that Jesus started with
those words with His disciples.
And I want to start with them also
with you.
Words of lowliness are not popular today, but
they are the key to everything, young people.
I promise you, they are the key to
everything.
I don't know, it's a couple of years
ago we did a whole series to the
youth on these attitudes.
I think it's called the jewel of humility.
But let's just consider them briefly here this
morning.
Poor in spirit means to be poverty stricken.
That's not just talking about somebody who has
a little bit in his pocket, but not
enough.
No, that word poor in spirit is talking
about poverty stricken.
Oh, the blessedness, the blessedness, young people, that
settles down over your heart when you find
yourself in that place where you say, I
have nothing.
I have nothing.
God will run to your aid when you
have nothing.
God will run to your aid.
Poverty stricken, they that mourn are those who
weep and sigh and groan over their needs.
Now that doesn't sound very exciting, does it?
But yet, that little verse fits very much
into the spirit of that little song we
were singing this morning, doesn't it?
Let your laughter be turned to mourning and
your joy to heaviness, as James said in
chapter 4.
Mourning, it means what it says.
It's like what you do when one of
your loved ones dies.
And that's a blessing.
It's good.
It's profitable.
Blessed are the meek.
The meek?
The yielded.
The ones who have given up.
The ones who have given up to God
and given up to others.
Blessed are the meek.
They've yielded.
They have a life that is yielded to
God.
And young people, that's not talking about a
trip to the altar where one time you
get on your knees there and you say,
okay, God, I give You everything.
Now, that's beautiful and that's right and we'll
probably ask You to do that sometime this
week, but I'm telling you, that's only the
beginning.
It will bring a blessing upon your life
if you do it in sincerity, but young
people, this is something you do every day
and many times in a day.
If you're going to walk with God, you
will do it many times in a day.
Blessed are those who have given up and
given up and given up and given up.
Amen?
That's the way it is.
These are the hard attitudes of a disciple
of Jesus Christ.
Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after
righteousness.
And basically what God is saying there is
that there is in the heart of a
disciple who in fact is a learner, who
recognizes their need, they're always longing for more.
Always longing for more.
And I call it a sanctified dissatisfaction.
God means to fill our heart with a
sanctified dissatisfaction.
And when I say sanctified, I mean this.
There is a place where you can stand
and rejoice before God in all that He's
done in your heart, but yet at the
same time your heart is saying, God, more!
I'm not satisfied.
I'm glad for what You've done in my
heart, but God, I want more!
I want to be more like Jesus.
I want more righteousness in my life.
I want to learn more how to be
a servant Lord.
I'm thankful for what You've done, but God,
give me more!
That's one who hungers and thirsts after righteousness.
And the merciful, that attitude of the merciful
is one who is full of compassion and
full of forgiveness.
And oh, brothers and sisters, we need to
learn this because we are all human beings.
Amen?
We are all human beings.
And we make mistakes and we hurt each
other sometimes.
Sometimes we know we do.
Sometimes we don't even know that we do.
Oh, but blessed are the merciful, the forgiving
ones.
Oh, I just forgive and I just forgive
you.
And you don't even need to come and
tell me you're sorry.
I already forgive you anyway.
Oh, that beautiful attitude is the hard attitude
of a disciple.
And the pure in heart as we look
at these attitudes, the pure in heart, I
want to say to that, blessed are those
who are morally pure and motivationally pure in
their hearts.
It's speaking of both of those.
A pure heart is a heart that has
been cleaned and washed by the blood of
Jesus.
A pure heart is a heart that is
morally pure.
And you'll learn more about that this week.
But a pure heart is also a heart
that has been purified in its motives.
And oh, those are things that God works
on all the rest of your life.
Purifying your motives.
Why do I do what I do?
It's a good question to ask yourself.
And if you'll ask it sincerely and honestly
before God, He'll order circumstances in your life
to help you to see the answer to
that very question, why you do what you
do.
And I can say from my own testimony,
it's rather painful at times when I begin
to see why I do what I do.
Blessed are the peacemakers.
And for this one, we'll simply say, blessed
are those who take the low road of
making peace wherever they go.
I want to make peace.
I don't want any strife.
I want to make peace.
Are you offended at me?
I'll take the blame.
I want peace.
It's the low road of one who wants
to make peace.
With their fellow man around them.
And lastly, blessed are the persecuted.
Those who take their persecution with no retaliation.
Oh, I hope you'll grasp that one, young
people.
There is such a depth of fellowship and
knowledge of God when you learn to take
your persecutions without any retaliation, without any fighting
back, with no fight in you, but a
heart that just simply bows to the persecution
that God has allowed to come your way.
I tell you, you begin to enter into
the fellowship of His sufferings which Paul talked
about.
You just begin to enter in.
It's deeper than that.
May I say it this way, the sum
total, if we could write all of these
down and put them in a list, this
poor and the mourning and the meek and
the hungry and all that, the sum total
put down at the bottom of it, draw
a line under it, add them all up
together and it simply says, blessed are those
who live in a state of brokenness.
Brokenness, young people.
Covet brokenness.
Covet it.
Long for it.
Ask God to bring you into circumstances where
you find yourself all broken up inside.
This is good.
This is a good place to be.
These are the foundational heart issues for a
disciple.
And this is the reason why I chose
the little song for us to sing each
day because this is the foundational stone of
being a true disciple.
Brokenness.
And oh, God does promise us reward, reward.
The reward, the reality of the living God
in my heart, in my life, now.
I like the way Brother John said it.
It's years ago now in a Bible school,
but he said it this way, God's kingdom
now.
Beautiful.
Not some kingdom later, although I believe there
will be more coming yet, but God's kingdom
now.
That's what a disciple wants.
Number three, we want to look at the
love of a disciple.
The love of a disciple.
The confession, I love the Lord Jesus with
all of my heart.
That is the confession of a disciple.
I love the Lord Jesus with all of
my heart.
Thou shalt have no other loves before me.
That's kind of a different way to say
it, isn't it?
Thou shalt have no other loves before me.
Why?
Because I'm God.
Jesus affirmed the commandment of God from the
Old Testament when He said to His disciples
and to those who asked Him questions, Thou
shalt love the Lord thy God with all
thy heart and with all thy mind and
with all thy soul and with all thy
strength.
And thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.
Jesus confirmed that Old Testament commandment and brought
it into the New Testament context and says
to every one of us today, this is
the standard of the New Testament.
Thou shalt have no other loves before me.
Amen?
That's fitting for God to say to us
this morning, young people.
Surely it is.
That's fitting for God to say, no other
loves.
That's fitting for God to say, I don't
want a boyfriend ahead of me.
I don't want a girlfriend ahead of me.
I don't want anything ahead of me.
I don't want your career ahead of me.
I don't want your plans ahead of me.
I don't want anything ahead of me.
I'm God.
Thou shalt have no other loves before me.
I'm God.
These words and others can seem to be
a bit extreme.
Remember, we read them yesterday, but let's turn
again there today in Matthew 10.
Jesus said it this way in Luke.
I believe it's Luke 14.
He said, Whosoever hateth not his father and
mother cannot be My disciple.
You know, you hear those words and you
think, boy, those are extreme words.
He said it this way in Matthew 10.
And verse 37, He that loveth father or
mother more than Me is not worthy of
Me.
And he that loveth son or daughter more
than Me is not worthy of Me.
They seem like extreme words until you bring
it into its proper context and say, now
wait a minute, this is God speaking to
us.
God can say that, can't He, young people?
Yes, God can stand up and say, if
you love your father or your mother more
than Me, you're not worthy of Me.
God can do that.
He's God.
And it puts it all in the right
perspective, doesn't it?
I think of the rich young ruler.
He felt he had kept all the commandments
from his youth up.
Boy, was he in for a shock when
he came to Jesus and all this proud
religious self-confidence.
He thought he'd kept all the commandments from
his youth up.
And the Bible says that Jesus looked upon
him and loved him.
That's an interesting little phrase, isn't it?
You know, I don't know if that's how
we would do it, you know, if we
knew what was inside of his heart, maybe
we'd say, well, you proud so-and-so,
who do you think you are?
But Jesus looked on him and loved him.
But I want us to know He loved
him enough to tell Him the truth.
And isn't it interesting what He did here?
Jesus cut right through His self-confident assurance.
Jesus cut right through all of that and
showed Him that He was breaking the whole
of the law.
The whole thing.
He said, you have a love that is
before Me, and it's called your money.
Sell all that you have.
That'll take care of your idolatry.
And give it to the poor.
That'll take care of loving your neighbor.
And come and follow Me.
That'll take care of loving God with all
of your heart.
Are you ready for that, rich young ruler?
And the rich young ruler went away sorrowful
that day because he had a love that
was more precious to him than the God
of Heaven who was standing before him, God
incarnate in the flesh.
These words come home to our own hearts
this morning also.
Maybe as we sit here, their issues come
up before our hearts.
Yes, I do have a love in my
heart.
And that love is there and I'm loving
it more than God and it's hindering me
from going on with God.
Thou shalt have no other loves before Me.
Do you see the heart of the matter,
young people?
To follow Jesus Christ is a personal commitment
to love Him, to walk with Him, and
to walk in His ways in that order.
To love Him and to walk with Him
and to walk in His ways.
That's what it means to follow Jesus.
Come, follow Me, Jesus said.
And I believe this morning that this mandate
of love needs some balance.
Needs a bit of balance.
True love is a very powerful emotion united
with an unshakable commitment.
That's what true love is, young people.
It is a powerful emotion, affection, united with
an unshakable commitment.
And that's what Jesus meant when He said,
if you love your father and mother more
than Me, or your brother and sister more
than Me, or anything else more than Me,
you cannot be My disciple.
Because I want the love of your being.
I want the powerful emotion of affection from
your heart united with an unshakable commitment.
That's what love is, true love.
It is both.
It is a flow of an affection, of
worship and adoration coupled with the will to
obey and to serve.
And young people, it's both.
It's both.
You must have both.
Many.
Through the years, I've had the privilege of
marrying many young couples.
Many of them.
To marry them in the purity and the
balance of this genuine love.
There they sit.
A heart full of emotion and affection for
one another.
But also, there they sit with a heart
that is committed to one another.
Think about it, young people.
What if your bridegroom had emotions and affections
for you, but no commitments?
Would you be satisfied with that?
No way!
But, what if they had all the commitments,
but there was no affection or emotion?
Would you be satisfied with that?
I know none of you would.
I mean, who wants a lady that will
just, you know, wash the clothes and cook
the food and be there to say good
evening, honey?
Who wants that?
I want my wife to love me!
Young people, that's the way it is with
the Lord Jesus Christ too.
It is the flow of affection, of love
and adoration and worship for the Lord Jesus
Christ united with an unshakable commitment to walk
with Him and walk in His ways.
We're looking at the spirit of a disciple
and heart issues here this morning.
I think of the Apostle John.
He's a beautiful example of this.
He was, he referred to himself as the
disciple whom Jesus loved.
Now, why do you suppose he said it
that way?
If you look down below the surface of
that little statement, you know what he's really
saying?
I'm the disciple who loves Jesus with all
my heart.
So much so did I love the Lord
Jesus that I was the disciple whom the
Lord Jesus loved deeply.
That was John.
That was John's testimony.
He was the one, you know, who laid
His head on His breast.
Beautiful.
That was John.
What about Mary of Bethany?
She's another good example, isn't she?
Oh, how she loved Jesus.
She loved Him with an extravagant love.
But she loved Him with an affection and
an adoration and a worship.
And He knew it.
And she was a balm to Him those
last few days before He went to the
cross.
She was a balm to His heart because
of her love and her adoration and her
worship.
But notice, young people, that that love and
that adoration and that worship caused her to
take that alabaster box full of ointment, which
was one whole year's wages.
Her one whole year's wages which she saved
up.
And she broke that.
She broke that.
It was a symbol of her past.
It was a symbol of her present.
And it was a symbol of her future.
And she took the whole thing and broke
it and poured it on the head of
the one that she loved.
And that's a beautiful example of the balance
of those two coming together.
I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
And I love the Lord Jesus with all
of my heart.
And God wants you to be His possession,
young people.
Don't ever forget that.
God is God.
And you are His purchased possession.
And He is pursuing His possession with all
His heart.
Sometimes you may not understand what's going on
in your life.
Just remember, you are God's possession and He
is pursuing His possession with all of His
heart.
Because He wants you to delight in being
God's possession.
God!
Oh, that ministers to the heart of God
when His bought possession says, Oh, Lord, possess
me!
Take control of me!
So, we find these beautiful words balanced out.
If you love Me, keep My commandments, Jesus
said.
And if you love Me, thou shalt have
no other affections before Me.
Thou shalt have no other affections before Me.
The love of a disciple.
And lastly, this morning, young people, we want
to look at the foundation, the foundation of
a disciple.
And given in the form of our confession,
it goes like this.
I am a disciple of the Lord Jesus
Christ.
I have been clearly, soundly converted.
I have been clearly and soundly converted.
Oh, the burden, young people.
The bondage of attempting to be a disciple
without a regeneration in the inner man.
Listen, young people.
If you think trying to live by the
Old Testament was tough, you tried to be
a New Testament disciple of Jesus without a
regenerated heart, you will be more frustrated than
those Old Testament tellers were, I guarantee it.
You can't do it!
You must start in the right place, young
people, with a regeneration, a regenesis in the
inner man.
A born-again, born of the Spirit experience
is the first step in true discipleship, young
people.
Translated from one kingdom into another.
If you don't do that, if you don't
have that, you have a religion without reality.
And all you'll get is a new order
without a new heart.
And like Brother Emmanuel so beautifully shared with
us last night, that is an abomination to
God.
When we begin to look into the heart
of God and see what God is really
after, a new order, a new order of
ways of doing things without a regenerated heart
is an abomination to God.
He doesn't want a bunch of people running
around on the earth doing things in a
different way.
That's not His heart.
He wants you!
He wants your heart.
He wants your life.
He wants a body that He can come
and dwell in and move in and breathe
in and work through and speak through.
That's what God is looking for.
That will never happen until there is a
regeneration on the inside.
Amen?
Dear young people, know this.
Salvation is not a new order to follow.
It is not.
Sometimes young people, they get that kind of
a mindset.
It just kind of slips in on them.
You know, they grow up in a Christian
home.
You know all the right things.
You hear all the right things.
And maybe you're even in a church and
you know all the things that Christians do.
And so you think, okay!
I'm going that way!
And you start going that way!
I'm telling you, that's a new order without
a new heart.
It's not a new order to follow.
It's not a belief in a set of
doctrines.
It's not a prayer that you prayed, young
people.
Salvation is a Person.
The Lord Jesus Christ.
Remember?
Come unto Me, O ye that labor and
are heavy laden.
I will give you rest.
Come unto Me, Jesus said, personally.
And I personally will give you rest.
Take My yoke personally.
My personal yoke upon you.
And learn of Me.
Me personally.
And you shall find rest unto your soul.
Young people, salvation is a Person.
I agree with Brother John.
Something that he shared yesterday when the disciples
met Jesus and when John the Baptist met
Jesus.
He was righteous.
Oh, I wonder what He was like.
I wonder.
He was righteous.
He had the beauty of holiness all over
Him.
His face shone.
Now, it didn't shine like it did on
the Mount of Transfiguration, but I guarantee you,
His face shined with the God who was
inside of Him.
His face shined.
He was full and running over with grace
and He was full and running over with
truth.
He was the visible image of the invisible
God.
And when His disciples saw Him, they wanted
to be with Him.
They wanted to be with Him.
They wanted to hear Him.
They wanted to see Him.
They wanted to be like Him.
Just like John said there in 1 John,
oh, we've seen Him.
We've looked upon Him.
Our eyes have looked upon Him.
Our ears have heard His words.
Our hands have touched Him.
John was pretty excited about that.
And he was the one who said, oh,
the Word was made flesh and dwelt among
us and we beheld His glory, the glory
as of the only begotten of the Father,
full and running over of grace and full
and running over of truth.
Yeah, when they saw Jesus, He was a
holy man, young people.
Don't you doubt it.
There was an awesomeness about that Lord Jesus
when He walked upon this earth.
Now, I know His glory was hidden.
It was robed in flesh.
I know that.
I know it.
But I'm telling you, He was a holy
man.
And those disciples, they saw Him and they
wanted to go with Him.
They wanted to be with Him.
They wanted to hear what He had to
say.
When He sat down and began to clear
His throne, everybody stopped talking.
What's He going to say?
What is He going to have to say
now?
Well, it's the same way with us, young
people.
We want to be with Him.
We want to hear Him.
We want to see Him.
We want to be like Him.
And these things can't happen until you have
regenesis.
Amen?
Until there is a regenesis.
That's what regeneration means.
It's the word genesis.
Until there is a regenesis.
I agree with Brother John.
You have the opportunity to start over.
But starting over is not a new resolution.
Starting over is so much more than that.
Starting over is starting over after a regenerated
heart and a cleansed heart and a heart
that's been filled with the Spirit of God.
And then you say, ok, now I can
start over.
And you've got the power to succeed.
Nicodemus.
Remember Nicodemus?
Oh, some call him the secret disciple.
He was into this whole discipleship stuff.
He knew it very well.
He came to Jesus and used those words.
Rabbi, Master, we know that Thou art a
teacher come from God.
And He came as a learner.
I want to learn something from You.
What are You going to tell me?
Master, what will You tell me?
But isn't it interesting what Jesus did?
I mean, here comes Nicodemus, very familiar with
this whole matter of the Master Teacher and
the Learner and all that.
And all of a sudden, you know, he
knew this man's got some new things to
say.
I mean, never a man spake like this
man spake his words.
He speaketh when he speaketh.
He speaketh as one who has authority.
He doesn't speak like the scribes and the
Pharisees when He opens up His mouth.
I want to go and hear some teachings
from the Lord Jesus.
But Jesus turned it right around on him
and said, Nicodemus, except a man be born
again, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of
Heaven.
He cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven.
He cannot experience the Kingdom of Heaven until
he is born again.
Beautiful!
I mean, He took that disciple right back
to square one.
And young people, that's where we have to
start also.
We have to start at square one.
Have you been born again?
Transformed!
Translated from the Kingdom of darkness into the
glorious Kingdom of His dear Son.
Have you been born again?
That's the challenge.
That's the foundation of true discipleship.
Have you?
Someone asked me last evening.
It was a visitor.
Not one of you young people, but it
was a visitor from a distant state.
They asked me this question.
They said, Brother Denny, can a five-year
-old get saved?
They asked me that question.
Ooh!
I answered that very carefully to the dear
person who asked it to me.
Can a five-year-old get saved?
Well, I'm not going to be dogmatic here
today.
I'm not going to tell you, No, no
way!
No five-year-old can get saved.
I'm not going to tell you that.
But I'm going to tell you this based
on my own experience over the last 25
years of ministry.
Most of the time, they don't.
Here's what happens.
They're a little child.
An innocent child.
Oh, they know they do things bad.
Sure they do.
They know they disobeyed Mom.
They got a spanking.
They go to church.
They hear a sermon on heaven or hell.
They don't want to go to hell.
And they surely would like to go to
heaven.
And so they come in tears to their
mom and dad.
Or they come to the preacher and they
say, I want to get saved.
I'm afraid I'm going to die and go
to hell.
And I want to get saved.
And so, Mom or Dad or the preacher
or somebody says, Oh, that's good, sonny boy.
You get down on your knees and you
just tell God that you're a sinner and
ask Jesus to come into your heart and
everything will be fine.
And they get down on their knees and
tell God that they're a sinner and say,
Lord Jesus, please come into my heart.
And they feel good.
And everybody's happy for them.
And Mom and Dad pat them on the
back.
And the preacher does, you know.
And depending on the setting they're in, he
gets them up in front of everybody and
says, we want to rejoice with little Johnny
this morning.
He has Jesus into his heart and he's
going to be baptized next Sunday.
Only thing is, that doesn't really do much
most of the time.
And there's a reason for that, young people.
And this is the reason.
Because salvation...
Jesus did not come to earth just so
that you could get a one-way ticket
to heaven and get your escape route out
of hell.
That is not why Jesus came and died.
That's not why He came and died.
Salvation is a person who saves you and
salvages you from your sin and from yourself.
Right?
And so the heart who begins to realize
the corruption that is inside of me, the
heart that begins to say, I need help!
I'm tired of the way I'm living!
Oh, wretched man that I am!
Who shall deliver me from this body of
death, this body of sin, this corruption within
me?
Who shall deliver me from this?
That kind of a heart can call upon
the name of the Lord and say, Lord,
save me!
And they get a regeneration in here.
See, when you cry out to God in
desperation of the deep need inside of your
life, then Jesus comes and saves you.
His name is Jesus.
And He shall save His people from their
sins.
Amen?
Usually when you're five years old, you don't
have any concept of any of that yet.
So that's why I say, most of the
time, they don't.
Now, if you're here today and you look
back to something that happened when you were
five years old, and as you sit here
today, you know you're sitting here in the
grace of God and you love the Lord
Jesus with all your heart, and your heart
unites with the things that are being said
here, praise God!
I'm not going to question that.
But if you're sitting here today and there's
no reality within, and it happens, young people,
it does!
They do that.
They pray that prayer.
Somebody pats them on the back and for
ten or fifteen years, they go through the
motions.
They go to church.
They try to read their Bible, but there's
nothing on the inside.
And when there's nothing on the inside, it
gets pretty dry pretty fast.
And I just want to recommend to you
that you don't get on this road, this
path of discipleship, until you come to Jesus
and say, Lord Jesus, save me!
I need it!
Make sure that the Spirit of His Son
dwells within.
That is salvation.
When the Spirit of His Son is dwelling
inside of me, God is inside of me,
and I am a new creature.
That is salvation.
Let's stand to our feet.
Lord, we quiet our hearts before You here
this morning.
We open our hearts to You.
O God, I do not want to unsettle
anyone who is born again.
God, You know my heart.
But O Father, there may be some here
who are settled in, who need to be
unsettled.
And I pray that You by Your Spirit
will do that work.
God, I pray that You will surround the
heart of those frail ones who get filled
with doubts when they hear this, Lord, but
truly are born again.
I pray that You will protect those, but
God, those that are in this room, they
know there's nothing inside and there's never been
anything inside.
I pray that You will send conviction down
upon the heart.
And God, we pray, make us these kind
of disciples, Lord, that we have heard this
morning in this session.
We pray in Jesus Christ's name.
Amen.
You may be seated.