You can have people as friends all over the place. You can have abilities that make you feel like you are better than the next person or on top of the world. But without Jesus Christ in your hour of need, in your hour of deepest temptation and trial, on your death bed; nothing is going to help you. No one can save you. No one can minister to your heart. No one can give that love that God alone can give to you. But what God does is, He allows circumstances to come to us, you and me, in different ways to get us to stop looking at ourselves and focus on the three most important people. Do you know who the three most important people are for most people? It’s me, myself, and I. That’s the trinity that the world worships. That’s all they think about. You meet a friend. “How are you doing? How’s everything?” But in the back of the mind is, “What can I get from this guy?” Right? He is thinking the same thing. But it’s, “I got your back. We are like this, we are tight, much love.”
But you know what God says, there is a selfishness in a human being that really is a disease where it can’t really go and crucify that self and do away with it except through the cross of Jesus Christ.
When Jesus came down to earth, He never said, “I want all of you to first of all bow down to me. Come on! Make it snappy! I am the Son of God. The first thing, I want is R-E-S-P-E-C-T. I want that.” Did He say that? No! The Lord is full of love. And I want to tell you today before I read the chapter, the God of the universe has 3 characteristics that set Him apart from everyone else. No other god, no other religion, no other person can ever match the living God, Jesus Christ. He is first of all holy. Secondly, He is full of power. Third, He is full of love. Now, you tell me who can match that; Excellent in Holiness, Excellent in Power, Excellent in Love.
How do we know He is holy? When He manifested himself on the earth, the devil tried his best to take him down through his humanness even though He is the Son of God, but he couldn’t. So the Lord defeated Satan. You know what that says to you and me. When you and I are being tempted by the devil, when we go through something that we say, “I wish I could get rid of this thing.” I don’t know what to do. Who can help me? Who can help me?” Is it possible if I am an addict to something that I can be set free? The Lord says, “Yes.” The devil says, “No.” The question is who are you going to listen to? Who speaks the truth and who speaks the lie? The Lord Jesus said, “The devil always speaks a lie.”
If you have a need tonight, all of us have some type of need, of us. The Lord says this, “I am God Almighty and I can meet your need. I can meet your need.” How many of you here believe that Jesus Christ can meet your need? Can you raise your hand? No matter what it is. It may be drug addiction and you may have gone through rehab and you go back again and then you go back and forth. And you think, “You know what? It’s no use. I might as well stop trying this game. I am going to go on with my life!” But it’s really death, right? If we are not living for the Lord, we are actually in a state of death. How many of you know that? The Lord says, “I can permanently deliver you from drug addiction. I can deliver you from homosexuality. I can deliver you from sexual immorality.” To the point where when you commit your life to Jesus Christ and you are stepping out and saying, “Lord hold my hand for dear life. All I know is, You died on the cross for me. That’s all I need to know.” And you say, “Lord, You lead the way and I am following. You’re my life.”
And the devil says, “But, have you forgotten? You used to do this thing like it was nothing, day and night for 20 years. The Lord says, “My child.” That is talking to you if you know the Lord and I hope some of you come to know the Lord tonight. I believe that you will. When the devil comes to touch you and you got Jesus, and you are holding His Hand. He is holding your hand. The Lord says to you, “I want you to rebuke the devil in My name.” Because the Lord Jesus has that kind of power. He was tempted, it says, in every single temptation that you and I can go through. And yet without sin, no sin at all. When He died on the cross, He went to the grave, rose from the dead on the third day, rose from the grave, and became alive again. He had the wounds to show and He still has the wounds. Do you know what the wounds show? His holiness, His power, and His love. He is holy.
You know, I got a white suit on today, that doesn’t mean anything. How many of you know that? If I am an adulterer tonight, and I am wearing this suit, this suit will condemn me one day. Do you know that? Because when you wear white, and I don’t do this every day, ok. I am just wearing it tonight because I made a promise to the Lord, some years back that is between me and Him. Sometimes I wish, part of me wishes that I didn’t make that promise. Because people start thinking things, saying “Why is he wearing white? He thinks, he is better than us, trying to be Billy Graham?” No, not at all. I am doing that because I said to the Lord, “I want to be reminded of the purity that He has commissioned me to.” It’s just a symbol. That’s all it is. But, what I am saying tonight is, you may feel like, “I heard the gospel plenty of times. Maybe somebody on the corner, maybe in the subway.” But you know something, there comes a day when you put your foot down and you say, “Today is the day that I am going to make a break with sin, I want no part of it anymore. I don’t know how but because of God’s Word, He says, ‘Sin shall not have dominion over you.’ I am going to believe that and it’s going to work in my life.” You’ve got to have faith. The Lord is holy. The wounds, His blood is clean enough and pure enough to purify your blood. A person like me with this on or any of the brothers or pastors here or even some of you who are good, in the sense that, you are trying to do the right thing and help people. God likes that. That’s good, but you still can’t save anybody, neither can I. Only His blood can make the payment for my sin and your sin.
Secondly His power. He doesn’t just say, “Listen, you are in the mud, you have made a mess of your life and now I am going to pick you up out of that mud. You say, “Lord, let’s do it. I am tired of this life. Pick me up.” And He picks you up and He puts you on the ground. He says, “Now, let’s clean this off here.” And he makes you brand new. And then the devil comes knocking again…. “Bro, I am the candy man, I got what you want. He opens up his trench coat and shows you up and down. Whatever your flavor baby, I have got it for you.” Now you say, “Lord, help me. You clean me up. But now the rubber is meeting the road. I am still in this world.” You see if somebody came and told you, “God’s going to save you and in the next second you are going to be in heaven, it’s all over.” Then we won’t need the power, we won’t need the power. But God is not only able to set you free, He can keep you free. Amen? He can keep you above the shame and stink of sin. The Lord not only delivers you from a lifestyle of self-centered living, feeding yourself, your own fantasies, your own lust; but He comes to break that and satan is screaming in agony because he can’t control your life.
But not only does He pick you up and put you on solid ground; He walks with you day by day. Amen? Every single day you can say, “Lord, today the devil has come knocking on my door.” It may be through a dream. It may be the worst dream you ever had. And the devil says, “You are not clean. You thought you were saved. But look, look at your mind.” You know what you have to say, “I rebuke that thought in Jesus’ Mighty Name. That’s not me. That’s the old me. This is the new me. I am going to walk the righteous path. Lord.” Start praying. Prayer is your lifeline to the Lord. You start saying, “Lord, help me.” It doesn’t have to be fancy but you start walking the walk. So the Lord will deliver you. He is holy. He has the power to deliver you.
And you know, He loves you. He loves you and me more than even the most loving person you know. It may have been your grandmother, maybe your mom for some of you. Maybe your dad, maybe your uncle, maybe your brother, your cousin. The Lord’s love outshines all of that. He loved us so much. He didn’t just say, “I have a plan for you and we are going to get you into this plan. But, first, let me give you a lecture about how good I am. God never does that. He is humble. What He does is, He goes right to the heart of the matter.
John Chapter 3. There was a rich man, rich in knowledge and probably money too, Nicodemus. John Chapter 3. He was a person who said, “This Jesus, I keep hearing about, He’s got something special because He is doing miracles.” How many of you know that Jesus Christ can do a miracle in your life? He does miracles, even today, even tonight. Amen? This man heard that Jesus Christ is a miracle worker. So what did He do? Did he see Him at 12 0’ clock on Canal Street and say, “Jesus,” in front of everybody, “You got to be the Son of God because nobody can open the eyes of the blind like You. Nobody can touch the leper and make him clean. Nobody can forgive a wayward woman’s sin as you can.” Did he do that? No. He came in the nighttime. He came secretly. Do you know why? He had fear. He had pride, his knowledge, his own street smarts. Right? How many of you have that? We have that, right? We got to survive. We all have a measure of street smarts, right? And we also have pride from that. And he also was afraid. We have fear too. There is no man who is without fear. The toughest individual you can see, if God so much as lifts his finger off of his life, the common grace that He shows; that man will be cringing in fear. In fact, the Bible says this, He says to the people who are so proud. He said, “What happened to your mightiest men?” This is God speaking, “the ones who rebelled against Me, they are crying like they are pregnant. They are crying like they got bellies full and they are screaming, these are the mightiest men.” So there is nobody on the face of the earth that has any power over God.
God gives us the gift of salvation. John 3 reads this way, it says: There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. So he has got clout, he has got a standing, ok. He knows the Bible but he is not saved. Do you know people like that? You want to know a secret. I used to be one of those guys. I used to read the Bible, go to church, never obey the Lord, or didn’t obey fully. So, I always had that fear of hell, you see. Until the day came, many years ago, I said, “Lord, You are my breath, You are my life, to You belongs the glory. I thank You for this brand new life You have given me and for the adventure that has started now. It’s going to go on forever.” That’s the love relationship. God shows us love; that is the third point. The love that nobody else can show.
Did you know that God through Jesus Christ is emotionally concerned about you? Do you know what that means? It’s not like this: “You need help brother? Alright, what do you need?” I need a coat.” “Get him a coat. Next, what do you need?” In a kind of cold and unloving way. You see, does that feel like love? No. The Lord ministers love from His heart. That’s what I mean by emotional. He feels love towards you. He cares whether you live or die and He wants you to be with him forever. That’s love supreme. He didn’t just say, “Here is a bunch of rules.” He said, “I gave my blood for you. I went the distance of the cross and paid the price that you should have paid. You see, we owe God a debt that we can never pay. The things we have done in the past. If we ever told a lie, or ever felt like killing somebody, may have never done it or you may have done it. God says, “Whatever the case, My blood is powerful enough, is holy enough and I love you enough, to make you clean tonight.”
