Subject: What Do You Get When You Receive Christ?
Scripture Reading: John 1:6-13
If the truth were known today, our community is filled with people who are fed up with life. For many life has become one vicious cycle. People have lost the meaning for living and are barely existing. Going through the motions of life day after day but never really experiencing life.
In fact I am convinced that if most people knew what they would receive by knowing Christ, that they would run to Him. But the reason they don’t is because of what II Corinthians 4:4 tells us “In whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine unto them.”
Satan has done his best to blind the eyes of every single person who does not know Christ. Why? Because he does not want to them know what they are missing by not serving Him. If the lost would truly and fully understand what is offered through Salvation, they would come to Christ.
I want to share with you what you get when you receive Christ.
There are at least five things that you get.
I. You Get A Past That Is Forgiven And Forgotten.
I have said it many times since I have been here as pastor, but let me remind you of it again: Everyone has a past!
Now many of us don’t like to admit that fact. We like to think of ourselves as being good to a certain degree. Oh we many acknowledge that we have a few faults, but underneath we think that our good points far outweigh our faults and our sins, and therefore we think that we are pretty good people.
I reminds me the lady who came to church one Sunday with a big black eye, and after the service the Pastor knowing the problems in the home said, “Sister, I’m praying for you, and for that beast of a husband you have.” To which the lady replied, “Oh, Pastor, it may be true that Joe drinks some, and beats me some, and cheats on me from time to time, and gambles away our money, but other than that, He’s a pretty great husband.”
And that is the way it is so often in our lives, we try to minimize our faults and glorify our virtues. We are willing to acknowledge what we call a few faults or mistakes. But we are not willing to come face to face and admit the hideous and horribleness of what God calls our sins.
But whether we like to face it or not, the Bible clearly tells us that in Romans 3:23 “All have sinned.” And in Isaiah 53:5 it tells us that “we have turned to our own way. Wanting to do our own thing.”
All of us have a past!
But I’m glad to be able to tell you that when we come to Jesus Christ, that we receive forgiveness of sins. God freely forgives us for the past life of sin that we have lived.
Paul puts it like this in Ephesians 1:7 “In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;”
There is no doubt about it, some of the sweetest stories in the Bible are those of forgiveness.
I think of the woman caught in the very act of adultery. The law in that day said that she deserved to be stoned immediately. So they took her to Jesus to see what He would say. When they told Jesus about her, He said, you who are without sin, you cast the first stone. Then he stooped down wrote something in the sand and when He stood up all of her accusers were gone and in love and grace he said to her, ‘Neither do I condemn thee go and sin no more.’
Oh, listen God knows your past life of sin, He knows everything that you have done. But today He loves you in spite of all that. No, He does approve of what you did, but He loves you and wants to forgive you of that past sinful life that you have lived.
Oh listen this is great news! The God of heaven, who created you and loves you wants to forgive you of your past life of sin. But not only does He want to forgive you, If you will come to Christ you will also receive a past that is forgotten.
Look at what He promises in Jeremiah 31:34 “I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.”
Then in Micah 7:19 we read “And thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.”
Oh the good news is that when you receive Christ, God takes all of you past sins and puts them in one big bundle and buries them in the depths of the sin, never to remember them again. I mean they are gone and gone forever as far as God is concerned.
Think about it, is it any wonder that Satan wants to keep the eyes and minds of unbelievers blinded? He knows if they begin to understand and see what a person gets when they receive Christ, they will want to come to Christ.
But the second thing that a person gets is:
II. You Get A New Nature.
Your nature is that thing that is inside of you that makes it easy for you to do something.
Let me explain.
It is a duck’s nature to swim. As soon as a duckling is born it knows how to swim. You never see a mother duck taking her ducklings down to the lake and stand on the shore and giving them swimming lessons. No, she simply jumps in and they jump in after her and away they swim.
It’s the nature of the cat to climb trees. How does a cat know it has a climbing gear? Because of it’s nature. Let a cat be walking through a neighborhood and let some mean old dog begin to chase it and that cat will head for a tree and put itself into climbing gear.
It’s the nature of a pig to roll in lie in the mud.
And it is the nature of mankind to sin!
The Bible says you and I were born with a nature and that nature is sin. That means that it just comes natural for us to sin. That is why parents spend all the time they do teaching their kids to do right. Because, a child left to itself will learn wrong automatically. Why? Because we have a sin nature. It is because of that sin nature that we find it easy to sin and hard to do right.
But when you receive Christ, you get a new nature. Look at what God said in Ezekiel 36:26 “A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. 27And I will put my spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes.”
What a promise!
God says if we come and receive Christ, that He will give us a new heart. And a new spirit. Now the heart refers to your nature, the real you. God wants to change you and He does that by giving you a new heart and putting His Spirit within you. Thereby giving you the power to live right and obey His word.
Now only God can do that! We can’t change our natures or give ourselves new hearts with new desires. Only God has that power. But the promise is that if we will receive Christ we can get a new nature.
God not only forgives us, and forgets our sins but He also gives us a new nature. A nature that gives us the desire to serve and obey Him. When you receive Christ God’s Spirit enters into you and enables and creates the desire in your heart to do what is humanly impossible.
In fact the only way to live a life pleasing to God is by the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. When God gives you a new heart and places His holy Spirit within you, you will be able to walk in the ways of the Lord and obey Him.
But there is still a third thing that we get when we receive Christ:
III. You Get Your Own Attorney.
When Janna & Gabe were in the process of buying a house they had to find an attorney to represent them. I called several attorneys and got the same answer from a number of them. I’m too busy to take on the case. Or I no longer do individual cases any more I work for the court system. And after making numerous phone calls, I thought, I wish I had my own private attorney.
But when a person receives Christ, they get their own attorney. NO not one who will represent you in the material affairs of life. But who will represent you in heaven.
We find this in I John 2:1 “My little children, these things I write to you, so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.”
The word advocate can be interpreted as one who pleads your case. Your attorney. What that verse is saying is that when we receive Christ, Jesus Christ becomes our intercessor, our attorney and if we sin, and we go to Christ for forgiven, Jesus Christ then takes our case before the Father and intercedes in our behalf. Now this attorney is never to busy to take care of your case. He is always interested in individual cases, and He will always gladly plead your case.
IN fact Romans 8:26 tells us “Likewise the Spirit also helps in our weaknesses. For we do not know what we should pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself makes intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered.”
There are times when you and I don’t even know how to pray. The problems or the burden is so great and complex that we don’t even know where or how to begin. But it is at times like that, that our attorney prays for us, and make intercession in our behalf before God the Father. What an attorney! What a comforter! What a friend!
The fourth thing that a person gets when they receive Christ is:
IV. A Friend That Is Closer Than A Brother.
The older I get the more I am aware of the fact that you can’t have too many friends in this life. Friends are a valuable treasure.
But I have also been hurt by people who I thought were my friends, and I have had people who claimed to be my friends forsake me when I needed them.
But when you receive Christ, you get a friend that sticketh closer than a brother. Look at what Proverbs 18:24 says “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother.”
Hebrews 13:4 tells us “For He Himself has said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.””
Are you looking for a friend who will never leave you, nor forsake you, one who will stick with you through everything you face and will understand you? Then that friend is found in no one else but Jesus Christ.
The old song says:
What a Friend we have in Jesus all our sins and grief’s to bear. What a privilege to carry, everything to Him in prayer.
Is it any wonder that Satan has done all that he can to keep the eyes of the lost blinded so they will not see and understand what they are missing. Because if we could just tell people that they will receive a past forgiven and forgotten, a new nature, their own attorney, and friend that will never leave them. I believe that they would want to come to and receive Christ.
But there is at least one more thing that you get.
V. You Get A Satisfying Life And Future Full Of Hope.
Now this is something that people long for most in life. How can I have hope for today and tomorrow? Now I’ll be the first to admit that the headlines of the news do not always carry the tidings of good news, and joy. But I want you to know that the Christ of Calvary still satisfies and gives joy and peace.
The hope and joy that you looking for won’t be found on Friday or Saturday sitting in a bar at the bottom of a bottle. Neither is it found by popping pills or shooting needles. You won’t find it in engaged in some immoral relationship. But if you will still look to the Christ of Calvary you will find that He still has power to change lives and make something worth while out of wrecked wasted lives.
Thank God, that kind of a life is available without cost, through Jesus Christ. When talking to the woman at the well in John 4:14 Jesus put it like this: “But whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst;”
Now part of this hope is found in Christ as He makes us a brand new person. You see, when a person comes to Christ for forgiveness and accepts Christ as their Savior, their life is truly made new.
Today the world would want you think that they are having all the fun, but the Bible tells us that the way of the sinner is hard. Whoever, or whatever gave you the idea that sin was the highway to happiness? Nothing could be further from the truth.
If you want to live a life that is full of frustration, and heartaches and that ends in torment, then just continue to live your life in sin, leave Christ out of your life, and the Bible says that you are going to have some hard times ahead.
Oh, I’m not saying that there isn’t any fin in sin. If sin wasn’t fun, and if sin didn’t bring some pleasure, Satan would go bankrupt in a week. But the Bible tells us in Hebrews 11:25: “The pleasures of sin last only for a season”, for a few short hours or days, then comes the heartache, the pain, and someday when your life of sin is over then comes the torments forever.
But I’m so glad that I can tell you from experience that if you will come to Jesus Christ and let Him make you a new person. That your new life in Christ will be as a shinning light that gets brighter and brighter each day, until some day you will enjoy the glories and busses in heaven that will last for an eternity.
Oh, if someday you want to go to heaven, I must tell you that only those who have let Jesus Christ make them a new person will go there. All those who have come to Jesus Christ and have had their past sinful life forgiven and forgotten, and have been made a brand new person in through the blood of Jesus Christ All of those have the hope of someday going to heaven when they die.
If you came to church today wishing there was some way to begin your life all over again, I want to tell you that there is, and the great thing about it is that the price for all of this has all been paid in full for you.
You see, one day almost 2,000 years ago, Jesus Christ died on the Cross, not because He had sinned, but because you I have sinned and He paid the debt of sin once and for all. So all those who would come to Him in faith believing could become new creatures in Christ Jesus. Having their sins forgiven and forgotten end up someday in heaven.
Do you want a new life?
All you have to do is come to Jesus Christ, tell him that you are a sinner, believe that He died on the cross and rose again the third day for you sins and by faith ask Him to come into your heart and life and make you a new person, and He will forgive you and make you a brand new person today! A new person who will receive the power to forsake the old lifestyle of sin and live a brand new life for God.
Do you long for a new life? Then Come to Jesus Christ today.
