The Cross Made The Difference For Us! Series

The Cross Made the Difference for Us!

1 John 5:1-8

Sermon by Rick Crandall

Series: The First Epistle of John

Grayson Baptist Church - January 25, 2015

(Revised February 2, 2024)

MESSAGE:

*Christians are like other people in a whole lot of ways. We go to school and work. We love our families. We enjoy the same foods, sports, and hobbies. Like non-Christians, we also go through problems in our families, our finances, and our health. We certainly don't look different from non-Christians. But today's Scripture reminds us that in the most important ways Christians are different.

*The cross made the difference for us! And here God's Word shows us how.

1. FIRST, CHRISTIANS: WE ARE BLESSED WITH TWO BIRTHDAYS.

*Every true Christian in the world literally has two birthdays: A physical birthday and a spiritual birthday. That's the day we were born again by receiving Jesus Christ as our Lord and Savior.

*John confirmed this truth for us in vs. 1 when he said, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. . ." Christians: We are born again by the Holy Spirit of God working through the Word of God to bring us to faith in Jesus Christ. That's why 1 Peter 1:23 tells all Christians that we have "been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible, through the word of God which lives and abides forever."

*In John 3:3-6, the Lord explained how crucial it is for people to be born again. And Jesus said this to Nicodemus:

3. . . "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.''

4. Nicodemus said to Him, "How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?''

5. Jesus answered, "Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

*"You must be born again," Jesus said. The reason why is because physical birth can only give physical life. Horses produce horses. Dogs produce dogs. And mortal people produce mortal people. "That which is born of the flesh is flesh."

*But "that which is born of the Spirit (that which is given birth by God's Holy Spirit) is spirit." The Holy Spirit produces a new kind of person by a new kind of birth, the spiritual birth that gives us God's eternal life.

*But this new birth can only come by trusting in the cross of Jesus Christ. And Jesus was talking about the cross in John 3:14-18, when He went on to say this to Nicodemus:

14. . . "As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up,

15. that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.

16. For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

17. For God did not send His Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through Him might be saved.

18. He who believes in Him is not condemned; but he who does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God."

*Obviously we are born again by truly believing in Jesus Christ. But what does that mean? What does it mean to believe? What does it mean to have saving faith? Jerry Falwell really helped us understand, and he started by saying that saving faith "is like taking a drink of water. In John 4:14 Jesus said, 'Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life.' Saving faith is like taking a drink of water.

*And saving faith is like sitting down to an expensive feast someone else provided for you. In Luke 14:16-17 Jesus said:

16. . . 'A certain man gave a great supper and invited many,

17. and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, "Come, for all things are now ready."'

*Saving faith is also like accepting an invitation. In Matthew 11:28 Jesus said, 'Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.'

*Saving faith is also like walking through a door. In John 10:9 Jesus said, 'I am the door. If anyone enters by Me, he will be saved, and will go in and out and find pasture.'