Evangelistic Message to Young People — Richard Owen Roberts

Some absolutely splendid scenes, and I can't hear them from above, so if any of you have the courage to come a little closer. I want to use three passages of Scripture tonight. The one that we have read as the second passage.

I'd like you to turn now, please, to the Book of Lebron, and read behind these columns. Now, because there is no one here tonight who will check in on that, I'd like to make a suggestion. For you're not going to act upon it if you like, but nonetheless I would urge you to do so.

Now, if I say anything and you interrupt me, I really don't have anything that I just have to say. And we'll feel upset if I don't get it said. A burden I'd like to convey to you, but if I say things you appreciate or understand, then I'll fail in my purpose.

So, at any juncture, feel free to interrupt. A little politeness helps. It's always nice to finish a sentence. Excuse me. And we're by nature children, even as others. Now, I would imagine, have heard the Word.

Human Depravity and the Inability to Follow God

I'm not so sure that most of you will know what it means. So let me begin. Now, this is not an exercise in English. I'm not going to be a burden. Rather, your understanding of the truth of God's Word.

It's very urgent as far as your personal life. If I use the word rectitude, how many of you know what it is? Number one, two. Now, think in terms of moral rectitude. Get that in your head privately. Rectitude means that you go to a distant point in the straight line.

Now, if it won't be an insult, I'm looking at that door over there, which I'm going to call the door to nowhere. And I'm going to say that it is my responsibility to exercise rectitude and to go directly to that door.

But I cannot go straight from here without moving some of you and some chairs. But I can go as straight as possible. God, in a straightened fashion, on the other hand, speaks of inability to go in any kind of straight line.

My goal is to look. Isn't it curious? You might see anything quite like this. No. You know, I've got to go to that door. That's my goal. That's another direction. But, you know, my legs are carried away.

To go. That's how you were born. With inability to go in the straight line, the place where God created you to go. Instead, meander all over in this direction. And, you know, something, oh, look at this.

There's an old man behind this little petition. So all kinds of things. You never really make any consequential progress because you were born to pray and you die to pray. Unless you are born a second time.

Have you got that clear? Now, what does it really mean? Does that mean that a person sins to the full extent of their ability? Well, now, I look around at you. It does not look to me as if any of you have sinned as much as you could.

Have you been fairly decent? It wouldn't be hard, would it, to be worse than you are. No, all of us, we can be a whole lot worse than we are. And also, we can be a whole lot better than we are. But if you were three times better than you have been, you would still be depraved.

Because you do not have the ability to go in a straight line. No matter how hard you try to be better than you are, you're still no good. Still utterly incapable of fulfilling the purpose for which you were created.

So, we don't sin to the full extent of our capacity or our ability. Unless we get really angry with God. I mean, plenty of young people decided they didn't like it and they won't do it. And they turned as far away as they could.

Some of you heard me say the other day that I spent three days in prison in the month of March. I'm supposed to spend four days in prison next week. Again in prison. I talked to numerous fellows who are in prison for the rest of their life with no possibility of ever getting out.

But all of those that talked to me, they all said the same thing. I didn't intend to come here. I didn't have any plan at all to spend the rest of my life in prison. It's just that I thought I got out of my head.

I did some things that I didn't plan. Now, I'm paying for that. Now, I hope none of you have ever been in prison. But all of us have that capacity. You could easily spend your life in prison. As could anyone.

So we all have to be worse than we are. But not one of us can say, I don't think I have any interest in going to hell. I am determined to go to heaven. And I'm going to live so well that even God himself can't insist that he's bound to do it.

Because you don't have that ability. And it's not that I'm saying leave you out just like anybody else. No, we're all in this to escape from our life of sin. People who start out like that and harden their hearts rather tend to void their conscience.

So that they end up doing things they never intended to do when they were not even really aware of what they were doing. So depravity, that's an issue. And as I've already said, in your physical birth, you were born.

And that will not change by anything. So the depraved person is the person. So I grievously think that person is unable to change themselves. Now, let's pay attention to the three verses that we read from Ephesians chapter 10.

Spiritual Death in Trespasses and Sins

In Trastapses and in Acts 8, do you realize that although you are alive, you are dead? I hope everybody realizes that. When a person is born physically, they are only alive physically. In order to be alive spiritually a second time.

So the Apostle Paul in this first verse makes it crystal clear that all of us, without any exception, were born dead in trespasses and in sins. That's an all-inclusive statement. As I've just said, there are no exceptions.

So in verse 2, in which you formally walk, so what it comes down to is if you can say that's the way I formally walk, then that means that you're no longer dead in trespasses and sins. But, unless you've been born again, you cannot say that's the way I formally walk.

Because you're still walking in the way in which you were born. In Acts in verse 2, we walk according of the power of the air and the spirit that is now working in the thumbs of disobedience. So when you were born, there was a prince in your life.

Now in this church, you have often heard a child refer to Christ as the prince. But there is also another prince in whose family you were born. The prince of darkness, Satan. You have his nature and you follow his bidding until, if by the grace of God, you then are transformed.

And this prince, the prince of the air, makes us. And so, verse 3, we all live that way. So I'm not right. No one has ever really faced that unless you are born a second time, you die in the same way in which you were born the first time, in depravity, under the curse of Satan, with the inability.

The Two Kingdoms of God and Satan

Let's turn to the second passage that has been read and to consider some of the critical issues that are set forth. And as you turn to this, call to realize that there are the kingdom of death. That's, as I said earlier, that's where you die unless you are born the kingdom.

So let's think about that. Since the fall of the rebellious angels, which is described in the book of Jude, in verse 6, all of us belong to the realm of darkness. These two powerful kingdoms lie with each other.

The kingdom of God, the kingdom of Satan. We are all born initially as children of Satan, not children of God, as citizens of the kingdom of Satan, not the kingdom of God. We remain in that kingdom in which we were born unless, rather, people cannot join the kingdom of God.

Suppose you said to yourself, I don't want to go to hell. I don't want to remain in the kingdom of God. You couldn't do it. Suppose you said, well, I believe my mother and father are genuine Christians and being their child, I'm not allowed the kingdom of God.

No, you can't inherit the kingdom of God. Well, suppose you say, I have a very wealthy uncle. He's quite handsome and he has made it clear to me, you're my prince. I know I'll spend a chunk of that money to buy citizenship.

Or I'm beginning to understand how foolish it would be to go to hell and I determine to be good enough to enter the kingdom of heaven. You know perfectly well that none of those things would work. You can't stray into the kingdom.

You can't wander into the kingdom. You can't earn citizenship in the kingdom of God. So with that, take a step back. Now, when he was in the kingdom of God, he believed in his name, beholding his kingdom, which he was to inherit.

But Jesus, because he did not need to bear witness, for he himself knew what was in that. Now let's think carefully. Christ is in Jerusalem. He's teaching. And then this crowd of people said, oh, well, we're convinced that you're the Messiah.

We've seen all these incredible things you have done. But it says very plainly, on his part, Jesus refused to commit himself to that. Why do you think that's so? Well, I do. Have you any idea why that's so?

I'm better suited to help you to turn and think this through. The feeling that many people have is that if you could just see some great miracle, it would enable you to believe. Well, these people saw great miracles.

They saw Jesus do incredibly wonderful things. But Jesus, on his part, was refusing to commit himself to them, as it says, because he knew what was in their hearts. Now, face this simple truth. People are not born again by seeing miracles.

Indeed, people are not born again by anything they do. Now, keep in mind that simple statement. It says Jesus knew what was in their hearts, so he did not commit himself to them. Now, let's move to the third chapter, keeping those words in chapter two in mind.

Jesus and Nicodemus on the New Birth

There was a man in the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to him, that is, to Christ, by night. And he said to him, Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with you.

Now, ask this question. Did Jesus commit himself to Nicodemus? We already read in chapter two, he didn't commit himself to Christ. Did Jesus commit himself to Nicodemus? Do you realize how inconsistent Christ would be if he had done that?

And suppose, but let me speak to you. Are you a brother? Suppose you tell me, and I say it, that your brother tells you, if I rejected what you said and accepted what he said. Now, both of these, the crowd in chapter two and the individual in chapter three, make the same claim.

We believe because of these miracles that you have. Now, if Christ had accepted one and not the other, he wouldn't be a teacher worth listening to. He wouldn't be a savior that you could trust. He would be the kind of person that showed partiality.

Now, Nicodemus was a well-known man. He was a major teacher in Jerusalem, perhaps even a wealthy man. Many of the members of the council, if Christ had accepted Nicodemus because he was powerful or well-known or wealthy, and he had rejected the crowd because they were poor and the people of no importance in Jerusalem, it would have been a gross ignorance.

But the simple truth, he accepted the claim of neither the larger group nor the individual. Look at verse three. Jesus said to him, I say to you, unless one cannot see the kingdom of God, not that there are two kingdoms, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of Satan.

So Jesus is telling this prominent religious teacher, you can't even see the kingdom of God unless you're born again. Now that's a problem with a great many people in churches across America. They don't really know that there are two kingdoms.

They've heard about heaven and they've heard about hell, and the idea of going to hell is not a pleasant idea, and they're not all that keen about going to heaven, but it sounds better to go to heaven than to go to hell, so they say they're Christians.

But the truth is, it isn't who is to pray to see the kingdom of God. In order to see the kingdom of God, something has to happen instantly. Then instead of saying to Jesus, that is instead of Nicodemus saying, look at what he says in verse four.

How can a man be born when he's old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born again. So then Jesus responds, verse five. Truly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

So the first statement is, he cannot see the kingdom of God. The second statement is, he cannot enter. Now just put yourself and Nicodemus, suppose you were actually in the basement of a convent, and you said to him, I'm hearing about these wonderful miracles, and I want you to know that I believe in you.

And he looked at you with a very stern glance, and he said to you, you can't even see. Now suppose that happened. What would your response have been? Have you any idea how you would? Well you may not know how you should, how you would respond, but you should know how you should.

If you don't know what the teacher's talking about, why not ask him to explain himself? Surely you understand that the purpose of teachers is to convey information that's vital to you. If you don't get it, ask.

Nicodemus could have said, now look, I don't know what you're talking about. Would you please explain? He didn't ask anything. He merely raises an objection by saying, I don't see how a man can be born a second time of his own.

Explain it to me. Help me here. This is an urgent matter. Now why didn't he say something like that? He didn't even know there was a kingdom of God. You don't ask questions about something that as far as you know doesn't even exist.

You don't become earnest about the matter that means absolutely nothing. Now this conversation, after saying, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Jesus says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. Now what did he mean in verse 5 when he said, unless one is born of water and of the spirit? I'm going to be pushing on this a lot.

I'm not going to move on until I get the response. What did Jesus mean when he said, unless one is born of water and the spirit? Would you like to take a try? Anyone willing? Let's go on. Yes, that's quite easy, really, because the next verse makes it clear.

Look again at the next verse. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Clearly, he's referring to physical birth. But when he says, born of water and of the spirit, what does he mean when he says, born of water?

Speak up. Is it baptism? Is it baptism? That would be a reasonable thing to speculate concerning. Does baptism lead to new birth? No, I mean, if he said it, it would be an awfully dumb thing to say when he knew it wasn't true.

But nonetheless, that's the interpretation that men give to it. Now, I know this is a bit delicate, and I have to tell you, most of you are old enough to understand that when a child is born, he's in his mother's womb, and there's a bag of waters that burst, and then the child emerges.

Physical birth is described as a water birth, in that sense. The passage cannot refer to baptism. Jesus is clearly saying two births are necessary. Physical birth and spiritual birth. Born of water. Born of the spirit.

So, Nicodemus, even though you're old, even though you're recognized as the teacher in Jerusalem, even though you're a man of some prestige and well-known, the simple truth is, you cannot even see, and certainly you cannot enter the kingdom of God unless you're born again.

So verse 7, Don't marvel, that I said to you, you must be born again. Now, as I pointed out already, Nicodemus isn't asking the kinds of questions that you ought to ask. Christ is giving you answers for questions he hasn't even asked.

Look at verse 8. The wind blows where, and you hear the sound, but you do not know where it comes, where it goes, so is every storm. But we all know that we can see the effect of the wind. The wind is howling, the bending of trees, even bending when you have big storms like you had some of in this area in the last month or so.

You can see row after row of houses utterly destroyed. You can see pictures of a heavy automobile up on top of a roof of a building half way collapsed. You know the wind has incredible power. But you don't really stand there and say, Oh, I know exactly where that wind, where that wind is going.

You can see the effect of the ability to carry it, to act with it, to trace it, and to map out where it's going to blow next. So Nicodemus does make a response that's at least a little pertinent in verse 9.

He says to him, How can these things, that's when Jesus answers, Are you the teacher? I say to you, we speak that, and we bear witness. Do not receive our witness. He adds in verse 12, I told you earlier, there's a person too, to be born again.

Be prepared to tell. Jesus has made it crystal clear, you're not born again. You cannot see the King of God. What do you have to do? You can't do anything. Here's something to pay close attention to. You're young now.

This is your father who did a job in California. You love to move, or who can say, go off to college, and end up going to another church. Most of the church teaches that when a person repents, I'm going to ask you to give that now.

Very careful. Let me repeat what I just said. Most of the churches across America teach that if you repent and believe, use the good hands God put on top. What law is that, from the past, is clear law?

John Mark, good answer, tell us now. Let's just look at it this way. Is Jesus a dumb or a wise teacher? I'm not making any pretense. I'm not going to say, do you realize that you have in front of you the finest teacher that ever was?

I'm not making any stupid statements. But I dare to tell you, I don't make parables out of nothing. Two things that are radically different and the same. I'm not all that smart, but I'm smart enough to know how foolish that is.

Physical Birth and Spiritual Birth

Now in this passage, Jesus is drawing parables. Jesus is drawing a parallel between physical birth and spiritual. So if he's drawing a parallel between physical birth and spiritual birth, there's got to be a parallel.

Now you've got brown hair. At what point did you command your parents to give you brown hair? Would you say it had anything to do with your physical state? The color of your eye? The power of your brain?

What input did you have into your physical birth? None. I mean, we're all sharks. We all know. We didn't have any input into our physical birth. Now, if you draw a parallel, you can't have no input into physical birth and some input into spiritual birth.

It doesn't work. It's just a straw. The whole picture that Christ is drawing. That's why Jesus said to Nicodemus, you can't even see the kingdom. Certainly, you can't answer it. Now then, does that leave us in a terrible fix?

Does that mean there's no hope of our being Christians? Because there's nothing we can do about it. Are we doomed forever because we can't make it happen? Well, let's ask the question, what really happens when a person is born?

And we can think again about this Nicodemus. What was Jesus saying needed to happen to him? Now remember his first statement to him. If a man is not born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So the first thing we know that had to happen to Nicodemus was the eyes that he had in his head.

They could see money. They could see crowds. They could see the class in front of him that he was teaching. Those eyes couldn't see the kingdom of God. Something had to happen to his eyes in order for him to see the kingdom of God.

If you look with any great care at these verses we've just gone over, what impact do you think Jesus' words had on Nicodemus? At any point does he cry out, as I suggested earlier, Hey, help me! Don't you see I'm in trouble here?

I'm not getting it! It all just passes off here as if it were... So something happened so that he actually heard what Christ was saying. Do you remember that in the Bible, Jesus said they have eyes to see and they do not see.

They have ears to hear and they do not hear. They have hearts. But they are hearts of stone. When a person is born again, they're blind-eyed with eyes that see. Their deaf ears are hearing. They can hear.

And the heart of stone is removed. Now remember the word, you're attuned to be part of the kingdom of God unless God in his mercy gives you eyes that see and ears that hear and a heart that responds, expresses concern when he opens the meeting.

The Urgency of Revival and Conversion Among Young People

Because some of you don't seem to have taken hold. You don't seem to have gotten really serious. I wonder if you understand that throughout the history there have been many, many occasions when young people like yourselves have totally changed the course.

Look around here. I don't see just groups. I see the whole world turned upside down by a group of young people who it is that hear. And they said, I'm not willing to watch my nation perish. I'm not willing to see multitudes of people washed into hell.

I am to change that. The paths that we've described as revivals have been profoundly influenced by people in your age group. Perhaps you don't have any idea how important what God wants to do. But your pastor sees that important.

And this old man who's here for a week sees that. This nation transformed through your life. And that's not silly talk. That's the way God works. So we are very, very concerned that every person in this room be born again.

Some of you, by God's grace, others of you. It's a burden that everyone. Now some of you have seen just a little bit of the kingdom. Not enough, perhaps, to have really motivated you. But when one is born again, does that make them Christian?

You seem a little slow in responding. That's all I'm criticizing you. I think it's wise to be cautious not to make statements that you wish a few minutes later you hadn't made. But when a person begins to realize that there are two kingdoms, and when one begins to sense something of the difference between these two, then there is a responsibility that comes upon you.

Repentance, Faith, and Commitment to Christ

A twofold responsibility. And second, now I might be wrong, I have a few, such a goodly number of you who have not yet really realized to some measure how urgent it is to join Christ, to commit your life to Christ, to turn from everything in your life that hinders you.

Now I'm not pretending that I'm your own, apart from the Spirit, that you will be able to see or hear or will begin to realize that indeed there are two kingdoms, that you were born depraved, that you cannot be anything other than depraved unless you are born again.

When you begin to sense some urgency, some desire, you begin to feel some responsibility, you begin to say to yourself, I'm not willing, I don't want to die as I was born. I want to be forgiven of my sin.

I want to serve Christ. When you come to that point, then, as I said already, two things are mandatory. Now what do those terms mean? So let's go back to where we started. There's the door to nowhere.

You say to yourself, that is not actually a door, but that's the door to pleasing Christ. That's the door that will give tremendous meaning and consequence to all life. I've got to get through that door.

But your depravity keeps you wandering around feeling different things and keeps you from God in a straight line. But repentance is where you say, I am done going my way and turned about. I'm going to go God's way.

You remember that Jesus described two roads. He said there was a broad road that leads to destruction, and there's a narrow road that leads to life eternal. He also talked about the gate. So I'm not going to call that anymore the door.

I'm going to call that the straight gate. Now straight, not spelled S-T-R-A-I-Z-H-T, but S-T-R-A-I-Z-H-T. Have you ever noticed a difference? What's the difference between S-T-R-A-S-T-R-A-I?

Yes, the straight S-T-R-A-I-Z-H-T. Now that door, which we just named the straight gate, you could actually march through that door with your head high. But the true straight gate, you can't march through with your head high.

In order to get through the straight gate, which is both narrow and long, you've got to hold yourself. You've got to say, everything I have said is worth really nothing. Getting through that straight gate and walking on that narrow way is the most urgent and consequential thing I could possibly do, and I'll do it no matter what it costs.

Repentance is something that you actually say to end my life as I began. I don't want all my life to be wandering about. To repent, whatever it costs, goes with it. Repentance is turning from yourself, your sin, your own weakness, turning toward Christ in a persevering fashion, going out, trusting Christ, living all out.

So while you cannot make yourself alive, God can make you alive. He can enable you to see the two kings, and then to determine. It would be crazy to remain in the kingdom of God, to remain self-centered, to remain in different terms from all kingdoms.

As I've said already, you don't take the kingdom of God away into it. You don't earn the kingdom of God. The spirit of God has enabled you to see these two kingdoms. He calls upon you to turn your back on yourself.

Stop being so foolish and turn your face. That is what each of us should do, and that's what we will be grateful we have done, when indeed we have. What you can take is someone here should simply say, no, not me.