Here is how you become a Christian. You say, I realize I am totally dead. I realize I cannot bring anything to God because he is spiritual, and spiritually I have got nothing. On that plane, I am not even alive. I am just such a limited person. I am just flesh and blood and carnal. I don't have spiritual life; I don't have spiritual experience. I am not even poverty stricken, and I desire life. I want to be made alive I want my spiritual pulse to begin to beat. I want to feel and breathe and see and hear spiritually. I want to come to life on the spiritual plane, and know the Father and know the Saviour, and be able to pray, and be assured of the purpose in life.
Our heavenly Father is saying, ‘Forget your pride. Throw it away. Leave it behind, and just see that you are dead and you need to be given life. If you would only come in on those terms, you can have life. Realize that left to yourself your life just meanders about in a pointless way. It will just be fraught with disappointment, and sin, and guilt at the end of life's journey. Realize you are lost. Don't be self-sufficient and arrogant. Just come and say, ‘I am lost. I need to be saved. I need to be found. I don't know God. I have wandered far and I need to be found.’ Those are the terms. That is what the Father says.
If you would only come in and leave your pride behind, this is what the Lord Jesus Christ would do. The blood of the Lord Jesus Christ which he shed on Calvary would wash away all your sin. The price that he paid on the cross would wash away all your sin. The Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit, would so operate upon you that your eyes would be opened, and you would see the purpose of life. The Lord Jesus Christ himself would breathe life into you of a kind you had never had before. The Lord and the Spirit together would so operate on your heart that you would begin to be motivated and feel for spiritual things. That is why when somebody is truly born again, truly converted, he most certainly knows it. Old things are passed away, all things become new; it's a totally new experience. All heaven would look down and the angels of heaven would rejoice as God by his power brought you in to this experience.
But if you are offended at the message of Christ, if you are offended at pardon and forgiveness, you can never have any such experience. Just an ounce of pride can ruin you in life, and destroy you in eternity. If we know the Lord, we can say, ‘How many years did I allow to go by while we sneered at God, and still the Father came out to us!’ ‘Oh Lord our God, we pray that none may die with the complaints of the elder son on their lips. Make us to understand how much we need pardon and forgiveness of life. Teach us the meaning of grace and bring men women and young people to seek the Saviour, to cast themselves upon his mercy, to yield to him. We ask it in his name, and for his sake.