I'm reading this morning from
1 Peter 1, beginning with verse 22. 1 Peter 1, beginning with
verse 22. Now, Peter is writing to believers
here. That's who he addresses in the
first few verses of chapter 1. And he's writing to believers
and says in verse 22, Seeing ye have purified your souls in
obeying the truth through or by the Spirit, the Holy Spirit,
unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another
with a pure heart fervently, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever." And then in verse 25, he says, this is
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Born again. That's what Peter is dealing
with in these verses. Being born again, he said. How often we hear people use
this term. Now, the new birth is a reality,
yet only if it fits what this scripture says about it, what
the scripture says about the new birth. Most born-again experiences,
so-called born-again persons, are the product of a highly emotional
service of some sort. which usually is a great show
of excitement, music, singing, shouting, healings, with a charismatic,
emotionally charged speaker pumping up the crowd. And it usually
involves some person who is perhaps a former alcoholic or drug addict
or someone. And they are overcome with emotion
in this service and filled with something. And they come down
the front, they come down the aisle, and in the midst of a
wild frenzy, he or she has hands laid on them, and suddenly they
are born again. Born again. Well, I want you
to turn with me to John chapter 3, the gospel of John chapter
3. That is a very common scenario of so-called born-again experiences. But from the Word of God, we're
going to see that being born again, or rather born from above,
is not so much an experience as something that is the result
of the Word of God, the preaching of the gospel. We're going to
see that. In John chapter 3, read with me John 3, verses Now,
there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the
Jews. And the same man came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again. he cannot see the kingdom of
God." Now, the Lord Jesus Christ first used this term to a Pharisee. Our Lord is the one who first
used this term. And he was speaking to a Pharisee,
or that is, a religious leader or teacher who could not understand
this truth, born again, or rather, born from above. Read on with
me. Verses 4-7, Nicodemus said unto
the Lord, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter
the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, capital S, Spirit, Holy Spirit, he cannot
enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. that which is born of the Holy
Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you,
ye must be born again," or born from above. And what the Lord
is saying there when he says a man must be born of water,
he is saying we must be born the first time on this earth,
or that is, as a human being. You know how it is in natural
birth, how that The mother's water breaks. A child is actually
formed in the womb full of water. All right? That's what he's speaking of
there. You must be born of the flesh the first time. And then
he says to be born again, or born of the Spirit, you must
be born of the Holy Spirit. All right? Now, this is a profound
mystery. And no one knows when or who
is born or is going to be born again. This is a birth that cannot
be planned or performed by us. He said we must be born of the
Spirit or by the Holy Spirit. It is a spiritual birth. It is
completely in the will and power of God Almighty, not us. is not a cooperative effort between
God and man, no. No more than our first birth
was a cooperative effort between us and our parents. We did not
decide to be born. Our parents decided to give birth
to us. How plain could it be? And this
is the new birth, all right? We are born of God. Look at verse 8 here in John
chapter 3. In talking of the Holy Spirit,
the Lord says, The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, or
whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit." In other words, only the Holy Spirit, only God
knows who He is going to do this for. Back to 1 Peter 1. Now, we don't know who God will
do this for. It's in his will, his decision,
not ours. And we don't know when. It's
in his good time, in the fullness of God's time or purpose. But we do know how God does this. Here in 1 Peter, he tells us,
1 Peter 1, reading it again, verse 22, he says, We have purified
our souls and obeyed the truth through the Holy Spirit, or by
the Holy Spirit. Verse 23, being born again, not
of corruptible seed, or that is, of fleshly seed, but of incorruptible,
the Word of God. And in verse 25, again, he says
this is that Word, this incorruptible seed, this Word of God, more
specifically, is the gospel. which is preached unto you."
All right? He said, Obey in the truth through
the Spirit, or that is, by the Holy Spirit operating on us,
giving us faith in Christ who is the truth. I want you to notice
there are three words that he used there. He says, the truth,
the seed, and the word. uses the same terms, he said,
he begat us with the word of truth. These three terms are
actually names for the Lord Jesus Christ. He said, I am the truth. He is called the woman's seed
in Genesis 3.15. In John 1, he's called the Word.
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God, and the Word was made flesh and dwelled among
us. So Christ is the truth. Christ is the seed. Christ is
the Word, the Word of God. And everyone that is born again,
or rather born from above, born of God, born by the Holy Spirit, is born by hearing the word of
truth, the gospel, that is, Christ and him crucified. Now, no one
is born again or born from above apart from hearing the gospel. Not another, not a perverted
gospel. Let me read from Ephesians 1
to you. No one is born again except they
hear the gospel. In chapter 1 of Ephesians, verse
5 says, He has predestinated us unto the adoption of children. He is talking about God's children
by Jesus Christ. They are made children by Jesus
Christ, travailing in birth for them. And in verse 12 and 13,
he says, that we should be to the praise of his glory who first
trusted in Christ, in whom also you trusted after you heard the
word of truth." The gospel. You trusted Christ, believed
Christ, made a child of God after you heard the truth. The gospel
of your salvation. And believe. And in chapter 2
of Ephesians says, that is not of yourselves, it's the gift
of God. The whole work of salvation, the whole new birth, or being
born from above, is God's work. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit creating new or spiritual life in a human
being. All right? And He does this through
the preaching of the gospel. This is the means that God uses. All right? The preaching of the
gospel. Now, it must be THE gospel. truth and not half the truth,
but the truth. And Romans 1 describes that gospel. We've looked at this before.
In Romans 1, he says this is the gospel of God. It is God's
gospel. The gospel that a man, a woman,
a young person must hear to be born again must first begin with
the character of God Almighty. The Lord Jesus Christ said this
in John 17, verse 3, this is eternal life, that they might
know Thee, the only true God. A man, a woman, a young person
must know the true God. And I contend, yea, I know for
a fact, that today a God of man's imagination is being preached.
People, for the most part, are believing a God who is not God
at all. A God who is only love and not
a God of holiness and wrath and justice. Why, the Scripture says
the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. And Paul said in Romans
3 verse 18, concerning his generation, he said there's no fear of God
before their eyes. And that's what I contend is
wrong with this generation. Because another God, a God who
loves everyone without exception and who has a wonderful plan
for everyone's life and is trying to save everyone, and men do
not fear that God. And so that God's name is on
everyone's lips to blaspheme and taking his name in vain. When the true God must be preached
and when the true God who is holy and righteous and just and
whom Paul calls a consuming fire must be known. This is the first
step in the new birth to know the true God and Jesus Christ
whom God has sent. Why did Jesus Christ come? Well,
He came, the Scripture says, to establish righteousness. The
whole book of Romans is about this. That Christ came to live
a life which we could not live. And He didn't do that just to
show us how to live, but He came to do that as a substitute. And
He did that for His people. And He lived this perfect life.
And after doing so, he imputed, or that is, charged this perfect
holy lie to his people, those whom God chose and gave to him. And then he went to the cross
to die for them. And when he did that, when he
died, he actually put away their sins, paid the penalty against
their sin. That's why he came. All right?
And the new birth is when the Holy Spirit takes this message
of the gospel, Christ, of who God is, and who Christ is and
why He came, and applies it to the heart of a person who is
dead and trespasses in sin. And He gives them repentance,
repentance of their sins, faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, faith
in Him alone, and love for God, love for Christ, love for the
truth. This is what God uses to give
new birth. Hope he has done this work in
you, and I hope you've heard this Word this morning. Until
next Sunday, may the Lord bless His Word to you. Good day. Thank you.