Welcome to Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening.

And now for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow along in your Bibles, I'm going to continue preaching through John, the Gospel of John, Chapter 3. And this is the second message on the subject of you must be born again. Part 2. You must be born again. And then later on I'm going to be going through the rest of this chapter. But this will be the second one on the new birth.

You must be born again. And here, as I said last week, Christ is teaching a man named Nicodemus, a Pharisee, who was pretty much not like some of the other Pharisees who openly hated Jesus of Nazareth, even called him a devil, blasphemed him. Nicodemus came to him by night, Which may, it may indicate that he didn't want to be seen coming to Jesus because some of his brethren were adamantly opposed to anything about Jesus of Nazareth. But he came to him by night and he told him, he said, Rabbi, called him Rabbi, which is a term of honor for a Jewish teacher. He said, 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.

So I brought this out last week how Nicodemus, even though he had some respect and regard for Jesus of Nazareth, he didn't believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Savior. He didn't believe that Jesus was God manifest in the flesh, but he did have some respect for the powers that he had seen Christ in raising, well, in healing the sick up to this point, turning water into wine, all of that. And Christ tells him, he said, except you be born again, born from above, you cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven. And that new birth is the spiritual aspect of salvation, whereby God brings his people, his elect, under the preaching of the gospel and empowers it by the Holy Spirit to their salvation, to their being born again, regenerated, quickened, given spiritual life. And that's a necessity. You must be, because if you're not born again, you cannot see or enter the kingdom of heaven. You don't have spiritual eyes to do so. You don't have a spiritual desire to do so.

Back up in John chapter two and verse 23, listen to this. It says, now when he was in Jerusalem at the Passover, talking about Christ, in the feast day, many believed in his name. when they saw the miracles which he did. Now that tells us that's not talking about saving faith because saving faith is not the faith of miracles. Saving faith is faith in Christ as your only hope of salvation and righteousness and forgiveness and eternal life and glory. And here's how we know that that's so. Look at verse 24 of John chapter two. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all, he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.

Christ knows what's in us. By nature, we are totally spiritually dead, having fallen in Adam, being brought into a state of spiritual death, totally depraved, even in our religion now, even in our human morality. We cannot please God and totally depraved, totally ignorant, blind, have no desire to bow to God's way of salvation in and by the Lord Jesus Christ, His blood and righteousness alone. The Bible says, the natural man, that's the unregenerate, one who's not born again by the Spirit. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. Neither can he know them, they're spiritually discerned. And so, when he's talking to Nicodemus, he's talking to a man who's spiritually dead, who needs to be born again.

And he doesn't tell Nicodemus how to be born again, listen to this. He says in verse seven, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. Verse eight, the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit. I cannot tell you how to be born again. I mentioned last week, a famous preacher wrote a book called How to Be Born Again. That book should have never been written. We're born again, and I'll show you this. Look at Romans chapter six. Romans chapter six. Here's how it happens. I can't tell you how you do it, because you don't do it. God is the author of the new birth in Christ by the power of the Spirit. Born from above, born of God, born by the word of God. What happens in this new birth is that God's chosen people, given to Christ before the foundation of the world, redeemed by Christ on the cross by His blood, He brings them under the preaching of the gospel by His sovereign power and providence. And it's there where He regenerates them, gives them new life, a new heart, and converts them to Christ. Look at Romans 6, verse 17. Romans 6, verse 17. It says, but God bethanked that you were the servants of sin, slaves to sin. Now that's an unregenerate person, an unbeliever. He says, but you have obeyed from the heart That form of doctrine which was delivered you.

Now we know from the context of scripture that that heart there is not the natural heart. Remember what Jeremiah said about the heart of man, it's deceitful, desperately wicked, who can know it? That's why God said when he brings his people to himself in the new birth, he said, I will give them a new heart. A new heart. And that's what this is. You've obeyed from the heart. The heart is the mind, the affections, the will, it's the desires, it's the conscience. He gives us a new one, one that's cleansed by the blood of Christ, by the power of the Spirit in the truth, and he says that form of doctrine, that form of teaching, that teaches us who God is, and who we are, and who Christ is, and how He saves sinners. And it says, which was delivered you, literally this means, which you were delivered to.

If you're sitting there listening to me right now, it's God who put you there. And if you're one of His own, chosen by Him before the foundation of the world, justified in Christ, redeemed by His blood, He brought you under this gospel. if he hasn't already, to give you life from the dead. You hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And how do you know if you have this life from the dead? You believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as your only hope of salvation, righteousness, forgiveness, and eternal life and glory. You know that salvation is not in any way to any degree at any time conditioned on you, but it's all conditioned on Christ who fulfilled those conditions to secure your eternal life and glory in heaven. And you see no other way. He's the Lord your righteousness, and you have no other righteousness to plead.

So back in John chapter three, he says, verse eight, the wind bloweth where it lifteth, And thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell where it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born of the Spirit." When it happens to you, it happens. Now, somebody says, well, should I not seek it? Yes. Seek it. Seek it. Because it's God who sought you first and will bring you to find Him. If you seek, you'll find. But it's God who puts that thought in your mind. It's not in you naturally. The God you seek by nature is an idol. He's more like you than he is the God of the Bible. That's why Romans chapter three and verse 10 says, there's none righteous, no, not one. There's none good, no, not one. There's none that seeketh God, no, not one.

If you're truly seeking the Lord in the truth of the scriptures, who he really is, it's God who's brought you to do that. And if you seek Him, you'll find Him. And you'll find Him when you're born again. He gives you eyes. I was blind, now I see. Oh, I see now. I spent my life searching and reading the Bible and did not know what it really meant, who Christ was, who God was, who I was, until he opened my eyes. And I don't know the exact date of that. Preachers will tell you, well, you've got to know the exact date you were born. You don't have to do that. Here's the point. Do you see him now in the glory of his person and work? Do you see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ? Do you believe in him?

Faith is not the cause of the new birth, it's the fruit of being born again. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Who gives you that hearing? God does, in the power of Christ, by the Holy Spirit. So he says to Nicodemus, verse nine, Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? And Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel? And knowest not these things? You see, the new birth, being born again, was just as true in the Old Testament as it is in the New Testament times. Salvation for sinners in the Old Testament was just the same as it is for sinners in the New Testament. It's by God's grace, through the Lord Jesus Christ, based on His righteousness, the merits of His obedience unto death, as the surety, the substitute, the redeemer of His people. And it's that righteousness that's imputed, charged, accounted to His people.

David spoke of it. Psalm 32, blessed is the man to whom the Lord, whose sins are forgiven, whose sins are covered, blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. And Paul interpreted that by the power of the Spirit in Romans chapter four, as David describing the blessedness of the man to whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works.

I stand before God, forgiven on one ground, the blood of Jesus Christ. I stand before God declared righteous on one ground, the righteousness of Christ freely imputed, charged, accounted to me, which he accomplished by himself by one offering he hath perfected forever them that are sanctified. And so understand that.

So he asked him, he said, are you a master in Israel? Are you an expert on the Old Testament? And you don't know these things? He says in verse 11, verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know and testify that we have seen and you receive not our witness. I'm telling you what I know and what I've seen and you don't believe it. What does that mean, Nicodemus? It means that Nicodemus is spiritually dead even now as Christ spoke to him.

He says in verse 12, If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? If I tell you earthly things and you don't believe them, how can I speak of heavenly things and you don't know that? That's similar to what Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians chapter two, when he spoke of that it takes the spirit of God to reveal these things, he says, He says in verse 11 of 1 Corinthians 2, he says, for what man knoweth the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him?

Now the spirit of man he's talking about is our natural human nature. And that is a fallen, sinful nature. It has no concept. and sees no beauty in, no concept of, and sees no beauty in the things of God. And he says here, he says, in verse 11, he says, even so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. If you do know the things of God, it's come to you by the Spirit of God, verse 12. Now we have received, not the Spirit of the world, even in its false religion, but the Spirit which is of God, that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.

Do you know the things that are freely given to you of God? That is, without you earning them or deserving them or meeting a condition to get them? Do you know what they are? Everything in salvation is freely given to His people by virtue of the merits of the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ, his blood, his righteousness.

So back here in John three, when he says in verse 12, he says, if I've told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Verse 13, and no man hath ascended up to heaven but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. You know what that means? It means you're not gonna get to heaven by climbing with your own efforts. I know about Jacob's ladder and all of that, but that's Christ. Jacob's ladder is a picture of Christ. And that's how he came down to bring his people up. It's not that you work hard and ascend unto heaven to be saved. Because you can work hard, as hard, as hard as you can, and you'll never make it. He has to come down. He has to send His righteousness. He has to send His Messiah.

The Bible says that in the fullness of the time, Galatians 4.4, in the fullness of the time, God sent forth His Son, made of a woman, made under the law to redeem them that were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons whereby they can cry, Abba, Father. So Christ, by His work unto death on the cross, evidencing the success of it by His resurrection from the dead, He came to earth, He came down, It's not that we ascended up. He came down to bring us up. And that's what he's talking about there.

Now, in verse 14, he follows that up with this. And here's the ground of it all. Look at verse 14. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. And remember Christ in John 17 said eternal life is to know God the Father and His Son whom He sent.

He has a reference here back to Numbers 21 when the children, the Hebrew children were in the wilderness going to the promised land and they rebelled against Moses And God sent poisonous snakes, fiery serpents to bite the people and kill them as a judgment because of their rejecting God's prophet and ultimately rejecting God. And Moses interceded for the people. And there Moses is a picture of Christ himself. And so he stepped in and God told him to get a pole and craft a serpent made of brass, a brazen serpent, and put it on the top of the pole and lift it up and tell the people that all who will look to that brazen serpent will live. And so some died of the poison, which is indicative of sin, and some looked to the serpent and they lived.

Now that brazen serpent on that pole was also a type of Christ lifted up on the cross. Somebody asked one time, well, why would it be a serpent? Christ wasn't a snake, that's the devil. Christ on the cross bore the curse of sin brought in by the devil. And so those sins of his people were imputed, charged, laid upon him. So he's represented by the fiery serpent who's going under the wrath of God. to save his people from their sins. That serpent's not Satan, that's Christ bearing the sins of his people. And all who looked, live. Look and live. Look to Christ with the eye of faith.

Now, he says here, even so, must Christ the Son of Man be lifted up. I heard a message one time that had a really good outline. And it says this, that in order for sinners to be saved, Christ must be lifted up on the cross. And that is true. The work of Christ as the surety, the substitute, and the redeemer of his people is a work that forms the ground and the assurance of the salvation of every sinner for whom he died.

There's not one sinner who's going to perish for whom Christ died because he was lifted up. And why was he lifted up? He was lifted up to satisfy the justice of God for their sins. That's what a propitiation means. He said he is the propitiation for our sins. That's the satisfaction. God's justice is satisfied because Christ on the cross took our punishment and drank damnation dry to secure the salvation of every one of his sheep. There's not one person who will perish in hell for whom Christ died. And to preach so is to preach a false Christ and a false ground of salvation.

So he must be lifted up on the cross. He says here, this is John chapter 12 and verse 31. John 12 and verse 31. Now is the judgment of this world. Now shall the prince of this world be cast out. That's Christ on the cross casting out Satan. And he said this in verse 32, and I, if I be lifted up from the earth, that's on the cross, will draw all unto me. And this, he said, signifying what death, he should die. He'll draw all his people unto him. Christ said it in John six, verse 37, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. and him that cometh to me, I will no wise cast out."

So Christ must be lifted up on the cross or there's no salvation, there's no righteousness, there's no life to give, there's no eternity in glory. He must be lifted up.

Secondly, Christ must be lifted up in the preaching of the word. When you go to church, Where is the focus? Is it on Christ crucified and risen from the dead? Or is it on you and me, what we must do in order to please God? No, it should be Christ. He must be lifted up in the preaching of the cross, the preaching of his death, burial and resurrection, the preaching of his person. Jesus Christ crucified and risen from the dead. Jesus Christ, the Lord, our righteousness.

And then thirdly, Christ must be lifted up in the hearts, the new hearts of his people. In order for us to be born and be saved and to have faith in Christ and repentance of dead works, he's gotta be lifted up in our hearts by the power of God. Salvation is a heart matter, make no mistake about it.

And so just like Moses, here in John 3, verse 14, lifted up that serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whosoever believeth, there's the fruit, believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. If Christ is not lifted up on the cross, you can believe till you're blue in the face and it would do you no good. In a sense, and I'll say this and I want you to listen to me very carefully, faith is not our savior, Christ is. And when Christ performed the miracles and he told a couple of people, he said, thy faith has saved thee. He's not talking about their believing, he's talking about Christ himself. being their salvation, being their healing, being the great physician.

And then is when he comes forth with verse 16. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life. A lot of people quote that verse thinking that it's teaching universal salvation or universal atonement And it's not. The world there is not all without exception. The world there is all who live all over this world, Jew and Gentile, who believe in Him. And that's the only ones who can truly, biblically, claim God's love for them. Outside of Christ, there is no love for God and from God. The Bible says in 1 John 4, 10, herein is love, not that we love God, but that he loved us and sent his son to be the propitiation for our sins. And that's evidence, the love of God for a sinner is evidence as God gives that sinner the gift of faith in Christ and repentance. Ephesians 2, eight through 10, grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves, it's the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. And who is born again, verse 10, for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works, not because of but unto good works which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Now I'll pick up there next week and say some more about that. But this, you must be born again or you're not gonna see these things, you won't agree with them, you'll hate them, you'll reject them. Because that's what sinners do. Now some sinners can give mental agreement and not really believe them. But that's not those who are born again by the Spirit. You must be born again.

Out of the death of Christ comes life. for dead sinners. We believe in Him. We rest in Him. We repent of all our dead works because of Him. I hope you'll join us next week for another message from God's Word. We are glad you could join us for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969 or email us through our website at www.TheLetterRofGrace.com. Thank you again for listening today and may the Lord be with you.