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 today.
I'm glad you could join us. For the past five weeks, I've
been preaching a series entitled, You Must Be Born Again. And obviously
we're talking about the new birth, and that's mainly from the book
of John, chapter 3, where Christ was speaking to a man named Nicodemus,
a religious man, telling him that he must be born again or
he cannot even see the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God.
John chapter 3 and verse 3. And that's been the basis of
these messages. Today I'm going to conclude this
series on the new birth. Being born from above, Christ
said, except you be born again, born from above, you cannot see
the kingdom of heaven. And then later on he said, except
you be born again, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven.
God's people, whom the Bible calls God's elect, whom He chose before the foundation
of the world in Christ, whom He justified based upon what
Christ accomplished on Calvary's cross in His obedience unto death,
the righteousness of God. I dealt with that all through
these messages, but I dealt with it last week, too. I urge you
to get those messages if you haven't heard them. Study this
from the Scripture. That's what I try to do. I try
to guide you in the Scripture. The new birth, Christ talking
about that, God's elect, whom God justified in Christ, whom
Christ redeemed on the cross, are brought to enter the kingdom
personally by the power of God in the new birth through the
Holy Spirit. You must be born again by nature
As we're naturally born, we're born dead in trespasses and sins. We don't have spiritual life
naturally. That's why the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God. We don't have spiritual
eyes and spiritual ears to see and hear the glory and the truth
and the reality and the value of the things of God. That's
why Christ told the disciples, he said, the Pharisees, he said,
they don't see these things, but blessed are your eyes for
they see. Blessed are your ears for they
hear. And that's why he said you must
be born again. And that's how God's elect entered
the kingdom under the preaching of the gospel. And I stressed
that last week, and I want to show you a couple more scriptures
on that over in 1 Peter 1. He's talking about being begotten
again, being born again. And he says in verse 22, this
is 1 Peter 1 and verse 22, seeing you have purified your souls
in obeying the truth through the Spirit, It was the Spirit
of God that brought you to believe the truth. It wasn't you just
making the right decision of your own free will. That's a
myth. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit
of God. You have purified your souls in obeying the truth through
the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. See that you
love one another with a pure heart fervently. Look at verse
23. Being born again or having been
born again, not of corruptible seed, Remember over in John 1,
12, 13, it talks about not of blood, not of the will of the
flesh, or works of the flesh, not of the will of man. You were
born again by corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. Now the word, you know
in the Bible, it was originally written in New Testament Greek,
and there's some Aramaic, But the word word can be, go back
to the originals, it's different words. And the word word here
is probably one that most of you are familiar with if you've
read much of the Bible. It's logos. It's the same word
that is used in John 1 when he says, In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He's talking
about Christ himself as the Logos. He says in John 1.14, The Word
was made flesh and dwelt tabernacled among us. We beheld his glory. So that's what this is. And it's
speaking of Christ, but it's also speaking of that which communicates
Christ by the power of the spirit in the gospel. And let me prove
that to you. He says, by the word, this is
verse 23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, verse 24,
for all flesh is as grass, all the glory of man as the flower
of grass. The grass withereth, the flower
thereof falleth away. Look at verse 25. But the word
of the Lord endureth forever. That's the word logos. And this
is the word. Now that word there is another
word in the Greek. It's the word rahema. And it's
the uttered word, the preached word. And this is the word. which
by the gospel is preached unto you. So what he's showing here
is that this new birth is by the power of God in Christ, who
is our life, who sends the Spirit to powerfully and invincibly
give life to dead sinners, through the preaching of the word, making
the gospel, the power of God unto their salvation by giving
them life from Christ. Some of the old writers said
that the new birth is the impartation of the resurrection life of Christ. And I like that. That's good.
Christ arose from the dead. And that's what happens when
we're born again. We spiritually rise from the dead. That's a
resurrection. And it's a powerful one, and
it doesn't come as the result of our decision, or our faith,
or our free will. It comes by the sovereign power
of God through Christ by the Spirit. And it comes under the
preaching of the word of life. Remember when all those people
who claimed to believe on Christ, I believe it's in John 6, and
they left him, and he turned to his disciples and he said,
will you go away also? And Peter said, to whom shall
we go? You have the words of life. His words are life, see? And so it's under the preaching
of the gospel. Now the new birth, you can think
of different terms that can describe the new birth, different aspects
of it. One word is regeneration. Titus
spoke of that, or in the book of Titus speaks of that, how
the washing of regeneration by the renewing of the Holy Ghost.
Regeneration, it's the giving of new life. You can talk about
quickening, and you hath he quickened who were dead in trespasses and
sins. That quickening is giving life, the impartation of life. But life can only be known by
its evidences. Christ told Nicodemus that. He
talked about the Spirit of God who brings about the new birth.
He says the wind blows and listeth where it will. You don't know
where it comes from, where it's going. You just know the effects
of it. What his point was is the new
birth is the same way. The Spirit of God coming. You
know it by the effects of it. Have I been quickened? Have I
been regenerated? Have I been given life? Well,
the first thing I need to know is what am I listening to? What
am I hearing? If I'm sitting under the preaching
of a false gospel and loving that and believing that, and
that's my hope, a false gospel, then I can tell you I haven't
been quickened. That's what the scripture would say. A corrupt
tree cannot produce good fruit. A good tree, that's Christ in
the gospel, the giver of life, the righteousness of God as we've
seen. He cannot produce evil fruit.
Now there may be evil fruit, unsaved people listening to the
gospel, but they weren't produced by the gospel. That's just what
they naturally are. And the gospel becomes a savor
of death unto death to them, as Paul wrote in one passage.
So am I listening to the gospel, the word of truth? Last week
we looked at 2 Thessalonians 2, talking about those who perish
because they receive not the love of the truth, but the elect,
the beloved of God. Paul gave thanks to them because
God hath from the beginning chosen them into salvation through sanctification
of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit setting them apart from the world
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth
whereunto He called you by our gospel. So one of the evidences
of being born again, is to be called. And it's an effectual
calling. It's an invincible calling of
the Holy Spirit through the preaching of the gospel. Now that's not
to say that God doesn't use preachers. He does. Faith cometh by hearing
and hearing by the Word of God. But listen to this. This is 1
Corinthians chapter 1. He says in verse 22, For the
Jews require a sign, the Greeks seek after wisdom, but we preach
Christ crucified under the Jews a stumbling block and under the
Greeks foolishness, but unto them which are called by both
Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.
So this new birth involves a calling. And that calling is unto conversion. Conviction and conversion. Over in the book of John chapter
six, now I know I'm showing you a lot of scriptures, but I urge
you to get these messages and listen to them and follow along
or write these down. But in John chapter six, the
passage that I quote quite often, in verse 37, listen to this.
Now, this is John 6, 37. He says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me." Every sinner whom God chose before
the foundation of the world and gave to Christ, they're going
to come to him. And he says, in him that cometh
to me, I will unknow wise cast out. Somebody argue and say,
well, then there's no use me trying to come to Christ because
if he didn't choose me before the foundation of the world,
I won't come anyway. No, you're not to think that way because
you're not God. You're to act upon what God reveals
in His Word. The secret things belong to God.
God knows whom He chose before the foundation. He wrote their
names in the Lamb's Book of Life. The scripture says, that's a
metaphor, that God knows their name. The Lord knoweth them that
are His. He knows, I don't. And so what he tells me to do
is to believe the gospel. He commands me to believe the
gospel, to come to Christ. He commands me to go out and
preach to anybody who'll listen. And he'll bring them in. He knows
his people and he'll bring them in. And so he says, all that
the Father giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh me
I will in no wise cast out. If you come to Christ, the true
Christ now, of the Bible, not a false Christ, not a counterfeit.
Not this Jesus that people are looking at today who's leaning
over the banister of heaven just hoping that you'll make the right
decision. That's not the true Christ. But
if you'll come to the true Christ, I guarantee he will in no wise
cast you away. Because if you come to Him, He's
drawn you. Now, how do I know that? Well, look at verse 44
of John 6. Now, this is all in line with
the new birth. Listen to it. He says, no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and
I will raise him up at the last day. The new birth involves a
drawing. This word draw here is the same
word that's used in the parable of the dragnet, like he cast
out the net and he drug in those fishes. And somebody asked me
one time, he said, well, you mean that God drags us to himself
against our will? No, he draws us unto himself
with cords of love by changing our will. He gives us a new desire. You see, a new want to, as somebody
said. And so he says, no man can do
that except the Father draw him. It has to be a drawing. Now,
how does the Father draw his people? Well, in the new birth. Well, look at verse 45. It is
written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. God's gonna teach them. Now,
how does God teach them? Through his word. He's gonna
teach them who God is. in His sovereignty, His holiness,
His justice, as well as His love, mercy, and grace. He's going
to show them how God is both a just God and a Savior because
of the one ground of salvation, the blood of Christ, the righteousness
of Christ imputed. The righteousness of God. He's
going to teach us about ourselves. What am I? There's only two kinds
of people in this world in that vein. There's either sinners
lost in their sins and sinners saved by grace. All salvation
conditioned on Christ. You may be a religious person,
you may be an immoral person. If you're an immoral person,
you need to stop and turn your life around. But my friend, whether
you're religious or immoral, I can tell you this, if you don't
know Christ, you're lost, you need a righteousness you cannot
produce. There's none righteous, no not
one. There's none that seeketh after God, no not one. There's
none that doeth good, no not one. That's in Romans 3. Therefore
by deeds of law shall no flesh be justified in God's sight.
That's what he teaches. I'm a sinner. If God ever gave
me what I've earned and deserved, it would be eternal death and
damnation. Right now, if he did that, I'm
a mercy beggar, as one old elder used to say. I'm a sinner saved
by grace. And so he says in verse 45, they
shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath
heard Now faith comes by hearing. But by nature, being dead in
trespasses and sins, you don't have ears to hear until God gives
them to you. But have you heard? You don't have to sit around
and wonder if God has given you ears to hear. Do you hear? How
many times in the book of Revelation did the Lord say, he that hath
ears to hear, let him hear. Now you do not have to sit there,
wherever you are. And wonder, has God given me
ears to hear? No, all you have to do is hear. Do you hear what I'm saying to
you? Do you really hear it? Think about that. So every man
therefore that hath heard. Now, if you've heard, here's
what you've heard. And learned of the Father. Learn
who God really is. And as far as him being a father,
you can look up all the passages that talk about the adoption,
the sonship of his children, Abba father. To see God as father
is to see him as the God of all grace who saves sinners, not
by their works or their will. That's what he says, he says,
it's not of him that runneth, nor of him that willeth, but
of God that showeth mercy, but saves sinners based upon what
Christ has accomplished on Calvary's cross, period. The putting away
of our sins, the establishment of righteousness. I have no righteousness
but Christ. And God is both a just God and
a Savior to me. He can love me in justice because
of what Christ did. That's the Father. And if you've
heard and learned of the Father, you know what's gonna happen?
He says, everyone hath heard and learned of the Father, cometh
unto me. You're gonna flee to Christ.
You're gonna run to Christ and nobody will be able to stop you.
And if you'll turn to John 16, I wanna conclude this series
with this right here. This thing of the new birth,
it's a regeneration, it's a quickening, it's giving life, it's calling,
it's a conversion. He converts us, he changes our
thinking concerning who God is and who we are and who Christ
is and how God saves sinners. And it's a convincing, a conviction,
Christ here in John 16 speaking to his disciples about his death. And here's what he says. He says
in verse seven of John 16, nevertheless, I tell you the truth. It is expedient
for you that I go away. It's necessary for you, he's
saying, that I go away. Well, where was he going? Well,
he was going to Jerusalem, that's true. But he wasn't going to
stop in the city and have a party or anything. He was going to
be arrested, to be derided. He was going to be beaten. He
was going to be tried unjustly. And eventually, where was he
going? To the cross. To die. And after death, he went
into the grave. He went into the tomb. But that's
not where he's at now. He's going away, He's going to
the Father, going to be resurrected from the dead, raised from the
dead. And that's His ultimate destination, to save His people
by the blood of His cross, redeem them from their sins, and be
seated, and having died, being resurrected from the dead, and
ascended unto the Father everliving to make intercession for Him.
So He says, all of that is necessary for you or there'll be no salvation. Look at it again, verse seven.
Nevertheless, I tell you the truth, it is expedient for you
that I go away, for if I go not away, the Comforter will not
come unto you. Now, who's the Comforter there?
That's the Holy Spirit. If Christ had not done his work
on the cross, there'd be no life to give. You see that? What is the new birth? The new
birth is the giving of spiritual life to God's people, His elect,
His church, His sheep, His people. And if Christ and that new life,
Christ is the source of that life. He said, I am the way,
I am the truth, I am the life. No man cometh unto the Father
but by me. As I mentioned in Romans 521,
sin demands death. As sin hath reigned unto death,
even so might grace reign through righteousness unto eternal life
by Jesus Christ our Lord. If Christ had not gone away to
the cross, to the grave, to be raised again and go to the Father,
there'd be no righteousness. His death is our righteousness.
His obedience unto death is the only righteousness, the righteousness
of God. So he says, if I go not away,
the comforter will not come unto you. But if I depart, I will
send him unto you. And look at verse eight. And
when he has come, he will reprove. Now that word reprove means convince. He will reprove the world of
sin and of righteousness and of judgment. Now, here's another
passage that uses the word world. And most people would go to that
passage and they say, well, just like John 3.16, that means everybody
without exception. Well, first of all, John 3.16
does not mean everybody without exception. John 3.16 means everyone
who believes. The world of believers. God's
elect out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation. But the word
world here in verse eight does not mean everybody without exception.
Who does it mean? It means everybody in the world,
no matter what their race, no matter what their sex, as far
as man or woman, no matter what they are, everybody in the world
whom the Holy Spirit brings unto the preaching of the gospel and
convinces of these three things, of sin and of righteousness and
of judgment. Now, if you've been convinced
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, you're part of this
world here. This is the world of God's elect. How do you know? Because they're gonna be convinced
of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment, and not everybody
in the world's gonna be convinced of that. Well, have I been convinced
of sin, righteousness, and judgment? Well, let's look on, look at
verse nine. Of sin, because they believe not on me. It's not just
sins that man by nature recognizes and condemns. You pick up, you
watch the local newscast or you pick up the paper and you see
some of the most heinous sins that man could ever commit. Children being murdered, people,
masses of people being slain, gunshots, all of that, drugs,
prostitution, gang wars, all that, some of the most heinous
sins. But sin goes far beyond that. Sin is applied. This word sin here is the most
common New Testament word for sin, means to miss the mark.
For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. They've
missed the mark. And what that means is this. Even those people
who are religious and moral in the eyes of others, no matter
how good they try to be, They miss the mark of sin because
they believe not on me. You see, the mark and the standard
of righteousness is Christ. God has commanded all men everywhere
to repent because he's appointed a day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained
in that he has given assurance unto all men and he has raised
him from the dead. Christ is the standard of righteousness.
If I'm not as good as him, it's sin. Now that's what he's saying. And what is he telling us? There's
no way we can be saved based on our works. Our best works,
man at his best state is altogether vanity. At my best in this world,
I'm still a sinner in need of grace, in need of the blood of
Christ, in need of His righteousness. And go on to the second one here,
verse 10, of righteousness because I go to my Father and you see
me no more. How am I going to attain righteousness? Well, the
answer is I cannot attain it. The Jews tried to under the law
and they missed it. There's only one way that I can
be made righteous in God's sight, and that is in Christ. Based
upon His righteousness, His obedience unto death, His merits imputed,
charged to me. That's the only way. Romans 10,
4, for Christ is the end, the finishing, the fulfillment, completion,
perfection of the law for righteousness to everyone that believes. The
Holy Spirit's gonna convince me of that. Convince me of my
sinfulness. Convince me that my only hope
of righteousness is in Christ. That I may know Him and be found
in Him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that
which is through the faith of Christ. The faith of Christ.
And then verse 11. Of judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged. Now what is he talking about
judgment there? Well, it certainly could include the fact that when
I stand before God at judgment, my only hope is built on nothing
less than Jesus' blood and righteousness. That's it. The only way that
I'm going to pass judgment is to plead Christ, and that's the
only way. Now, if you've been convinced
that my sins were put away and judged on the cross when the
prince of this world was judged, Now if you've been convinced
of this, here's three things. You cannot deny it, you cannot
ignore it, and you cannot leave it. You must have it. You can't live without it. That's
what the scripture teaches. It's your life. You must be born
again. I hope you'll join us for another
message from God's word. Thank you. 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 1102 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. Contact us by phone at 229-432-6969
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today and may the Lord be with you.