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. I'd like to welcome you to our
program today. I'm glad you could join us. If you'd like to follow
along in your Bibles, I'm going to continue preaching in John
chapter three, the gospel of John chapter three, concerning
the subject of you must be born again. And this is the second
message in that I began it last week in talking about this chapter. But this is where the Lord Jesus
Christ is speaking to a Pharisee named Nicodemus who came to Christ
by night, not believing in Christ, but just seeking information.
And he told the Lord, look at verse two, this Nicodemus came
to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, which means teacher,
we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles, the miracles that Christ had done, that thou
doest except God be with him. So I made the point last week
that Nicodemus believed that Jesus was sent from God. Now,
many of the Pharisees didn't believe that. They thought he
was from the devil, a blasphemer. But Nicodemus said, you've gotta
be sent from God or you couldn't do. But now Nicodemus did not
believe in Jesus as the Messiah, the Christ, the Savior, the Lord
of glory. He just believed him in a man
sent from God, just like any of the prophets, or any man who
had the word of God. But Jesus answered, verse three
now, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, truly,
truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, born from
above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And I made this point
last week, too, that what he's talking about here is a spiritual
rebirth, the new birth. You must be born again, or you
cannot see the kingdom of God. Means you do not have spiritual
eyes naturally. We, by nature, in our first birth,
having fallen in Adam, ruined by the fall, are born spiritually
dead. We have physical eyes and we
have spiritual ears, but we don't have spiritual eyes to see the
glory, the beauty, the value of the things of God, the things
that glorify God, the beauty of Christ in the glory of His
person and the power of His finished work. and we don't have the desire. You know, man's problem in spiritual
death is twofold. Number one is he does not know
the right way to God, the right way of forgiveness, the right
way of righteousness, the right way of acceptance. He doesn't
know it. Spiritually blind, scripture
says, spiritually ignorant, do not know the true and living
God. Oh, he has ideas in his head of God, who God is. He thinks God is much like himself. As one old preacher said, he
reasons from the ground up instead of from heaven downward through
the revelation of God. So he does not know the things
of God. So ignorance is part of that
spiritual death. And then secondly, he does not
desire the things of the Spirit of God. He doesn't want them,
because he wants salvation, but he wants it his own way, in which
he can give himself, at least in part, some glory. And God will not share his glory.
Salvation's of the Lord. And so, the new birth is a necessity
for the salvation of sinners. Now you can think of it like
this. When we think about salvation,
we can think about it as it applies to us. We can think about it
in several ways. I wrote a book on this called
What is Salvation? And I divided salvation up into
four realms as I see it described in the word of God. There's the
eternal realm of salvation. And that refers to the eternal
mind and purpose of God. You can read passages of Scripture
like Ephesians chapter 1 on that, Romans chapter 8. In 2 Timothy
chapter 1, Paul spoke of a salvation that was given us in Christ Jesus
before the world began. In Revelation, it makes a distinction
between those whose names were not written in the Lamb's Book
of Life before the foundation of the world and those whose
names were written. The eternal realm speaks of God's
sovereign election of a people to save, which He chose them
and gave them to Christ, put all of the responsibility of
their salvation on Christ, imputed their sins to Christ, which they
had not even committed yet. You see, salvation is older than
creation. And that's the eternal realm.
And I won't go into all that, but get that book, we give it
to you free of charge. It's called What is Salvation?
The second realm is the legal realm of salvation. And that
shows us that in salvation, when God saves a sinner, when God
justifies the ungodly, He must do so on a just ground. God is a holy God. God is a just
God. God is a righteous God. God must
deal in truth. He cannot deal in fiction. He never has any play-like in
this thing of salvation. God is a merciful God. But He cannot show mercy at the
expense of his justice. He's a gracious God, but he cannot
be gracious at the expense of his righteousness. He's a loving
God, but he cannot show love without the law and justice being
satisfied. He must punish sinners. Listen,
God must punish sinners to whom sin is imputed, charged. If I stand before God at the
judgment and have one sin charged to my account, then I cannot
enter heaven's glory. I must be damned forever. And
that's why King David wrote in Psalm 32 when he said, blessed
is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity. God doesn't, there's
some people that God does not charge with sin. How can He do
that? It's a legal transaction called imputation. And God imputed
the sins of His chosen people to Christ. God was in Christ,
2 Corinthians 5, 18 says, or 19, God was in Christ reconciling
the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them. And
the world there is not everybody without exception. It's His chosen
people chosen in Christ, given to Christ, whose sins were imputed
to Christ. In the book of Romans, in Romans
chapter eight, it says, who shall lay anything to the charge of
God's elect? And that's the legal realm of
salvation, and that's why Christ was made under the law, as Galatians
chapter four tells us. Galatians chapter four, I believe
it begins in verse four, that God, in the fullness of the time,
God sent forth his son, made of a woman, that's his humanity,
His deity and His humanity made under the law. He had a legal
responsibility to pay for the sins of His people that were
charged to Him. He was made sin, Christ who knew
no sin, made sin for us. And He did it in order to redeem
them that were under the law. And that's how it is. If God's
gonna forgive us, it's gotta be on a just ground. If God's
gonna declare us righteous, He must do so justly. And how does
He declare a sinner righteous? By declaring that person righteous
by the imputation, the accounting, the reckoning of that sinner,
declaring that sinner righteous based upon Christ's righteousness
imputed to him. Paul wrote in Romans chapter
four in verse six, he described the blessedness of the man to
whom the Lord imputeth righteousness without works. So that's the
legal realm of justification. God is just. when he justifies. He's a just God and a Savior. In Psalm 85, it says it this
way, mercy and truth are met together, working consistently
together. Now, the third realm of salvation
is what we're talking about in the new birth. That's the spiritual
realm. If God has justified me through
the righteousness of Christ, I must be born again. I must
be given spiritual life from the dead. I must be raised spiritually
from the dead. I must go through, I mentioned
this last week from Romans chapter two. I must be circumcised, not
physically, but in heart. Stephen said in heart and ears.
I must be given spiritual life from the dead. That's what Christ
is talking about. Except a man be born again, he
cannot see. He doesn't have spiritual eyes.
And if you are born again, that means God has justified you,
forgiven you of all your sins by the blood of Christ and declared
you righteous in Christ. You see that. All who God has
justified must be born again. They must be given a new heart,
the scripture says. They must be given faith to believe
in Christ. Faith is the gift of God. They
must be given the gift of repentance. and they must be preserved under
glory. All of that is the product, the
result of the grace of God based on the righteousness of Christ.
So let me give you a basic biblical doctrine here, a basic biblical
precept about the righteousness of Christ. Now the Bible says
in Romans 1 16, Paul writes, for I'm not ashamed of the gospel,
that's the good news, The gospel of Christ, the gospel which preaches
forth the glorious person and the finished work of Christ,
his blood for my forgiveness, his righteousness for my justification,
same thing. I'm not ashamed of the gospel
of Christ, for it is the power of God unto salvation. That word
power is the Greek word dunamis. We get our word dynamite from
it. It's a powerful thing. It's not
powerful to everybody without exception. There's some people
who hear it and walk away unaffected. You may be hearing what I'm saying
today with the physical ear, but it doesn't affect you at
all. It doesn't bring you to know and believe in and trust
the Lord Jesus Christ as your righteousness before God. So
it's the power of God unto salvation to everyone that believe it.
Everyone who's been born again. Everyone who's been given the
gift of faith to the Jew first and the Greek or the Gentile
also. Doesn't matter whether you're Jew or Greek. He's not
a Jew. I read this last week in Romans
2 20. He's not a Jew which is one outwardly but he's one who's
one inwardly and circumcision is that of the heart. If you've
been born again by the Spirit and brought to faith in Christ,
you've been given a new heart, a circumcised heart. The filth
of the flesh has been cut away in the sense that you've been
brought to repentance of dead works. And so the gospel is the
power of God and salvation, and to everyone that believe it,
to the Jew first, the Greek also. Verse 17 of Romans 1 says, for
therein is the righteousness of God revealed. What is the
righteousness of God? That's the entire merit of the
obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety, the
substitute, and the Redeemer of His people, which ensures,
having been imputed to them, ensures that they'll be born
again by the Spirit, kept by the power of God, and brought
to glory. There's not one sinner for whom
Christ died who can perish And if you believe there is, you
don't believe in the righteousness of God. You don't believe the
gospel. But it says, for therein is the
righteousness of God revealed from faith, that is from the
preaching of the gospel, to faith, from that faith that is given
by which we receive it, from faith to faith, as it is written,
the just or the justified shall live by faith. Now, how do you
live by faith? You live by looking to and resting in Christ for
all salvation. So here's that precept, that
biblical doctrine, this basic thing. The righteousness of God,
the righteousness of Christ, imputed to God's people, is the
ground of their whole salvation. It's upon that one ground. the
glorious person and finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ,
the righteousness of God, His righteousness imputed, it's on
that one ground that God saves all His people, Jew or Gentile,
all over the world, out of every tribe, kindred, tongue, and nation,
any who are saved. They're saved on that one ground. So that ground, the imputed righteousness
of Christ is the only ground of our justification, our sanctification,
our glorification. It's upon that ground. But the
imputed righteousness of Christ, which is the glory of His person,
the power of His finished work, is also the source and the power
of the new birth. For all who have been justified
on that ground must be born again. You must have life. There's no
way, if you have been justified by God, if you were chosen by
God, justified in Christ, redeemed by the blood of Christ, you must
be regenerated and converted, born again by the Spirit. Because
sin demands death. And if sin is not charged to
me, righteousness is. Righteousness demands life. And
I quote that all the time in Romans 5 21. That as sin hath
reigned unto death, even so might grace reign through righteousness
unto eternal life by Jesus Christ our Lord. Now the new birth is
the justification is the imputation of Christ's righteousness. The
new birth, being born again, is the impartation of life, spiritual
life, spiritual eyes, spiritual ears, spiritual heart, spiritual
knowledge, spiritual desires, faith, repentance, the impartation
of spiritual life that springs from Christ's righteousness imputed. In fact, some of the old writers
used to say that the life that God gives in the new birth is
the resurrection life of Christ. Christ, he died on the cross,
he was buried, he arose again from the dead as the first fruits
of them that slept. And so all who are justified
for whom Christ died shall be born again. And except a man
be born again, John 3, 3 again, He cannot see the kingdom of
God. Now, he can see a lot of things, but he cannot see that
which would bring him to faith in Christ and repentance of dead
works. He's gonna stop short. We have
to be given eyes to see. Well, look at verse four in John
three. Nicodemus saith unto him, how
can a man be born again when he's old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Now, I believe Nicodemus
was no dummy. And I think that he was just
using hyperbole here, exaggeration. We ain't born again. I was born
once, and I'm born, and the Jews, as I said last week, they boasted
in their physical heritage, their pedigree, we're of Abraham's
seed. their physical circumcision, their law keeping. I was already
born, you know, in John chapter eight, when Christ spoke of liberty
and freedom, the truth shall make you free. The Jews retorted
to him, they said, well, we're born of Abraham and we were never
in bondage to any man, we're born free. No, no, my friend,
having fallen in Adam, being ruined by the fall, we're born
in bondage to death and to sin, we're born dead. The dead man
can't do anything spiritually. He can do things physically,
philosophically, religiously, even morally in the eyes of men. But he can't do anything spiritually.
He can't not believe. Do you know you cannot believe
in the Lord unless you're born again? You know, most people
today, you know what they, here's what they believe. They believe
that God's trying to save everybody. He sent Christ to die for everybody.
And He's made this available, and if you'll just cooperate
and make the right decision and choose Him, you'll be born again,
you'll be saved. That is not biblical. That is
not biblical. Because except you're born again,
you can't even see who to believe or what to believe. Let me show
you that. Look back at John chapter one.
In John chapter one is speaking of Christ coming into the world.
He's called the Word here, the Logos. And it says in verse 10 of John
chapter one, he was in the world, and the world was made by him,
and the world knew him not. You know, people get so confused
and so uptight over this word world in the Bible. And I've
had people tell me, say, well, The word world means everybody
in the whole world. Everybody without exception.
No it doesn't. It does not mean everybody without
exception. You would be hard put to find
any passage, especially in the New Testament, where the word
world did mean everybody without exception. And most people will
quote John 3.16, 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. That's not the whole world. That's not
every individual without exception. That's God's people, God's chosen
people who live all over this world. And this world will be
saved. Not everybody without exception,
through that chosen remnant. That's what the Bible teaches.
But I can show you passages over in the book of 1 John. For example,
there's a verse that says this. This is verse 19 of 1 John 5.
Listen to this. We know that we are of God. Now
who's he talking about, we are of God? Talking about believers,
sinners saved by grace. And the whole world lieth in
wickedness or literally in the wicked one. Now the whole world
there doesn't mean everybody without exception because he
just said we are of God. He's talking about the unbelieving
world there. So over here in John 1 verse
10, Christ was in the world and the world was made by him and
the world knew him not. Is that talking about everybody
without exception? Well, if it is, it's talking about everybody
by nature. But in the Old Testament, there were some who knew Him
and believed in Him. He's talked about Abraham. He
said, Abraham rejoiced to see my day and he saw it and he was
glad. Abraham believed God. Abraham looked to Christ. Abel,
he knew Christ is the promised Messiah, the future Messiah,
the Lamb. Slain. Noah found grace in the eyes
of the Lord. He was a believer, you see. But when Christ came into the
world, he says, the world knew him not. Verse 11. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. Now most commentators
think that's talking about the Jewish nation. He came to his
own nation. And his own received him not. They didn't receive him. Look
at verse 12. But as many as received Him."
What is it to receive Christ? Well, it's to believe in Christ.
It's to follow Him. It's to rest in Him. You see,
that's what that means. Christ is my salvation. Christ is my wisdom, my righteousness,
my sanctification, my redemption, my Sabbath, my High Priest, my
Redeemer, my Lord and King. I mean, we could go on and on.
I believe in Him and I believe Him. So, as many as received
Him, it says, to them gave He power. Now that word power there,
doesn't mean ability. It means the right. To as many
as received Him, to them gave He the right, the privilege,
to become or to be called the sons of God. Am I a son of God?
Are you a child of God? Well, the only right and privilege
that you have to say that and claim that is if you've received
Him. Now he came unto his own, and
his own received him not. You say, but I've received him.
Why? Was it because I'm better than
those who received him not? I made the right decision, and
they made the wrong decision? No. Now look at it again, verse
12. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on his name. Now his name means that which
identifies and distinguishes him from all counterfeits. And
he says in verse 13, now look at it. Who made the difference
between those who received him and those who didn't receive
him? Verse 13, those who received him and believed on his name
which were born, not of blood. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. The new birth does not come through the spiritual birth.
Regeneration and conversion doesn't come through the physical birth.
Not of blood, not of pedigree. Oh, we're born, we're of Abraham.
We're of Abraham's seed, doesn't matter. That means nothing. Nor
of the will of the flesh. Now that means the works of the
flesh. It wasn't by your works. And look at verse 13. Nor of
the will of man. It wasn't your will. You didn't
will yourself into the kingdom of God. If you received him,
you were born but of God. You see that? Born of God. God did it. God was the initiator. God was the first cause. And
somebody says, well, now you can turn it down. No, you can't.
Because if you're born again by the Spirit, and I'm gonna
show this in future messages here. If you're born of the Spirit,
you're given a new heart, you're given a new mind, a new knowledge,
and the Holy Spirit has convicted you, convinced you of the truth
so that you cannot deny it, you cannot ignore it, and you cannot
leave it. If you've been born again by
the Spirit, you cannot deny the truth, the truth as it is in
Christ, the gospel, wherein His righteousness is revealed. You
cannot ignore it. You can't get away from it. You
may try, but you can't. And you cannot leave it. And
I'm gonna show you that later on. But here he says, when Nicodemus
says how can, verse four, how can he enter into the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Verse five, Jesus answered
and said, verily, verily, I say unto you, accept a man, be born
of water and of spirit. And I'll deal with that next
time in verse five there. 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
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of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
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