Turn, if you would, to John chapter
3. We will see two times in this
little portion that we're going to look at, our Lord, the Master,
God incarnate in the flesh, tells Nicodemus that there is an imperative
prerequisite to man's entrance into the kingdom of God. Without
this, you shall not enter into the kingdom of God. And our Lord
makes it imperative with the word must. Must. Strong word. You must. And what it is, is you must be
born again. So the name of this message is
the must of the new birth. The must of the new birth. Look
at John 3, verse 3. We'll look at two verses in John
3. Jesus answered and said unto
him... So Nicodemus is a teacher in Israel. He's come to the Lord
at night, secretly. And he says, we know you're a
teacher sent from God, but look what the Lord does with him.
The Lord tells him, you must be born again. In Nicodemus, if you read this
portion, he's going to answer what a natural man would answer.
He says, do I have to go back in my mother's womb to be born
again? No, this is a spiritual rebirth. This is an operation
of God. And only God can do this. People
praying a prayer can't do this. See, we have a thing now called
decisional regeneration, where people have replaced the work
of the Holy Spirit with praying a prayer. A prayer doesn't regenerate
us. only the Holy Spirit regenerates
us. He must be born again. Look at this, in John chapter
3, so Jesus tells this man who's supposedly a master of Israel,
knows the scriptures, reads the scriptures, we find out he don't
know much. Like, this is us in religion, beloved. This is us
in religion, as opposed to grace. Look at this, Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, truly, truly. Oh, double. I say unto thee, he's speaking
to Nicodemus, look at that. Speaking to us. Except a man, and we know a woman
too, a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now this is God in the flesh
saying this. This is the sent Lamb of God,
the Lord Jesus Christ, sent by God the Father to redeem his
people by the shedding of his precious
blood. And he's saying to Nicodemus,
who is a very religious man, high up in the Jewish religion,
and look at this, and he's saying it to everyone. People can be very religious. Religion's not gonna get you
to heaven. Oh my, look at this. Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot
see the kingdom of God. And then verse seven, look at
this. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Twice he told him. And look at
that word. Like Zane said, you've looked
at that word in the Greek. It's a strong word. You must. It's imperative. Because without
being born again, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. Oh my. And to be born again is
all by the power of God the Holy Spirit. When he regenerates us. That's what regeneration is,
is being born again. We're dead spiritually, and He
makes us alive. Oh my. By His almighty power,
God the Holy Spirit gives us a new nature, beloved, and grants
us faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of God's people, all
of God's sheep, must be born again. Must be, in order for
us to enter into the kingdom of heaven. We must be. We're justified by Christ already,
we're redeemed, but we must be born again! We must be. Oh my. Why? Because we're born sinners. We're born sinners. And our Lord Jesus Christ again,
he told Nicodemus, he declared this to Nicodemus, you must be
born again. And look at this, look at verse
three. Except the man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's a statement by the king
of kings and the Lord of lords. And then he tells us, and Nicodemus,
you must be born again. Marvel not, verse 7, that I said
unto thee, ye must be born again. It's imperative, beloved, oh
my, to see the kingdom of heaven. And the fact is that there are
multitudes scattered among the fallen sons and daughters of
Adam who must be born again. God's still got sheep out there,
doesn't he, brother? And they must be born again, and they
will be born again by the power of God and the Holy Spirit. Because
otherwise, they can't see the kingdom of God. Think of that
with us. We were dead. Now we're alive. And because of what Christ done
for us, dying on Calvary's cross and shedding his blood to satisfy
God's law and justice in our room and place, to redeem our
eternal souls, he says, so shall you ever be with the Lord. Oh
my, but we must be born again, right? Must. Oh my. And the lost sheep of God must
be born again. You know why? Because they're
God's elect and they're predestinated to glory. I found this interesting. Election
and predestination guarantee that the chosen will enter into
heaven, but election and predestination are not enough to give an entrance
into the new Jerusalem. If you are chosen of God, if
you're predestinated of God, you must be born again. my you must be you must be and
our Lord said marvel not that I say unto you thee you must
be born again you must be it's necessary for a man or a
woman number one to be born again because we're dead by nature
we're dead in sin the Word of God knows nothing of this modern
idea of partial depravity Know, as the Scriptures declare, that
all men are by nature dead and radically depraved, because in
Adam all died, men and women. We all fell. In every part of
man's being, our nature is corrupted with sin. We're born alive to
sin and lust, you know that? You don't have to teach a kid
to lie. No, no one had to teach me how
to lie. No one needed to teach me how to be rebellious. I was
that by nature. And even after I'm saved, we
still struggle, don't we? Oh, yeah. But with regard to
holiness and righteousness and Christ, the natural born person
is dead to all those things. And she or he, since they're
dead in trespasses and sins, there's nothing that the poor
sinner can do to help oneself. Our heart and our will is ruled
by our nature, which is dead in trespasses and sins when we're
born into this world. And if it were possible for a
man to take the first step toward God, If man could walk all the
way to heaven alone, it's impossible for man to do that. But if it
was possible, then that person would be absolutely
miserable in heaven. They'd be miserable. You know
why? Because Christ's there. They hate him. Holiness. Christ is holiness. Natural man
hates holiness. Isn't that wild? So true, isn't
it? That's why we must be born again, because we're born that
way, beloved. Oh my. But we can't get to heaven
by what we do. Oh my. And it's also necessary
for a man or a woman to be born again, because man by nature
cannot see, feel, or know anything spiritual. Nothing. Now look at our text. Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What
does Paul tell us? He says, the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, because they are foolishness
unto them. Neither can he know them, because
they are spiritually discerned. Tell a man or woman, tell a man
or woman of their sin. They don't care. They don't care. Doesn't matter very little to
them. Tell them of your concern for their eternal soul of hell
and the wrath of God. They don't care. They don't care. They're getting mad if you call
them a sinner, because they don't believe they're one. Well, I
know that, too, because I got offended when someone told me
I was a sinner. Now, we claim to be sinners, don't we, brother?
The chief of sinners now. Tell the unsaved man or woman
about the excellency, the beauty of Christ, the glory of Christ. Tell them of Christ's redeeming
love. Tell them of his saving power.
And they'll be unmoved. Because he's nothing to them. But we keep telling them, don't
we? Because they must be born again. And we were like that. Oh my. That's why we have to
be born again, because in our natural state, Christ is nothing
to us. What a change! I just thought
of that. He's nothing to us in our natural
state. He's everything to us as believers. My! God's done that for us! That's
amazing! The last point is this. It's
necessary for a man or woman to be born again because by nature
we're unfit for heaven. We're unfit for heaven. Again,
suppose it was possible for a sinner to go to heaven without the new
birth. It'd be hell to them. They'd hate it. Again, Christ
there. And like you said, brother, the
natural man and woman hate Christ. They would not want to be in
heaven at all. Again, holiness is there. Men
and women love sin. That's the opposite of holiness. Worship of Christ is there. And
men and women by natural birth, by nature, will not worship God. This is why you must be born
again. So marvel, beloved of God, is
we are born again by God's almighty power and by the power of God,
the Holy Spirit. And then we're given faith to
believe on Christ. And we just keep looking to him.
We look to him for salvation and we keep looking to him. Because
you know what? If we weren't born again, we
wouldn't look to him. But praise be to God. We're born again. And see, every one of God's sheep,
that God's chosen, must be born again. Because Christ died for
them. Because God chose them. And the
Holy Spirit regenerates them, doesn't he? Oh. And how do we
look to Christ? By faith. God-given faith. Oh. We see that he's the only
savior of sinners, and now we see ourselves as the chief of
sinners. By the grace and mercy of God.
We have a whole new outlook on God. We have a whole new outlook
on the Bible. We have a whole new outlook on
ourselves. We used to think we're pretty good. We find out, oh,
we're just sinners in such need of Christ. And praise God, he
don't leave us there, does he, Brother Zane? Oh my, you must
be born again. And he came to save sinners He's
came to save his people from their sins And now after being
born again, we believe that we are sinners in desperate need
to be saved. And God's people believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ as a result of being born again. And we trust
in the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ shed his precious blood
2,000 years ago at Calvary's cross to redeem us from all our
sins. We must be born again because
by nature we're a fallen, depraved, sinful child of the flesh. And
that which is born of the flesh is flesh, right? You must be
born again. Christ must be formed in us.
We must be made a partaker of the divine nature, possessing
that holiness without which no man shall see the Lord. We must
be raised from the dead spiritually in the new birth that occurs.
Oh, we're translated from the kingdom of darkness to the kingdom
of God's dear son, the kingdom of God. Oh, therefore, as the
Lord Jesus Christ said, ye must be born again. Amen and amen.