Let's turn again this evening
to the third chapter of the Gospel of John. And I would ask your
forbearance with the half of voice with which I must seek
to preach tonight, unless the Lord is gracious, to do something
with my vocal cords. The Scripture tells us we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. that the excellency of the power
may be of God and not of us. And the Lord very lovingly, and
yet in many times painful ways, reminds us that that's not just
a statement of religious thought, it's the truth. And as Paul said
in 2 Corinthians 1, we have the sentence of death within ourselves
that we should not trust in ourselves but in God, who raised up the
dead. So may our confidence be in him
who is able to take weak things, to confound the mighty, and to
bring to naught the things that are but no flesh of glory in
his presence." John chapter 3, and I shall read tonight just
the first eight verses. We read the first fourteen last
evening, just the first eight verses tonight. Now there was
a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came unto him, that
is, to Jesus, by night, and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou
art a teacher sent from God, for no one can do these signs
that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be
born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith
unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter
a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered,
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and
of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born anew. The wind bloweth where it will,
thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. I indicated last evening that
as we moved into this subject of the new birth, we were touching
the most fundamental ministry of the Holy Spirit to the individual. It is unthinkable that we should
consider ourselves subjects of the Spirit's sanctifying work,
his work of conforming us to Christ, his work of illuminating
our minds to understand the Scriptures, his work of assistance in prayer,
in dooming for witness, I say it is wrong for us to think of
these ministries until we are clear on this most fundamental
ministry of the Spirit in the life of an individual, upon which
all of his other ministries are based, and out of which they
all flow, namely the work of the Spirit in regeneration, or
the new birth. And since the third chapter of
John is to this subject what 1 Corinthians 13 is to the subject
of love, and 1 Corinthians 15 to the subject of resurrection,
and Isaiah 53 to the subject of the sufferings of Christ,
It is right that we should go into a somewhat detailed study
of this particular portion of the Word of God. I suggested
to you last night that we would think our way through this passage
under three basic headings. What our Lord teaches here concerning
the necessity of the new birth. Secondly, what he teaches concerning
the essential elements of the new birth. And what is implied
in this passage concerning the necessary fruits and consequences
of the new birth. Since we only got as far as the
first point last night, and since this is my last address to you,
as far as we know, why then I'm going to have to combine one
and two, and I found a place in the outline under the second
heading where I could fit the third. So the Lord willing, tonight
we shall consider the essential elements of the new birth, and
in that we shall include something regarding the fruits and consequences
of the new birth. Just now, to set before your
minds in a way of freshening you concerning what we covered
last night, under the necessity of the new birth, we saw that
our Lord taught three things in this passage. The new birth
is an intact necessity. It's emphatic by virtue of the
one who states it, I say unto you. It is emphatic in the way
in which he states it, verily, verily, I say unto you. It is
emphatic because of the issues at stake, seeing and entering
the kingdom of God. Set that thought against the
backdrop of the staggering concepts laid before us this morning,
both with reference to the terrible state of being in the flesh,
And then the tragic end of being in that state, even the lake
of fire with its eternal, with its everlasting burnings, and
it's against that backdrop that Jesus states the necessity of
the new birth. But it's not only an emphatic
necessity. We saw that it is a universal
necessity. Except one be born, anyone be
born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter. And then thirdly,
we saw it is a consequential necessity. It is a necessity
which arises out of this fleshy condition That which is born
of the flesh is flesh, and flesh in this context means precisely
what it does in the context of Romans 8, as Dr. DeWitt laid
it out for us this morning. Flesh in this context is human
nature under the control of sin. That is flesh, and flesh can
only bring forth flesh, and it is that state of fleshiness in
which we are found in the pollution of our native corruption, the
enmity of our inbred rebellion, the blindness of our spiritual
perception, and the impotence of our spiritual death that causes
this necessity, except a man, if born again, he cannot see
He cannot enter the kingdom of God. So much, then, for that
brief overview of what we covered last night. Now, will you direct
your attention with me to this second great area in the teaching
of our Lord, and I'm calling it the essential elements of
the new birth. And in the passage we have at
least four. We have the source of the new
birth, the character of the new birth, the results of the new
birth, and the pattern of the new birth. First of all, then,
as we seek to understand what is this being born anew, having,
I trust, convinced you from the words of Jesus of the absolute
necessity of the new birth, if you would see and if you would
enter the kingdom of God, then the question that ought to be
burning in your mind is this. What is this new birth? How may
I know if I have experienced it? And if I have not experienced,
to what or to whom shall I look in order to experience it? These, I say, are questions which
ought to be burning in the mind and conscience of everyone who
takes seriously the statements of our Lord concerning the necessity
of the new birth. And the first thing I would set
before you from this passage is the source of the new birth. And that source is nothing else,
nothing other than the living God himself in the person of
the Holy Spirit. And this fact is underscored
by our Lord again and again so that we cannot misunderstand
his teaching. that the new birth is a work
of God, a work which is wholly, W-H-O-L-L-Y, of God. Now, sometime in the course of
your reading, you children, and as well as you adults, you're
going to come across the words monergism and synergism. And they're not just words for
theologians. Every intelligent layman who
has sat in any one of our churches for longer than five years ought
to know what those words mean. Synergism is the teaching that
in the work of grace, God and man work together. There is a
coming together of some energy of man and some energy of God. Monergism says, no, the work
is God's alone. And there is no portion in all
of the Word of God which teaches more explicitly that the new
birth is monergistic. It is solely and totally and
completely the work of Almighty God. Now, how does the Lord teach
that in this passage? Well, I would set before you
three things which indicate that he was teaching this to us. First
of all, the direction from which the new birth comes. Notice,
verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born," and
then the word is translated, I believe, in the Authorized
Version again. It is translated in the American
Standard Version, anew, with the marginal rendering, from
above. But there is no solid linguistic
reason for translating the word any other way than the way it's
translated in the entirety of John's Gospel, wherever it occurs,
and in almost every other instance in the New Testament. It means
to be born from above. Look at the usage of this word
in this very chapter by the same apostle, John 3 and verse 31. He that cometh from, and here's
the same word, From above is above all. He that is of the
earth is of the earth and of the earth he speaketh. He that
cometh from heaven is above all. And you see heaven is set as
a synonym with above. He that cometh from above is
he that cometh from heaven. In John chapter 19 and verse
11 the word occurs again. John 19 and verse 11. Jesus answered
him Speaking to Pilate, thou which have no power against me,
except it were given thee from above, again a synonym for heaven
and a God who reigns enthroned in the heavens. Again in verse
23 of this same chapter, the soldiers therefore, when they
had crucified Jesus, took his garments and made four parts
to every soldier apart, and also the coat. Now the coat was without
seam woven from, here's the word, from the top, from the above
place. And so on, in the Gospel of Matthew
it is used this way, the temple, the veil in the temple was rent
from the top, same word, to the bottom. James 1, speaking of
the Father of Light, who gives those good gifts that come from
above, the wisdom that is from above. So I say there is no solid
linguistic reason for translating this word any other way than
the way in which it is translated consistently in the New Testament,
and Jesus is Nicodemus, except a man be born from above. The direction in which we look,
the source to which we look, is not Nicodemus within you in
the energy of the natural man, without you in the ceremonies
of religion on the one hand, or in the manipulations of the
professional clerical class on the other. No Nicodemus. If you're
ever to see the kingdom, if you're ever to enter the kingdom, the
direction to which you must look is above you. Not within, not
without, but above. Except a man be born from above,
he cannot see, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Nicodemus,
it must be the work of the living God himself and the living God
alone. My friend, what was true of Nicodemus,
remember, is true of you, for Jesus universalizes these passages. He doesn't say, except you, Nicodemus,
are born from above. You cannot enter, but as we saw
in the opening up of the text last night, except one be born
from above, he cannot see, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. But our Lord teaches the source
of the new birth not only by pointing the direction from which
it comes, but secondly, by the very term used to describe it. The word he uses is the word
commonly translated, beget, and it can refer either to the paternal,
that is, the father's function in conception, or the mother's
function in begetting, that is, bringing forth the child. I have
begotten three children. It's proper for me to say that
as a father. I have begotten three children. It is proper for my wife to say,
I have brought forth three children. And this word cannot, with any
degree of precision, be nailed down to one or the other, but
it makes no difference. For in either case, the truth
is the same. The analogy is clear. That which
is begotten, whether we think of the activity of the father
or that which is brought forth thinking of the activity of the
mother, that which is born and begotten owes its existence entirely
to factors outside of itself. What our Lord is teaching us
here is that we are as totally dependent upon the sovereign
activity of the Spirit for our second birth as we are upon the
action of our parents in our first birth. As Professor Murray
states with such simple and yet right-angled accuracy, and I
quote, You and I were not begotten by our father because we decided
to be, and we were not born of our mother because we decided
to be. We were simply begotten, and
we were born. Any of you children here remember
some time before your present existence when you walked up
to the throne of God and said, Now, I would like to be begotten
in such and such a family down there in Pennsylvania. Or I would
like to be begotten in such and such a family there in Toronto,
Canada." You say, of course not. How were you begotten? You say,
I just began to wake up to the fact one day that I was me. Yes,
and then when you began to understand who you were, and as you grew
and began to understand something of the way in which God ordained
that you should be brought here, you could only make the confession,
I must be cottoned by powers and factors and influences totally
outside of myself. I say it is no accident that
Jesus uses the term, the beginning of God, except a man be born
from above." What's the source of the new birth? The source
is God alone, indicated not only by the direction from which it
comes, above, not only by the term used to describe it, it
is the beginning, but thirdly, our Lord teaches this doctrine
as He sets before us the person to whom this work is ascribed.
What does He say in verse 5? Except one be born of water and
of the Spirit, verse 6, that which is born of, or out of,
by virtue of the energizing power of the Spirit is spirit. And notice the parallel. As the
birth out of the flesh excludes all influence of the Spirit. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. When mother and father brought
forth another fleshy son of Adam, apart from the word of the Spirit
in the general sense of creation, I'm not excluding that. But in
terms of what we were constituted in our spiritual nature, there
was no influence of the Holy Spirit there. We were by nature
children of wrath, as we saw so vividly portrayed this morning,
born flesh in all of its enmity and pollution. Just as, then,
the birth out of the flesh excludes all influence of the Spirit,
so the birth of, out of the Spirit excludes all influence of the
flesh, and the parallelism must not be broken, or there has been
a tampering with the teaching of our Lord. So then the source
of the new birth is shown to be God the Holy Spirit, and God
the Holy Spirit alone. One of the most precious words
in Christian theology is the word alone. Upon the proper placement
of that word and the understanding thereof hinges some of the most
vital issues in Christian theology and hence in Christian experience. We are justified on the grounds
of the righteousness of Jesus Christ alone. We enter into the possession
of that righteousness by faith alone. And we are enabled to
come to justifying faith and enter into the benefits of that
righteousness by the activity of God alone. precious word alone, often spelling
the difference between heresy and truth. Now someone says,
but Mr. Martin, isn't that squeezing
just a little bit too much out of the passage? Well, I would
say if the whole drift of teaching in Scripture was something other
than this, And I were to set that exegesis and interpretations
of passage against the whole drift of Scripture, I would say
that would be an unwarranted thing to do. But in underscoring
the principles which I have from this text, I have simply echoed
the unanimous voice of Scripture in other places. Look at that
classic text in chapter 1 of this same Gospel, verses 12 and
13. John 1, 12, and 13. He came unto
his own, and his own received him not. But to as many as received
him, to them gave he the right to become the children of God,
even to them that believe on his name, who were born, he could
have said, who were born of God. That completes the sentence.
The other is parenthetical. It is a negation. Who were born
not is the negatives, not of blood. It has nothing to do with
physical lineage, nor of the will of man. nor of the will
or nor of the will of the flesh, I'm sorry, nor of the will of
man, but of God." You see what he's doing? He's excluding and
setting in opposition to each other any thought that the new
birth is to be attributed to anything that arises out of the
energy or contribution of the flesh, of the will of man, of
the will of the flesh, and he says the other alternative is
a birth from God. It is monergistic. God alone
acts in this divine begetting. Turn again to that classic text
in James 1 and verse 18. Speaking of God in verse 17,
as that God who is the giver of every good and every perfect
gift, James then zeroes in upon that gracious gift of new life,
that gift of the divine begetting, and notice how careful he is
to ascribe it to God alone. Of his own will, he brought us
forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits
of his creatures. of His own will He brought us
forth, and He attributes the whole of this bringing forth
to the activity of the sovereign will of God. And then you add
to this Every parallel analogy of the new birth in Scripture
carefully underscores that it's an activity in which God acts
alone. And the two other major parallels
in Scripture of the new birth, of regeneration, are these. Creation
and resurrection. If any man be in Christ, he is
what? New creation. Ephesians 2.10,
we are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works. Galatians 6.15, in Christ Jesus
neither circumcision nor uncircumcision availeth anything but a new creation. The concept of a new creation
is a parallel analogy to this divine begetting. Now, what does
creation have in common with begetting? Well, both in creation
and in beginning, that which is begotten or created is begotten
and created by forces and powers totally out of itself. In the beginning, God created
the heavens and the earth. By the word of His mouth were
they created. The same is true of resurrection,
Ephesians 2.1. Resurrection is a parallel analogy,
a parallel illustration or description of this impartation of divine
life. You have been made alive who
were dead in trespasses and in sins. That concept is used so
many places in the New Testament. Now, what about resurrection?
Well, in resurrection, you see, that which brings it to a state
of life comes from outside of that which has been in a state
of death. When Lazarus had been lying in
that tomb, And his body had already begun to decay, and Jesus said,
Lazarus, come forth. He did not go in and stand or
breathe upon or rekindle or resuscitate some little spark of life that
was yet there. Behold, he's fainted. He's dead
yet. But there was a creative, animating,
life-giving Word that pierced the realm of death and brought
forth life. where there was nothing to work
with. And I say it is significant that these three concepts are
carefully guarded with reference to the impartation of spiritual
life, birth, creation, and resurrection. to teach this doctrine that the
source of the new birth is God and God alone. And you know why
I get so excited about that? Because those are the three things
with which God nailed this issue down in my own heart. And all
the fight went out at me when I was wrestling through this
issue, and I don't mean for three weeks or three months, but over
a period of some ten years, wrestling with these issues. of where is
the activity of divine will and human will in the beginning of
life. And I shall never forget when the Holy Spirit directed
my attention to these verses I quoted, and I saw birth, creation,
resurrection all used to teach the same thing, that the beginning
of divine life is solely and completely and totally of God
and of God alone. Now, in the development of that
life, that is not true. We now cooperate with God. We work out our salvation. We must run with patience the
race that is set before us. As men now alive, we can work
and act and run and wrestle and fight and sweat and pray. But as dead sinners, we can do
nothing until life is sovereignly and graciously imparted. Now let me say by way of application,
if this be the doctrine of the Word of God, that the new birth
has as its source the activity of God and God alone, then it
warrants me to press a question upon the conscience of every
man, woman, fellow, or girl in this place. And I want you to
regard this question as direct, as though everyone were dismissed
and you were the only one left right there, where one of my
church members sits tonight. And I said, I now speak to you.
You look around and say, well, nobody else in here must be talking
to me. Will you personalize it this much? Listen. If this first
consideration that we've looked at tonight, under the essential
elements of the new birth, the source is God and God alone,
here's the question that I must press upon your conscience. And the question is this. What is there about you that
has no other explanation other than that God Himself has
broken in from above, softly, powerfully, graciously in your
life. You got my question? What is
there about you, the way you think, about life, about time,
About the world, about money, about sex, about the home, about
boyfriends, girlfriends, mom, dad, school. What is there about
you? Where do you live now? I'm not
talking about abstract religious ideas. Where do you live today?
What was there about you from the time you got up this morning
to the time you sat down in that bowling chair in this place? What was there about the direction
of your thoughts, the direction of your desires, the direction
of your inward energies, of thought and meditation and reflection
and desire? What was there about what you
said and didn't say, what you thought and didn't think, what
you did with your hands, where you went with your feet? What
was there in all of this that has no explanation but this? God has become you with life
from above. What is it? I press it to your conscience!
What is it? But you see, when Nicodemus faced
that, he drew a blank. He said, birth from above? Well,
I'm a Pharisee! But why am I a Pharisee? Well,
my pappy was a good earnest Jew and had ambitions for me. He
brought me Roperite and I seemed to have some ability to talk,
and I had some intellectual gifts, so I went on for further schooling,
and I had aspirations to be a teacher. Well, no, there's no real reason
to believe that there's anything other than natural influences
there. What about my religious life? Well, I fast, I go to the
temple, yeah, but that's all the product of mere self-discipline,
etc. You see, as Nicodemus looked
over his life, there was nothing about him But what it could be
explained in terms of genes and chromosomes and training and
external influences, he had never had anything that was a breaking
in from above with divine and supernatural life. And I ask
you again, and I don't mean to be tedious, but I'm dead in earnest,
dear ones. What is there about you that
defies explanation? in natural purpose. And if there's nothing, you better
begin to cry to Almighty God and look to the right source,
that there might be something. And let me say by way of application
to those of us who can say, yes, thank God. Even this day, I found
myself not just in a building hearing words, Thank God I found
myself here this morning with my heart running out to God through
Jesus Christ. And when I gathered with those
men to pray, I wasn't just marking time till the final amen. I knew
something of communion with God that was a delight. And where
once a prayer meeting would have been the most boring thing in
life, I can say in the face of God who knows me, it was a delight
to pray. And when we went to the breakfast
table and one of the brothers said, Thank you, God, for a night
of sleep, my heart really went out and said, Thank you, Lord.
And when he said, Thank you for my food, my heart went out and
said, Yes, Lord, I am grateful for your gifts. And in the conversation
around the table, even if it was about mundane things, You
were conscious that if it began to drift in the area of gossip
or nitpicking, your spirit was grieved and there was a check,
and you realized that your lips had to glorify God. And as you
went through the day, many of you can look back and say, thank
God I never would have lived this day the way I lived it,
except God brought life from above. Now, to you who can say
that, what does this say to you, that the source of the new birth
is God and God alone? Well, it says, first of all,
that you and I, of all people—and this is simply underscoring what
our brother Payne spoke about in the morning sessions—we should
be abundantly prayerful, crying to the force of help, O God,
quicken these dead bones that they make. pleading with God
to send His Spirit in quickening power, coming to our church services,
not just hurriedly throwing on our clothes and out into the
car and into the presence of God and His people, but waiting
upon God. Oh, God is the preacher's speech
this morning. Yea, Lord, even before He opens
His mouth, May we come with such prepared hearts that your spirit
will come in with rushing power, that the unconverted will see
as it were a preview of the day of judgment, feel and know your
realized presence. Then, Lord, may the word cut
like a rapier, quicken the dead, Lord, O breath of God, come. You and I confess that we believe
that the source of the new birth is from above, that it's a divine
beginning, that it's a birth of God. We, we, I say, must be
prayerful, men and women. And in the second place, it will
help us to be brutally honest. And I use the term in the context
of true Christian compassion. We must be brutally honest. in
our dealing with men about their souls. If you believe that men
are brought to newness of life not by a cleverly structured
sales pitch which covers all of the possible nasty things
about the contract and only sets in the forefront the desirable
things until you get your client to sign on the dotted line. If
you believe the gospel is something more than that, and that men
will never embrace this offensive message and this Savior who demands
their all until they are quickened of the Spirit, then you believe
God can bring men on His terms. Oh, my brothers and sisters,
it's been the denial of this doctrine of the source of the
new birth that has led to this sinful and wicked manipulation
of the gospel. I've got some of people upset.
At a seminary recently, when I dared to ask the question,
I said, when you go out and evangelize, and you sit down with that inquirer
or that seeker or whatever you want to call him, and you quote
John 6.37, hymn that comes to me, I'll in no wise cast out,
I said, by what divine authority can you quote that verse and
not quote Luke 14.26? If any man come to me and hate
not father, mother, brother, sister, yea, and his own life
also, he cannot be my disciple. Who gave you or me the right
to quote the one, come and be silent about the other? By what
right do we have from heaven to save the men? Come unto me
and I'll give you rest, and be silent about the next word. Take my yoke upon you, and learn
of me. And it's been the idea that man
cooperates in his regeneration, and in a very real sense, he
holds the decisive power in his hands that has led to this sinful,
wicked, psychologically conditioned manipulation of the gospel to
sneak, as it were, the product through before you tell people
about the possible hazards if they sign up. God have mercy. on those who spawned a generation
of half-converted people because they did not take seriously this
biblical doctrine. Ah, but someone objects and says,
well, if you don't give invitations and have a way to quench it with
people, how will people get saved? They'll get saved because they
get born of God, that's all. God didn't say you have to be
the midwife to be there. He asked me for His children. Not that we are unwilling to
counsel with distressed souls, no. I think as a pastor resident
in one place for ten years, and entering into the burdens and
concerns and problems of my people, I know a little bit experimentally
about a shepherd's heart. But I do not need to be the midwife. This day, two people have come
to me unsolicited. and shared that three years ago
at this time at a certain conference, the word that God sent to this
unworthy servant was the instrument of their divine begetting. And
for three years they've been monuments of that begetting in
churches where the word is preached and living lives exemplary of
the power of the gospel. God didn't need to let me know
that. He did to encourage me. and to give me just an added
emphasis to what I'm seeking to convey to you tonight. Well,
I must hurry on. This is one of the hazards of
preaching at this conference. You folk are so hungry and so
open that one cannot stick with his notes and get through what
he planned to get through. We move very quickly now from
the source of the new birth to the character of the new birth. What is the essential character
of this birth of which God alone is the author and which is absolutely
essential to every man who would see or enter the kingdom of heaven? Well, Jesus describes it in this
way. First, chapter 3 and verse 3. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
except one be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of
God. Now, verse 5, except one be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God. The character of the new
birth is simply this. It is a beginning of cleansing,
born of water, and of renewal born of the Spirit. Now let's
look at those two things in that order. Why do I say born of water
is a representation of the character of the new birth as a birth of
spiritual cleansing? The sacramentalist, and you can
always remember a simple definition of a sacramentalist, is the one
who believes that grace is in the sacraments. In the water
that goes upon the head or over the head, and in the wafer that
goes into the body, grace is automatically conveyed. Now the
sacramentalists love this chapter. They see it's simple, it's very
obvious, even a child can understand it. The way you enter the kingdom
is to be born of water. That is, through the sacraments
of baptism, the Holy Spirit comes in His regenerating grace. It's
as simple in play as anyone can see. Baptism, water, Water? Baptism? Jesus stated it. Well, I cannot go into that whole
controversy. Let me say for anyone who is
dead in earnest about considering the biblical evidence for and
against that position, let me commend to your careful reading
the notes in Bishop Ryle's expository thoughts on the Gospels that
occur at the end of his exposition of the third chapter of John
and the first eight or fourteen verses. Bishop Ryle, an Anglican,
has one of the most devastating refutations of the idea that
our Lord is here talking about baptism. And then I would encourage
you to go from Ryle to Professor Murray in his book, Redemption
Accomplished and Applied, and see his exposition under the
heading of Regeneration. Now remember to whom Jesus was
speaking. He was speaking to Nicodemus, who was a what? A
Pharisee. A good Jew would automatically
bring together the ideas of water and of purification. Woven into
the whole fabric of the Jewish ritual of worship given through
Moses to the people of God was this concept of ceremonial ablutions,
washings, baptisms. Added to that were all the trappings
of the Pharisees. We looked at them last night,
you know, the germs from the sneeze of the Gentile dog, and
so they washed their hands and they constantly bathed, so that
to the mind of Nicodemus, to whom our Lord was speaking, there
would immediately come this idea, born of water, Nicodemus, you
need a spiritual birth, the source of which is not some pot of water
there in the temple or in your home, but a spiritual cleansing
which has as its source God himself. Nicodemus, you Pharisee, you
separated one, you cleansed one, standing before me thinking that
you are spotlessly and ceremoniously clean, you're so polluted, you're
so defiled because you're born of the flesh, you must have a
birth from heaven, a birth that will bring with it inward and
pervasive spiritual cleansing. And of course, the clearest parallel
passage to this in the Old Testament And it is not unlikely that Ezekiel,
and that Nicodemus was directed to this in his own thinking,
is Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse 25. Ezekiel chapter 36 and verse
25. And I will sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall
be clean. As the Lord talking about an
external ceremonial cleansing, no, look, from all your filthiness
and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart also
will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I
will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will
give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my spirit within you
and cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my ordinances
and do them." Do you see what he's saying? He's talking about
a work of cleansing and renewal, the excising of the old stony
heart and the implantation of a new heart. He's talking about
an inwardness that Nicodemus knew nothing about. He says the
character of the new birth is nothing less than this. It is
a spiritual birth which brings with its own inherent energy
a power to cleanse this filthy staple of the human heart and
make it a fit dwelling place for the living and the true God. And the parallel passage to Ezekiel
in the New Testament is Titus 3 and verse 5. Not by works of
righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he
saved us. How? By the washing of regeneration. The washing which is imparted
in regeneration, that washing which is attendant upon the regenerative
work of God by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the
Holy Ghost, which He shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ,
our Savior, And so the first aspect of the character of the
new birth is that it is a birth of water, that is, of spiritual
cleansing. Nicodemus, though you're the
separated one, you're still flesh, having been born of flesh, and
there's been no radical intrusion of the Spirit. You are defiled
and polluted. We go back to last night and
to this morning. You are still in the pollution
of your naked corruption. You are still in the enmity of
your native rebellion. You are still in the blindness. You cannot see the kingdom. Your
spiritual eyes, which you found not here but in the heart, have
the cataracts of your own pollution over them. You can't see the
kingdom. But Nicodemus, if you get this
birth of water, this inward spiritual cleansing, then you will see
and then you will enter. Then in the second place, the
character of the new birth is not only a birth of spiritual
cleansing, but a spiritual renewal, born of water and of the Spirit. That is, the animating, life-giving
Spirit will come to implant a principle of obedience, of faith, and of
every other Christian grace. Go back to Ezekiel 36 and see
the emphasis again. I underscored more particularly
verse 26 in the previous reading. Verse 25, I will sprinkle clean
water upon you and you shall be clean. But now he says in
verse 26, I will put my spirit, I will take away the stony heart
out of your flesh, give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit
within you. For what? and cause you to walk
in my statutes, and ye shall keep mine ordinances and do them,
He shall walk. Walk is a free exercise. He shall
keep them. That's an activity man does.
Man walks in the statutes of God. Man keeps them. But what is the root of his walking
in them and keeping them? It is God's work of putting this
new principle of life within him. I will put this in you. This, bless God, will follow. It will follow. But it does follow
because God has done this work of implanting the principle of
life. So then both cleansing and renewal
are present whenever and wherever the Spirit comes. So the Lord
can omit the word water in verse 6. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit because inherent in the coming of the Spirit is His
cleansing work as well as His enlivening, His vivifying, His
renewing work in the human heart. Nicodemus, you know what you
need? You need life. You're a dead, fleshy sinner,
and you need life if you're to see, if you're to enter. And
so, as we look at the words of our Lord, we understand something
of the character of the new birth. a spiritual birth involving cleansing
and renewal. And the words to Nicodemus are
the words of God to us. What do you and I need? We need
cleansing. Oh, you dear children, young
people, you feel something of your own pondaged sin. Some of
you may be in the place where you feel it. Others of you, you're
like a man chained with a thousand chains, but dead drunk. And he
has dreams. He's walking free as a bird down
a boardwalk in Atlantic City. His dreams don't break his chains. He's a chained man still. And the first thing he'll realize
if he comes back to the world of reality is, man, I'm in bad
shape. I'm Parliament. You know why
some of you young people think you're free? So I'm not going
to muck you around with that business. No sir, quit my style.
I'm free. Free to do what? Free to serve your passions and
your lusts. Every time your lusts whisper,
follow me, indulge me, you'll come like a little lackey crawling
on your knees, bowing down to your lusts and saying, oh king
lusts, I will do your good pleasure. Is there a chapter and verse
for that? Yes, Ephesians 2 too. You walk according to the course
of this world, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the
mind, the lust of the flesh and of the mind. In a tree you're
like a drunk man bound with a thousand chains, dreaming of walking down
a boardwalk or flying as a bird. But, oh, God, perhaps in these
days has begun to sober you with His truth and you've begun to
feel your chains. You say, how can anything clean
come out of this heart that is bound to lust, that is bound
to pride, that is bound to stubbornness? How can anything come out of
it? Here's the word of hope. Born of water, I will sprinkle
clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your
filthiness and from all your He can come and cleanse the temple
of the heart of its idols, and do as Josiah, who went into the
temple of God and tore out those things that had no business being
there. And it's a birth of new life,
animating, quickening life, causing you to delight in the Word of
God. May I just inject a little bit of my own testimony here?
One of the most wonderful memories I have of my early Christian
days was that for the first time in my life, I wanted to be governed
by that book, when up to that time, every scripture of this
book was a terrible, oppressive burden. When Mom and Dad would
seek to guide me from this book, oh, what a burden it was. And when I, by virtue of a conscience
enlightened by that book, could not abandon myself to sin, I
used to envy my buddies in high school. They seemed to be able
to sin with a high hand and enjoy it. And when I tried it, I was
miserable. I could have wished many a time I could have found
that little corridor where conscience resided and ripped into my head
and pulled him out and nailed him to a post somewhere and spit
upon it. and say, leave me alone, I want
to sleep with a high hand. And then I'd make a decision,
many times with tears, and old Adam would roll up his sleeves
and say, now I'm going to do what God says. But oh, what worth,
what heaviness, what misery, but never shall I forget those
early mornings of my Christian life when as a senior in high
school, I'd wake up in the morning and drop to my knees and say,
oh my Lord, help me to please you today. Open up your word
to me. Help me to know what you want
me to do. And then I found not only a desire to know and to
do, but a power to perform, not perfectly, but purposefully. And I'll let you in on a little
secret that you think may be even a little bit weird of an
18-year-old fella. who played first string fullback
in high school, going out and pushing his bicycle for $0.85
an hour for Western Union to earn $20 to buy my first Bible
as a Christian. It was a Thompson chain reference
Bible, and I'll never forget the day the postman brought it.
I tore off the cardboard cover of the Bible, and I hugged it,
and I kissed it, and I clasped it to my bosom and cried. And in two years time, I wore
that Bible out. I will cause you to keep my statutes. Young people, that's your problem.
That's your problem! That's your problem! You make
decisions until the cows come home and find Christianity a
terrible, untested burden until you're born from above. So stop
your play-acting. Come out of the dark. Get into
the light. Declare your colors. Not only young people, there's
some of you adults the same way. Kedged in by the Christian testimony
of your wife or your husband, by the general influence of the
particular society in which you move, but you don't have one
ounce of delight in holy things ever. I'm not talking about those
dry days that we all have. And we feel more like the raging
flames of hell are within our bosom than the fires of the Holy
Ghost. I know and you know what those
are, but I'm talking to you who never know delighted God. You
never know delight in His statutes. You never know an alacrity in
the path of obedience. What's your problem? You've never
been born from above. For if you had been, He would
have put His Spirit within you to cause you to keep His statutes
and to do His judgments. So then the character of the
new birth is cleansing, renewal, and then I must hurry on, and
I've already hinted at this, the results of the new birth.
Look at verse 6. Verse 6. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. What is born of the flesh partakes
of the nature of the flesh. In other words, unrenewed human
nature is controlled by sin, and its total experience is a
reflection of that control. The control is not theoretical
or theological alone, it is actual. Paul says, when you were under
the dominion of sin, what did you do? You presented to members
of your body servants to iniquity unto uncleanness. There was a real, genuine servitude
to sin. Works of the flesh are manifest. What are they? Adultery, fornication,
uncleanness, and that whole list of Galatians 5, 19-21. What is
born of the flesh is flesh, and the result of that fleshy birth
is a fleshy life, a flesh-controlled life. Dr. DeWitt expounded the
classic statement on it in Romans 8 this morning. They that are
after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh. They are fleshy-minded
in their whole perspective. And I touched some pretty sensitive
areas last night and apparently pinched some nerves. Because
I dared to say that styles are reflective either of a cast of
mind that is spiritual or is carnal. And there is no sphere
of life that is neutral. You view every sphere of life
with the perspective of a mind illuminated by the Spirit, or
a mind under the darkening influence of the flesh. Now those spheres
are not found in perfection. We are totally depraved, but
not utterly depraved. Yes, we are totally renewed,
but not utterly renewed. That yet awaits our glorification. But I direct your attention back
to the passage that we looked at this morning in Romans 8,
as we seek to lay out several principles relative to the results
of the new birth. Just as certainly as that which
is born of the flesh is flesh and manifests flesh, that which
is born of the Spirit is Spirit and will manifest Spirit. And
here the Apostle states it in such clear terms. Verse 7, the
mind of the flesh is enmity against God, it is not subject to the
law of God, neither indeed can it be. They that are in the flesh
cannot please God, but, but, ye, you Christians at Rome, you
are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be ye that
you have had a second work of grace. That's the teaching of Rome. perfectionism, and many forms
of Pentecostalism. They look at people who profess
to be Christians, and they would not be so unkind as to question
the profession. Why? Because autonomous Adam
Will has been brought to sign of the dotted line. So if your
theology says when autonomous Adam Will signs, he's got what
he signed for, then you dare not question the reality of their
regeneration. But you've got enough biblical
sense to know God can do something a little bit better than that
when he saves people. So what do you do? You say, well, we've
got to get a second work to somehow jack up the defects of the first
one. So you rewrite Romans 8, and you say, now look, they're
all you Christians who are Philternals. You think like the world, you
spend your money like the world, you dress like the world, you
react like the world, you talk like the world, and you're going
to lose a bunch of rewards. So now receive the Spirit, get
to baptism, all these other terms. Why? That you may begin to have
a life in the Spirit. Campus Crusades book two, have
you made the discovery of the spiritual life? And there are
the diagrams showing that the only difference between the natural
man and the carnal Christian is that the cross is outside
the life in the one, and in the other it's inside. But ego is
still upon the throne, and the marks of the carnal Christian
are no love for God, no desire for the world. All of the things
that Paul says are the marks of the flesh and the heresy,
and it's a tenable lie. My Bible says, We are not in
the flesh, but in the Spirit, not if you come to full surrender,
if you come to total consecration, if you are a mature believer.
He says this is true, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell
in you. And if any man have not the Spirit
of God, he is none of his. If the Holy Ghost is in you,
he has brought you out of the dominion of flesh and brought
you into the gracious dominion of the Spirit. And if you're
not out of the flesh and in the Spirit, you don't have the Spirit. And if you don't have the Spirit,
you don't have Christ. And if you don't have Christ,
you're lost. And put into that word, lost,
that sobering exposition. of the second hour of this morning.
What are the results of the new birth? To get you out of that
and into this. When the Holy Ghost does his
work of begetting, that which is begotten of the Spirit has
affinity for the realm of the Spirit. When you're born of the
flesh, how does it show itself? Anybody have to teach you kids
how to sash your mom and dad? How many of you had to go to
school to learn the ABCs and learn how to read? I want all the kids
to raise their hands. All little kids, all right? How many of
you had to learn your multiplication tables? How many of you had to
learn, uh... Well, maybe you haven't learned
it yet. Maybe I'll ask another question. How many of you are
having to learn geography? Have to teach it, right? All
right, now let me ask you a question. I want you all to listen. How
many of you had to take a class, either in your neighborhood,
in your home, or at school, on how to be stubborn when mommy
and daddy tell you to do something? How many of you had to take a
class on how to be mean and selfish? How many of you had to take a
class on how to pout? Ah, but you can sure pout pretty
good. And you can say no to mom and dad pretty good. How come?
How come, kids? I'll tell you why. You've got
a built-in teacher. You were born with a teacher
in your heart. And that teacher grows up with you. Yes, he does. And when you're three years old,
he teaches you how to do three-year-old fleshy things. That some ignorant
parents say, oh, just a stage. God help you, parent. God help
you. Oh, my boy's all bored, going
around kicking shins and slapping people. He's a wicked sinner,
my dear parent. And the means of grace to deal
with that is the rod, not your silly indulgent giggles when
you see him sin. And so when you get a little
older, the teacher grows with you and says, now, look, let me teach
you how to do 10-year-old sins. A little more refined, a little
more clever, a little more sneaky. Then when you get to be 12 and
13, he says, let me teach you 12 and 13-year-old sins, and
16-year-old sins, and 20-year-old sins. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh! Where the flesh is there reigning,
teaching, controlling, He shows the product of His mighty influence. So Jesus said, that which is
born of the Spirit is spirit, and when the Holy Ghost comes,
He shows His mighty work in every life to which He comes. So then
the heart begins to move in the direction of Christ. It begins
to move in the direction of the Word of God. It begins to move
away from the direction of sin unto the direction of holiness.
It moves unto the people of God. In fact, this same apostle who
gives us this clearest discourse in the new birth gives us the
clearest teaching on what it means, that which is born of
the Spirit Now will you fasten your seatbelts as I just read
five texts of Scripture from 1 John. That's all I'm going
to do. I'm going to read them. And exercise a lot of self-discipline
in doing only that. I want you to notice how the
term born of God is used in every one of these texts. telling us
what it means, that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit,
partakes of the nature of the Spirit, gives expression to the
life and the power of the Spirit. Well, in what direction will
that go? How will it manifest itself? John tells us. Chapter
2, verse 29 of 1 John. 1 John 2, verse 29. If ye know
that he is righteous, He knoweth that every one that
doeth righteousness is begotten of him. The practice of righteousness,
conformity to the divine law, is the inseparable accompaniment
of the new birth. Chapter 3, verse 9. Whosoever
is begotten of God does not make a practice of sin. because his
deed abideth in him, and he cannot practice sin, or he cannot commit
those sins which are inconsistent with the possession of divine
life, either interpretation is a valid one. Why? Because he
is begotten of God. And I say there is another heretical
teaching taught even in Reformed circles, that it is not only
a possibility indicated in the case of that rare exception,
John the Baptist, who was filled with the Holy Ghost from the
womb, and Jeremiah, who was sanctified from the womb, which does not
mean necessarily experimental sanctification. So there's only
one clear text, to my knowledge, in the Word of God, speaking
of a man filled with the Spirit from the womb, John the Baptist,
And they make that the rule and the basis of assuming that children
are regenerate from the womb so they may wander in sin for
years. And I could bring some quotes
from one of the most esteemed Reformed thinkers in the past
150 years that almost knocked me off my seat in the preparation
of these lectures. Page after page, statements like
that. We may rightly presume that our
children are regenerate either just before or shortly after
their issuance from the womb, and though they may wander in
the paths of sin for years, they are still regenerate. My Bible
says, whoever is born, God does not make the practice of sin.
And if there's infant regeneration, which I believe there can be,
there will be infant evidences of divine life within the breast
of that child. They will not be adult evidences,
but they will be infant evidences, just as the flesh teaches a three-year-old
to do three-year-old's fleshy things. I say it reverently,
the Holy Ghost will teach a three-year-old regenerate child to do the things
that three-year-old regenerate children will do to express the
life of God within them. And for you to have any consolation
that your child is regenerate until he's brought into the orbit
of 229 and 39, one positive, one negative. The practice of
righteousness, the non-practice of sin, is to fly into the face
of what God is joy, the divine beginning, and the practice of
righteousness, the non-practice of sin. Chapter 4 and verse 7.
Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and every
one that loveth is begotten of God and knoweth God. Love of the brethren, loving
them because they are brethren, not because they share the same
national identity. I've been in areas where there's
a cultural click in the Christian churches of those areas, and
people think they love one another as brethren when they love one
another as Scotsmen or Dutchmen or Irishmen or Englishmen or
some other artificial distinction. No, no, the mark of divine life
is that that light in you reaches out to the life of God and everyone
else in whom it resides. And it is colorblind, and it's
culture blind, and it's root status blind. And so God brings
the rich and the poor and the educated and the uneducated,
the cultured and the uncultured, and fuses them into one body,
who with one mouth prays one This is what's thrilled me in
the mornings, in the men's prayer meeting, among other things.
To hear some of you dear brethren pray, who obviously either didn't
get beyond the seventh or eighth grade. If you did, you forgot
everything else you heard. And the misplaced pronouns and
all the rest. But what's thrilled me has been,
not your bad English, but to sense the heart that's been reaching
out to God. A mind that has absorbed the
scripture. If it had not have been, it would
not have made me unable to enter in. I was almost tempted to count
all the scriptures that were quoted in the prayer meetings
in the morning. What a thrill it was to hear the Word of God
coming out of His people. That which is born of the Spirit
is what? Spirit. And the Spirit of God in men,
drawing them to what He said in the book, and together fusing
and pouring itself out to God. What a beautiful concept. From
the throne, divine life has come into the heart. That life reaches
out to the Word that was also breathed, and to the people in
whom that life is breathed, and so hearts bound together unto
the Word, unto God. Oh, what a wonderful thing is
experimental fellowship in the Holy Ghost. That's what John's
talking about. And he said, whoever's born of
God just has got to get into that. And he loves those involved. Then move to chapter 5 and verse
1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is begotten of God, a living faith in the historic
Christ of the Christian scriptures. Whosoever believeth that Jesus,
the one conceived in the womb of the Virgin Mary, the man Christ
Jesus, Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, the Anointed
of God, the Servant of Jehovah, the Everlasting Father, the Prince
of Peace, whosoever believeth that He is this, rests upon Him,
is attached to Him in a living trust. He is begotten of God. The divine begetting has immediately
expressed itself in attachment to the revealed Christ. And then chapter 5 and verse
4. for whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh the world. The world will not beat you around
like a football saying, look, this is our concept of the meaning
of life. Black and white television in
every bedroom, and a five hundred dollar Zenith in the den, and
a six hundred dollar color hi-fi combination in the living room.
That's living it, man. That's what the world says. But
whosoever is forgotten of God overcomes the world. And the
world says to you, to live, you know, you've got to have the
latest in things. You say, no! For a man's life
consisted not in the abundance of the things which he possesses. And the Holy Ghost does something
to the strings on your wallet or your purse. Yes, he does. The world doesn't continually
push you about and bully you into its concept of what's important
in life, what's your goal in life, what's right, what's wrong,
what should you live for. No, no, the divine begetting
causes us in some measure, greater degree in some than in others,
but there is an overcoming of the world. The world does not
squeeze you into its mold. Then last of all, verse 18, we
know that whosoever is begotten of God sinneth not, that is,
does not make a practice of sin or does not commit those sins
which of themselves would be inconsistent with the state of
grace. But he that was begotten of God keepeth himself, and the
evil one toucheth him not. He keeps himself from the Now
wherever the Spirit has brought life, He brings these things. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. For my time is gone, and I leave
to your consideration what I had hoped to cover. Verse 8, the
pattern of the new birth. It's the pattern of the activity
of the wind. Sovereign, certain, mysterious. This is the pattern of the divine
working. May God grant that this teaching
of our Lord will not only be loved and cause those of us who've
known the divine begetting to be filled with a greater degree
of appreciation to God than ever before, but all may it be used
of God to shut some of you up, to seek help from the only source
from which help can come. You say, Mr. Martin, that hasn't
been a very helpful message. You've told us God must do it,
and here I am. I can't look within. You say
that you've shown me from the Word, I can't look without. Demand
it, the ceremony. That's a place of despair! Oh, blessed God, if that's the
language of your heart. For despair is the harbinger
of true faith. And you go home tonight and you
read the tenth chapter of Mark, and you put yourself in the place
of blind Bartimaeus. who, when he hears the Son of
God is coming by, starts to cry out, and when they tell him,
shut up, he cries the louder, until his cry pierces the ear
of the Lord Jesus, and some of the most beautiful words in Scripture,
and Jesus stood still. What stopped the Son of God in
his tracks? It was the cry of a man in despair. Son of David, have mercy! I don't look to the scribes and
the Pharisees and the priests. I don't look to my own medicine
test to concoct my own license. Son of David, I am blind, and
my only hope for my blindness is your power. Have mercy!" Jesus
stands still and says, What do you want me to do? What a silly
question. A blind man crying for mercy.
What does he want? Stick a chewing gum? What do
you want? A new home? You want a Cadillac?
No! He wants one thing, but the Lord
wants him to say it. Because in saying it, he's admitting
his absolute helplessness. Give me my life. He didn't say,
give me crutches so I can make out better, give me a pointer
so I can get through life blind. He said, Lord, I want the one
thing I need that I cannot give myself. Give me a thing. Did
you feel the helplessness and the hopelessness and the despair
to which this Word has brought you? Hang on, because in the
preaching of the Word, Jesus of Nazareth, resplendent in all
the glory of his accomplished work and his mediatorial power,
is passing by. Call upon him. Plead with him. Look to him. And with these, we're safe.