Good morning, everybody. Glad
to see you made it safe. It's a little slushy out there.
Let's turn to John chapter 3. Our subject's the new birth.
We see here in John 3.1, there was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus. a ruler of the Jews, the same
came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that
thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these
miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
saith unto him, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born
of water and of 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,
you must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. So our Lord tells us here that
before we can behold Christ and enter into Him by faith, we have
to be born again. We must be born of the Spirit. Now the Lord meets a sinner right
at his point of need. That's where he meets the sinner.
And he said to the woman at the well, she came there thirsty,
with a physical thirst. He said to her, if you'd ask
of me, I'd give you living water. He said to the rich young ruler,
he didn't know he was covetous. He thought he'd kept the whole
law of God. He said to him, sell everything you have. Give it
to the poor. Take up your cross and follow
me. That Canaanite woman that came, he was proving the faith
that he had given to her. And he said to her, it's not
me to give the children's bread to the dogs. See, he met them
right where their point of need was, and that's what he does
right here with Nicodemus. And so we should think about
that when we hear the gospel. If we feel the Spirit of God
speaking to us, if we feel the Lord is moving us, we should
really heed that because he always meets his people at our point
of need. And so that's what he did with
Nicodemus. He was spiritually dead and he
met him right there where his need was. He didn't answer, he
didn't reply to anything Nicodemus said. And this would be a good
thing for us to remember. When folks come and they're asking
questions about things that aren't that necessary or things that
aren't the important issue, this is a good place to meet them
right here. Somebody comes speaking contrary to the word of God,
sound like they don't even understand the scriptures, good place to
meet them right here. He said, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Now, first of all, except we
be born again, we can't enter into that which is spiritual.
And everything about the Lord and the gospel and the scriptures
is spiritual. His kingdom is spiritual. Nicodemus
was in religion. He was a ruler. He was a Pharisee. adherent to the law, but he,
and he saw Christ's miracles. He's one of those that the chapter
spoke of right before there at the end where he saw the miracles
and he was impressed with those miracles. But it was just the
outward, that's all it was. And so the Lord met him right
here where he needed to be met. He needed to be born again. Now,
by our first birth, we're dead. And that's all we are is dead.
Dead in sin, guilty in Adam, conceived in sin, have a sin
nature, we don't have spiritual discernment. And the things of
God are not carnal. The things of God are not carnal,
they're spiritual. Look over at 1 Corinthians 2. You can hold your place there,
because I'm going to come back at the end. But 1 Corinthians
2, 9, true worship is in spirit. through worships in spirit. And
when you're born of God, you're not in the flesh, you're in the
spirit. You're in a whole new realm.
You're in the spirit. And he says here, verse nine,
as it's written, I hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them
that love him. But God hath revealed them unto
us by his spirit. For the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea, the deep things of God. Look at this illustration. What knoweth the things of a
man save the spirit of man which is in him? Even so, the things
of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God. Now we've received
not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God,
that we might know the things that are freely given to us of
God, which things also we speak. We preach, we preach these things,
not in words which man's wisdom teacheth. Why don't we preach
like the world preaches? Why don't we look at the scriptures
and compare scripture to scripture? Because we're not interested
in the world's what they're interested in. We want to hear what God
says. And he says here, he says here, so we preach that which
the Holy Ghost teaches, comparing spiritual things with spiritual.
But now watch this, the natural man, that's what Nicodemus was
at this time, the natural man receiveth not the things of the
Spirit of God. for their foolishness unto him.
Neither can he know them because they're spiritually discerned.
But he that is spiritual, you that's been born of God, you
discern all things. And yet you yourself are discerned
of no man. No natural man understands when
you speak these things. For who hath known the mind of
the Lord that the Lord might instruct him? How you gonna know
what the Lord's gonna instruct you lest that he gives you his
spirit and teaches you what his mind is? That's what we have,
brethren. We have the mind of Christ. He's given us of his spirit so
we can understand the things of God. What a blessing to know
God and understand and worship God in spirit and in truth. That's
grace. Now secondly, go back to our
text in John 3. Only God can make a sinner be
born again. He's the only one that can do
this. Verse 4, Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born
when he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Now, this is what a spiritually
dead sinner always does. We did this when we were dead
in sin. When you heard the gospel, you immediately looked to yourself. What you must do. You went to
this word looking for something you must do. And that's what
he did. He said, how can a man be born
when he's old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? He only heard something
carnal and only thought of carnal and thought the way you do this
was just in a temporal way. He couldn't understand it. A
carnal man only sees carnal things. He only understands temporal
things. He can't understand spiritual things. But the new birth is
not of us, it's of God. It's entirely of God. Look here
in verse 5, Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except
a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. Can't enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
you must be born again. Now the new birth is a must. It's a necessity. This is one
of those acceptees that Christ gave, but it's all of God. He's the one that has to do it.
We're at the mercy of God. This is why sinners While false preachers don't preach
the truth of being born of God, they put it in a person's hand
and make it to be by walking an aisle or praying through or
there's some part of it you do to make yourself be born again.
But being born again is of God. We're at the mercy of God to
make us to be born again. Salvation is all by grace, entirely
by grace. A sinner can't have life except
God give him spiritual life. We can't Even after we have spiritual
life, we can't understand in nothing unless the Spirit of
God teaches us. Salvations of the Lord, it's
all by grace. It's all by grace. He chose His
people by grace, not based on anything in His people. When
Christ came, He accomplished the redemption of His people.
He justified His people. He made His people righteous
by His blood. And that was by His grace, freely. And so everybody he saved, everybody
he died for, who's righteous, must be born of God. And if we
can't do it, then we can't. And that means it must be of
God. God has to come to us in mercy and regenerate us and make
us be born of God. And here's why that's a necessity
like begets like. Look here in verse 6. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. Flesh begets flesh, that's all. When Adam, after
he fell into sin, his nature was corrupted. So what's he going
to produce? He's going to produce a corrupt
sinner. And the scripture says, Adam begat a son in his own likeness
after his image. He begat a son just like him. To be born of flesh is to be
born of Adam's corrupt seed, to be conceived in sin. Behold,
I was shaped in iniquity. In sin did my mother conceive
me, from my father all the way back to Adam, so that what was
formed in the womb was a sinner, shaped in iniquity, grew in iniquity,
came forth in iniquity, walked all my days in iniquity. And
all my flesh is now is iniquity, is sin. That which is flesh is
flesh and that's all it is and all it will ever be. But God's
only worshipped in spirit. He's only worshipped in spirit.
The flesh is of no profit. Look over at John 4, look at
verse 23. This woman at the well was talking
about worshipping in an earthly mountain. in an earthly city. The Lord said, verse 23, the
hour cometh and now is when the true worshipers shall worship
the Father in spirit and in truth. For the Father seeketh such to
worship Him. God is a spirit, and they that
worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth. Look
at John 6, verse 63. The Lord said, it's the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak
unto you are spirit and are life. They're spirit and are life.
If we're going to hear, we're going to know it's going to have
to be by Christ speaking, the spirit of God entering in and
making us to worship God in spirit. This is why Paul said, we're
the circumcision. These are ones been born of God,
spiritually circumcised, who are true Jews. We're the circumcision
who worship God in the spirit. And when you worship God in spirit,
you rejoice in one, in Christ Jesus the Lord. You look to Christ. You trust Christ. You speak of
Christ. Christ is the head. He's our
righteousness. He's our redemption. He's our
teacher. He's our prophet, priest, and
king. Everything we're going to have is of Christ. Everything
we're going to learn is of Christ. And everything we're going to
be conformed to is of Christ. He's all in this thing, and so
we worship God in the spirit, we rejoice in Christ Jesus, and
we have no confidence in the flesh. We don't have confidence
in the flesh. Now that's a perfect way to be,
is to not have, but we far often have too much confidence in the
flesh. But true worshipers, we worship God in spirit. We rejoice
in Christ, and we don't have confidence in the flesh. Nothing
you do, in your flesh is going to contribute to your salvation.
And it's not going to take anything away from your salvation. So
God the Holy Spirit has to beget a new Holy Spirit in order for
us to worship God in spirit. The Lord said, a new heart will
I give you. A new spirit will I put within
you. I'll put my spirit in you, the
Lord said. And when he does, he says, I'll
cause you to walk in my statutes. I'm gonna cause you to hear my
word and believe on my son. I'm gonna cause you to hear every
word I speak that teaches you how to love one another. And
you're gonna love one another. And you're gonna know him and
you're gonna follow him. So the new spirit is Christ in
you, the hope of glory. Christ in you, the hope of glory.
Christ is formed in us. The old man's flesh after Adam,
the new man's after God. The old man is born of natural
generation, the new man is created by supernatural regeneration.
The old man is fleshly, he's a partaker of Adam's sinful nature,
the new man is a partaker of the divine nature. Created, wasn't
there before, created in God's image. the righteousness and
holiness of Christ. So Paul said of his old fleshly
nature, he said, I know that in me, that is in my flesh, in
my sinful nature, dwells nothing good. But then he turned right
around and he said, but if the spirit of Christ is in you, the
body's dead because of sin, but the spirit's life because of
righteousness. So there's an old man and a new
man, and that which is flesh is flesh, and that which is spirit
is spirit. But that which is joined unto
the Lord is one spirit. We're one with Christ. Never
to be separated. He'll never take his spirit from
us. He'll never let us be separated from him. Ever. Ever. Now look at this last thing.
And this is so important. This last thing. This new birth
is irresistible. It's irresistible. He said in
verse 8, the wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither
it goeth. And so is everyone that's born
of the Spirit. The wind blows where it will. Wherever the wind's pleased to
blow, that's where it blows. We can't tell where it's coming
from. We can't tell where it's going.
And we can't do anything about it. We can't stop it. It's coming
as it will, it's leaving as it will, it does what it will, that's
the point. And so's everyone that's born
of the Spirit. We're born of an irresistible power, it's the
power of God, the power of the Holy Spirit. And when He comes
in, the sinner can't resist His Spirit. When He's pleased to
enter in and create a new life, a new man, we can't stop that. Thankfully, we can't stop Him.
When He's pleased to produce fruit, we can't stop Him. When He's pleased to grow us,
we can't stop Him. But He's the one that does it.
He's the one that has to give you life. He's the one that has
to grow you. He's the one that has to guide
you. He's the one that has to lead you. It's the Spirit, and
He does it irresistibly by His will. Look over at Ezekiel 37,
and look at verse 1. He said, the hand of the Lord
was upon me, Ezekiel 37.1, he carried me out and the spirit
of the Lord set me down in the midst of a valley which was full
of bones. And he caused me to pass by them
round about him. Behold, there were very many
in the open valley, lo, they were very dry. And he said to me, son of man,
can these bones live? What would you have said? She
saw a bunch of old, dry, white, bleached bones. Well, brethren,
that's how impossible it is for you and me to live. We're just
that dead by nature. And I answered, O Lord God, thou
knowest. Again, he said unto me, preach
to these bones. That's why we preach. He said,
preach to them, prophesy to them, and say to them, O ye dry bones,
hear the word of the Lord. I've heard men say, you can't
tell sinners to hear the word of the Lord, because nobody can
hear without the Spirit. You can't tell them to believe
on Christ. They can't do it without the Spirit. The Lord told Ezekiel,
you tell them to hear. Preach the word and tell them
to hear. And look, thus saith the Lord God unto these bones,
behold, I will cause breath to enter into you and you shall
live. and I will lay sinews upon you, and I will bring up flesh
upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you,
and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord. So I
preached as I was commanded, and as I prophesied, there was
a noise, and the beholder shaking, and the bones came together,
bone to his bone, and when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh
came up upon them, and the skin covered them above, but there
was still no breath in them. And then said he unto me, prophesy
to the wind, Prophesy, son of man, say to the wind, thus saith
the Lord God, come from the four winds, O breath, breathe upon
these slain that they may live. So I prophesied as he commanded
me, and the breath came into them, the life of God, and they
lived. And they stood up on their feet,
an exceeding great army. And then he said to me, now here's
the lesson, son of man, these bones are the whole house of
Israel. This is God's elect people, this is who he's calling out
wherever they are. Behold, they say, our bones are
dried, our hope is lost, we're cut off for our parts. Therefore,
prophets, I say to them, thus saith the Lord God. Behold, O
my people. I will open your graves, I'll
cause you to come up out of your graves and bring you into the
land of Israel, and you shall know that I am the Lord. He said
that again. He said it before, he said it
again. You're gonna know by this word, you're gonna know I'm the
Lord. When I've opened your graves, O my people, and brought you
up out of your graves, and shall put my spirit in you, and you
shall live, and I shall place you in your own land, then you
shall know that I, the Lord, have spoken it and performed
it. saith the Lord." Why do we preach
the message we preach? You know, natural man, he just
naturally thinks you can't tell a sinner that he can't be born
again, he won't do anything if you tell him that. We don't want
him to do anything. We don't want him to do anything
until God gives him life and makes him live. But that's why
we preach this. Why do you shut a sinner up and
say salvation's of the Lord, it's not of man? Why do you say
redemption's of Christ, it's not of our works? Why do you
say we must be born of God if we can't make ourselves be born
of God? Why do we preach that salvation
is entirely of the Lord A to Z? Go over to 1 Corinthians 2
and we'll end with this. Here's why we preach it. 1 Corinthians 2. What did our Lord say there three
or four times in Ezekiel 37? He said, when I've done this
work, then you're going to know I'm the Lord. The Lord has a
way, brethren, in the new birth, in redemption, in teaching us
in providence and what He does. He has a way of making us know
He's the one that did it. We didn't do it. He has a way
of doing that. making you know He did it. We
didn't do it. And He says here, 1 Corinthians
2.1, I brethren, when I came to you, I came not with excellently
of speech or wisdom declaring to you the testimony of God.
I wasn't trying to make this thing palatable to you. I wasn't
trying to say things that would make you want to receive it. I just preached it. Just preached
the truth. Look, for I determined not to
know anything among you. I didn't want to know things
that was going on among you. I didn't want to deal with your
problems, your daily things. Here's what I came preaching.
Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Why? Because that's the answer.
That's how we're going to be made obedient, to hear Jesus
Christ and Him crucified. That's how we were brought to
His feet in the first hour. That's how we're continually
brought to hearing about Jesus Christ and Him crucified. Look
here. I was with you in weakness and
in fear and in much trembling, and my speech and my preaching
was not with enticing words of man's wisdom. It was in demonstration
of the Spirit and of power. And here's why. That your faith
should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God. That's why The Lord told Ezekiel,
now you go preach to these dead, dry bones and tell them to live. And I will do everything. I will
breathe into them. I will give them life. I'll bring
them together. Why? Because that's how they're
gonna know I'm the Lord. That's how they're gonna know
I did this. That's how they're gonna know salvation's of me.
And they're gonna be brought to glorify me. And Paul said,
that's why we preach Christ crucified. Look over at 2 Corinthians 4.
He says this again over there. Only when you've experienced
this do you know it's so. And we forget
it. We forget it. We have to be taught
over and over and over. I was talking to somebody this
week, and they said about how fast they forget. And
we do. We do. But look at this. If we've
experienced it, Verse one, seeing we have this ministry, as we
have received mercy, we faint not. That means we have received
mercy, and it's by that mercy we don't faint, but by the way
we receive that mercy, by this power we're talking about, that's
how come we don't faint, by the power of God. And this is why
we know, you know, somebody said to Spurgeon, why don't you just
preach to the elect? And he said, if they had an E
on them, I would, but they don't. You just preach. But that day
when the Lord preached, when the Lord sent Ezekiel to preach
in that valley, not every bone in the whole world arose, just
the bones in that valley. The Lord knows where His people
are. He knows who His people are. He knows how to bring His
gospel to His people. He knows how to quicken His people
and give His people life. And He said here, if you receive
this mercy, if you know this power, you won't faint, but you've
renounced the hidden things of dishonesty, not walking in craftiness,
not handling the Word of God deceitfully. We're not trying
to take the offense out of the cross. but by manifestation of
the truth, commending ourselves to every man's conscience in
the sight of God. But if our gospel be hid, it's
hid to them that are lost, in whom the God of this world hath
blinded the minds of them which believe not, lest the light of
the glorious gospel of Christ, who is the image of God, should
shine unto them. For we preach not ourselves,
but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your servants for Jesus'
sake. Because God, here's why we do
this. This is why we ourselves know
this power and why we preach the way we do. And this is why
we do it in that we know God will do this for his people.
Because God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness
has shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have
this treasure in earthen vessels. Isn't that smart? Isn't that
wise of God? to put this treasure in these
earthen vessels with no power to just have us go forth and
preach this word and call his people out this way. Why? Because this is how we know the
excellency of the power is of God and not of us. And so the
Lord said You gotta be born of God. You must be. Accept you
be. You can't enter into these things.
Everybody he redeemed shall be born of the Spirit of God. They
must be. They've been redeemed. They've
been justified. They've been made righteous. They have to
be born of God. They have to be brought to faith
in Christ because they're gonna be saved in Christ. And so he's
gonna do that to all his people and it's all his power and all
his glory. That's why we preach the truth.
He's gonna do this work. He's going to do this work. All
right, brethren, let's stand together. How gracious, Lord,
we thank you that you've not left us to ourselves. Thankful,
Lord, you didn't leave any part of the salvation of your people
in our hands. Lord, make us to know the power
of your spirit. Make us to know just how true
this gospel is and just how effectually you're working in the hearts
of your people. And Lord, we ask you today that
you would cause this word to go forth and quicken one of these
dry bones. And Lord, make your child hear
this gospel and rejoice in Christ. Make us to see that this salvation
is all of you, all of your grace, all of your mercy in Christ.
And Lord, if we need to be told, if we need to be corrected, if
we need to be brought down, Or if your child is cast down and
they need to be comforted and lifted up in spirit, Lord, you
can do that. And we ask you, we ask you to
keep us. We ask you to guide us. We ask
you to turn us. We need your presence and we
need you to work this work in the heart of your people. Lord,
we thank you. We pray now that you would help
us to remember these things and help us to enter into worship
in the second hour. Forgive us of our sins, Lord.
Forgive us of having confidence in our flesh. Lord, keep us looking
to Christ only. We ask it in his precious name.
Amen.