I have a message for the lost. And that message is, you must
be born again in order to be saved from the wrath of God to
come. And it's coming. And there are
going to be men and women who go out to meet God without a
substitute. And when the Lord comes, the
scriptures say they'll pray that the mountains and the rocks fall
on them. None can stand before a holy
God without a righteous covering. And in order to be saved from
this wrath which is to come, sinners must be born the second
time because the first time they were born spiritually dead. Men, women, put them all in one
category, sinners. Many of your family and friends,
even some of you, are oblivious to your need and totally unaware
of your spiritual condition. Why? Because you're dead. The
things of the Spirit of God. The natural man, the spiritually
dead man or woman receiveth not. That's what the scripture says.
the things of the Spirit of God, for they're foolishness unto
him, neither can he know them, because they're spiritually discerned,
spiritually hidden. And the dead can neither, according
to that verse, receive or know anything concerning God, His
Son, or His Spirit, because they're dead and sin. They died in Adam. When Adam disobeyed God as their
federal head, their representative, they all died in him and with
him. And God had warned Adam that
in the day that he ate of that forbidden tree, that he would
surely die. Multitudes, as I said, are going
out to meet God. What a horrific and terrible
thought, having no idea who God is. Men have this preconceived
idea of who God is. They have no understanding of
how holy God is. They have no perception of what
He, as a holy God, is going to require of them when they meet
Him. And we know what God requires
because God has taught us through the scriptures. God requires
perfection, perfect holiness, perfect righteousness, perfect
obedience. And that presents a great dilemma
for you and I because we're dead in trespasses and sin. We, the
sinners that we are being dead, void of life, have nothing to
offer God, especially in the area of perfection. Everything
that I have is tainted with sin. So, we must be born again. No sinner will ever desire to
be born again until they first see that they're dead right now. There are many who are physically
alive, but they're spiritually dead. And they'll remain that
way unless and until God, by the power of His Spirit, enables
them to be born again. And I was raised in a religious
denomination that preached man's free will and works. And I'm
certainly not a stranger to the term of being born again. When
I was younger, I heard it so many times that I grew tired
of hearing it. And people would say, are you
born again? Oh, I'm born again. Did you know so-and-so got born
again? Did you know that so-and-so is not born again? Well, you
don't act like somebody that's born again. And I know this much,
many who claim to be born again have no idea what the new birth
required. They think that being born again
somehow requires and involves their will and their work and
their decision and their participation, their cooperation to help God
so that they might receive this newness of life, but that's not
so. In most cases, those who think
and believe those things will wind up trusting in those things
instead of trusting in Christ and His atoning blood for the
forgiveness of sins. I've seen it so many times. You
ask a man what's the hope that he has within him and he'll tell
you, I was saved on such and such date and baptized and don't
have any idea who God is and what God has done for you and
I who are nothing but sin and dead in our trespasses. And I
suppose this message came about in a roundabout way because I
know a family who has a young boy, probably eight or nine years
old, sweet, well-behaved young fella who was recently baptized. Today, parents and religion put
a lot of pressure on young people to be saved. And unless God at
some point in this young man's life divinely intervenes and
shows him the truth, that young man will more than likely wind
up trusting in the act of his baptism instead of salvation
that's found in Christ alone. Men and women say things to young
people like, don't you want to be born again? You want Jesus
to dwell in your heart, don't you? And I remember when I was
about the same age as this young man, eight to ten years old,
the church that I attended was relentless in getting young people
to make a profession, walk an aisle, raise a hand, get baptized
into water, when they were really too young to even know what sin
was. I remember the church that my
family attended rented a local movie theater one time. And they
showed a film about hell and its torments. And that movie,
I'm telling you, was literally made to scare the hell out of
you. I mean that literally. Religious
scare tactics rarely don't last long. And what I'm trying to
say is, sadly, false religion has made a mockery out of the
new birth. They say, OK, now you're born
again. Everything's all right between
you and God. And men and women, boys and girls
alike, just run off and live like they want to. Give God no
more thought, no mind. And all of us have family and
friends alike that live their lives having no interest in Christ,
yet they think they're saved because they did just that. They
asked Jesus into their heart, they repeated a sinner's prayer,
they got dunked in some water, and they were told that they
were saved. And no wonder most folks have no interest, no time,
no interest, no desire to know what it truly means to be born
again. I'm warning you, sinners better
find out what it means to be born again. And our Lord said,
ye must, you must be born again. Now turn with me to the Gospel
of John chapter 3. And I know that most of you are
familiar and know this portion of Scripture, but it's my prayer
and desire this morning that you might know Him of who the
Scriptures speak. John chapter 3. This is how men
and women are born again. By personally knowing and becoming
intimately acquainted with the Lord Jesus Christ. Let's begin
reading in verse 1. John 3 verse 1. There was a man
of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Now, who
were the Pharisees? The Pharisees in the day of our
Lord were religious leaders. They prided themselves in being
moral and righteous and holy before God and men. But they
didn't know God. And they didn't know Christ.
And I suppose we still have Pharisees today, though we don't call them
that. We still have those who think themselves to be holy and
righteous, morally superior to others, but they don't know God
or Jesus Christ. They too must be born again. In verse two, 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 things
that thou doest except God be with him. Nicodemus came here
to our Lord with some flattery. Obviously, he recognized Christ
as a superior teacher by calling Him Rabbi, which means Master. It was an official title of honor. Nicodemus, if I may paraphrase
a little bit, said, we, my colleagues and I, we know some things. We know that you're a teacher
from God. We know that much. We know that God sent you. We
know that no one can do miracles like the ones you do, except
or unless God be with you. We know that. Nicodemus knew
something, but he didn't know Jesus Christ. You can know a
lot of things and not know God and His appointed Savior. Our
Lord was not impressed by the flattery of Nicodemus. Why would
He be? What is man that God would be
mindful of him? Is God judged by man? No, man's
judged by God. And I'd have you notice here
in all that we might learn from this, the Lord Jesus gets right
to the heart of the matter. I want to do the same thing this
morning. I want to get right to the heart. of the matter.
Verse three, Jesus answered and said unto him, that being Nicodemus,
verily, verily, truly, truly. Anytime you see that in the scriptures,
that means you better listen. I'm telling you something important.
Here's what the Lord's saying. I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You see,
men and women cannot see the Kingdom of God for one simple
reason. They're dead in trespasses and
sin. That's what our Lord said right
here. He said, except a man be born again, except a sinner be
made alive, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Men and women
can't see because they're dead. There's just one exception to
them seeing. This is one exception. They must be born again. Except
you be born again. Except you be made alive from
on high. You're not going to see anything
concerning the Kingdom of God. And we know that God's Word plainly
declares that it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching
to save them that believe. Sadly, we live in a day where
this religious world, where preaching has taken a back row seat to
entertainment. Preaching has been reduced to
men and women bragging about what they do for God. But your
salvation and mine has nothing to do with what we do for God. Because we can't do anything.
Why? Because we're dead. We've got to be born again. The
good news for sinners is the message of what God does for
sinners. Those who are spiritually dead. Only God can give a new birth
and only God can make men and women a new creation. Now, even
though Nicodemus was a religious leader, a scholar in the law
of God, let me show you just how dead he was to the things
of the Spirit of God. You know, the questions that
people ask, comments that people make, the questions they ask,
often reveal their spiritual state. Look at the questions
this religious man asked. Verse 4, Nicodemus saith unto
the Lord Jesus, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now,
isn't it obvious here that Nicodemus had no true understanding at
all of the new birth of which our Lord spoke? Let's consider
his questions a little closer. How can a man be born when he's
old? Can an old man become an infant? Of course not, that'd be impossible,
wouldn't it? Well, can the same man enter
the second time into his mother's womb and be born again the second
time? Of course not. That'd be impossible,
wouldn't it? So obviously, our Lord here is
not speaking of a physical birth. No man, when he's old, can turn
back time. No grown man can physically be
reborn. The Lord Jesus here is talking
about a supernatural, spiritual rebirth. There are many men and
women who are alive physically, as I said a moment ago, who are
dead spiritually. Yet, in order to have life eternal,
sinners are gonna have to be born again, born of God, born
from above. They're gonna have to be made
a new creature, a new creation in Christ. That's what the Spirit
of God tells us in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Therefore, if any man
be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things have passed away.
Behold, all things have become new. And that's the issue. Notice that the Lord never varies
from that gospel message, verse five. Jesus answered, verily
I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. And here, water doesn't
mean baptism. Water here is meant in a figurative
sense. It means the grace of God. The
grace of God given by the Spirit of God is the effectual cause
of this new birth. Apart from God and His mercy
and grace, it's not going to happen. It's the sovereign grace
by which the Spirit of God convinces us of sin. If you're ever going
to be convinced of sin, God's going to have to convince you
of it. It's the power of God that sanctifies, sets us apart,
makes us perfect, renews life within us, and works faith in
our hearts. And except we be born again by
the power, the work, and the washing of God, by His grace,
through His Spirit, we'll remain dead in our sin. except we be
born of God, we will perish in our sin. Is there anything we
don't understand about that? The new birth is much more than
just to change. It's not a change, even though
it involves that. It's a creation. Regeneration
is much more than just reformation of life. And I hear men all the
time talk, oh yeah, I go to a Reformed church. We believe the Reformed
doctrine. Well, we need much more than
just reformation. We need much more than just renovation. We need much more than just some
improvement. The command from God is not you
must be washed, or you must be improved, or you must be reformed,
or you must be renovated. The command of God is you must
be born. Born again. Born of God. Born
from on high. And I'm telling you, I don't
know what makes men and women think that our present nature
just needs some sprucing up. A little caulk and a coat of
paint's not going to do the job for us. We're rotten to the core. When Teresa and I moved to Texas,
they were remodeling the parsonage there. They began to do some
cosmetic work in the bedroom, and they went to paint the walls
in the bedroom, and they noticed some little patterns of bubbles
in the drywall. And one of the men there who
had had a lot of experience as a remodeler and that type of
thing, he said, oh, my. He said, we got termites. And
I said, well, what makes you think? He said, well, all those
little, he said, they're eating the paste off the back, the glue
off the back of the drywall. And he said, if it's showing
up here, he said, I'm telling you it's bad. And of course,
I was anxious to get in the play. I'm like, can't we just let it
go? He said, no, you can't let it
go. You know, Texas termites are big. So I had to tear out the sheetrock.
Had to tear out the window, had to tear off the brick, tear out
the studs. When they got that wall exposed,
those two by fours in that wall, on the bottom they were actually
in a point. The termites had eaten these
things to a point. That wall, it was ready to fall. It was in bad shape. But I'm
telling you that sin does much more harm to us than those termites
did to that bedroom wall. We need more than just a little
putty and paint and coffee. That wall's got to come down.
Sin has slain us. A new life must be given. There
can be no improving to this present nature. That's the point I'm
trying to make. It's too far gone. It's dead. And we're a sinful mess. Sinful
mess. Our nature is evil. Our hearts
are deceitful above all things and desperately wicked. We are
a cesspool of iniquity. Does that offend you? Well, if
it does, then you must be born again. Because when you're born
of God, you're going to take sides with God against yourself.
And you're going to say, yay Lord, that's exactly what I am.
It's not just a change of opinion. Men can be converted from one
set of religious opinions to another. A man or woman's opinion
on religious matters. You can be a Catholic one day
and convert to Pentecostalism the next, Baptist the next. And you can change your doctrine
and your creeds time and time again and still be no nearer
a child of God. Yet, when the nature of a sinner
is changed, that's when salvation is accomplished. God will be
born again. God's got to give you a new nature.
We don't just spruce up the old one. It has to be crucified daily. We've got to be given new life.
Paul said to the church at Ephesus, among whom also we had our conversation
in times past in the lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires
of the flesh and of the mind, and we were by nature the children
of wrath, even as others. That's not good news, is it?
Here's the good news. But God. who is rich in mercy
for His great love wherewith He loved us, even when we were
dead and sick. He's quickened us, made alive,
born us, begot us, together with Christ by grace ye are saved. And as you know, that word quickened
means to be reanimated. Reanimated means to be restored
to life. We must be born again. We must
be created anew. We must become new men and women. Paul said also in Ephesians 4,
put ye on the new man which after God is created in righteousness
and true holiness. That's the only way. We've got
to put on this new man which after God is created as Christ
Himself. And as many of you know, I was
adopted. My adoption gave me the right
to be the son of Leo and Maggie Edmondson. But regeneration,
this new birth, that comes from God. And that gives us the nature
of being His children. Well, what does that mean? Well,
that's what Paul meant when he wrote this. He said in Galatians
4 verse 6, And because ye are sons and daughters, God hath
sent forth the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying,
Abba, Father. That's dear terminology there.
That means daddy. And you know, a baby is not born
because they cry. A baby cries because they're
born. A baby's not born when it breathes. A baby breathes
when it's born. A baby hears because it's born.
A baby sees because it's born. A baby is born and then it loves. It doesn't love first, before
it's born. And that's what the Lord is telling
Nicodemus here. He said, you're not going to
be able to see the Kingdom of God unless and until you're born
from above by God. Born of God. We're not sons because
we cry and we call Him Father. We cry and call Him Father because
we're His children. If you have a reference Bible,
you may have noticed that to be born again means to be born
from above. Until a sinner is born from above,
the heavenly world, the spiritual world, is dead to you. It just
is. Spiritual life means nothing
to the lost because being dead, they have no feelings. Their
feelings are dead to God because they're dead. He that believeth
not is condemned already, born condemned. because he hath not
believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God." And I'd
have you notice that this new birth is personal. You, you must
be born again. I'd have you notice that this
new birth is imperative. It's an absolute necessity. You
must be born again. It's an absolute must. And you
may be rich, and you may be poor, but you must be born again. And
you may be intelligent, you may be educated, and you may be talented,
but you must be born again. And if we're not born again,
we have no spiritual life. And as our first birth gave us
physical life, but it sure didn't give us any spiritual life. And
here before the Lord Jesus Christ, that's what I want you to see
this, is a man that's religious, he's moral, he's a student of
the Word of God, he's a ruler in the Jewish religion, but he
doesn't know Christ. He doesn't have any life. He
doesn't have any peace. He doesn't have any joy. He doesn't
see the Kingdom of God. Why? Because he hasn't been mourning
Him. He's not born of God. And I think about what James
wrote in James chapter 1 verse 18. He said, of his own will
beget he us through the word of truth. Whose will? Ours? No. He beget us. Beget he us. God Almighty beget
us. Brought us into life. Brought
us into existence. That's what beget means. James
said that God brought us into existence spiritually. He begat
us with the word of truth. The scriptures say that through
His abundant mercy we've been begotten, brought, born again
into a lively hope. Peter said being born again not
of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God that liveth
and abideth forever. Paul wrote, he said, I hath not
seen, ear hath not heard, and hath not entered the heart of
a man the things that God has prepared for them that love him. He hath revealed them unto us
by his Spirit. For the Spirit searcheth the
deep things of God. The Holy Spirit takes the deep
things of God and makes them known. And so Holy Spirit takes
the Word of God, which is the seed of life, and He begets,
He quickens, He regenerates, He makes alive the chosen sinner,
and then they live, not until. Paul wrote to the Thessalonians,
and he said, brethren, I know your election of God, for our
gospel didn't come to you in word only. No, no, it came to
you in power, and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance. You know, that's where I find
my assurance. Isn't that where you find yours? Not that I saved
myself, but that God, by His mercy and grace, saved me. That's
my assurance. He does the saving. I did the
sinning. He does the saving. And the Word
of God is preached in power. That's why preaching is so important,
because it's through the power of God's Spirit that takes the
Word of God and sends it into the heart of His people. It's
planted there and it grows. We grow in grace and in the knowledge
of the Lord. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing
by what? The Word of God. The seed's planted
in the heart and the seed lives, grows in grace and in the knowledge
of Christ. That incorruptible seed is the
Word of Life. Christ is the Word of God and
Christ lives within the hearts of His people when they're born
again. Now look at verse 6. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit. Listen to me closely and I'll
finish. Our natural birth. Being born according to the flesh,
we are carnal and corrupt. Fallen in sin, dead in trespasses
and sin. We cannot discern spiritual things. Don't understand them. Nicodemus
didn't. How can a man that's old be born again? How can a
man that's old enter again into his mother's womb? He had no
idea of what Christ was talking about. Because of this comes
the necessity of being born again. Sinners that are regenerated
though and born by the Spirit of God can discern and judge
the things of spiritual nature. Why? Because they've been made
alive in Christ. They now see something of God's
holiness in their sin. Being born of God and given spiritual
life, they now understand that God in Christ has provided for
them that perfect holiness and righteousness that He requires
of them. Now they see Christ, their Savior,
their substitute, and their sacrifice for sin, and they enter into
the kingdom of God. They can both see and enter into
the kingdom of God, and it's only by the work of righteousness
that He accomplished for them. I'll simply close with the words
of our Lord found in verse 7. Marvel not. Don't be amazed. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must. be born again. Dear sinner, don't
marvel that you must be born again, for you must be to see
and enter the glory of heaven. But marvel at Jesus Christ, the
One who of His own will begat you with the Word of Truth. He's truly the amazing and marvelous
One. Oh, may God enable you to look
to Him and to Him alone.