John, thank you. Would you turn to the book of
1 John? I want to read six verses of scripture. 1 John chapter 2, verse 29. If you know that he is righteous. You know that everyone that doeth
righteousness is born of him. Chapter three, verse nine, whosoever is born of God, doth
not commit sin. For his seed remaineth in him
and he cannot sin. That means he lacks the ability
to sin. Because he's born of God. Chapter four. Verse seven, beloved, let us
love one another for love is of God and everyone that loveth
is born of God and knoweth God. Chapter five, verse one, whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God. Verse four of the same chapter,
for whatsoever is born of God, overcometh the world. Verse 18 of the same chapter,
for we know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but
he that's begotten of God keepeth himself, and the wicked one toucheth
him not. Now, you notice that in all six
of those verses, there was a phrase that was repeated. born of God. I've entitled this message, What
the New Birth Does. The new birth, like really everything
else in the Bible, is a great mystery. A mystery is something that we
would never have known had not God made it known. It's not so much understood as
believed. Let me give you one real simple
illustration. The Bible teaches that God is
one God in three distinct persons. Now, the only way I would know
that is because God made it known. I couldn't figure that out. And
as far as that goes, I don't understand it. I believe it. Great is the mystery of godliness. God was manifest in the flesh. One of the great mysteries of
the scripture is the new birth. Of his own will, begat he us,
birthed he us. If you're born again, you've
been fathered by God. Of his own will, begat he us
with the word of truth. Now this is called in scripture,
being born of God, being born again, being born from above,
being born of the spirit. It's called in the scripture,
a new creation, something that was not there before. When God
creates, he didn't have anything to work with, did he? He put
it there. It's called the new man. I love
the way Peter calls it, the hidden man of the heart, which is not
corruptible. You know why it's hidden? You
can't see it. You understand its effects, but
you can't see it. And it's not corruptible. Being born of incorruptible seed,
by the word of God being partakers of the divine nature. What a
statement. Christ in you, the hope of glory. The spirit that lusts against
the flesh. Christ liveth in me. The new
heart God said he would give. God said a new heart, I will
give you. The clean heart, David asked
God to create in him, create in me a clean heart, oh God,
and renew a right spirit within me. The spirit he puts within
us, the spirit David said in Psalm
32 too, that has no guile, No deceit. What about the Lord saying, blessed
are the pure in heart. This is purity. This is the Work of His grace
in us. The new man. The new nature. The new creation. This is what
regeneration is. Now, for me to be saved, first,
God's gonna have to choose me to be saved. He's gonna have
to elect me. And I will not be saved if He
doesn't choose me. I know that. He's got to will
my salvation for me to be saved. For me to be saved, Christ is
gonna have to pay for my sins. He's gonna have to give me his
righteousness to where it's mine. And he's gonna have to die for
me and put away my sin and be raised from my justification.
That's absolutely necessary for me to be saved. For me to be
saved, God the Holy Spirit is going to have to give me a new
man. a new heart that believes the
gospel. Now, this is just as necessary. This thing of being born from
above, this is just as necessary as election or redemption. I
must be born again. Now, what is this new birth? What does it do? Well, John tells
us in very simple language, it's profound, it's mysterious, it's
glorious, but he tells us in very simple language what the
new birth does. Now look back in 1 John 2, we're
gonna look at all six of these verses of scripture, which tell
us what the new birth does. Verse 29. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that, don't you? If you're a believer, you know
that. He is righteous. Now, when the Lord reveals himself
to someone, he makes known his character to them. And what is
the word that would most clearly describe the Lord? Shall not
the judge of the earth do right. Whatever he does is right. And
he doesn't do it because it's right. It's right because he
does it. He's God. Shall not the judge of the earth
do right. He's righteous. He's altogether
righteous. And anyone who knows, he knows
that. By the grace of God, we're not ignorant of his righteousness. If you know that he is right.
Do you know that? You believe that in your heart. He is altogether
righteous. If you know that he is righteous,
you know that everyone that doeth righteousness is born of him. If you don't have King James
Bible, you may read he that practices righteousness. That's another
reason, if you've got a Bible like that, you'd be better off
getting rid of it. The King James is honest to the text. And in the original, this is
very important, and I'm not real sure why the translators left
this out. In the original, the definite
article is used. He that doeth the righteousness. When the publican cries in the
temple, God be merciful to me, a sinner, actually the definite
article is used. He that doeth thee righteousness. What was David talking about
in Psalm 71, 16, when he said, I've made mention of thy righteousness,
even thine only. You see, there's only one righteousness. Now, I want to live in a way, I love that passage of scripture.
in 1 Peter 3, verse 15, when it says, always be ready to give
every man that asks you a reason for the hope that's in you. I
would like to treat people in such a way that I'm not judgmental,
I'm gracious, I want the best for them, I wanna treat them
in such a way that they see the way I treat them and they ask
me, what's the reason for the hope in you? Never happened. I want
it to happen. It's never happened. I've never
treated anybody so well. They said, what's the reason?
But I want to. I want to live. I want to live
for the glory. How we live matters. How we live
matters. Don't ever think it doesn't. This is not what he's talking
about. He's not talking about you practicing righteousness. Now, I want to, but that's not
what he's talking about in this passage of scripture. He that
doeth the righteousness is born of God. If you know that he is
righteous, that's where you got to begin with. You know that
everyone that doeth the righteousness is born of God. Now, I believe that he's speaking
specifically of the Lord Jesus Christ. When you said, if you
know that he is righteous, he'd said earlier in the chapter,
he called Christ, Jesus Christ, the righteous. We have an advocate
with the father, Jesus Christ, the righteous. He is the righteous
one. It said of Abel, By faith, Abel
offered unto God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, by which
he obtained witness that, anybody know the rest of the verse? He
was righteous. It doesn't really say righteousness
was imputed to him, although it was, it says he was righteous. Do you remember when the Lord
said to John the Baptist, he came up to be baptized of John
the Baptist, and John the Baptist said, I need to be baptized of
thee, comest thou to me? Can you imagine if the Lord came
up to you and said, I want you to baptize me, would you feel
unfit? Of course you would. What did the Lord say? Suffer
it to be so now, for thus it becometh us. to fulfill all righteousness. When Jesus Christ fulfilled righteousness,
all of the elect fulfilled righteousness. Every one of them. I want you to look at this passage
and hold your finger there and turn to 2 Corinthians chapter
5. 2 Corinthians chapter 5. Verse 10, four, 2 Corinthians 5, 10. Four, we must all appear before
the judgment seat of Christ that everyone may receive the things
done in his body. Now, do you hear that? that everyone
may receive the things done in his body according to that he
hath done, whether it be good or bad. Now you're gonna stand
before God, I'm gonna stand before God in judgment, and I'm gonna
be judged for the things done in my body. Now I have seen where preachers
have used this to talk about a different judgment. This is
a judgment where the believers will receive rewards for the
things done in their body. I mean, there's the judgment
of the general judgment, and then there's the judgment after
that. They called it the Bema judgment, where believers will
receive rewards for how faithful they've been. That's a bunch
of baloney. That's all it is. There's no truth to that. There's
only one judgment. And here's the fact of the matter.
If I'm justified, everything done in my body is I've never sinned if I'm justified. Somebody says, but you've sinned.
Yeah, but I'm justified. My sin's been put away. The things
done in my body are all good. I love the way Revelation 19,
eight speaks to her was granted fine linen, clean and white for
that fine linen is the righteousness of the saints. The righteousness
of Christ is the personal righteousness of the saints. Everything done
in my body is good if the righteousness of Christ is my personal righteousness
before God. Now this explains to us, if you
can use that kind of term, what the imputation of righteousness
is. It's not a change of ledgers. You were viewed legally guilty,
now you're viewed legally righteous. The Bible doesn't talk like that.
Men have made those kind of terms. It's not like you're legally
righteous, I mean, you're legally guilty, now all of a sudden you're
legally righteous. Been a change in the ledger sheet. God said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. If I'm ever guilty, God's not
gonna clear me. God's just, God's holy. He said,
I'll by no means clear the guilty. Here's what the imputation of
righteousness is. God imputes righteousness where righteousness
is. I have the very righteousness of Jesus Christ. He said, I'll by no means clear
the guilty. Now I understand this, justification
means I have never sinned. I've never sinned. That's why
if I'm judged for my works, it's all gonna be good. And the Lord's
gonna say to me, well done, thou good and faithful servant. It's true, because the righteousness
of Jesus Christ is my personal righteousness before God. I was
involved in the doing of it when he did it all by himself. Thus
it becometh us to fulfill all righteousness. Now this describes
every believer. Look in 1 John 3, verse 7. Little children, let no man deceive
you. He that doeth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous. There it is. There it is. Of course you wouldn't think
of your doings as even with his as far as your actual, no. He
that doeth righteousness, and that's every believer that's
been justified by God. This is the only way they can
be described. They do righteousness. He that doeth righteousness is
righteous, even as he is righteous. And that's what the new birth
does. John is talking about doing the
righteousness. As a matter of fact, in that
verse seven, I just read the definite articles used there
as well. He that doeth the righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. First John chapter three, verse
nine. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin. Now, if you have a version that
says he doesn't practice sin, that's not what it says. It says
he does not commit sin. Anyone that's born of God doth
not commit sin for his seed, the seed of God, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible. The word of God, which liveth
and abideth forever. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin. He lacks the ability to sin because
he's born of God. Now, let's talk about the new
nature. Let's talk about the new nature. Somebody said, but
I sin. I know you do. If you're a believer,
you still have the old nature. And it's just as bad as it ever
was. It doesn't improve. It doesn't get better. It's the
nature you were born with. This new nature does not commit
sin. You see, every believer has two
natures, the old man and the new man. The flesh that lusts
against the spirit, the spirit that lusts against the flesh. And while I can't, in my experience,
I couldn't say, well, the new nature did this, but it was the
old nature that did that. In my experience, I can't get
it all sorted out, because both natures are coming through one
consciousness. It's like when I was a young boy, Got up to
brush my teeth. I don't like real cold water.
Don't like real hot water. There's cold and hot on each
side. I've got to kind of get it adjusted
to it. It's just the right temperature. But it's coming out of one's,
the two natures coming out of one faucet. And that's what's
going on at that time. And that's, read about it in
Romans chapter seven. Paul says, what I hate, I do. What I want to do, I don't do. I find a law that when I would
do good, that's the desire of my heart. Evil is present with
me. I delight in the law of God after
the inner man, but I see another law warring against the law of
my flesh, bringing me into captivity to the law of sin, which is in
my members. That's scripture. but that new nature born of God. Can God give birth to something
that's unholy, evil? Can God the spirit birth something
that is subject to sin? God cannot sin. Amen. The Lord Jesus Christ couldn't
sin. I've heard people say, well, where's the, the, the, If he couldn't sin, what's the
big deal about him resisting temptation if he couldn't sin
in the first place? Surely he could have sinned and
he chose not to sin. No, he couldn't sin. God can't
sin. He's immutable. And that's the same line that
Satan used with Eve in the garden. Right now, you're just programmed
to do right. You've just got one nature, and
you don't know the difference between good and evil, but if
you eat this fruit, you'll know both, and then you'll choose
the good over the evil, and that's what's gonna make you good. She
took the hook. She bit the hook. Christ couldn't
sin. God the Holy Spirit can't sin.
And he which is born of the Spirit cannot sin. God's seed remains
in him. He cannot sin. He lacks the ability
to sin. Now, if I deny two separate natures
in a believer. First, I'm denying what the scripture
teaches. Next, I'm denying what regeneration is in the first
place, a new creation, something that was not there before. And
if I look at these verses and say, well, he doesn't practice
it. Do you practice it? Come on now. I don't practice
it. You're a liar. That's the only
way to put it. You're lying. You're not telling
the truth. I had a, This was mean, but when Jehovah Witness
or Mormon or somebody come up and try to talk to you, I just
get irritated. I mean, they're denying that
Jesus Christ is God. When somebody does that, it just
irritates me. And I ought to be more compassionate.
I realize that. But this little girl came up to my door, and
I said, hold it. Before you say anything, I said,
what are you going to say to God when he says, why should
I let you into heaven? And she said, well, because I'm
doing my best. I'm trying to obey him. I said,
really? I said it in such a way. And
she was shocked. He's found me out. When we look
at something like, well, he doesn't practice sin, I don't want to
ever sin. I don't want to sin. But every time I breathe, I sin. Every thought is sinful. Every
sermon I preach is sinful because I'm in it. Anything that's got
my fingerprints on it's bad. But that which is born of God
doth not commit sin. Like Paul said, what me is him,
the sin that dwelleth in me. That's exactly what he meant
by that. That's what the Bible teaches. And I'm not going to
water that down in any way. God the Holy Spirit will use
it as he sees fit. But that's what the Bible teaches.
Okay, look in 1 John 4, verse 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone
that loveth is born of God, and knoweth Him. Everyone that loveth You love God for who he is. Everyone
that's born of God loves God. You love every attribute of God. You love his holiness. You love
his justice. Justice and judgment are the
habitation of thy throne. You love his sovereignty. You
love the fact that he's the first cause of everything and everything
is in his hands and he controls everything. You love His omnipotence,
His power. You love His wisdom to find a
way to be just and yet justify somebody like me. You love His
grace. You love His salvation. You love
the way He saves. You love Him. You don't love
Him the way you ought to. You know that. You hate yourself
for not loving Him more. Let's not think about your love.
Just think about Him. I love Him. Lord, You know all
things. You know that I love You. Look
what 1 John chapter 5 verse 1 says at the end of verse 1, everyone
that loveth him that begat, loveth him also that's begotten of him.
Don't you love people who love Jesus Christ? It ain't hard,
is it? If they love Christ, you love
them. You might not even like them, but you love them. You love them. Anybody that loves
Jesus Christ, anyone that he's begotten, you love. The love of a husband and wife,
the love of a parent and a child, the love of friends, those are
good loves, but that's not the kind of love he's talking about.
You can have that kind of love and miss Christ altogether. He's
talking about this love that is born of the result of being
begotten of God. You love all men. In this sense, don't you want
everybody to know the Christ that you know? You really do. Everybody you come across, if
they're your enemy, if they do you wrong, you still want them
to know the Lord Jesus Christ. You love them in that sense.
You love all men. He that loveth is born of God. All of God's
people have that in common. They love God. They love him
that's begotten of God. They love men. They love men
enough to preach the gospel to them. They want them to know
the truth. Don't you want everybody to know the gospel you believe?
Don't you want every preacher to preach the gospel? Well, if
they're called of God, they will. But he that loveth is born of
God. Now, look at the next one. Chapter
5, verse 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ is born of God. Take that just as it's stated.
Whosoever, that's one of my favorite words in the Bible. If it said,
if Todd believes on Christ, there's a lot of Todds. It might not
be me. I'm a whosoever though. I can
fit myself in that group. I'm a whosoever. Whosoever shall
call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Whosoever believeth
that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Now, Jesus is the Christ. Now what's that mean? It's not
his last name, Jesus Christ. It refers to his offices. The
anointed of God. He is God's prophet. And he is utterly unique as God's
prophet in this sense. He never said, thus saith the
Lord. He didn't say once. He said,
I say unto you. And that is the authority. I
say unto you. I love it when in the sermon
in the mouth, he said, you've heard it said of them at an old
and then he quoted scripture. He said, but I say to you, I'm
the only one who knows what it means. And I'm the only one who
declares what it means. What authority he's got. He's
the word of God. That's what kind of prophet he is. He's the
word. He's the priest. Now. You think of men who call themselves
priests, and it's nauseating, you know, to think that a man
could, I can represent you before God. You know, there's one great
high priest, the Lord Jesus Christ. And he's the one, listen to me,
if he's your priest, if he represents you, you must be saved. If he presents his shed blood
before the Father for you, you must be saved. You know, when
he said, Father, forgive them, was there anybody he prayed for
who wasn't forgiven? Every one of them were forgiven.
Every one of them were saved. He said to Peter, Peter, I've
prayed for you, that your faith fail not. You know, Peter, I don't have
any doubt that he, at that time, after he denied the Lord, I don't
have any doubt that he thought, I'm not saved. I couldn't be. He heard the Lord say, whosoever
denies me before men, him will I deny before my Father which
is in heaven. He thought, I'm toast. I got no hope. He didn't believe he was saved,
but he never stopped believing that Jesus was the Christ. He
never stopped believing that Jesus was the Son of God. Oh,
he failed. He failed miserably. He needed
to. He needed to. That was part of the Lord's purpose. but he never stopped believing
that Jesus is the Christ. I rely on him as my prophet to
bring me the Word of God. I rely on him as my priest to
represent me before God and make me acceptable. I rely upon him
as my king to cause... The king is the one whose will
is done. I rely on him to cause me to
believe, to will my salvation. I love him. And you know, he's
the king like no other king. Every other king has a borrowed
authority. It's not really theirs, but he
has inherent authority in himself. He's the king of kings and the
Lord of lords. Who so believeth that Jesus is
the Christ? Now, I'm not asking if you know
you're saved. Matter of fact, if somebody comes up to me and
says, do you know for sure you're saved? I guarantee you, I'll
say, yeah, but I might have a little doubt. Maybe I'm not. I hope
I am. I'm not asking you if you know
for sure you're saved. I'm not even asking you if you
know you've been born again. I'm not asking you what kind
of experience you've had in grace. I'm asking you this. Do you believe
that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God? I'm not asking you what you believe
about yourself. I'm asking you what you believe about him. Do
you believe that Jesus is the Christ? You know what? You've
been born of God according to the scripture. Birthed by God. Whosoever believeth that Jesus
is the Christ, is born of God. Let me emphasize this as much
as I can. Faith isn't what you believe
about yourself. Forget yourself for just a moment. Faith is what
you believe concerning Him. Verse four, for whatsoever is born of God
over cometh the world. You know, I've heard people talk
about Christians who live defeated Christians' lives. There is no
such thing. There's no such thing as a defeated Christian. Every
believer overcomes the world. And here's what he means by this.
We don't have to guess. This is the victory that overcometh
the world, even our faith. Who is he that overcometh the
world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God. Let me take you to Acts chapter
8, where that Ethiopian eunuch, he said, here's water. What hinders
me from being baptized? I want to know. Is there a reason
why I shouldn't? He was suspicious of himself. Is there a reason
why I shouldn't? Tell me. And Philip said, if
you believe with all your heart, you may. And his reply was not, I believe
with all my heart that I'm saved. I believe with all my heart that
I'm born again. I believe with all my heart that
Jesus Christ died for me. I believe with all my heart that
I'm one. Nothing like that. I believe that Jesus Christ is
the son of God. You believe that? My dear friend,
that's saving faith. Believing who he is. And last,
verse 18. We know that whosoever is born
of God sinneth not. We've already considered that
part. And that's, that which is born of God doth
not commit sin. He sinneth not. But, He that's
begotten of God keepeth himself. Now there's, he that's begotten
of God keeps himself. He watches over himself. He's suspicious of himself. And
he watches himself knowing how easily he can just fly off. He
that's begotten of God keepeth himself. And look what it says,
the wicked one toucheth him not. You know, that one who's begotten
of God. Remember when the Lord said, the prince of this world
has come and found nothing in me. He didn't have anything to
work with. Satan doesn't have anything to work with in the
new nature. He's got plenty to work with
in the old nature. But he didn't have anything to
work with in new nature, but this thing of keeping yourself.
And I thought, what does it mean to keep yourself? And this is
so simple. Our father, who art in heaven,
hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come. Thy will be
done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. Cause me to look to you day by
day for everything. And listen to this, forgive us
our debts, our sins. Is there ever a time when you
can say, I don't have any sins to confess? Oh, forgive it. And when you confess sin, it's
not so much confessing each individual sin because you don't know what
they all are in the first place. It's agreeing with God, taking
sides with God against yourself. Agreement. Forgive us our sins as we forgive
those who are indebted to us. Not only do I want to be a forgiving
sinner, I want to be a forgiving sinner, don't you? I want to
be someone who's quick to forgive. And then he says, lead us not
into temptation. If I'm tempted, I'll fall. I've got enough experience about
myself. If you throw the temptation out there, I'm in trouble. Don't
let me even be tempted. Build a hedge about me so I'm
not even tempted. Because I know what happens when
I am. That's the way the Lord teaches us to pray. Lead us not
into temptation. I know what will happen. Deliver
me from evil. Yes, deliver me from the evil
one. Deliver me from Satan. Deliver me from this evil world.
Deliver me from me. I'm my big problem. Deliver me
from myself. Save me from myself. I need to
save from myself. For thine is the kingdom. Thine is the power. Thine is
the glory forever. Now that is watching over yourself. Now you know that that doesn't
mean you keep yourself in the sense that I keep myself. No,
the Lord keeps me and he keeps me in causing me to pray that
prayer. That's to keep yourself. So there
is such a thing as being born of God. If you're born of God,
you do righteousness. The righteousness of Christ,
the righteousness, that's your righteousness. You do not commit
sin. You love. God, His people, you
believe that Jesus is the Christ, you overcome the world by faith,
and you watch yourself, you guard yourself, you see. Now, what
the new birth is, the new birth does.