John chapter 3. Title of the message. You must be born again. Our Lord said, except a man be
born again. You must be born again. This
is one of those except It has no exception. It's a must. In order to enter
the kingdom of God, in order to dwell in God's presence, you
must be born again. It's written in the scriptures,
nothing that offends shall enter in. Nothing that offends shall
enter into the kingdom of God. It is a kingdom of righteousness,
a kingdom of grace, and no sin shall enter into that kingdom.
Nothing that offends. That being so, there's got to
be a great change made. Got to be a miracle. And that
miracle comes in the form of a birth. A real birth. And our Lord uses this to illustrate
to Nicodemus what must happen. There must be a work of grace,
not only done for us, but in us. There must be a new birth,
an actual birth. And we all can identify with
that. But like Nicodemus, many have taken this Completely wrong. This is probably one of the most
misunderstood and abused Scriptures in the Word of God, along with
John 3.16. For God so loved the world, that
He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him,
and that word believeth means whoever continues to believe
in Him has everlasting life. It's one of the most misunderstood
scriptures in the Word of God. But let's look at what our Lord
says to Nicodemus. Let's kind of like sit down and
listen to this conversation going on here. There was a man of the
Pharisees named Nicodemus. His name means
victorious. Victorious. Doesn't that match
the religion of our day? Live the victorious life? And
that's what he thought he was doing. He believed he was living
that victorious life that he had it made, that he was, that
he had a lock. He had a lock on God. He had
a lock on eternal life. And he's a Pharisee, a very self-righteous
man. And being a ruler and a Pharisee,
he was a member of the Sanhedrin court. This man was a teacher
of the teachers. He taught the teachers, those
who were going to teach. He was a teacher of the teachers.
Very high ranking, and yet very spiritually ignorant and dead. That's a sad way to be. Sad way
to be. He's a ruler of the Jews and
the same came to Jesus by night. Now, I think he came by night
because of his position. He had some questions and God's
hand is in this. God's hand is in, you know, when
you have, when you begin to have an interest in Christ, it may,
it actually may start out as curiosity. Remember Zacchaeus,
he climbed up a tree because he wanted to see, he wanted to
see this man Jesus. He was short of stature and he
had to climb up this tree so he can see over the crowd and
he wanted to see who this man was. This man named Jesus Christ,
this man of whom all the commotion is about, I've got to see who
this man is." And curiosity got to him. And he climbed up this
tree, and the Lord walked by this tree and He said, "'Zacchaeus,
come down. For this day salvation must dwell in your house.'" He
wasn't looking for that. God will use whatever He purposes
to use to bring you to Christ, for you and Christ to cross paths. And here, for whatever reason,
he comes by night. Some say it may have been the
only time he could have came. I think he didn't want to be seen at
this time. He's a teacher of the teacher.
And here he comes to Christ, he's asking the questions. You
see, and before, all the others came to him asking questions.
And he's like, I got the answers. But now he's all baffled. He's
baffled by this man, Jesus Christ, because all these miracles he's
doing. You remember when he was 12 years old, he baffled them
by his knowledge in the temple. He was in the temples speaking
to them and they were all just like blown away with this 12-year-old's
knowledge. And so here he is coming to him
by night to find out some things. And he says, we know that thou
art a teacher come from God. I don't know if he's just saying
we, if it's just him. He may be using the heavy. You
know, I had a partner in business one time, and whenever we was
going to negotiate something, he was standing in the background,
he said, let me be the heavy. Always use me as the heavy. So
I'd say, Paul said, my partner said, you know, my partner, I'd
use him as the heavy. And it works. It actually works. And he may be doing it, he may
be using them as a heavy, but his interest is really in his
heart. It's in his heart. We know that there are a teacher
He's like, I'm a teacher, you're a teacher, and I know that God
must be with you. What he doesn't realize, Jesus
Christ is the teacher. He is the Christ. He is God. He's speaking to God. He doesn't
know it at this point. I do believe that this man was
saved. I do believe later on, I believe this man, the Lord
saved him. But right now, he's coming on
equal grounds. We don't come to Christ on equal
grounds. He's coming to him on equal grounds as a teacher to
a teacher, not as a sinner in need of a Savior. And he comes
to him as a teacher, and he calls him a teacher when he calls him
a rabbi. We know thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can
do these miracles that thou dost, except God be with him. So we
know God's with you. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, and he stops him. The Lord Jesus Christ stops him
in his tracks. I wish we could learn this. You
know, when a religious lost person comes to talk to you, you and
I, we have to realize this. This person is spiritually dead,
and unless God saves them, unless they're born again, they can't
understand what you're saying. You know, you say, what's wrong?
Don't you understand it? Well, no, they can't understand it.
They're dead. They have to have spiritual life to understand
spiritual knowledge, to have spiritual truth. So the Lord
said to him, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee,
except a man be born again, in my margin, and it means this
in the Greek, except a man be born from above. Where were you
born from the first time? Earth, that which is born of
the earth is earthy, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
Beneath, and he's speaking here of another birth, an actual birth. And it must be from above, which
means man has nothing to do with it. This is all of God. You don't
get born again. You don't just get born again. You're
born of God. You're born from above. That's
what he's telling you. Except a man be born from above,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot see it. He cannot
comprehend it. He cannot understand it. Because
it's spiritual, it's a spiritual kingdom. It's a spiritual kingdom. You know, when you read the Word
of God, and there was a time, there was a time when I was,
before I heard the gospel, before I was, the Lord saved me, born
again, the Bible was like, it was like Greek to me. I didn't,
it was so confusing. You could read it and it just
sounded so confusing. Is it confusing now? No. The
Word of God is not confusing now. Because Jesus Christ is
the key of knowledge. If you know Him, this book will
open up. If you don't know Him, this book is a closed book. You
can't understand it apart from Him. He's the key that opens
it all up. So he says here, except you be
born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. He knew what
was on Nicodemus. I'm sure Nicodemus was going
to ask him some things about the kingdom of God. That's probably
why he came. He didn't come to ask him about
salvation. He didn't come to ask him about
that. He came to ask him things concerning the kingdom of God.
And there's no use the Lord saying to him, Nicodemus, In your high-ranking
position, there's no use for me to talk to you about the kingdom
of God, because you can't understand it. It's a spiritual kingdom.
It's not a physical kingdom that you can see. It's one you can't
see. So Nicodemus said to him, How
in the world can this happen? How can a man be born when he's
old? Are we going to reverse aging?
Are we going to reverse aging, go all the way back to that embryo
and start all over again? Well, you'd be just as bad as
ever. You would. You'd be the same rotten person
you still are. Because that which is born of
the flesh is flesh. It can't produce anymore. That's all it
can produce. But how can a man, how can this
happen that a man, can he be born when he's old? How can he
do that? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and
be born? See, here is a man who is highly educated in the Word
of God, and he doesn't even have a clue. He doesn't have a clue
to what the Lord is talking about. Going back into your mother's
womb, That's an impossibility. That's an impossibility. It can't
happen. So the Lord must be talking about
something else. And so Jesus answered, and verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except, this is one of those except that
has no exception, a man be born of water, and I'm confident that
word water there has to do with Word. Because the Word of God,
the Gospel, that you hear week by week is the seed by which
we are begotten. We are begotten with the Word
of Truth. God never saves anyone apart from the Word of God, apart
from the Gospel. It's the Word. That's why it's
so important to always, if you're parents, you bring your children
to hear the Gospel because of that seed. You know, that seed
may be planted today. And it may be 20 years down the
road that God gives it increase. But that seed may be planted
today. Just like when you plant a grain
of corn in the ground, you've got to wait for some time to
go by, and all of a sudden, there's an ear of corn. That seed is
planted when God plants it. And when it's planted, the increase
is of God. And that new birth, when it happens,
is of God. It's of God. And so he says here in verse
5, Verily, verily, I say to thee, except a man be born of the word,
the water, and of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of God here.
He's the agent in regeneration. He cannot enter. You can't see
it, you can't understand it, you can't comprehend it, and
you're never going to be in it if you're never born again. He cannot enter the kingdom of
God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. All that you
and I can produce, the most... I want to say the most godly,
but those here who believe the gospel. Parents. You've got parents
here that believe the gospel. You're faithful to the gospel.
You love the gospel. And when you have children, all
you've had are rebels. You've got rebels, right? Because
that's all you can produce. Only God can produce children
of the kingdom. Only God can do that. You and
I produce rebels is what we produce. And it doesn't take long before
you find that out. You got to get the, well, back
in my day, you got to switch out. Dad tells you, go cut a
switch. I had to go cut my own switch.
And he would whip me even worse if I got a little old winky dinky
switch. I mean, you had to get a switch. That hurt. Well, that's because
I was a rebel. That's all mom and dad could
produce. It takes God the Father to produce a heavenly child.
It takes God the Father to produce a child that has grace in the
heart, kindness, love, joy. My parents produced one that
had lying, cheating, stealing, and I had to be threatened to
death and keep from going to jail not to do it. And we still
did it. We still did it. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit...
Listen, it's not just spiritual. It's spirit. You know what that
means? It has the nature of God. That's the nature of God. Take my blood that's flown through
my veins, and do the DNA test, and you'd have my parents. If
you could do that spiritually, you could take a DNA test, I
would have the DNA of God. That's the truth. That's the
truth. That which is born of the Spirit
is not just something spiritual. It is Spirit is what it is. I'm thinking of a verse here,
I didn't write it down. Turn over to 1 John 1. I think this will
fit. 1 John 1. Or chapter 3, I mean, 1 John
chapter 3. In 1 John chapter 3, look in
verse 7, "...Little children, let no man deceive you. He that
does righteousness is righteous, even as he is righteous. He that
commits..." Sin is of the devil. He that lives in it, that's his
life, that describes who he is, he's of the devil. For the devil
sinned from the beginning. For this purpose the Son of God
was manifest, that he might destroy the works of the devil. Whosoever
is born of God does not commit sin, for his seed remains in
him, and he cannot sin, because he's born of God." What's he
talking about? He's talking about that new nature that's born of
God that cannot sin. That's what he's talking about.
Because it's born of the Spirit. And that's what he's saying.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born
of the Spirit is Spirit. Now marvel not that I said unto
thee, you must be born again, because he's probably standing
there with his mouth open. It's like, I never heard this
before. He's like, what are you talking
about? I've never heard such a thing. That which is born of
the Flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is
the Spirit. Because listen, here's a man standing there who would
die over his family tree. I mean, his family tree was everything. There's Abraham, there's David,
there's all these patriarchs, there's Isaac, there's Jacob.
I mean, this man would die over that. This was his life. I'm telling you, his life was
not Jesus Christ. His life was his family ancestry.
His connection to Abraham and that covenant God made with Abraham,
which he did not understand. Because that seed that he spoke
of was not Nicodemus and those Pharisees, that seed was Jesus
Christ. That's who he was, Jesus Christ.
And so he's standing there like, I've never heard this before.
How many people have sat on the gospel for the first time and
said, well, that's the first time I heard that. So don't marvel, don't marvel
that I said to thee, you must be born again. You know why he
says not marvel? Because you don't have anything
to do with it. He said, marvel not that I said that you must
be born from above. How much percentage-wise, how
much did you have to do with your first birth in this world? Zero. I mean, I didn't pick the
family. I didn't pick the nationality.
I didn't pick my language. I picked zero. Zero. I had nothing to do with it.
And that's what the Lord is saying to him. When it comes to the
new birth, that's of God. That's of God. And the seat by
which you are begotten is of God. It's the gospel. The word
you're hearing right now. You know, there's talk about people,
preachers stand in the pulpit and talk about getting born again.
You don't get born again the moment you got born into this
world by your efforts. Marvel not that I said to you,
you must be born from above." Now listen here, the wind blows
where it will. The wind blows where it will.
And you hear the sound of the wind. But you can't tell from
where it's coming and where it's going. So is everyone that's
born of the Spirit. What's He saying here? He's speaking
of the sovereign will of God Almighty. We are at the sovereign
mercy of God. And there's no better place to
be than the sovereign mercy of God. If it wasn't for the sovereign
mercy of God, everyone would leave here lost. Religious? Oh, we would leave here religious
just like Nicodemus. You couldn't get any more religious
than this man. I mean, this man, he was the
most moral, outwardly moral man in town. Everybody held him up
on a pedestal. This is the most moral, the most
strict man in town. And he's the most lost man in
town. He's the most lost man in town. But he's speaking here of the
sovereign will of God Almighty in our salvation. Turn over to
John chapter 1, back a page here. It says in verse 11, He, Christ,
came unto His own, and His own received Him not. Now listen,
But as many as received Him, to them gave He power or the
privilege or right to become the sons of God, even to them
that believed on His name, These that believe on His name. This
is why you believe on His name. Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh. Try and talk people into making
a decision. You're not born of the will of the flesh. Nor of
the will of man. But of God. You're born of God. That's how you're the sons of
God. Sons and daughters of God. You're
born of Him. He's your Father. And Nicodemus answered and said
unto him, How can these things be? How can this happen? You see, he's thinking in a natural
sense. And the Lord is speaking to him
in a spiritual sense, in a spiritual truth. And Jesus answered and
said unto him, and he's going to point out here his spiritual
ignorance. Art thou a master, a master of
Israel, and you don't know these things? You call yourself a teacher
of the things of God? You call yourself a teacher of
the things of God, and you don't know what I'm talking about?
You read the Bible every day? You've got students sitting at
your feet every day, and you are ignorant of what I'm talking
about? Verily, verily, I say to thee, we speak that we do
know, and testify that we have seen, and you don't receive our
witness. Now, the Lord says here, verily,
verily, I say unto thee, we... What do you mean, we? What's
He saying, we? Who's He talking about? Well,
I think He's saying this, we, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit,
We know what we're talking about. In other words, the Lord's saying,
this is not something I came up with. Because he sees the
Lord at this point as a man, as a teacher. And the Lord's
saying, we, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, know what we're
saying. This is truth. And then He's
saying, we, I think, and identifying with the prophets. This is nothing
new. What did He say in Ezekiel? I'll
give you a new heart. I'll put my spirit within you. He speaks in Ezekiel of the new
birth. He's speaking of the new birth
in Ezekiel. This is nothing new. You've read
Ezekiel, Nicodemus, haven't you? I know you've read it. I know
you've read Ezekiel. You've read this. This is not
new. We, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, we identified Himself
with the prophets. We know what we're talking about. I've told you, if I've told you
earthly things and you believe not, if you don't believe and
comprehend and understand these earthly examples that I'm using,
you know, everything that God has made in nature, everything
we see, has a spiritual example, has a spiritual truth behind
it. Everything. I believe it. I believe everything.
And he's saying here, if you can't understand what I'm talking
about with this being born of the Spirit, being born from above,
if you don't understand these things, if you can't comprehend
it, why do I need to go on? You know, if you can't get 2
plus 2 equals 4, why do I need to go on to the next level of
math? You've got to get the simple things first. The foundation. You can't build a house without
a foundation. Now Nicodemus, if you can't understand or get
the foundation of salvation, there's no need for us to go
and carry this conversation on. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven. He's telling him right now that
the Son of Man which is standing in front of him is in heaven
at the same time. He's in the bosom of the Father
at the same time He's here on earth. But He's saying no man
hath ascended up to heaven to get this information and bring
it down to teach it to us. No man's done that, but there
is one. There is one who came from heaven and who's revealed
to us the truth. The Lord Jesus Christ. There
is one who has come down, descended from heaven. He came down from
heaven. And it's the same one that's still in heaven. Showing
us His deity, He's God. He's God. And then He says here in verse
14 and 15, and I'll close with these two verses. Now He speaks
to him, He speaks to him now of something that He knows He
read. Because they read the first five
books of the Bible all the time. Those are the ones they definitely
recognize. The first five books of the Bible.
And he knows this story of Moses lifting up the serpent in the
wilderness. It may be, after the Lord told him this, that
light began to dawn. Because now he's talking about
Christ crucified, as it goes on in the rest part of this chapter. And he says, "...as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness." Now, Nicodemus knew why that
happened. He knew the children of Israel
was bitten by these serpents and they were dying. And God
told him to put a brass serpent upon a pole and go through the
camp and just tell them to look. That's it. Look, and those who
looked, they looked with earnestness, they looked with expectation,
they looked at that serpent of brass upon that pole, and they
leant. They were cured. The same thing that bit them
is the same one that died on the cross. The same nature, you
know, hear what I'm saying. The same nature that sin, must
be the same nature that makes redemption for us. In other words,
an animal can't die for me. An animal can't die for me. And so he said here, as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. I must be lifted up the same
way. He's speaking here of His crucifixion. I must be lifted
up. And those who look to me, you
say, oh, I can't understand all this. Like Nicodemus, how can
these things be? I can't comprehend all this.
I'll tell you what you can comprehend. Look. That's a very easy word. Two of the letters are the same.
Right in the middle of it. L-O-O-K. Look. You see, here's the problem.
We try to understand everything. Before we confess Christ, you
know, we think before we make a confession of Christ, we try
to understand and try to comprehend and try to put this together,
this with this, and, you know, look! It's all just look. It's
so simple. That's just so simple. Look to
the Lamb of God. Isn't that what John said? Look
to the Lamb of God. Behold the Lamb of God, look,
which taketh away the sin of the world. You won't understand
anything. You will not understand anything
of salvation properly until you look to the Lord Jesus Christ. Cast your whole soul upon Him. Charles Spurgeon said, there's
life in the look of the crucified one. And looking to Him, looking unto
Jesus. You know what it says in Hebrews? Looking unto Jesus,
the author and finisher of our faith. That's it. It's not trying to understand
all the, you know, how can man be responsible and God-sovereign?
Well, if you're going to get off on that trip, you're never
going to comprehend it. But I tell you this, look to the Lord Jesus
Christ and you will begin to understand the gospel. You will
be able to understand how God can save a wretch like you and
a wretch like me and still be God. And this book will start
to clear up. It'll start to clear up. That whosoever Believeth in him
whosoever, Jew or Gentile, whosoever, that goes down to John 16 there,
for God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whosoever believes in Him, that word means whosoever continues
to believe in Him, has everlasting life. That's the evidence. The
evidence of everlasting life is this, you continue to believe. That's the evidence of it, not
the cause of it. The cause of you believing is
the fact that God gave you life. For God so loved the world, and
remember this, a Jew wrote this gospel. John, he wrote this. And if you go back to the Old
Testament, and when you read the love of God, it's always
connected to Israel. It's always connected to that
small nation called Israel. God's love is connected to that.
After the cross, it's scattered throughout the world. There's
people that God has and God loves, that's throughout this whole
world. Of every kindred, tribe, and nation, tongue under heaven.
God has a people He loves, He's redeemed, He's called, and He's
not going to let them perish. And those who perish, they perish
because they will not come to Christ. And God is not obligated
to make everyone come to Him. He's not. He's a sovereign God. Whosoever believeth in Him, should not perish, but have eternal
life. Oh, do I believe in Jesus Christ? Do I believe He is the Christ,
the Son of the living God? That's what that eunuch said,
I believe He's the Christ, the Son of God. I believe He is the
Son of God. I believe He is. I believe He's
my Savior. I believe He's the Messiah that
God promised. He's my righteousness. He's my Redeemer. He's my High
Priest. He's my sacrifice. His blood is the blood of atonement
for me. I believe that. I believe that. And I believe
that one day when I die and I stand before God, He is the one who
is going to present me spotless. It's not because I accepted Him
as my personal Savior, but because He saved me. He saved me. And I was born of God and I didn't
ask God to birth me. I didn't ask him to birth me.
Everyone in God's kingdom is born of God and they are born
into the kingdom of God. We are not educated into it.
I wasn't educated into this world. I came into this world dumb as
a box of rocks. You and I didn't know a thing
when we came into this world, did we? We didn't know anything. But because we came into this
world and we had life, then we were teachable. Being born of
God, now you're teachable. You're teachable. But until then,
it's like, how can this be? You can't put it together. You
must be born again. You must be. You must be. And I'll tell you where that
leaves us. at the mercy of God, and that's
the best place to be. Because God delights to show
mercy. Do we delight to have it? All
right.