I want to bring the message this
morning out of John chapter 3. The title of the message is The
New Birth. There was a man named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews. This man was highly respected
in Israel as a leader and teacher in things pertaining to God.
He was a well-educated man, no doubt a member of the Sanhedrin
court, the highest ecclesiastical court in that day. But this man
was a lost man. Many are religious, but lost. Paul shows us this in Romans
10. He said, Brethren, my heart's
desire and prayer to God for Israel is that they might be
saved. One may say, I thought they were the elect. There were
some true elect of God among those Israelites, but for the
most part, they were lost. You know only two of that original
group that came out of Egypt went into the promised land,
Joshua and Caleb. The rest perished in the wilderness,
it says, in unbelief. It says in Hebrews, they entered
not in because of unbelief. So being religious does not mean
that you are saved. All men and women are religious.
You cannot go any place in this world and not find some form
of worship and religious service going on. Especially in this
country. We are the most religious nation
on earth. Yet most do not know God. They do not know Jesus Christ.
They do not understand what happened at Calvary. They've just made
it a religious profession. They've gotten fixed up. Now
they're ready for heaven. And everything's alright. They
don't even know God. This generation of so-called
Christians have been talked into a profession, they've been pressured
into doing something, they've been pressured into coming down
an aisle, they've been pressured to come to an altar, and as it
says in Isaiah, their fear of God is taught by the precept
of men. They have made their false decision
for Jesus, and they have absolutely no connection to Him at all.
There is no living union between Christ and them at all, because
they've never been born of God. They've just been talked into
a profession. Many of the preachers of our day have pressured people
into accepting Jesus as their personal Savior without a real
work of the Holy Spirit in the heart. They put this pressure
on them so that they will look successful to their congregation.
But that's not the way this is. That's making them twofold a
child of hell. That's what that's doing. The
Lord let this religious man know that before he could understand
the gospel, before he could understand anything the Lord had to say,
he said, you must be born again. Before you could see or enter
the kingdom of God, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Now,
Nicodemus recognized and came to Christ as a teacher come from
God. He came to him at first as a
teacher to a teacher, basically on the same level. But this is
not how we come to him at first. We come to him, we come to Christ
as a sinner in need of mercy. We come as mercy beggars. That's
how we come to him. We come to him who is God incarnate,
who can save me from my sin. That's how we first come to Christ.
If you'll notice, the Lord does not talk him into a profession. He does not scare him with stories
about hell. He does not tell him sentimental
stories about wanting to go to heaven and see his mom again.
He doesn't tell him any of this foolish stuff. Christ is letting
him know that he, that is Christ, must do everything for him if
he is to be saved. That salvation, this matter of
salvation, is of God from Alpha to Omega, from beginning to end.
Even faith is a gift of God. Even repentance is a gift of
God. It's all of God. I watched a famous preacher on
TV the other night, and he said to a large crowd, Jesus Christ
did His part. Now you must do your part. Now
listen, that is a lie out of hell. That is a lie. Christ did
it all. All to Him I owe. From Alpha
to Omega, He did it all. Now, let's get back to this new
birth. What is this new birth that our Lord is talking about?
He said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. We come into this world in the
flesh, but not in the spirit. We are born dead to God. No taste
for God, but a great thirst for sin. If God does not do something
in us by the powerful work of the Holy Spirit, we will never
come to Him, we will never know him, we will never see or understand
the gospel, and we will never see God. And Nicodemus here,
this ruler of the Jews, this religious ruler, teacher, shows
his ignorance. He said, how can a man be born
when he is old? Can he enter the second time
until his mother's womb would be born? If he could, he'd still
come out the same way. He'd still come out corrupt,
He'd still come out flesh. He would still come out sinful.
There would be no change. You know, I hear people saying,
well, I'd like to go back to my life and change this, change
that. Well, you'd change it to something else sinful. Whatever
it is, you'd change it, but you'd still be sinful. Because flesh
is flesh. But notice here now how the Lord
stays with the truth. He says, except a man be born
of water, that is the Word of God, and the Spirit, he cannot
enter into the Kingdom of God. The Word is the seed God uses
in the new birth. There is a seed used in every
birth, and the Word is used in the new birth. No man is born
again apart from the Word of God. That's the seed the Holy
Spirit uses, and He plants it in the heart when He saves a
sinner. And if this does not happen,
my friend, you and I, if this does not happen to us, we will
not enter the Kingdom of God. Why? Because he says in verse
6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is
born of the spirit is spirit. There is no mixing of flesh and
spirit. You know, in Genesis it says,
when God created an animal or whatever it was he created, he
said, it begat after its kind. That which is born of the flesh
cannot be anything but flesh. It cannot be anything but its
own kind. And that which is born of the spirit His Spirit. It's the nature of God. It's
the nature of the Lord Jesus Christ in you. That's what it
is. It's not just a knowledge of
Christ. It's the nature of Christ in you, in that new man. When
a person is born again, there is a new heart. Go read Ezekiel
36. There is a new heart given, a
new nature given. And by all intent and purposes,
this person is a new man. He is a new man created in Christ
Jesus unto good works. It is not God renovating the
old man. It is not God giving you new
principles and influencing them by the Holy Spirit. That's not
so. That's not so at all. It is God
creating in you a new man. And listen, Christ is in that
new man, and that new man is in Christ, and they are one.
That's how we get to be one with Christ, is in that new creation.
I had someone laugh at this one time, but I tell you this, lost
men laugh, saved men bow. That's so, that's so. Now, Nicodemus
here in verse 7, the Lord said to him, marvel not at this, marvel
not that I said unto thee, you must be born again. Nicodemus,
don't marvel at this, because you have nothing to do with it.
This is not a work that you do, Nicodemus, this is the work of
God. You know, salvation is a work of God from beginning to end,
from Alpha to Omega. At no point do we give anything
to it. At no point do we do our part.
The whole part is on the shoulders of the Lord Jesus Christ. All
of it is in the hands of God. God the Father, God the Son,
and God the Holy Spirit. He says, don't marvel at this,
Nicodemus. You have nothing to do with it.
This is not a decision. It's not a profession. It's not
an education. It's a new birth. It's life.
God giving you life. Divine life. And what he's revealing
here to him is divine sovereignty. He says here in verse 8, 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. He's giving us
an illustration here of the sovereignty of the Holy Spirit in giving
this new birth. And He uses the wind. No man
controls the wind. No man controls the wind. You
don't tell the wind where to go, and you do not tell the wind
where to come from. You and I do not command the
wind. And He's saying here that the Holy Spirit of God saves
whom He will. He gives life to whom He will.
Nicodemus, you're in the hands of the sovereign Spirit of God. Now listen, God the Father, God
the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, these three are one. Whatever
one does, the other does. The whole Godhead is involved
here. Now this new birth is not a decision you make. It is a
matter of God giving you life according to His will and good
pleasure. I did not give myself the first birth, and I sure do
not give myself the second birth. My parents did not ask me if
I wanted to be born, and God does not ask if you want to be
born again. Not at all. This matter of repentance
and faith, they do not bring the new birth. They are not the
cause of the new birth, they are the results of it, they are
the evidence of it. The evidence of the new birth
is true faith in Christ and repentance toward God. Nicodemus, this ruler
of the Jews said, how can these things be? Well, I know this
with men. It's impossible. You cannot give
yourself a new birth no more than you give yourself the first
birth. But with God, all things are possible. He can take the
vilest, hardest criminal that ever walked on this earth and
give him life and make him and make him to be a new man in Christ. And our Lord said, are you a
master of Israel and you don't know these things? You take the
scriptures, you read the scriptures, and you teach other scriptures,
and you don't know what I'm talking about. You don't know these truths.
Have you not read Ezekiel 36? Our Lord said, we speak that
which we know. We know what we're talking about. We speak the truth. We speak things that are real.
And you receive not our witness. You receive not the witness of
the Father, the Son, the Holy Spirit, the scriptures, His messengers.
You don't receive them. Now if I told you earthly things
you'd believe not. He didn't say if you understand not. He
said you'd believe. Nicodemus you don't believe what I'm saying.
You don't believe the one standing in front of you talking. So how
are you going to believe if I tell you heavenly things? Things that
are far above earthly things. Nicodemus could not grasp what
he was talking about here. You see the second birth is like
unto the first birth. The difference is one is flesh
and the other is spirit. Let me tell you how important this
new birth is. Without it, you cannot understand who God is.
You cannot understand who Jesus Christ is. You cannot understand
and see what happened at Calvary. You can't do it. You cannot understand
your need of Christ. Not at all. This is one of our
day's greatest problems. Sinners have not been born of
the Spirit of God. They've been made religious.
They've made their professions. They have come down aisles. You
see this in some of these big evangelistic meetings. You'll
see crowds coming down to the front. They'll play a song, Just
As I Am, and everybody comes down. I'll tell you this, they
get religious and are still just as lost as ever. Nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus would have been wise
to have said, Lord, give me this new birth. Our Lord said, even
before he gave him the gospel there in John 14. John 14 is
the gospel. As Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Before he told him that, he told him this. You must be born again
to understand that. Alright, until next week, God
bless.