Yeah, I'll be fine. If you'll
open your Bibles this morning to John chapter 3, And when you found John 3, if
you would find your bulletin for today on the first inside
page, a quotation from a fellow that lived at least a
part of his life in the 1600s, The name is John Owen. He's the
same man that penned that little tract that we have printed many
times, and is so wonderfully simple, and yet it is so profound. So our subject this morning is
the new birth. I want to read you 21 verses
out of John chapter 3. And after we have prayer together,
I want to read you at least a part of this article that's in your
bulletin, and it is submitted by Maurice Montgomery from Madisonville,
Kentucky. All right, may we pray. Lord, thank you for granting
us the privilege of singing a hymn like Jesus,
lover of my soul. Oh, how powerful the words of
this hymn are and how truthful, how biblical, how God-honoring
and Christ-exalting. These words are. And yet we confess that our generation,
ourselves included at one time, we didn't want to sing anything
but trash. Oh, we sang some good songs,
but we didn't have a clue what we were singing. But Lord, You've
come in the power of Your mercy and Your grace And you have revealed
to our poor souls glorious things that we never knew before and
never would have known had you not come to us, found us, saved
us, resurrected us from spiritual death to spiritual life in Christ
our life. Lord, the subject this morning
of being born again, being born of God, being regenerated, this
subject has for the most part been abandoned by today's high-powered
religion. But your true people, your believers,
your sons and daughters in our Lord Jesus Christ. Oh, how we
love this glorious truth of the new birth. Without it, we could
not go to heaven. We would indeed go straight to
hell. Now, Lord, we pray that you would meet with us this morning.
We have no claims on you. But if we ask it for the name,
the honor, the glory, the praise of your blessed Son, we suspect
you will indeed answer to bring glory to him. Please meet with us. We are nothing,
we have nothing, and we can do nothing. But you're the God who
does all things well. Help us, we pray. Amen. Alright, if you found that bulletin
article, the renowned Puritan John Owen
once said that the two greatest soul damning delusions in the
world are these two. Men think they can be saved without
being born again or born of God. And the second one is not much
different. We think by nature that we can
be born again, born of God, and not be a new creation, which
is the next a direct disowning of 2 Corinthians 5, 17. Rituals and ceremonies like infant
baptism and confirmation, and for many of us it was easy believism, and decisionism. I know that's what made me think
I was a believer, that I just got up and took the preacher's
hand and he says, you've made a decision to accept Christ. But that is not true. We know
now. But it's still everywhere. It
has swept this entire world in which we live. Natural decisionism with their
carnal Christian doctrine. What's wrong with a doctrine
called Christian, carnal Christian? They are saying that that person
who is a carnal Christian is less of a Christian than this
man that doesn't believe he's a carnal Christian. Now here's
the facts. We're born into this world, every
last single one of us, with a nature that is as carnal or fleshly
as it can possibly be. And if and when God saves you
or me, we're still stuck with this nature that is all carnal. It ain't nothing but flesh. And
it'll be in us until we leave this world and the soul takes
its flight. Now that's the truth. So they
want people to think, if you're a Carl Christian, I'm a better
Christian than you are. No, you're not. You don't even
know what's going on on your own insides. So Maurice goes on to say at
the end of that first paragraph, These show quite plainly that
Owen's words are quite true in our day. I'll leave you to read
the other one. If you don't do it now, I mean,
you know. So, John 3. Verse 1, John 3. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a member of the ruling body of the Jews,
and therefore it says, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to
Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, or Teacher, we know
that you are a Teacher come from God, For no man can do these
miracles that you do, except God be with him." Well, how about
convincing Moses of that? The magicians in Egypt matched
many of those twelve miracles that Moses did in the presence
of Pharaoh. And there are plenty of other
instances in our Bibles to say the same thing. The book of Revelation
does, the letters of Paul do, that this God of this world, as He
is sometimes referred to, but Nicodemus says, we know that
you are a teacher come from God because of the miracles that
you do. Now listen, there are some people
on TV right now today that can possibly through the devil's
work perform miracles. And if people can but be the
recipient of one of those, oh, they think they've got a front
row seat in heaven. And they'll be disappointed.
Disappointed. You'll get a kick out of this.
A long time ago, in my former life, in Bladen County, North
Carolina, Some lady in a local Baptist church, they were having
a testimony meeting, you know, which, oh my soul, I'm so glad
we ain't had one of those. But this woman stood up and she
said, the Lord healed my teeth. And he gave me gold fillings.
And the preacher had sense enough, at least. He said, sit down,
woman, if the Lord healed you, you'd have brand new teeth. You
ain't going to do nothing halfway. Do you see what I mean? This world has gone plumb stupid
as to who God is and what they are and who they are. We ain't
never going to finish reading. Now let's go. All right. Verse 7. Jesus answered and said
to Nicodemus, these next two words, verily, verily. Mr. Hawker says they mean amen. Some
other people give some other ideas and so forth. But the double
verily, you know, two of them right side by side, are found
nowhere else in our Bibles but the Gospel of John. I prefer
the amen, amen. I say unto you, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Now that
statement is not difficult to understand. It's difficult for
proud religious Pharisees to swallow. And if you and I truly own up
to it, it ain't our doing, I promise you. This is for sinners, and we're
not sinners, we'll have you to know. I'm being facetious, I hope you
saw that. Nicodemus, to show you his ignorance
of divine spiritual things. You can't understand spiritual
things unless you're born again. So to demonstrate his ignorance,
he said to our Lord in verse 4, How can a man be born when
he is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? That's preposterous. Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except a man be born of water, And by the
way, that's not the waters of baptism. It is the water of the
Word of God. Born of water and of the Spirit,
the Holy Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. His first statement in verse
3, he cannot even see that there is such a thing as a spiritual
kingdom of God's people. And now it says you cannot enter
into the kingdom of God. Preacher, can't anybody go to
heaven? Anybody that God saves can go to heaven. They can't
go anyplace else. Left to ourselves, we'll all
be missing from heaven. Verse 6. Here's some of the reason
behind these statements about not being able to see and not
being able to enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of
the flesh is flesh. That's what happens when a husband
and wife have children. We don't maybe want to own up
to it, but they're just like us. The very same. 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 you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it will. It doesn't ask our permission. And you hear the sound thereof,
but you cannot tell from where it came and where it goes. So
is everyone that is born of the Spirit. To be born again is a
spiritual thing that the natural eye cannot see and the natural
mind cannot comprehend. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, How can these things be? Our Lord answered and said to
Nicodemus, Are you a master, that is, a master teacher in
Israel? You mean you're the guy on this
Sanhedrin that everybody looks up to as to what the Word of
God actually teaches in the Old Testament? Are you a master of Israel and
know not these things? These things are elementary. They are the gateway to knowing
God and following and believing and trusting the Lord Jesus Christ. Without the new birth, we cannot
do any of those things. Verse 11, another verily, verily,
I say unto you, We speak that we do know and testify that that
we have seen, and our Lord says to Nicodemus, and you receive
not our witness. How come? Why doesn't Nicodemus
accept what our Lord says to him? Because he's not born again. I believe the Scripture shows
us that by the time our Lord is finished dying on the cross.
Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea are only the two men who went
to Pilate and begged the dead body of our Lord Jesus Christ. All his brave apostles had fled. These men at much cost to themselves. You think they went back to being
members of the Sanhedrin? Not a chance. Not a chance. You spit in the God of religion's
face and you ain't never seen any meaner people on the face
of God's earth. Our Lord says in verse 12, I've
told you earthly things and you believe not. How shall you believe
if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man has ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven," now watch this,
"...even the Son of Man which is in heaven." And there he is
talking to Nicodemus, and yet he's in heaven. How can that
be? He's everywhere present. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up. That whosoever believes in him
should not perish, but have eternal life. Now you've heard this before,
I know Mike Walker preached it, I think, here at one time. He
stole my outline and did a much better job than I'd ever done.
Verse 14, there are three R's here in verses 14, 15, and 16. This religious world is only
concerned about verse 16, and they don't have a clue as to
what that means. Verse 14 is the remedy. Verse 15 is the result of that
remedy. And verse 16 is simply the reason
for this remedy. Now let me read it in that light. As Moses lifted up the serpent,
this is verse 14, in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up. Christ came to this world to
die on Calvary's tree, and he did not have to run willy-nilly
over anybody's free will in order for that to happen. His enemies
were to be found all over this world wherever there were people,
and the devil was the instigator of the whole thing. Oh, he said,
if I can just get rid of him, he said, I'll have this whole
world to myself. Oh, no. Putting him to death
is the only means that puts Satan out of business. Boy, if he'd have only known.
No, he's too blind to know. Verse 15, that whosoever believes
in him should not perish, but have eternal life. The only people who can truly
believe on the Lord Jesus Christ are people who have been regenerated
or born again. Verse 16, here's the reason. For God so loved the world that
he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in him
should not perish, but have everlasting life, life that lasts forever. For God sent not his Son into
the world to condemn the world. How come he didn't? Because it's
already condemned. But that the world through Him,
now this ain't everybody, but it's all of God's elect, it's
all of Christ's sheep, it's all of those people that God gave
to Him in that eternal covenant of grace. That the world through
Him might be saved. He that believes on Him, whoever
believes and trusts the Lord Jesus in genuine, God-given,
saving faith is not condemned. But he that believes not is condemned
already, because he has not believed in
the name of the only begotten Son of God. The name of Christ,
the names of Christ are who He is, what He came to do and what
He did. We've been over this many, many,
many times in the past. Verse 19, and this is the condemnation. See, the world's already condemned.
Here it is, explained to us in verse 19. This is the condemnation
that light has come into the world, and then All men love
darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. Ah, preacher, you'd be staggered
if you knew how many good works I've done. Oh, no, I wouldn't. I wonder if I've ever done one. Verse 20, here's the other side
of that condemnation. For everyone that does evil,
does what? Hates the light. What is the
light? Christ is the light of the world.
Oh, preacher, people don't hate Christ. Then how come they hung
him on Calvary's tree? And there didn't seem to be any
It looked like everybody and their
brother were on board when they put him to death. They chanted
at him. They spat at him. They gave insults
to his face. Did everything they could. And
you think that was them and not us? I tell you, sister, if you
and I were there, we'd have been right in the middle of it. Sure
enough. Everyone that does evil hates
the light, neither comes to the light, lest his deeds should
be reproved. Now look at verse 21, I'm going
to stop. But he that does truth, he that doeth truth, comes to
the light. Why? That his deeds may be made
manifest. Now look at it. that they, these good works,
that they are wrought or worked in God. Philippians 2.13, it
is God who works in you, both in the willing and in the doing
of his good pleasure. Before you can do a work, God
has to give you that work. Alright, now, let's back up. I may ask you a time or two to
turn, but I don't know if I'll... I've got to see how much time we have. The new birth. We begin at verse
3. John chapter 3. Except a man
be born again, He cannot see the kingdom of God. Here's the first thing about
the new birth. It is its importance. It cannot be dispensed with.
Without the new birth, there's no hope for anybody. This is the first subject. The new birth is the first subject
that Christ taught in John's Gospel. Now, he did several things
in the previous two chapters, but not teaching or preaching. Call it whichever you will. So,
the subject of this new birth is how men are made alive spiritually. how men and women are made alive
spiritually. And then we have those two double
verilies almost back to back in verses 3 and in verse 5, and
they are wonderful confirmations of what we are reading. All right,
the second thing, we move to verse 5 in John chapter 3. Our Lord answered Verily, verily,
I say unto you, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." Now, if you'd like,
I can't wait for you too long, but I'm going to James chapter
1, which is the first book after Hebrews, and then we will go
immediately to the letter of 1 Peter 1. I haven't found it
yet myself. I've got it marked, but I didn't
do a good job. Yeah, there it is. You should know this verse. We've
mentioned it many, many times. James 1 and verse 18. James 1.18. speaking of God, of His own will,
begat, or we would say birthed, of His own will, begat He us. How? With the word of truth. This book. The revelation of
God concerning Christ in this book, which is Genesis 1 to whatever
Revelation 22 ends in. Now to 1 Peter chapter 1. We are said to be born of water. That's the water of the Word. And now we are said to be born
of the Spirit. Our Lord is telling us that in
John chapter 3. So 1 Peter chapter 1, verses
23 through 25. Being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, there it is,
which lives and abides forever. For all flesh is his grass, and
all the glory of man is the flower of grass. The grass withers,
and the flower thereof falls away." Listen carefully, verse
25, 1 Peter chapter 1. But the word of the Lord endures
forever. God's word endures forever. Now that's not only the written
word, but it is Christ the living word. He's the eternal Christ. He's from the old eternity to
the new eternity to come, and those are endless in both directions. But the word of the Lord endures
forever. Here's the part I want to remind
you of, the last sentence. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Consequently, if a man doesn't
hear that gospel, he cannot be saved. Do you hear me? Well, Doug was talking this morning
about the Apostle Paul. Well, how did he hear it? He's
way out in the boonies somewhere on the way to Damascus. Ah, but
I'll tell you one thing. He watched Stephen die. I think
it's in Acts. Is it Acts chapter 8, Doug, or
7? I can't remember. Anyway, he watched that man to
the last breath. And he honored and glorified
and exalted Christ in that. There's a lot of it recorded
in that chapter in Acts. never got that out of his mind
or his heart. No matter how hard he worked
to imprison and kill believers, our Lord said to him when he
met him on the Damascus road, it's hard for you to kick against
the bricks. And it ended right there. The word which by the gospel
is preached unto you. Now if you'll hang on to 1 Peter,
but it's on down the road a little ways. Let's go back to John 3
and pick up verses 5 and 6. John 3, 5. Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a man be born of water," that's the water of the Word,
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. It's impossible. Impossible. Now we add to that, well, let
me back up and make the second point that we were working on
in James and 1 Peter 1. So what is the instrument by
which the new birth is performed in the soul? It is the water,
which is the Word, and it is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit of
God in regenerating grace. You'll find that in Titus. I
don't remember which chapter, maybe chapter 2 or 3 at the beginning
of the chapter. So in the third place in verses
5 and 6, who actually produces this matter called the new birth
or being born again? And here we have it in verses
5 and 6. Our Lord answered in verse 5
and said, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, and
that's a capital S, and if that's there correctly, then it's talking
about the Holy 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. You've got two words there in
that line. The last phrase of verse 6, one is capital S and
the other is lower case. So it's talking about the Holy
Spirit and it's talking about the spirit of the person in whom
the new birth is being brought about. Now we go back to verse 5. One
more time. Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That
makes this new birth, this regeneration, this being born of God, it makes
it an absolute imperative. Without it, no person can be
saved, whatsoever. All right, if you'll turn to
Ephesians, two places in Ephesians, but I'll give them to you one
at a time. Ephesians chapter 2, which you should know really
well. Beginning at verse 1 in Ephesians
chapter 2. Here's why it's absolutely necessary
to be born again. As you, God, has quickened, as
he quickened, you has God quickened, who were dead in trespasses and
sins. That's the natural state of all
the descendants of Adam and Eve. All of them. Dead in trespasses and
sin. wherein in time past you walked
according to the course of this world, according to the prince
of the power of the air, the spirit that now works in the
children of disobedience, among whom, among those children of
disobedience, we all," and Paul is talking to every member of
the Ephesian congregation, and this letter was circulated around
to all the other churches of that day, "...all had their conversation,
manner of life, conduct, in times past, in the lust of our flesh. That does not necessarily mean
immorality. It can be the most moral person
on the face of the earth as well. Being moral and loving and serving
Christ are not the same thing. We walked in times past in the
lust of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and
of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as
others. But God, I remember Gary Shepherd
preaching a message, I'm pretty sure he preached it here at one
time or another, the God who butts in. And that's the only
kind of God that can do real sinners any good. If He waits
for us to call on Him, it ain't going to happen. Oh, but I guarantee
you one thing, if He calls you, you're coming. Scott Richardson
used to say, against your will, with your full consent. I like
that. What verse am I on? 4. But God, who is rich in mercy,
for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were
dead in sins, has quickened us together with Christ. By grace
you were saved and has raised us up together and made us sit
together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus. That in the ages
to come, here's why God determined to save sinners by a method and
means that men naturally despise. On this whole stage of this whole
creation of however long it exists, God is putting on display the
riches of his grace and mercy. in our Lord Jesus Christ. Here
it is in verse 7, explained by Paul through the Holy Spirit
in this way, that in the ages to come, even after this world
is no more, in the ages to come, he might show the exceeding riches
of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. That's the purpose of the gospel. That's why sinners must be born
again. It's not an option. It is absolutely
necessary. Also in Ephesians 4, verse 18,
Ephesians 4, 18, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from
the life of God through the ignorance that is in them because of the
blindness of their heart, who being past feeling, have given
themselves over unto lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with
greediness. Can you fathom? I don't care
which newscast it is or what network. People have gone bonkers
to shoot their own child, their own wife. They rob people not
caring who it is or how much they take them for and on and
on and on. Verse 19 again, who being past
feeling, past feeling, have given themselves over into
lasciviousness to work all uncleanness with greediness. Ah, but you,
Paul said to the Ephesians, You have not so learned Christ. Now we begin in verse 5 of John
3 again. Here is a further description
of this new birth. And the first way I'd like to
deal with this extra description is in the negative. What the
new birth isn't. Preacher, after a person is born
again, aren't they sinless? Not unless you've got a different
Bible than I've got. We're sinners. We have a sinful
flesh. If we're believers, we have an
old man and a new man. And there's a constant struggle
between them. But for me to say that I can
live five minutes in this world and not sin is sheer stupidity. is not reformation. It is not reforming the physical
person. That's not where it is. It's
on the inside, not the outside. Now, once the new birth takes
place on the inside, it'll have a lot of effect on the outside,
but we're a long ways from being home, and we're a long ways from
being cured. Because we carry this old nature
with us to the grave. Secondly, the new birth is not
becoming religious. Most people think that's what
it is, just like turning over a new leaf or what have you.
No, that's not it either. Thirdly, neither is it a change
of mind or heart. Something, by the way, that none
of us can accomplish for ourselves. Whatever this heart is, I can't change it. But its true character, the new
birth, is first of all a divine nature. You don't need to turn
because we're running out of time. Let me just flip over here
and get this read for you. I'll tell you where it is after
I finish reading, all right? Whereby are given unto us exceeding
great and precious promises, that by these you might be partakers
of what? The divine nature. Partakers of the divine nature. Having escaped the corruption
that is in the world through lust. So when God births us a
second time, When we are born of God, when we are regenerated
by God the Holy Spirit, we have a new nature. That means a new
heart, a new mind, and for that matter, a new love. All of that belonging to us. And the verse to back that up
with, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, a brand
new creation. Let me read you a couple of statements.
Oh, that last one was 2 Peter 1.4. My brain just reminded me of
that. Oh, I'm not there yet. Already past
it. The heart is deceitful above
all things, and desperately wicked. Who can know it? Jeremiah 17,
verse 9. And a second time in that same
prophet, the Lord saying concerning these
people that belong to him, and I will give them an heart to
know me, that I am the Lord and they shall be my people. Not,
I want them to. Maybe they will. He says, they
shall be. And I will be their God. And
they shall return unto Me with their whole heart. How can God
be so sure? Because He's talking about what
He does, not what we do. Oh, my goodness. One more point,
and I'll be finished here. There are two things that work
in this matter of the new birth. One is the wind, and the other
is the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. And Christ uses that wind to
illustrate what he's telling Nicodemus about being born again.
So what are the major attributes of the Holy Spirit? and of this
mystery of the gospel in the new birth. Both wind and spirit
are sovereign. Our Lord told Nicodemus the wind
blows wherever it wants to. It doesn't ask you permission.
It doesn't tell you what it's doing. Well, the Spirit of God
works independent of us. And thank God he comes and performs
spiritual surgery on our poor souls and makes us alive spiritually
toward God in Christ.