The Gospel of John chapter 3.
Let's read verses 1-7. John chapter 3, 1-7. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, We know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. And Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again,
he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him,
How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of
the 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. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
ye must be born again. Ye must be born again. Now this thing of being born
again, this saying, born again, is one of the more used and abused
slogans or statements in the world today, in false religion.
It's a term that so many use and so many try to counterfeit. And it has become so abused and
so common that it's a mockery now. the modern world laughs at and
mocks those who claim to be born again. But let me remind us who it was
that said this. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Son
of God, is the one who first said this, and He said it three
times, and he said it emphatically. Throughout the Gospel of John,
the Lord says, Verily, verily. Verily means of a truth. Truly. And he says it twice every time. He says it twice for emphasis. Emphatically. Imperatively. Verily. Truly. Truly. I say unto you, Christ
said, the Son of God, He said, heaven and earth will pass away,
but not one word of Mine shall fail. All the words and works
and things of men avail nothing, but My Word is the Word of God,
the Word of Him that sent Me. Verily, verily. I said to you,
you must. It's not an option. You must
be born again. Be born again. He didn't say
you must get born again. Isn't that the way that religion
uses it? I got saved. So and so got born
again. That's not what the Lord said. And I'm not making someone an
offender for a word. It's a big difference. You must
be born again. Born of God. We've already seen
that, haven't we, in John chapter 1. The whole gospel began this
way. As many as received Him, to them
gave He the right and the power to become the sons of God which
were born, not of blood, not of the will of the flesh, but
of God. Born of God. It begins this way. gives this emphatic statement,
you must be born again, verily, verily. In verse 3 he says, except
a man be born again, and the margin has from above, born from
above, born of God. You cannot see the kingdom of
God, you can't see it, you can't We never will see the kingdom
with these eyes in this life. But see means to understand. See means with the eye of faith.
You see clearly. God is. Christ is. The truth. You see the truth. You see that
there's an unseen kingdom. Except born again, you won't
see those things. You're blind. You're blind. 5 says, except a man be born of
water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He can't
see it. He cannot enter it. He won't be in the kingdom of
God. Now, who is the Lord talking to? And this is vital to understand
this, because in the next hour we're going to look at how God
so loved the world. He's talking to a religious man. Verse 1 says, Nicodemus, a ruler
of the Jews. He was a Pharisee and a ruler
of the Pharisee. Now the Pharisees were very strict
living, or at least outwardly, our Lord said. On the inside,
they were full of extortion and excess. Our Lord who knows all
men and sees all things and looks on the heart, He said they're
hypocrites, they're playing a part, but they're not holy men at all. No one is until born again. But they were strict separatists. They seemed to be holy men. They were law teachers, teachers
of the law. Paul wrote. They don't understand
what they're writing. Paul knew because he was a Pharisee. He was a Pharisee. Saul of Tarsus.
He knew. And they were law-keeping, strict
living, seemingly moral people. And Nicodemus was a ruler, a
teacher, a head. Paul said the same thing of himself,
didn't he? He said, I was a Hebrew of Hebrews,
a Pharisee. Brother Todd Nyburn and I believe
that he is the rich young ruler. Paul was a man going up the ladder
in religion, but he was lost. He didn't know God. Nicodemus
is lost. He doesn't know God. He has not
been born again. And our Lord is talking to him.
And he's telling him, you must be born again. And what he says
to him applies to everyone in this room. You, ye, must be born again. He came to
Jesus by night, verse 2. Nicodemus came by night. Now,
I believe the reason he came by night was he was He's a ruler of the Jews. None
of the Pharisees believed on Him. That's what they all said.
Did any of us believe on Him? No. A little while later, Nicodemus,
when they were talking about our Lord, Nicodemus spoke up
and said, Does our law condemn a man before it here? And they
said, Are you from Galilee? Are you one of His disciples? Not yet. He's going to be. He's going to be in the end,
in the end, remember he came boldly to Pilate with Joseph
of Arimathea and said, we want his body. We want to give him
a proper burial. He's a public disciple now. You
can't be a private disciple for long. But here he's interested. So here what he says, we know
that thou art a teacher come from God. No man can do these
miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Now, we just
looked at chapter 2 and verse 23 where it says that many believed
in his name when they saw the miracles which he did. And that
was Nicodemus. Rabbi, he called him. Rabbi.
If he knew who this was, he wouldn't call him Rabbi. He'd call him
Lord. He'd call him Lord. Rabbi, we
know that thou art a teacher come from God." Well, he thought
that same thing about himself. That's what Nicodemus thought
about himself. See, the point starts here. When a person is
born again, they find out who Jesus Christ really is. And the
fear of His name and the fear of the Lord is the beginning
of wisdom. And they know He's more than just a man. And they
realize then that I'm just a man. I'm not a man from God. I'm a
sinner. I'm a nobody. I'm nothing. I'm
not a ruler. This man was a blind leader of
the blind. Our Lord, verse 3, answered him. Now, it didn't
sound like Nicodemus asked any questions. He didn't. It sounds like the Lord just
cut him off. Cut him off right there. and
said this to him before he went any further. It's kind of like
I thought about the Queen of Sheba, the Queen, who came to,
it says, came to Solomon to prove him with many hard questions. And when Solomon was through
with her, there was no more spirit left in her. She didn't know
if she was coming or going. She realized, I'm a nothing,
I'm a nobody, I don't have anything, I don't know anything in the
presence of such a great one as this. And our Lord said something
to him emphatically, and like it says of Solomon and Sheba,
it says Solomon gave her all her
questions. He gave her the proper questions
to ask. After a while, she didn't know
what to ask. He said, you ought to be asking this. How can God
be just and justified? How can He be clean that's born
of woman? How can I hold it? And so on and so forth. He answered
him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, I say unto thee, I'm the
Word, the Word of God, the final Word, the first and last Word
on any subject, the authority, the author. Except a man be born
again, born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Cannot
see the kingdom of God. Now, Nicodemus, like so many,
thought he knew God, thought he was saved, but he wasn't. And he was a teacher. If Nicodemus
were alive today, he would be a Sunday school teacher in a
local Southern Baptist church. Strict, moral, dressing a certain
way, talking a certain way, appearing to be a certain way, but he was
a blind leader of the blind. A blind leader of the blind.
Now this whole book is a declaration of who Jesus Christ is. Not just
John, but the whole Bible. And John chapter 1 begins very
clearly telling us that in the beginning was the Word. This
is who this is. In the beginning, God. And who
this is, standing here, this Jesus of Nazareth, is God. He
is God. And what our Lord says is absolutely
necessary. This is life eternal, that they
might know Thee, the only true God. And Jesus Christ, whom He
hath sent. Whom He hath sent. So this is
the first thing we must learn. It's who this is. Now, Nicodemus
said in verse 4, how? How can a man be born when he
is old? Can he enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? How? Now that's how ignorant
and confused religion and religious leaders are. How? And men write
books today, don't they, on how to be born again, how to be a
Christian. The Lord is not telling you how
to be. He is telling you you must be. Something supernatural. Our Lord is saying that the new
birth is not making a decision. The new birth is not something
that We do. Salvation is not something that
we have any hand in at all. It's something that's done to
us. Something that's done for us. Our Lord said, with man it
is impossible. Impossible. And Nicodemus brought
up the impossible. How? He's revealing his own ignorance. Can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter back into his mother's
womb? No, that's ridiculous. Isn't it ridiculous what men
say about the new birth today? It's just a decision you make. It's some kind of acceptance
of an offer and that how you let Him save you and let Him
give you life. If you're dead, you're dead. He must give it. He must give
life. We must be born again. This is something supernatural,
something powerful, something mysterious, an act of God Almighty
upon a human soul, bringing a dead person, one who is dead and trespassed
in sin, to life. Bringing them out of darkness
into light. It's creating something that
was never there before. Scripture says it is being translated
from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
Son. That men and women are taken captive by Satan at his will,
and they're under his dominion and under his power until a stronger
than him comes and sets you free. How foolish is it for a person
to say, well, I've just decided to not let Satan have dominion
over me. And that's not it at all. It's Christ coming and taking
captivity captive. It's Christ coming and delivering
His people. They're dead, He gives them life.
They're blind, He gives them eyes. Deaf, He gives them ears
to hear. He gives them life. You must be born again. Born from above. Verse 5 and
6. 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. That which is born of flesh is
flesh. That which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. Now, these are two entirely different
realms. The Spirit is unseen. The Spirit
is not flesh at all. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. We're going to lay this body
down, but the soul, the Spirit, goes on to God. We can't see
that. It's an unseen kingdom. Flesh
is flesh. Spirit is spirit. And so you're
not born into the spiritual realm with anything to do with the
flesh. Not by works of flesh. Right? Man is flesh. God is spirit. God must be worshipped in spirit.
God is not worshipped with men's hands. That's flesh. God is worshipped
in spirit. Our Lord said, My word is spirit
and life. Man can't make himself spiritual. God has to give him his spirit.
Man doesn't even have a spirit. He has a soul. He doesn't have
any more of a spirit than animals do. He has a soul which is different
than a spirit. The soul is that animating principle
given to all life that has the breath in it. If you read Genesis,
it tells us that. Every living soul that has the
breath of life in it, the Lord killed them all. When God, the
Holy Spirit, comes to give birth to a human being, He puts in
him His Spirit. Holy Spirit, a new creature created
in the image of God and the image of Christ. God has to give His
Spirit, create in us a new man, a new creature that was never
there before. Never there before. Not flesh. We're not saved by any works
of the flesh. We're not saved by any person
in the flesh. We're saved by the Spirit of
God. Alright, what's he talking about when he says you must be
born of water and of Spirit, the Holy Spirit, capital S, see
that? Must be born of water and of
the Spirit. You cannot enter the kingdom
of God. What is he speaking of? Well, go with me to Deuteronomy
32. Deuteronomy 32. Let me give you
a couple of passages of Scripture. And I'm just certain of this.
too clear if it causes you to understand it. Except a man or a woman or a
young person is born of God, except God gives them life, born
from above, until God the Holy Spirit comes and takes this water,
life will not begin. What is this water and spirit?
All right, look at Deuteronomy 32, verse 1. Give ear, O ye heavens,
and I will speak. Hear, O earth, the words of my
mouth. My doctrine shall drop as the
rain. My speech shall distill as the
dew. as the small rain upon the tender
herb, and as the showers upon the grass." And then he goes
on to say, the first thing he said, I'll publish the name of
the Lord, ascribe greatness unto our God. He's the rock. His work
is perfect. A God of truth without iniquity,
and so on and so forth. What is this water that you must
be born of? The Word of God. Look at Isaiah
55. Isaiah 55. Look at this with
me. Isaiah 55. The water of God's
Word. This is how we're born of God,
by the Spirit of God, through the water of His Word. Verse
10. As the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven, and
returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and bringeth it forth,
and bud, maketh it bring forth in bud, that it may give seed
to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be that
goeth forth out of my mouth." The word of God. James said this,
of his own will begat he us with what? The word of truth. The word of truth. Peter said,
were born not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible seed. The Word of God. Our Lord said
you must be born of water and spirit. It's the water of His
Word. He came in the next chapter,
chapter 4. Anybody know what the story there
is? It's the woman at the well. This
was the story, the Word of God, the Gospel of God, that gave
life to some in here. The Word of God. Life was conceived. This is what gave birth to the
Word of God. And our Lord said to that woman
at the well, the water that I shall give thee shall be in thee a
wellspring, a spring of life, springing up unto eternal life.
This is an amazing truth, that we are conceived, as it were,
and born in water. How were you conceived the first
time? Think about it. This is amazing.
Seed. Your father's seed. And this
is the seed. This is the Word. This is what
the Holy Spirit does. And He calls it the seed that
He plants. It says it must be watered for
it to grow. Alright? Your father planted
seed in your mother's womb. God did that. God did that. And it was conceived, well, how
did it grow? How did it germinate, as it were?
What was it formed in, that seed? What was it formed in? Water. For nine months you lived in
water. This is, as it were, the amniotic
fluid. This is how you're conceived.
This is how you're born. Now, how ridiculous is it? Like
Nicodemus, he was a ruler, he didn't know these things. Look
at verse, in our text, John 3, our Lord said to him in verse
10, Aren't thou a master? Are you a teacher in Israel?
And you don't know this? This is where salvation, this
is the foundation. Of salvation? Salvation is of
the Lord. It's not of the Lord and man.
It's not of the Lord making a decision and you making a decision. Salvation
is of the Lord, 100%. Where does life come from? God. Are you teaching people? Are you teaching people? And
you don't understand the fundamental? You know, free will religion
calls itself fundamental religion. They don't know the foundation
of the truth. They don't know the beginning. They don't know
God. It all begins and ends with God. He's the author and the
finisher of the faith. And man doesn't play any part
anywhere in between. And our Lord said in verse 11,
we speak that we do know. Who's we? Well, He must be speaking
on behalf of the Father here. and the Spirit, but I believe
he's speaking on behalf of all of his children. So we know.
You know, a person will argue the new birth, will argue against
the truth until they're born again. They quit arguing. Saul of Tarsus hated that way,
hated that way, until God gave him life. Oh, I love this. This is true, isn't it? He said,
I know the truth. I know it all. I know the law.
And the Lord had to kill him. And He gave him life. And then
He said, he became a baby. He became a newborn baby. You
see, we're not having a baby. We're not the ones having the
baby. It's God making us a babe in Christ. and doing everything
for us, giving us life, doing everything for us, causing us
to grow in grace and the knowledge of Him. It's all the work of
the Lord. Verse 12, He said, If I told
you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if
I tell you of heavenly things? Surely you understand that a
man cannot enter his mother's womb. You didn't the first time. And this question, needs to be posed
to all religious people today. Surely you understand that you
had nothing to do with your first birth. How ridiculous is that? Were
we born the first time? Was life offered to us? Did our
parents get together and offer us life? It's laughable. The
first birth is such a miraculous thing. The first birth is the
work of God. The first birth is supernatural. To God be the glory. How much
more? The second birth. Did we cooperate
in our first birth? Did we let our father be our
father? Did we let our mother Did we
resist and resist and resist until finally, oh, we let go
and came out? No, our mother pushed. The Scripture
says that Christ travailed in birth. The Father gave the seed. The Holy Spirit caused it to
germinate in a dead sinner? Christ of God shed His precious
blood like that mother? What happens when we're born?
What happens? What's the first thing? The water
breaks! What does that mean? Oh, and
we realize this water just breaks wide open to us. Life becomes. And then what else? Blood. What
happened just before this? Chapter 2. What was the first
miracle our Lord performed? And we looked at that. Why the
Lord did that? He turned water into wine. And that we saw how the Lord
turns the Word. You know, as Pharisees could
quote whole books. I read somewhere it was a requirement
to be a Pharisee to be able to quote the whole law, but I don't
know about that. But they didn't know the Word. They knew the letter, but they
didn't know the spirit of the Word. And when God gives life
through the Word, it turns to blood. It turns to wine. You've seen it. All of your redemption,
all of your life is under Jesus Christ and Him crucified. It's
the blood that makes it. And you see blood on every page
of it. On every page. Our Lord said,
the wind, in verse 8, the wind bloweth where it listeth. Thou
canst hear the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. So how ridiculous does that make
the claims of so-called Holy Spirit religion today, that says,
tonight, come tonight, we're going to have a Holy Spirit revival?
Oh, are you now? Our Lord said the Spirit goes
where it is listed. We hope and pray,
we ask for the Spirit to come, but that's presumption. Oh, no. And what does the Holy Spirit
do? He takes the things of Christ. He opens the water up, turns
it into blood. The things of Christ. Like those
disciples at that wedding, they were the only ones that saw what
happened. They were the only ones that
knew. And they saw Him turn the water into blood. Nobody else
saw it. They didn't know where it came from. They didn't care.
They just wanted to drink. But the disciples saw it. The
servants saw it. And the disciples that said,
believed on Him. Because it was hidden from the
wise and prudent. And so is this. Though it's as plain as the,
so to speak, the nose on your face. Though it's as clear as
a person being born the first time. There's no way you could
have anything to do with it. That's so clear. The man doesn't
even understand that. Let alone something so remarkable. The wind blows where it's listed.
And this is why we preach. We don't know who the Lord is
going to save. Preaching can be a very frustrating
thing, an exasperating thing. It's a great burden. I stay disappointed more than encouraged,
but I shouldn't be. Because our Lord said the Word
would not return void. It's like rain. It won't return
void. It's accomplishing something. It's incorruptible. It doesn't
go out into the air and nothing happens. No, no, no. And the
point being is man's not going to share God's glory. Man doesn't
know who God's working on. Man doesn't plant the seed. The
Spirit of God does. So what do we do? We cast the
seed. The sower went forth to sow the
seed. And we're preaching this Word. He said to Ezekiel, can
these bones live? Well, I sure can't do it. I can't do it. That's for sure. When I get exasperated, when
I get frustrated, I guess when I'm thinking, you ought to do
better. It's not me doing better. It's not my mind. It's not my
power. But it's by my Spirit, saith the Lord. And He blows
where He listed, and when He listed, and upon whom He listed.
I ought to rest in that. Just preach the Word. That's
what He told Ezekiel. Ezekiel, can these bones live?
I don't see how. They're dead. I sure can't. I can't. I can't do anything. No, you can't, Ezekiel. But I
do all things. So, here's what you do, Ezekiel.
Preach. Is that it? Yeah. He did. What happened? The Spirit
of God moved. You know that old song, the knee
bone connected to the thigh bone? You know, that came from that.
An old religious song. It came from Ezekiel 37. An ankle
bone connected to the leg bone. That's exactly what happened. And our Lord said, except you
be born from a bow. And you know, the new birth is
a new creature and something that was never there before.
And the first thing that God does, the first thing He does,
when life begins, when does life begin in the womb? When is life actually there?
When the heart beats. There's no life until that heart
beats. And our God said in Ezekiel 36, It's regeneration. It's new life. Our God said in
Ezekiel 36, this is what I'm going to do, a new heart will
I give them. And that heart was never there
before. And 1 Corinthians 13 talks about you can know everything,
you can do everything, you can sacrifice everything, and if
you don't have this love, the love of God. You remember 2 Thessalonians
2, receiving the love. God gives us heart that wasn't
there before. Nobody knows God. Nobody is born of God that doesn't
love His Word. Nobody is born of God. Nobody
knows God that doesn't love His Gospel, that doesn't love His
Son, that doesn't hate themselves. This is a new heart. Nobody knows
God, loves God, doesn't talk to God, call on God. Whosoever calls will be saved.
Was that me one time? No, the rest of their life. They're
alive, they're calling on God, they're communing with God, they're
walking with God. Nobody knows God, nobody's been
born again that doesn't have the image of Christ stamped upon
them. Love, joy, peace, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance,
the fruit of the Spirit. That fruit is not there in some
degree, they're not born of God. Nobody loves God and knows God,
been born of God, and hates his brother. John said that through
his whole book. You can't love God and hate your
brother. You can't. You're not born again.
Nobody loves God who doesn't come and worship God. Nobody's
been born again that doesn't love to worship God. It's a new
creature. It's something that wasn't there
before. For years, I didn't want to come worship God. I was dead.
But God, in His good time, Through the preaching of His Word, the Spirit of God moved on my
heart, gave me a new heart. All of a sudden, I love what
I once hated. I know what I did not know. I
see things I never saw before. I heard His voice I never heard
before. I just heard doctrine. I could
quote doctrine. Salvation is not knowing the
doctrines of grace, it's God knowing you. Salvation is not change of habits,
it's a giving of heart. You must be born again. I'm not telling you how to be.
I'm just saying what our Lord said. You must be born again. Okay.