Alright, back to 1 Peter chapter
1. I want you to read verses 22
through 25 again with me. 1 Peter 1 verses 22 through 25.
Seeing ye have purified your soul in obeying
the truth, through the Spirit unto unfeigned
love of the brethren. See that you love one another
with a pure heart, fervently or actively being born again,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. All flesh is as grass,
and all the glory of man as the flower of grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away. But the word of the Lord
endureth forever. And this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. We often hear people use this
term, don't we? Born again. It is one of the most abused terms. I'm to the point now where I
absolutely just cringe when I hear this term used because it's immaculate. Ninety-nine percent of so-called
born-again experiences are just that, an experience, a fleshly
experience. He just said, flesh and whatever
is produced is going to faint, it's going to wither, it's not
going to last, isn't it? He just said, whatever is of
the flesh is not going to last. But whatever comes from the incorruptible
seed lasts forever. Most of these born-again experiences
are the product of some highly emotional, and everyone has seen
this, some highly emotional service. with a great show of excitement
going on. There's just lots of it. Nobody
seems to be born again by just the quiet, peaceful. It's got
to be exciting. It's got to be like the Super
Bowl. And a great show of excitement,
music. It can't happen without music,
it seems to be. Great singing, you know, shoutings
and healings with a charismatic or emotionally charged fellow
standing up and just humping and getting the people in a fleshly
frenzy. And then what usually happens
is some fellow or some woman or whatever who was an alcoholic
or a drug addict or some wild living fellow or living woman,
they see the light. All of a sudden they see the
light, you know. And they're overcome with emotion,
and they are filled with some kind of spirit. Yes, they are
filled with a spirit. And it's not the Holy Spirit
we're going to see in a minute. And then they come down front
in the midst of a wild frenzy, he or she. They have hands laid
on them, and suddenly they're born again. Isn't that it? That's 99% of
what goes on today. And then a few weeks later, they're
preaching, whether it's a he or a she. Now look over at John
chapter 3, of which we sung in paraphrase. John chapter 3 is
the passage which we just sung about, where Nicodemus came to
the Lord by night. The new birth, you see, the new
birth or being born again. is real. It's scriptural. We
just read it, didn't we? Being born again. It's a real
thing. It's a scriptural happening. It is experience, yes, but it's
not like I just defined. It's not like that. It's entirely different from
that, based on something else. Not flesh, not emotion, but something
else. Are you with me? The new birth
is real. Look at John 3, and our Lord
says this. Listen, listen. John 3, verses
1 through 3. And I can't make you hear this
or receive this any more than I can give this birth to you.
And there's some in here who have not yet received this. God helps. God, because he says
right here something, an absolute must. Look at, read it. Verses 1 through 3. There was
a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
Now this was a religious fellow. He was religious. He was a good
fellow. He was a moral fellow. He was
an upright fellow. He was good to his neighbor.
He was good to his wife if he had one. He was good to his children
if he had some. He attended services all the
time. He believed in God. Verse 2, "...same came to Jesus
by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, teacher, we know you are
come from God." He knew some things. He had been taught a
little bit. Read on. Man cannot do these
things, these miracles that you do, except God be with him. "...Jesus
answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except
the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." And
Nicodemus said, how, how, how? Can a man enter the second time
into his mother's womb and be born? He wasn't being facetious
or sarcastic or smart aleck here. I don't understand this. Well,
he may be born again. I've never heard this before,
and no one had either. Christ is the first one to say
it. Read on, verse 5, Christ said,
Verily, verily, I say unto you, Set the man be born of water,
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. He
cannot, he, she, cannot enter the kingdom of God. Not going
to go and be with God. Not going to be with God. Not
going to live. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And
we've already read that it said it's going to corrupt and be
no more. That which is born of the Spirit
now is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto you,
you must be born again. You must be born again. Well, now he says here in verse 5,
set the man be born of water. Everybody in here is born of
water. Everybody in here, all right?
So we fit that first qualification, all right? You cannot be born
again unless you're born the first time, that is, by water.
What does that mean? Very simply, when your mother
gave birth to you, her water broke. All right? The amniotic fluid,
the sac that you were born in, burst and you came forth. All
right? But you must be born again. All right? What does again mean? Well, do you have a marginal
reference there? Is there a little letter, a number
right beside the word again? Do you see it in the margin? What does it say? You must be
born. Why? How? From above. So he says, you must be born
of earthly parents before you can enter the kingdom. All right? We all have earthly
parents. Every one of us has a mother and a father, born of
wife. But you must be born again from above. And like the first birth, this
is the work of your spiritual parents. if he is the work of
the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. Born of God, the
Holy Spirit, that's what he says in verse 5. Except a man be born
of the Spirit, capital S, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. All right? Now listen to me, if you're interested. And here's the paradox. Unless
a person is born from above, they're not interested. That's
paradoxical. Well, he says, nobody knows. who this happens
to and when. Look at it here in verse 7 and
8. Marvel not that I said unto you, ye must be born again. That's
just so. Verse 8, The wind bloweth where
it lifteth, 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. I like to poke fun at these weathermen
today. They call them meteorologists. You know, they give them this
high-sounding title, meteorologist. Study meteors. That's what they
mean. They study the stars. They study
hurtling balls of fire that go through the sky. What a lofty
pursuit. Well, meteorologists, you know,
and they predict the weather. You know what the weather is
controlled by? Now, we were in Kentucky last
week, and the weather people said, two to four inches of snow,
it's coming, two to four inches of snow. So we woke up on Saturday
morning, no snow. I mean, when did I go there? Thursday morning, no snow. It's
coming, two to four inches. Friday morning, no snow. Saturday
morning, no snow. Why? The wind bloweth where it
listeth. They can't tell. They don't know
where the wind's going, and they're fools for trying to predict it.
And all they're doing is guessing. Fifty percent chance. I can do
that. Can't you, Steve? Hell, yeah.
That's a fifty percent chance of my rain today. You know, there
might not be a cloud in the sky. There's a chance. I'm no more
foolish than they are. Huh? Well, there's some fellas
called theologians. Theology, study of God. They might as well be meteorologists.
And they predict, they say, the Holy Spirit, seven o'clock tonight
you'll be here. Seven o'clock tonight we're going
to have revival. Holy Spirit, come and be filled
with the Spirit. What you talking about, man?
You calling the Lord Jesus Christ a liar? That's what they're doing. He said, nobody can tell whence
it cometh and whither it goeth. Now you can hear the sound thereof, the sound of the Spirit. I can
tell you this, if there are two or three people
in here right now gathered in his name, And the gospel goes
on to be proclaimed here this morning. The Spirit is here.
The sound of the Spirit is the sound of the gospel. But now I cannot predict on who
or if on who, if any, that the Holy Spirit is going to move.
Right? I can't do it. He is sovereign,
just like the Father, just like the Son. He moves on whom he
will or whom he will not. All right? It's a profound mystery.
It's a birth that cannot be planned. It cannot be performed by us.
You don't get born again. Poor, pitiful people, I've heard
them say that. You've got to get born again. You don't get born. I didn't
get born the first time. Something happened to me. I played
no part in it. And this new birth is a spiritual
thing. It's completely in the will and
the power of God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.
Look at verse 8. He said, You can't tell whence
it cometh and whither it goeth. So is everyone who is born of
the Spirit. The Spirit of God. Do you remember when Mary, when
God's son was born, do you remember how that seed, he's called the
seed, was planted in her womb? Not a man. He's a virgin. Huh? Do you remember how it said,
how it says, When God came to Mary and said now, or the angel
said this to her, the Holy Spirit shall overshadow you. Remember
that? The Holy Spirit shall overshadow
you. And that holy thing, a seed that
is born in you, is going to come forth, going to be a new creature,
the Son of God. And it is no less so. It takes the same power, the
same Spirit. It is different, but it is the
same Spirit of God which moves upon us and produces the same
result, Christ in me, the Son of God. Go back to 1 Peter, all
right? 1 Peter chapter 1. Now, last
Sunday, people, I didn't go with about 28 minutes. Forty-five plus seventeen. Just
kidding. I wanted to wake you up. That
woke you up. All right, but this is going to take a little bit,
though. Not that long. Bear with me. Watch with me. You do well. If
you suffer those fools, you do well to bear with me. You must
be born again. All right? We don't know who
or when the Holy Spirit moves on. Now, man's an absolute fool
who thinks he does. No man can impart the Spirit. That man is sinning against the
Spirit. These fools that claim to lay hands on the Spirit, they're
sinning against the Spirit. Well, we don't know who or when,
but we do know how. We do know how men are born again. I know what God uses. I know,
yes. I know what he uses, the Spirit
that gives birth, and we can see the evidences of it, all
right? So this is what we're going to deal with, the new birth,
or what God uses to give birth and the evidences of it, all
right? 1 Peter, look at verse 22 again.
See, and you have purified your souls and obeyed the truth through
the Spirit now. He's the one unto unfeigned love,
unto, this is unto something, this is produces this result,
unfeigned love of the reverend. And then he exhorts here, see
that you do now, admonishes and exhorts, see that you love one
another with a pure heart, being born again. You are born again, he said.
And it's not of corruptible seed. We're not talking about anything
that has to do with the flesh. But here it is. Here's how one
is born again. Everyone is born again. is born
this way. Of incorruptible, that means
it's seed that doesn't perish, it's seed that is not the flesh,
not fleshly, but read it, by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. He said the word is quick, life,
seed. He said, you obey the truth by
the Holy Spirit, born again by this incorruptible seed. And
so he says the new birth is the truth, truth, the word, seed, truth,
word, seed. Verse 25, he goes on to clarify,
"...the word of the Lord endureth forever." Now, this is it, he
said. Here's the clue. Here's the answer, not a clue.
This is the word which by the gospel, all right? You've got
truth. You've got seed. You've got word.
These three are one. Right? And it's the gospel. Or rather,
he's the gospel. Christ. Christ. These three are
one. This is the gospel. Christ crucified. So how is everyone that's born
from above born? They're born by hearing the gospel. Hearing the gospel. Everyone
is born again, born from above, born of God, Operated on by the
Holy Spirit, this is what he uses to give birth to them, the
gospel of Christ crucified. All right? Now, I don't know
who. I just don't know who. I have no idea. There's been many times when
I thought I had a message for a person, for a certain person,
and boy, I directed it at that person, or wanted to. They didn't show up. I get confirmation all the time
that, I don't know who this is for. I'll prepare a message and
I'll have a particular person, and my boy, they're going to
need to hear this. And oh, I get so excited, they're going to
be there. I've had people call me up and say such and such is
going to be there. All right. I'll load my gun for old Billy
Bob. And boy, I do, I think about
Billy Bob the whole time. Billy Bob, boy, he needs it.
Billy Bob needs it, and Billy Bob doesn't show up. So it's
just proof to me you don't know who it is. Just preach what?
Do what? Preach the Word. Preach the Word. I don't know
who, and I don't know when. Thank God, or, you know, if there
was immediate results every time the seed is planted and the work
of the Holy Spirit happens, the preacher, he'd be notching his
belt, wouldn't he? Boy, I'm slaying them today. Isn't that right? That's what they do. That's what
these fellas do, you know. But we don't know when. We don't
know when he plants that seed. No, sir. Any more than the mother
knows when she actually conceived from her husband. You don't know.
You don't know. I have a couple of horses that
are expecting, and they have a gestation period of 340 days. Almost a year. And they go and
heat all the time, you know, and it's a seven-day period or
so there that they can conceive, and then there's three days before
and three days after and during. You don't know. And so you breed
them several times, you know, in the course of a week. You
don't know when they conceive, and then after they, you don't
know when they conceive, and you don't know when they're going
to be born. Three hundred and some forty days, give or take
two weeks. You don't know. And neither does
any man know when the Spirit of God moves on somebody. But
I do know how. I do know how. And so bless God. If anybody's going to be born
again, it's going to be one way. It's the gospel. There's some
people in here who have not yet been born again. I know that. How do you know? They don't give
any evidence of it. I know that. We're going to see
the evidences here in a minute. So what am I going to do? Well,
this morning I'm going to preach on the evils of abortion. And
we're going to talk about politics. We're going to talk about the
moral evils, the social evils of our day. No! Nobody's going
to be born again that way. And he must be born again. Christ
may come tonight. So what am I going to do? I'm
going to preach Romans 1. I'm going to preach Romans 1. Turn to Romans 1. I'm going to
preach Romans 1, okay? Romans 1. Turn there. Romans
1, the gospel. The gospel. Paul said, I'm called
to be an apostle. Called to be an apostle. Any
man that's really a preacher of the gospel, God called him
to do it. People all the time ask me, how'd you come to Rocky
Mountain? How'd you get here? What happened?
And you try to tell them, I was called. They can't understand
that. You can't explain that. You can't explain that. Call,
what do you mean? Didn't you apply for the job
and had candidates? No. You can explain that, right?
It's a call. Any man truly is in the ministry
called to do it, all right? What's he called to do? Just
no less than the Apostle Paul, separated under the gospel of
God, the gospel. Separated, sold out, committed
to, determined not to do anything else. Then what? Preach the gospel. Man be a fool if he did anything
else. What is the gospel? Oh, it's
the gospel of God. This is where you start. Nobody's
ever preached the gospel who didn't start with God. It's where
God started. God started preaching the gospel.
What'd He say? In the beginning, I am. In the
beginning, God. Oh, there's lots of preaching
going on today, talking about gospel this, gospel that, and
they're not even close to declaring God. This is where you started,
isn't it? And buddy, it's anything you'd
rather hear. Do you ever get tired of One
of our ladies told me, last time we got on the subject, last Wednesday
night, and hopefully every time we meet, she said, I never get
tired of hearing our sovereign God declared. Evidently this
generation is tired of it. Preachers aren't declaring it.
Bless God, man sold out to the gospel. He sold out to the gospel
of God. This thing began with God. God
purposed salvation. Didn't have to, didn't need to,
but He did. According to the will and purpose
of God, He purposed salvation. He purposed to save a people.
Everything God does is on purpose. And this thing's God's gospel.
He purposed it, he purchased it, or performed it, and he applies
it. It's of God, it's the gospel
of God. Man doesn't have anything to
do with it. Man didn't ask for it, man didn't
help him out, man doesn't apply it, man doesn't have it. He's
passive in this God's gospel. It's a gospel, and the gospel
declares who God is. I hope to write an article soon
with this title, Unholy God and Unholy Society. What is the cause
of all the mess that this world's in? Right here, this right here, this pulpit.
Preachers aren't preaching a holy and just God who will by no means
clear the guilty. A righteous God who loveth righteousness
and hateth iniquity. And therefore there's no fear
of God before men's eyes, and that God's all love, you know.
So therefore, it's God's will if God loves me no matter who
I am, whether I'm practicing homosexuality or He loves me
anyway. He made me that way. Right here, right here is Christ. But the gospel of God declares
a God who is a consummate fire, holy, first, foremost, and all
else in between, holy, righteous, will by no means clear the guilty. God, God, the gospel of God. And verse 2 says he promised
this gospel by his prophets in the Holy Scripture. So it's an
Old Bible or a New Bible. That tells me right there they
don't know the gospel of God. Right, Stan? Ain't no fool that
says that. Well, that's the Old Bible. He
doesn't know the gospel of God. Paul didn't have any Bible but
the Old Bible. He didn't preach any gospel but
the gospel that was declared in Genesis 3, 15. The gospel
that was declared in Genesis 22. The gospel that was declared
in Exodus 12. The gospel that was declared
in Exodus 33. He didn't have any other gospel. Leviticus,
on and on you go. The old, old story. If you're ignorant of the God
of the Old Testament, you don't know the God of the New Testament.
You don't know the gospel. He promised by his prophets in
the Holy Scripture. They said, somebody's coming,
somebody's coming. If you don't know the description
of the one who came, you're missing. Right? Have the Jews missed Him?
The Jews have missed Him, haven't they? They're still looking for
the Christ. They missed Him when He came, and they're still looking
for Him. And they're going to miss Him.
No, they're not going to miss Him this time, are they? They're
not going to miss Him this time. And the religion of the day have
missed Him. They've missed Him. They've missed Jesus. They see
Jesus, a man, but they've missed Him, the Christ, the Lord. He came the first time and he
said, I'm Lord. They say he never said he was
God. Yes, he did. He missed it. He missed Him. He didn't hear. He said, God
hears God's Word, doesn't it? Understand? They missed Him.
They're not going to miss Him the second time. All eyes are
going to see Him and behold Him whom they have pierced. The old gospel, verse 3, concerning
His Son, Jesus Christ, our Lord. The gospel is God's gospel. It declares who God is. The old
gospel He started declaring from the beginning. It's no new gospel,
really, no new covenant. It's older than the old. And
it concerns God's Son. It's not concerning what you'll
do with Jesus. It's concerning what God's Son
is going to do with us. The gospel concerns Jesus Christ. It's of no concern to me. Now, I say that, you understand what
I'm saying. Unless Jesus Christ does the
saving, I'm lost. It's concerning who he is and
what he did and where he is now. And these fellows who stand up
there and preach what they call the gospel, and they preach who
he is, and they say he's just a man. And they say, Where he is now? Where is he
now? He's knocking at your heart's door. That's not the gospel. That's not the gospel. Who is
he? Look at verse 4. He's declared
to be the Son of God with power. Power. How much power? Well, he can make it rain, you
know. He can make it thunder every now and then. He can shake
things up a little bit. All authority is given unto me
in heaven and earth." All authority over what? All flesh. Colossians says, over principalities
and powers and everything. He's the head. All authority
is in my hand, he says. I'll tell you who he is. He's
God with all authority. I tell you what he did. He did
not make salvation possible. He saved. He didn't make a down payment.
He paid it all. I tell you where he is now. He's
not knocking at any door. He is the door, and furthermore,
he's sitting down. And it's by whom we have received
grace. That's what verse 5 says. We've received grace and apostleship. Ah, boy. Christ crucified. Christ crucified. The Gospel tells us who Christ
is and what He did. He came here. To live as a man,
to satisfy God's law. Alright? To satisfy God's law
as a man. We've broken it. God says, you're
going to be with me, you've got to be holy. Keep the law. Not to hear as a law, but to
do as a justify. There's none that do us good,
Christ said. It behooves me to fulfill all
righteousness. So He made like unto His brethren.
And He fulfilled every jot and tittle for me. He satisfied the
law. Alright. And God charged that to me. That's what we call imputed righteousness.
It's just imputed grace. It's just imputed wonder. It's
just imputed blessing. It's just imputed... What can
I say? It's wonderful. It's just imbued
salvation with it, not just a doctrine. And he shed his blood. He went
to Calvary's tree and when God butchered, cut his throat, when
God cut that lamb's throat, and He did, it wasn't a pretty sight
at all. He cut my throat. Why? God hates all workers of iniquity.
A soul that sinned must surely die. He took my place. You see, there's satisfaction
and substitution. And apart from that, you don't
have a gospel. You don't have a gospel. Do you understand that?
The youngest person in here, do you understand that? Huh? The most uneducated, do you understand
that? The gospel is satisfaction and substitution. Jesus Christ
did it, did both. Do you understand that? All right? Oh, boy. And he said, all right, now,
Peter says, Peter says, you're born again by this gospel. I
just preached the gospel. I don't know if it had any effect
on anybody. Shooting this arrow at a midget.
I don't know. The Holy Spirit knows. He blows
where He lives today. But I know that's the scene.
I feel, you know, you farmers, henry, when you go and you plow
and you plant and you water and all that, are you ever satisfied? Do you ever stop and think, I've
done all that I could have done. That's just it. And the seed doesn't come up
or something, and you think, well, I should have done this.
I should have done that. If I'd have prayed sooner, or prayed
by the moon, or prayed by the stars, or about to fertilize
a little heavier, or watered a little bit more, live on mulch
and better seed. There's no better seed. Now, this is what God uses. And I'll bemoan the fact that
I didn't preach it better, with more enthusiasm and more zeal
and, you know. But I do know that that's what
God is. Right there. Right there. If you get out from under it,
the gospel, this the gospel, if you, you'll not be born again. If your children, you get your
children out from under it, they'll not be born again. Is that too dogmatic? If you're not under this, you'll
not be born again. And you must be born again. To
enter the kingdom of heaven. Well, I'm about through. Turn with me, if you will, to
here's some evidences. John 16. John 16. John chapter
16. That is what God the Holy Spirit
uses. to give new births. All right?
That's what he uses. I know that for a fact. The word, the gospel. Peter says
the gospel. What's the gospel, Paul? We just
declared it. All right? Here's some evidences. This is every time that the gospel
is planted, this is what happens. Every time. No exceptions. No
exceptions. No. Everybody is saved by the
same gospel, and it produces the same fruit every time. All
right? The first thing is repentance. Look at John 16. Now, you ought to know this by
heart. John 16, or at least know where it's found. Christ says,
when He has come, the Holy Spirit, when He comes, He will prove
or convince the world of sin, of righteousness, and of judgment.
First thing He does, The Holy Spirit, who blows where He listed,
on whom He listed, when He listed, the first thing He does is convict
a man, a woman, a young person of their sin. Sin. And that's not just—my pastor
always talks about stealing a watermelon. Evidently, he used to steal watermelons. He brings that up the whole time.
Not just stealing a watermelon. Well, you know, he's raised in
the Depression. That's about all there was to steal. Watermelons. He said sin is not talking about
just stealing a watermelon or taking drugs. It's talking about
what we are. David, when David lamented and
repented, It was of who he was. In Psalm 51, my sin is ever before
me. He said in Psalm 38, my flesh
is filled with this loathsome disease called sin. Paul said, Romans said, the sin
that dwelleth in me. Oh, wretched man. He didn't say,
oh, I wish I hadn't have done that when I was a boy. He said,
oh, wretched man that I am. This is a conviction of sin,
what you are, and it never stops. It never ends. It's a good thing. Because the gospel would end
then. Wouldn't it? Good news would cease to be good
news. Somebody would cease to be a
sinner. So he keeps convicting, keeps
convicting, but the first thing he does is convict of sin. And
anybody I hear, you know, that got saved, or so-and-so, their
children, or whoever, and there was not this deep conviction.
Well, there's not even a qualification of how much conviction, but it's,
it's, they know what they are. And they hate themselves, don't
even hate themselves enough. They hate the fact they don't
hate themselves enough. They mourn over sin, but yet they
mourn over the fact they don't mourn us. You understand what
I'm talking about? If you're nodding your head,
that's a good indication. That's a good indication that
you know that you've... Ah, sin is a sacred thing. The
Holy Spirit made it so. Don't figure out what that means.
May the Lord make you figure it out. Sin is what I am. Not
only what I am, what I've done, not only that, but what I think
about myself. Think too highly. Think too highly. Next thing,
the fruit of the Spirit is faith. Faith. All right? Repentance. And this is what
Christ came preaching. John came preaching. All right? The first two things was what?
Repentance toward God. Who? This holy God. And faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Faith. How's this? How do you
get faith? You've got to believe. It's a
gift of God. And you believe. How'd you believe?
Decide to believe? No. You say, I wouldn't have
even meant it. That's good. That's good. That's a good sign.
Say, now this ought to be some comfort to you right now, those
who have experienced this. Those who have not, I hope you're
asking right now, Lord, I know I haven't. You haven't. You haven't. I haven't been born again. I haven't felt this conviction
of what I am. This faith you're talking about,
It comes from the Word. Faith cometh by hearing, and
hearing by the Word, the gospel. Did you believe everything that
we just talked about in Romans 1? Not only did you hear it in
Word, you didn't just hear it in Word only, but in power? Did
it do something? See, the gospel comes, he said,
not in Word only. Oh, that's a good doctrine, yeah.
I believe in impurity. No, but in power. When a man stands up and declares
you're God, you say, this is power. Yeah, that's my God. Joy-giving,
rejoicing the Lord, Paul said. And again, I say rejoice at that
kind of power. Peace. When I talk about Christ
doing all this for His people, fulfilling the law and then putting
away their sin, now they're completing His. Isn't that some peace? That's
what power is talking about. And you believe? Do you? Flesh and blood didn't
reveal it to you. You know, natural, spiritual
birth is very similar. to natural birth. Some of you
men have watched your children being born. Steve, you were there,
weren't you? Some of you. I was there to watch
my daughter being born. And the things that happen to
a newborn child are what happens to a spiritually born. See, I was her father and I was
there. First, I gave, I was the seed,
she came from me. Right? Of God are you in Christ. Who of God is made of you? You see, Christ gives birth to
a people. He prevailed in birth till Christ
was born there. Christ is, as it were, the one
who gave birth to us. Well, God, I was there and I
looked for some things. When that baby girl was born,
I looked for some things as evidence of life. And the first thing
I noticed when she came out, and you know what they do, they
used to spank babies, you know, whack them on the bottom. Now
they flick them on the feet. inflict just a little bit of
pain, you know. But why? To get those lungs going. When
the lungs, you know, what really causes the lungs to work is crying. Wham! She's alive. She's crying. Oh, wretched man that I am. The
Word inflicts pain. broken heart, to where a man,
a woman, a young person, oh, wretched man that I am. Lord, be merciful to me this
sinner. And the next thing that happened,
I took her in my arms. I gave her to me. I wrapped her
up. I wish I had time to go through
it all, but I wrapped her. I went over and washed her in
water. That's the word. Wrapped her up in a little blanket.
And before, you know, she's crying so hard she had her eyes shut. And after I began to soothe her
and wash her in that water, those eyes opened up. She looked to
me. She's looking right at me. Looking
right at me. God says, look unto me and be
the same. You've got to open your eyes.
And I preach all the time. I look into eyes. People think
they can hide. You know, I see people literally
get behind the person in front of them. I know they're not interested.
And their eyes are closed. And they're vacant eyes. You
heard the old saying, lights on, nobody's home. I see a lot
of that. You know what I'm looking for?
Just at some point in time, at some point in time, I'm looking
for the light of the glory of God in the face of those people. Wait a second. I see it. And you can't fake
it. You can't produce it. I can scream,
holler, shout, sing, cry. But God can do it. But when He
does it, boy, I see it. I see it. I see it. It's directly connected to this,
too. Old Bunyan used to talk about,
oh, where is Mr. White-Eyes? Where is Mr. White-Eyes? Eyes open. Ears open. Hearts that beat with desire start out coming Sunday morning. And when the eyes and the ears
open, if you have a Sunday night service, they'll be there. If
not, they'll be there Wednesday. They'll sure be there at 10 a.m.,
most of the time, 9 p.m. That's what happens. Invariably,
without exception. Why? Love. This is what Peter says here.
Look at it. He says, and this is another thing, faith, hope. They have hope. Before, they
were without hope. Oh, God wouldn't save somebody
like me. That's just exactly who He'd
save. Me? Yeah, chief of sinners. Could
that be hope for me? Yes, there's a good hope for
you." And they said, like, good. He said, I've got hope. My hope
is built on nothing less. Doctrine? But your hope's built
on Jesus Christ's blood and His righteousness. I dare not trust
the sweetest praise of the Holy Name. Him who is the same. Just changed
the words. Faith, hope, and love. Now, Peter
says this in 1 Peter 1.22, seeing you have purified your souls
and obeying the truth, that is, believing the truth, abiding
in the truth, unto unfeigned love of the brethren. Now, turn
very quickly over to 1 John 3. 1 John 3. All right, and I'm
going to close with this right here. 1 John 3. This love he
talks about. First of all, all things work
together. Romans 8, 28 says, For good to
them that love God. There's first love. When Christ
said, All the law is fulfilled in one word, the first four points
of the law are love to who? God. Thou shalt have no other
gods before thee. Thou shalt not take the name
of the Lord thy God in vain. Thou shalt not have in thee any
graven images." Remember the sale, all that in relation to
God, worship of God, love for God, all right? This is the first
love that God creates. He makes himself your first love. If any man leaves his first love,
God will reveal it to him. But nevertheless, God is their
first love. Christ is their life, not a part
of it. And when we talk about Christ,
we're talking about worship, we're talking about the gospel,
we're talking about all that pertains to God, the things of
God, the gospel of God. It's your life. Everything else
is ordered around that, because He's your life. All right, now the next thing he
says is love of the present. Love of the brethren. Let me
see if I can find this verse first before we look at that.
It says, chapter 5, look at this, chapter 5, verse 2, he says,
By this we know that we love the children of God when we love
God. See that? 1 John 5, 2, did you
see that? By this we know that we love
the children of God when we love God. You're not going to love
the children of God unless you love God. Because he that loveth
him that begat loveth him that is begotten. Right? You're not going to love God's
people unless you love God. As a matter of fact, you'll hate
them. And you'll be of the world. Right
Ed? You won't be of God's children. You'll hate God's children. But
if you're of God, you'll love God. Everything about Him. And
1 John 3, verse 14, we know we pass from
death unto life. This is the new birth. You're
dead in trespasses and sin, but if you're born again or born
from above, you pass from death unto life, spiritual life, new
life. We know, how do we know? Verse 14, we know we pass from
death unto life because we love the brethren. Now, isn't that exactly what
Peter just said? You've been born again by the Word of God,
and let me quote it exactly, you've purified your souls and
obeyed the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of
the breath. Unfaked, unproduced, true love
of the breath, because you love God. Now, just as our Lord asked
Peter, do you love me? We need to answer the same God,
don't we? Well, sure. Yeah, Lord, I know
I don't act like it all the time, but I do. No, you're not. You're on the shelves. Christ
is in you, except you'd be a reclamation. Huh? If my wife asked me, do
you love me, honey? And I said, well, I sure hope
so. What if I said that? Well, I
don't know. I know I need to love her or
I don't. You don't have to ask whether you love somebody, do
you? All right, do you love me, God said? I don't, you know,
it's so poor and so weak and so fickle and I hate to even
talk about my love for you, but yes, I do. Huh? Their brother, I declared that
God's sitting on the throne. Do you love him that way? You
love him then. The fact that he elects whom
he will, does that bother you? Rather, do you like that about
God? This success? That's what we're
talking about. Loving God as God. Christ as
Christ. The gospel is truth. You receive
the love of the truth. Huh? He said, that's the truth.
Anything else is a lie. Do you say like David said, John,
in Psalm 119, 128, I esteem everything he said to be right, and I hate
every false way. Huh? Blessed are you, Simon. John
Bar-Davis? I believe you might love God. Well,
let me ask you this. Christ didn't ask, he commanded
it. He said, you love my brother,
your brother. Do you love the brother? You know, and it's so weak and
it's so fickle and it's so, we're so ashamed of it. That
we hesitate to say it, don't we? And we don't say it all the
time to our brethren. Why? Because it just sounds so
hollow. Don't you? But do you? Huh? Hereby we know we've passed from
death unto life. And we love the brethren. And
this is supernatural work because I tell you, some of you in here,
that if it wasn't by the grace of
God, I wouldn't have anything to do with it. It's just been
a plan, and you and me, right? We're so different, come from
different walks of life. And this is one of the things,
this is amazing, this is what's so amazing about it. that you
can actually say that you love such and such a person by the
grace of God. And, you know, the end result
of that, love never fails. Love never quits. Divorce is not in my vocabulary
concerning my wife. Isn't it? We have never brought
the word up nor and refused to even acknowledge that it's in
the English language, by God's grace. We're getting spats, you
know, when she starts acting really bad. But I will never, you know me,
we never, we don't bring it up and neither is leaving you. Huh? My family. I told somebody one
time, or I think I told Mindy, I said, you know, I'll never
leave you for a bigger woman. I'll never leave you for a bigger
woman, you know. Some bigger woman comes along and I leave
her with a bigger church. Same thing. What about more money? I'll leave her for more money. And what would the same apply
to all of God's children who are members one of another? Family? How could you bear to leave those
alone? You won't do it. You just won't
do it. You won't do it. And we can go right back to the
first, that you love God, that the gospel to me is everything.
It's not out there everywhere. Know the gospel. No. Neither are those true brethren
that love you. I mean, really love you. Stick
it closer to that brother. I have a brother and he's just
not a brother to me like some of you brethren. He's just not.
Never will be. Never has been. That's just the
way it is. I'm born again. You see, it's
something God's got to do. It's so foreign to human nature,
so foreign to human nature. All right, where am I? Seventy-five. I took songs out
of order. Hymn number seventy-five.