that song. Let's go back to John
chapter 3. This is a well-worn passage of
Scripture, and it will bear looking at again, though we have looked
at it before. My text is verse 7. Five words. Ye must be born again. That's my text and that's my
subject. Ye must be born again. Five words, only one of them
is two syllables, and that's the last one. Isn't it amazing
how our Lord could break down deep doctrine and express it
in a way that can be understandable, at least to the mind, and hopefully
by His Spirit's application of it, we can understand it in our
hearts. He must be born again. Let's
ask for God's blessing. Lord, as we open your word. We do so very much aware that
we are in need of the Spirit of Truth who led John to write
these words that our Savior spoke. We need the Spirit who inspired
him to come among us this evening and give us an understanding
of what it means to be born again. And Lord, may each of us, matters
not how long we've been coming here, it matters not how long
we've been under the sound of the truth, may each of us and
each one who is watching this by way of the internet, May we
ask ourselves, oh God, have I been born again? And if I have not
been, oh Lord, may I be an object of your mercy, an object of your
life-giving power. Oh, to be born anew by the Spirit
of grace. Honor your blessed Son. Exalt Him in our midst. Exalt Him in our preaching. Exalt
Him in our ministry. Exalt Him in all of our methods. Exalt Him in our music. Exalt
Him in our missions. We want to hold up our Lord Jesus. magnify his name, the name of
that one who laid down his life for the sheep and then took that
life up again. And whoever lives to make intercession
for all of your people. Bless, Lord, tonight and glorify
yourself for Jesus' sake. Amen. If we're going to understand
this portion of Scripture in John chapter 3, with this theme
of you must be born again, we really need to go back a little
bit into the book of John. Go back to the second chapter.
Because this interview of Nicodemus and our Lord Jesus immediately
followed some, well, very extraordinary events. And these people to whom
our Lord has been preaching and to whom He showed Himself and
spoke to them, most all of them lived and died in unbelief. notwithstanding great evidences
of the fact that Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah. We go all the way back to the
beginning of John chapter 2, our Lord's very first miracle
in Cana of Galilee. And I say, behold His omnipotence. How do we know Jesus of Nazareth
is the Messiah? How do we know He is the promised
prophet, priest, and king? Well, first of all, we need to
behold His omnipotence. You know the story in John chapter
2, and I'm not going to elaborate on this. I'm certainly not going
to expound this miracle that took place in Cana of Galilee,
but they had wine as a celebration drink, and it was a marriage
and a very festive atmosphere, and then they ran out of wine. And Mary came to the Lord Jesus
and told him about the situation. She said, they have no wine.
And her implication was, you can do something about this.
And he had a mild rebuke for her. Woman, what have I to do
with thee? Mine hour is not yet come. But
then she said to the servants, whatever he says to do, you do
it. And so, they were instructed
by our Lord Jesus to fill six water pots with water. He didn't touch the water. He didn't speak to the water. He willed that the water would
become wine. That's all he had to do is just
will it. Like with that leper who met
him when he came down from preaching the great sermon on the mount.
A leper met him and said, Lord, if you will, you can make me
clean. Our Lord Jesus, He didn't say
any mumbo-jumbo over him. He didn't make silly crosses
over him or anything like that. He didn't even touch him. He
said, I will. That's all He said. I will be
thou clean. And immediately the leprosy disappeared. This is an unusual event in the
ministry of our Lord. This is the very first miracle
that He ever performed. And He did it to manifest His
authority, His power, that is, His omnipotence. His omnipotence. The water was made wine. And
the wine in the Bible is a picture of the gospel. Our Lord Jesus
Himself is the wine of God's grace. The Bible says wine makes
the heart merry. Oh, what good news and what merriment
it is for those of us who are sinful people that our Lord Jesus
came into this world and then he offered himself to God as
the sacrifice to put away our sins. This is a great cause for
merriment. This is a cause for celebration.
This is a cause for happiness. We're honored that one so great
would be made so low to raise those of us who are low to heights
of glory. This is what the Lord did. Let's
rejoice in Him. Let's drink in the gospel wine. The good news message of our
Lord Jesus. You remember Moses' very first
miracle? He turned water into blood because
the law of God is the ministration of death. But here our Lord Jesus,
His first miracle, He turned water into wine. and people were made to rejoice.
In fact, the head guy, the governor said to the landowner, to the
householder, you've saved the best wine, you're different from
everybody else. They usually give the good wine
first, and then when people are feeling really happy and joyful
and kind of giddy, then they bring out the lousy wine, the
cheap wine. They said, you didn't do that
at all. You saved the best wine to last. Throughout the Old Testament,
we see people trying to merit salvation and be saved by their
own works and will. All of those ways have proved
to be absolutely futile. Then the Savior came. God saved
the best to last. the best to last. He sent his
own darling son into this world and he redeemed his people. This
wine of the gospel, I say, drink of this golden elixir. Drink
and drink again. Drink of full forgiveness of
sins. Drink of this salvation by the
glorious Savior. Drink of redemption. Drink of
righteousness. fulfilled and brought in and
accomplished for us. Drink of the wine of the gospel. This first miracle is an evidence
of our Lord's mighty power. His mighty power. But then the
second section, I'm going to show you four things here briefly.
Not only his omnipotence, a change in the water to wine, but secondly,
we see he's a zealous man. He's zealous for the glory of
God. Shortly after this, he then goes
to Jerusalem and then he goes to the first of four Passover
feasts that he attended during his public ministry. The last
Passover feast that he'll attend will be that Passover when he
dies as God's true Passover lamb. But he goes to Jerusalem. This is to give you a timeline
about six months after his baptism. He goes to Jerusalem to keep
the Passover. Our Lord kept all the laws of
God. He's the perfect man. He's made
under the law to redeem them that were under the law. And
as he walked into the temple, he beheld an awful sight to him. He saw all of these money changers. He saw birds and animals in cages. They were being kept there and
then sold for extravagant prices. The money changers, Jews who
lived in foreign countries, they brought money to buy these animals
as sacrifices, and they had to have their currency exchanged.
If you've ever been to a foreign country, you know, they don't
take U.S. currency, so you have to have
it exchanged, and these were men who were exchanging currencies,
and they charged an awful price for doing that. And the priests,
they all got kickbacks on this stuff. And our Lord sees all
these caged animals and caged birds. It must have stunk. You
think about all these animals, probably a quarter of a million
people coming into Jerusalem for the Passover. And they've
got to have sacrifices. They've got to have sheep. They've
got to have goats. If they're wealthy people, they'll
have an oxen or a bullock. If they're very poor, they'll
have pigeons and turtle doves. But they've got to buy these
things. They've traveled a long distance, and so they've got
to have these things to celebrate the Passover. Our Lord sees this mess, and
He is filled with He's upset. He is enraged, let's put it that
way. He is so zealous for God's house. And so he goes and he makes a
cord, ties some knots in it, he drives them all out. I mean,
he is full of fury. He's full of anger. This is a
holy wrath that he is expressing. And he runs them out and he says
this, look at verse, 16. He said unto them that sold doves,
take these things hence, make not my father's house a house
of merchandise. My father's house. No prophet
ever said that. No priest ever said that. No
man ever called the temple of God my father's house. Our Lord
Jesus, He could rightly say that because that was His Father's
house. And then look at verse 17, and His disciples remembered
that it was written, the zeal of thine house hath eaten me
up. Psalm 69 and verse 9. He has revealed His omnipotence. And now He reveals that He's
zealous for God's glory. He's zealous for God's house.
And then we get to verse 18. And here's another remarkable
thing. He speaks to these people. In
answering their question, he sets himself forth as that sacrifice
for sins by his death and resurrection. Look at verse 18. Then answered
the Jews and said unto him, what sign showest thou unto us, seeing
that thou doest these things? And Jesus answered and said of
them, destroy this temple. He meant his body. Like we said
this morning, this tabernacle, this temple. Destroy this temple
and in three days I'll raise it up. He's setting forth his
death, his substitutionary sacrifice. And then said the Jews, forty
and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear
it up in three days? But the Spirit of God tells us,
but he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was
risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this
unto them, and they believed the Scriptures and the word which
Jesus had said. He sets forth His saving purpose. That is, His body, His temple
would be destroyed. It would die, but in three days,
He'd raise it back up. He's the omnipotent One. He changes
water to wine merely by His will. He is the zealous One. He's zealous
for God's glory. Nobody has been more zealous
for the honor of the Father than Christ Jesus. Nobody has been
more zealous for the honor of God, the honor of our God, our
Creator. Nobody has ever been more zealous
than our Lord Jesus was. He is Jehovah's perfect, perfect
servant. Therefore, in Isaiah 53, he's
called God's righteous servant. Yes, he's equal with God in every
way. In every way. He is eternal. He is omnipotent. He is all-knowing. But he humbled himself to become
Jehovah's perfect, perfect servant. Because that's what we should
have been. Perfect servants. And that's what God demands,
perfect service. He got perfect service out of
one who was equal with himself. One who God refers to in the
book of Zechariah as one who is my fellow, one who is my equal. That's the one that God said,
draw the sword, pull the sword out of the sheath, smite the
shepherd, and the sheep will be scattered. This is the one
who is omnipotent, This is the one who is zealous for God's
glory, and this is the one who reveals his saving purpose in
that his body, his temple is going to be destroyed, but he's
going to raise it up again. And then we get to the last three
verses. He shows his omniscience. His omniscience. What does that
word mean? He is all-knowing. He is all-knowing. There's nothing that escapes
His knowledge. Look at verse 23. Now, when He
was at Jerusalem at the Passover, in the feast day, many believed
in His name, that is, they said that they did, when they saw
the miracles which He did. But Jesus did not commit himself
unto them because he knew all. You see the word men is italicized,
so our King James translators, whom we thank God for, they put
that in. But really, it wasn't there.
And it isn't so much that He knew all men, everybody, but
He knows everything. He knows all. There's nothing
hidden from Him. Hebrews chapter 4. All things
are naked and open before the eyes of Him with whom we have
to do. He's omniscient. He's omnipotent. He's zealous for God's glory,
for God's house. He is the Savior whose body will
be destroyed, but He's going to raise it again. And He's the
one who knows everything. There's not a thought that goes
through your mind, but what He doesn't know it, even before
you think it. There's not a word that comes
out of your mouth that He doesn't already know what you're going
to say, the reason that you're going to say it. He knows everything. There's no use trying to hide
anything from the Lord. He's omniscient. It says in verse 25 again, he
needed not that any should testify of man. He didn't need anybody
to say, let me tell you about that guy over there. He already
knew about that guy over there. He already knows about you too.
For he knew what was in man. And that brings us to chapter
3 and our Lord's conversation with Nicodemus. and this necessity of the new
birth. Here were the Jews who said they
were looking for Messiah. And one enters onto the scene,
Jesus of Nazareth. And word gets around, word spreads. This is the man who changed water,
to whine. And they said among themselves,
you know they did, who can do that? Who can just, well did
he put his hand in the water? No. Did he say anything to the
servants about, well, you know, give me those barrels and I'll
take care of this? No. Well, what'd he do? He just said, fill them with
water, and then he said, draw out, and when we drew out, that's
the best wine we ever had. That's his omnipotence. He did
that? You'd think that they'd then
say and conclude, this must be the Messiah. This must be the
one we've been looking for. He's pictured and prophesied
all through the Old Testament. Could it be that He's really
here? I mean, hey, who could change water to wine but one
who is equal with God? But they didn't believe Him.
They didn't believe Him. And then what I think is the
second miracle is when he makes this accord and drives all these
money changers and sellers and even the animals. He drove them
all away. How could one man do all of that? I think that's another miracle. He's so zealous for the house
of God. This is my Father's house. This
is supposed to be a house of prayer. A house of worship. He did this at the beginning
of His public ministry and at the end of His public ministry.
Two times He did this. He's zealous for God. Never seen
anybody serve God like that. If you know, I've never seen
anybody serve God like that. Man, He drove everybody out. He sure must be courageous, because
you know He is going up against the priesthood. He is going up
against the hierarchy of Israel. Why, He dared to drive all them
animals out and drive all those money changers out, and thereby
He was taking money right out of the pockets of the priests.
What kind of man is this? You'd think people would set
up and take notice. He can change water to wine,
and he can drive all them people out in a fearless way, enraged
by what he saw. And then he says to them in response
to their question, what sign you gonna show us? Well, he's
already showed a pretty significant sign when he changed the water
to wine. And then when he drove all the
money changers out, and the Jews, and most of the time in the book
of John, when you read the Jews, it's talking about the Jewish
leaders. It's always got a negative sound to it. The Jews. The Jews. What signs showest thou, seeing
thou doest these things? And he said, you're going to
destroy this temple. That's pretty brave there. That's
what he said. You fellows, you Sanhedrin, you're
going to come after me. And you're going to put me to
death. Oh, you won't do it yourself. The Romans will have to do it.
But it's at your bidding, at your insistence. You will destroy
this temple. My body's going to die. But after three days, I'll raise
it. I'll raise it." And of course, we know he's talking
about raising his body from the dead. And then, in the last case,
he shows he's all-knowing. He knew what was in man. And
then the Spirit of God leads John to write about the necessity
of the new birth. Why wouldn't these people believe
him? I mean, really believe him. Why wouldn't they worship him?
I mean, he's omnipotent, he's got all power. Anybody who can
will water to change into wine. Anybody who's so zealous Anybody
talks about his body being destroyed and then raising it again, of
course they didn't comprehend, they thought he was talking about
the literal temple. And then his knowledge of their situation,
of their belief or unbelief. Why wouldn't these people believe
Him? Why wouldn't they cling to Him? Why wouldn't they say,
this is the Son of God. This is the Messiah. This is
the Savior we've been looking for. We've been looking for Him
for ages. This is the One all the prophets
wrote about. This is the One David and the
Psalms set forth. This is Him. They didn't say
that though. They didn't believe him. They're
going to destroy his body. Why? What's the problem? What
do they need? Life. That's what they need,
is life. They have to be born again. We're confronted with this man,
Nicodemus. And I'm not going to get into
the particulars about this man. ruler of the Jews. He came to
Jesus by night. I don't know why he came by night.
You can read about that, but I'm not going to enter into that
whatsoever. Here's what I know that the Savior is talking about.
He spoke to Nicodemus and said, you have got to be born again. Why couldn't these other people
see who he was? Why didn't they rejoice in his
coming? Why didn't they embrace Him as
the prophet, priest, and King of God? Why didn't they honor
Him as God in the flesh? Why? Why? Why? I can tell you
why. They're dead in trespasses and
sins. There has to be the new birth. I'm thankful this man came to
the Lord Jesus. I don't know what Was in his
mind curiosity perhaps? I don't know. But I do know this,
he was drawn by the unseen hand of God, drew him to the Savior. Isn't it amazing how far up the
ladder of religion a man can go and yet in reality know essentially
nothing? I mean, the Savior even said
to him, look over there in verse 10, Jesus answered and said unto
him, Art thou a master in Israel? And knowest not these things?
Are you a master in Israel? Are you a teacher in Israel?
Are you a professor in Israel? And he was, he was a teacher
of the preachers. In religion, this man, he's a
member of the who's who in religion. He's way up there on the ladder
of religious success. But he's ignorant. He's ignorant. He doesn't have a clue who Jesus
of Nazareth is. I'm thankful the Lord drew him
to Him. You see, Nicodemus had honor.
He had prestige. He had power. He had a position
in religion. He had students. He had rabbis
that he had trained, and now they're out in various synagogues. But I'll tell you what he didn't
have. He didn't have spiritual life. And I don't think he had a satisfaction
with his religious life. Otherwise, I don't think he would
have come to the Lord Jesus. Nicodemus felt like something was amiss. He wasn't satisfied with the
ritual. He wasn't satisfied with the
ceremony. He wasn't satisfied with the
traditions of the fathers. It just somehow, none of the
things just weren't exactly right. So he's going to check out this
great teacher. And he came to the right person.
He came to Christ. And it may be there's somebody
here, maybe you're still toying with religion on television or
whatever, maybe somebody who's watching by way of the internet,
and you're watching all kinds of preachers on the internet
and on the television, but you know they don't have the right
message. They say some good things, but
they don't say THE good thing. And you're dissatisfied. See,
most of religion today consists of ceremonies and rituals and
burning of candles. Where do people get that from?
Let's burn candles in church. Where do they get that? They
don't get it from the word of God. Religion today, they worship
a defeated God, a disillusioned savior, a disappointed spirit, I turned the television on a
little bit this morning. There was some preacher ranting
and raving. You couldn't even hardly understand
what he said. It just, oh, it hurt my ears. He was screaming and talking
about money. And if you'll sow the seed, God
will give it back to you. He said a thousand fold. Isn't
it amazing people swallow that stuff hook, line, and sinker?
But they do. They do. And if you'll give so
much seed money, God will heal you. Put your hands on your television
set right now. I'll pray for you. And we know, we know they're
like those money changers at the temple. That's what they're
like. They're thieves and robbers.
They rob widows' houses. These preachers flying around
in jets. They got more money than they
ever possibly can. They've got to hire several people
just to keep up with all their finances. Religion is a mess today. There's
no question about it. And I don't know, you who are
watching by way of the internet, I don't know why you turned your
computer on. Well, the Lord had you do it
and had you tune in here. And I speak to you and I speak
to everybody in this building, and I'll tell you this, you must
be born again. Now that is a necessity. And I don't want you to think,
well he's probably talking to the person beside of me, he's
talking to somebody else in his congregation. I'm talking to
every one of you. And I'm talking to me. You must be born again. Wouldn't
it be absolutely horrible to go through life hanging on to
a Bible giving verbal agreement to the five points of grace,
and then go out into eternity dead in your trespasses and sin. That would be horrible. Those
people in Matthew 7, Lord, Lord, we've done all these things in
your name. We've healed in your name, preached in your name.
Then he'll say to them, I never knew you. You weren't born again. You weren't one of mine. You're
not one of my children. What is the new birth? Well,
here's a Bible word for it. It's regeneration. This is spirit
regeneration. Today, people believe in decisional
regeneration. Come down the aisle, make your
decision at the altar. There is no altar here. Our altar
is Christ Jesus. They believe in decisional regeneration. They believe in baptismal regeneration. Go in the water, wash your sins
away. They believe in reformation regeneration. You need to change your life.
You need to reform. But none of those give you life. This portion of Scripture is
about God giving to us spiritual life. That's what's necessary.
And this new birth is not something you do, not something you bring
about. You can beg God to make you live. But as it says in verse 8, the
wind blows where it wants to. You hear the sound thereof. but
you can't tell where it's coming from or where it goes, so is
everyone who's born of the Spirit. The Spirit gives life sovereignly,
freely. It's up to Him who gives life. Now watch this. Simple. You must be born again. Five
little words. Yet this religious world around
us with their apostate preachers and teachers, they know nothing
about these five necessary words. It's not to make a decision for
Jesus. It's not to walk down an aisle
and say yes to a few questions. It's not to raise your hand,
yeah, I want to go to heaven. It's not something you do at
all. The new birth is not something
you do at all. It's something done to you by
God. Here we go. Simple as I can make
it. Five points. Number one, ye. Ye must be born again. You know
what ye is? That's a very personal word.
Don't get more personal than that. In other words, this message
is for you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and you, and
you, and you, and me, and you. It's for all of us. It's for
ye. It's for ye. Yeah, I hope the
person beside of you is listening, but I'm preaching to you. I'm preaching to you. I know
you're religious. You wouldn't be here. You wouldn't
be watching on the internet if you weren't religious. And I
suspect you're sincere. And if you've been coming here
for any length of time or listening to the truth of the Word of God,
you're instructed in right doctrine. I'm not asking you, do you understand
the five points of grace? I'm asking you, have you been
born again? It's just as personal as it gets. Number two. So you got through
that first point fast. I know, because it's pretty easy. Yee. I'm not talking to somebody
out there on the street. I'm talking to you. Number two. Must. Well, if yee is a personal
word, must is a pressing word. It's a word of urgency. Must. Because you're not going to enter
into heaven unless you're born again. You're not going to be saved
unless you're born again. You have no promise of future
glory unless you're born again. You must. You know who said that? The master said that. The Lord
Jesus himself said that. Notice how he expresses, look
in verse three. And this is after Nicodemus said
in verse two, we know bragging on his knowledge. We know thou
art a teacher come from God. No man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily. Better listen up when he says
a verily, verily. I say unto thee, I say to you,
Nicodemus, notwithstanding all your degrees, notwithstanding all your great
high position in the Jews' religion, notwithstanding you being a professor
of preachers and rabbis and priests, I say unto you, except a man
be born again, he can't even see the Kingdom of God. You're
not going to get within smelling distance of the Kingdom of God.
No. You're not going to perceive
it. You're not going to understand it. You think you know something? You don't know anything, and
you'll never know anything, really, unless you're born again. See, this is one of the evidences
of the new birth. God gives you an understanding
of how He saves sinners. Do you have an understanding
of how God saves sinners? By grace alone? Through Christ
alone? Through His atonement alone?
Through His bloody sacrifice alone? Through His righteousness
alone? Do you have an understanding
of that? Yes. Do you love that Gospel? Yes! Well, I believe you've been born
again. You've been born again. This is divine necessity. This
is a pressing word. It's a word of urgency. Oh, that God would do something
for you. And this is the burden of my
heart, and I'm sure it's the burden of every preacher of the
gospel. We pray that God would work in the hearts of the people
to whom we preach. I fear, oh, I fear that so many
people, they give lip service to these things, but they've
never received or had given to them spiritual life. That's what
they need. And God's got to give it. We can't work people up. get
them all stirred up. You know, you used to do that
in revival meetings, if you remember revival meetings. Just get people
emotional and get them on a religious high and everybody says, yes,
I want to be saved! And then the next year when you
have another revival meeting, you wonder where those people
were. Where are they now? Where have they been? We haven't
seen them since they made their decision for Jesus a year ago.
Well that's all it was, it was just a decision. It wasn't the
new birth. Because if God gives you life,
you don't get over that. He gives you a love for the gospel,
the gospel doesn't get stale to you. The Gospel doesn't become such
a customary message to you that you say, I've heard that again
and again. And you're going to preach the
same thing to us again. It won't be like that. Not if
God gives you life. This is a pressing word. You can't see the Kingdom of
God unless you're born again. And verse 5 says, You can't enter
into the Kingdom of God unless you're born again. I sure want
to enter into the Kingdom of God, don't you? Oh, I really
do. I really do. If I'm not born
again, I'm not going in. When my time on this earth is
up, when my days are ended, I've reached my boundary that God
has set, and I go out into eternity to meet Him, I'm not going into
the everlasting Kingdom of God unless I've been born again. That's a pressing word. It's
a personal word, ye. It's a pressing word, must. Here's
the third thing. Here's a word that's passive. Be. Because you see in the new birth,
the center is inactive. He's passive. As we had nothing to do with
our physical birth, we don't have anything to do with our
spiritual birth. The Lord is active. The sinner is passive. We're born again by the power
of the Spirit of God who uses the Word of God to do it. Which
brings me to the fourth word, born. We've got a personal word,
a pressing word, a passive word, but here's a powerful word. Born. You've got to be the object of
God's special work. That's what I want. An object
of God's special work. As He created this world, He's
got to create life within the center. Because there's no life
there. There's no light there. There's
just darkness there. You see, there are two states.
There are just two states and all men and women are in one
or the other. One's a state of spiritual life,
the other's a state of spiritual death. One's a state of righteousness,
the other's a state of wickedness. The one is saving, the other
is damning. The one is a state of enmity,
the other's a state of peace. Peace. Born. Oh, to be born of God. Fifth point. Again. That's a profound word. Again. Look again at verse 3. 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. In my
Bible, you go over in the center column and it says again or From
above. From above. You've got to be
born from above. And don't we read in the book
of James chapter 1 that every good gift and every perfect gift
is where? It's from above. You can't have
life, true life, spiritual life, except it be given you from above. God's got to give it to you.
Well, why do we need the new birth? Because we're dead in
trespasses and sins. How do I know I've been born
again? How do I know that I've been given life? Well, you desert all your wrong
ideas about God. You bow to Him. You believe God is as He sets
Himself forth in this book. And you may not understand sovereignty,
but you're not going to buck it. You're not going to fuss
about it. You may say, I don't understand
the election, but it's in there and I'm sure not going to go
against it. You'll bow to the Word of God. And you'll believe
on Christ. You'll see He's the only hope
you've got. Now listen, you don't believe to get born again. You believe because you have
been born again. This is the problem with religion
today. They got the cart before the
horse. They got the cart pulling the horse. Believe on Jesus and get born
again. No. No. If the Lord causes you to be
born again, you will believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And
you'll love Him. And you'll follow Him. And you'll
still be repenting over your sins and your weaknesses, and
you'll say, Lord, draw me closer to You. Lord, I want to know
You better. I want to truly worship. Ye must be born again. Now you take that home with you.
And may the Spirit of God work that over in your mind and in
your heart. And may he give you life if he
hasn't given it to you already. May you be born to the Spirit
of God. And if so, you'll see the glories of Christ Jesus.
Lord, bless the words that have been spoken tonight. We're thankful
for the opportunity to get together, to open the book of God, and
to read this simple and yet very profound declaration from the
lips of the Son of God Himself. Ye must be born again. Drive it into our hearts. Give us life if we're still in
spiritual death. Lord, do it for your glory. Do
it for our everlasting good. For Jesus' sake we ask these
things. Amen.