Thank you so much. Such a wonderful,
wonderful song. Let's get our Bibles. I hope you have your Bible. Most
of you do. If you do, would you open it
please to John 3. You should always bring the Scriptures
with you. Make sure I'm telling you what
the book says. So, take the Scriptures, take
the Word of God. Children and adults also. Go to John 3. Go back to the
passage that Ron read to us. And this is a very vital portion
of Scripture. And it is about the new birth. The new birth. And here's my
subject. This is the title that I decided
to take this morning. Right Teaching on the New Birth. Right Teaching. And the reason
I took that title is because there's so much wrong teaching
on the new birth. Religion, false religion, has made the new birth more than it is in that they
make it that which you must do. The new birth is something that
you accomplish. And this is what preachers say.
And you, from time to time, I'm sure you listen to preachers
on the television or you listen to it on the radio or
whatever, and you'll hear them say things like this. And of
course, there's a very famous preacher out of Houston. And
he says, at the end of his program, he says, repeat this prayer. And if you did, we believe you
just got born again. We believe you just got born
again by that which you did. Now that's wrong. That's wrong. Many preachers will say this
this morning, especially in Baptist churches, they'll say, After
the message, they'll say, come down to the altar. That's what they call this table.
You come down to the altar and make your decision for Jesus
and get born again. Is that how you're born again? There's wrong teaching, wrong
teaching on this. And I don't know of a better
passage of Scripture we could ever go to in order to have right
teaching, right instruction on this matter of the new birth
or being born again than our Lord's own words. This is a man
who spoke as no other man did. This is a man who spoke with
authority. This is His Word. This is the
living God. This is the one who speaks from
heaven. And He gives to this religious man, Nicodemus, He
gives vital instruction about the necessity of being born again. I know this is right teaching
because of who the teacher is. It's the Master Himself. Now let me direct your attention
to verse 7. I want everybody to look at verse
7. Here are five vital words. Young and old alike. Look at
these five vital words of verse 7. Here's what the Savior said. Ye must be born again. That's necessary. Listen, you're not going to heaven
when you die unless you're born again. You're not going to enter
into the kingdom of God unless you're born again. I know there's
lots of wrong instruction on the new birth, but there is the
necessity, the Savior said. This is the one who's full of
grace and truth. This is the one who cannot lie. And He says, ye must be born
again. First word is ye. You, this is
very personal, it's a very personal word. I don't care who you are. From the youngest in this auditorium
to the oldest. You must be born again. It doesn't matter whether you're
very educated or not so much educated. It doesn't matter what
your status is in life. It doesn't matter how much money
you've got. It doesn't matter whether you're
a man or a woman, a boy or a girl. It doesn't matter who you are.
You must be born again. You're not going to glory unless
you're born again. It's what Scripture says. Except
a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Ye must
be born. That's you. That's each of you. That's me. We must be born again. It's a very personal word. Here's the second word, must. Vital word. No exception. There are no exceptions
to this. To be with our Lord Jesus forever,
you must be born again. You must be. As we get deeper
into this chapter, and we'll look at this, the Lord willing,
next Lord's Day morning, look at verse 14. And as Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up. Would you agree with me that
the Lord Jesus must die, that He had to die? Surely you would.
There's no other way of safety. There's no other way of salvation.
There's no other way of righteousness for us. There's no other way
for us to be accepted in glory unless the Lord Jesus Himself
dies. He must, He must be lifted up. That's absolutely necessary. You wouldn't quarrel with that.
And this is also necessary. You must be born again. It's a vital word. There's no
way around it. Ye must be. You know what kind
of word that is? It's a very passive word. You must be born again. In other words, this is not something
you do. This is something that has to
happen to you. This is something God must do. This is a very passive word.
And as we shall see as we work through this passage of Scripture,
even as we had no activity, we were absolutely passive in our
first birth. In the reception of physical
life, we had nothing to do with that. Also, in the reception
of spiritual life, we have nothing to do with that either. You can go to so-called Christian
bookstores, and you'll find lots of books written on the new birth.
Books like, How to Be Born Again. And they'll always give you some
things you've got to do. But this doesn't involve you,
except you being the recipient of the life that only God can
give. Men say to you, believe and get
born again. No! You must be born again, then
you believe. Men say, repent and be born again. No! That's not how you're born
again. You're not born again by repentance. You repent because you're born
again. You see, all of these things
that the Spirit of God enables us to do, believe, look to the
Lord Jesus Christ, receive Him as our prophet, priest, and king,
are the results of the new birth, not the cause. And that's where
religion, most religions, people have got it all wrong. Preacher,
you're saying you're right and everybody else is wrong? I'm
saying only God is right. Only God is right. And our Lord
Jesus gives right teaching in this portion of scripture on
the new birth. Ye must be born. That's a life-giving word. A life-giving word. The Lord
must breathe into us. Do you remember when God created
Adam? He made Adam out of the dust
of the ground. Do you remember what the scripture
says? God breathed into his nostrils
the breath of life. What did Adam do? What part did
Adam have? He had no part in that at all.
God made him, God fashioned his body, and there he was. Flesh, bones, blood, mind, heart,
lungs, all of the other organs, all of the blood vessels, all
of the nerves, a magnificent creature come from God, but he
had no breath. He had no breath. And God Almighty, who is life,
breathed into that man the breath of life and man became, the Scripture
says, a living soul. And such was the awesomeness
of the breath of God that that soul will exist forever. Forever. Because when we face
the death of this body, that doesn't mean the soul ceases
to exist. It's just our soul changes residence. We change the place where we
live. And if found in Christ Jesus,
if He is our wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption,
if we've been saved by the grace of God, if we've been washed
in the blood of Christ, at the moment of death, our souls leave
this body and go back to God and we enjoy the presence of
Christ Jesus forever. But if we don't know God, if
we haven't been born of God, if we die in unbelief, if we
die in our sins, the soul doesn't cease to exist when the body
dies, but the soul is consigned to hell and to the last judgment
when God will raise the bodies of all who have died. Even the
bodies of the wicked, their souls will come back together with
their bodies. And then God will cast them, God the Son will cast
them into hell forever and ever where there's weeping and wailing
and gnashing of teeth. The soul. We've got to be born again. This is a life-giving word. Here's
what I'm saying. God Almighty must do something
for you. He must do something for you.
He must do something for you. You who are watching, He must
do something for you. He's got to do something for
me. He's got to breathe into us spiritual life. That's the new birth. That's
the new birth. You, every one of you, from the
youngest to the oldest, you must, that's a vital word, be, very
passive word, you got to be operated on. You go in for an operation
down here at King's Daughters or Bellefonte or wherever you
go, go in for surgery, Put the needle in your arm, give
it that stuff, and you just go right on off to sleep. What contribution
do you make in that operation? The only contribution you make,
in a sense, is you've got a problem. But there's a skilled surgeon
and the attending nurses and technicians and so forth. who
know how to resolve the issue that you've got. You make no
contribution to it. They do something for you. That's
what the new birth is. It's God doing something for
you. Ye must be born. Watch it again. Fifth word. Again. The first time you were born, you
were born in sin. That's right. You were born in sin. That's
what David said. In sin my mother conceived me.
I came forth from the womb speaking lies. That's a physical birth. And our Lord Jesus says in verse
number 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Now you've
got that birth. You've experienced that birth.
Flesh! But you've got to be born another
way. You've got to be born again.
Born a second time. Which is something that Nicodemus
did not understand. He didn't comprehend that. In
fact, when the Savior said in verse 3, 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's old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Smart aleck. It's a
dangerous thing to be a smart aleck with God. To talk such
foolish talk. He knew better than that. You've got to be born again.
Literally, look at verse 3 where it says, except a man be born
again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. In my Bible, if you go
into the middle column, it says again means from above. Your
Bible say that? From above. You've got to be
born from above. And here's what that means. God's
got to do something for you. You see, today in religion, and
listen to me, and I'm not trying to be unkind, I'm trying to be
truthful. Today in religion, this matter
of salvation has been pretty much taken out of the hands of
God and put into the hands of men. It's all up to you. I've
got news for you. It's not all up to you. You've
got to be born from above. This is an act of God. And as
the Savior said 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, where it's going. So is everyone that's born of
the Spirit. You must be born of the Spirit,
and He doesn't have to blow your way. He doesn't have to blow
the breath of spiritual life into you. And if He doesn't, No hope for
you. Ye must be born again. Now I want you to notice something
else. You know, in every passage of
scripture, we want to take things into context. Here is a very,
very religious man, Nicodemus. In the very next chapter is a
very wicked woman. She's called the Samaritan woman. And our Lord deals with both
of them, though not in the same way. Because Nicodemus is a very
religious man. He's a very moral man. But you
get over into John chapter four, the woman of Samaria, she's an
adulteress. She's been married five times
and the man she's living with, when our Lord confronted her,
he wasn't her husband at all. Here's a man who has reached
the very pinnacle of religion, Nicodemus, and here's a woman
who is the lowest of the low. But you know what? The same grace
of God reached out and took hold of a very religious man, and
the same grace of God reached out and took hold of the lowest
of the low. That's the power of Christ's
grace. And whoever you are here this
morning, You may be very religious and yet not know God. Our Lord's
arm is not shortened that it cannot save. You're not too entrenched
in religion, but what He can't pull you out of it. He did for
Saul of Tarsus. Do you think? Sure He did. And
it may be there's somebody here this morning or somebody watching
and you've been like the Samaritan woman. Lived a life of ill repute. In open ungodliness and wickedness. In fact, she came to draw water
at a time when nobody else would come. And most likely because
she'd be embarrassed. She didn't want people to see
her. Her lifestyle was unacceptable to people. She was a social outcast. But guess what? The mercy of
God found her. And it may be that you, I don't,
there's some people here this morning, I don't know you. Maybe
some people watching. And your lifestyle is unacceptable
according to social standards. and you've lived in immorality
or open sinfulness or whatever, I tell you, the mercy of God
and the grace of God, grace super abounds over sin. That's what
Paul says in Romans chapter 5. And it reaches to both. It reaches
to the religious lost. It reaches even to the ungodly
lost, to the wicked lost. And that's what these two people
have in common. And our Lord, when the Spirit
of God put the Word of God together, when he had John to write this,
many years after this happened, he had the two stories put back
to back. They're like opposites. And yet
they both needed the same grace. And they both needed the same
salvation. And they both needed the same
righteousness. And they both needed the same
work of God. Oh, what about this man, Nicodemus?
He's risen very high in the Jewish religion. He's a Pharisee. Josephus, who was the Jewish
historian, he said there were, at this time, 6,000 Pharisees. You know what the word Pharisee
means? One who separated. Separated. Separated from society
because they felt themselves to be more holy, to be more righteous,
to be more special. He's been climbing the ladder
of religious success. I mean, he's made it. He's a
member of the Sanhedrin. That was a body of 70 men, plus
one more, the high priest. Highest ecclesiastical court
in Israel, the highest religious court in Israel. And he's on
the court. It's like, in our country, the
Supreme Court. And he was on that. In fact,
the Lord says to him, And look at verse 10. Jesus answered and
said unto him, art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these
things? And let me just give you this little tidbit of fact. Or it says, art thou a master
of Israel? The word should be thee. It's a definite art. Are you
the master in Israel? Are you the master teacher? Are you the master theologian? Are you the professor of the
preachers? Are you the one who supposedly
knows everything that needs to be taught to the people? Are
you such in one? And you don't know these things
about the new birth? You see, it's quite possible,
and often it is the case, where people rise to the very heights
of religious authority and power, and yet when it comes to the
things of God, when it comes to salvation, when it comes to
redemption, when it comes to regeneration, which is just a
long word for the new birth or being born again, they don't
know anything. They're ignorant. They just don't
know. You've heard it said before,
a man can't tell what he doesn't know, any more than he can come
back from somewhere he hadn't been. Nicodemus, he's in ignorance. He just doesn't know. Well, what
was the reason he sought out Jesus of Nazareth? Well, at the
end of chapter 2, our Lord Jesus had performed many miracles in
Jerusalem. And He's still in Jerusalem.
And here's this man, Nicodemus, and he seeks out Jesus of Nazareth
because he perhaps even was an eyewitness, or at least he heard
about the miracles that the Lord Jesus did. And he wants to see
him, but it's very significant that it says in verse number
two, the same came to Jesus by night. Why did he come by night? And it's interesting as you go
through the book of John, every time Nicodemus is mentioned,
it's always added, this is always added, he that came to Jesus
by night. So there's something significant
to this. Now we're not specifically told why he came by night, but
I would suspect it's because he didn't want the rest of the
Sanhedrin to know. They hated Jesus of Nazareth.
Listen, our Lord's in Jerusalem. He had just gone into the temple
and ransacked the tables of the money changers. These men, like
Nicodemus, these Pharisees and chief priests, they were making
money off the people, charging awful prices for sacrifices. And our Lord went in there and
He turned over the tables and knocked everything over and He
said, this is my Father's house, you've made it a house of merchandise. And the Sanhedrin and the Pharisees
and the scribes and the Sadducees, they're all up in arms about
Jesus of Nazareth, what He did. Do you know what He did? He came
into our temple. He dared to do this to our temple. And they're upset. And I tell
you, Nicodemus comes by night because he don't want them people,
he don't want the rest of them seeing what he's doing. But it's
also indicative of the fact that he came at night, it indicates
his own spiritual darkness. And our Lord Jesus, He mentioned
that. Further down in this passage
of Scripture, look at verse 19, and He's still talking to Nicodemus. This is the condemnation that
light is coming to the world, and men love darkness rather
than light. When did He come? In the dark.
In the dark. Because their deeds were evil.
For everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh
to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Why did he come to Jesus? Well,
ultimately, here's the reason. The Lord was drawing him. But
as far as in his own mind, he was curious about this man, wanted
to know a few more things about him, have him perhaps seen some
of the miracles. He comes and he says, the second
verse, A term of respect. Teacher, 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. He comes to the Savior. I don't know what his motive
was. You know, the Scripture, the
Spirit of God doesn't, He doesn't say, the Spirit of God doesn't
lead John to say exactly why this man came. But, I do know this. He came because
the Lord was drawing him. Now what his motive was, I don't
know. I don't know what his motive
was in being there. But I'll tell you this, he is
at the right place. Whatever his motive was, and
I don't know your motive in being here today. You may be here out
of habit, it's Sunday. Decent people go to church on
Sunday, okay? Maybe you're here because somebody
invited you, a family member or whatever. I don't know what
your motive is in being here. And we certainly want to have
good motives, but you know what? Whatever your motive is in being
here, maybe to make somebody happy, maybe because it's the
right thing to do on Sunday or whatever. Whatever your motive
is in being here, you're at the right place. You're at the right
place. because you must be under the
sound of the gospel of Christ Jesus. I don't know whether God
will ever do anything for you or not, but I guarantee you this,
He will not do anything for you outside the hearing of the gospel
of Christ. Now that's a given. So whatever
your motive is, maybe it's because you think the preacher's a good-looking
guy and you want to come see him. No, that ain't the reason. Maybe you wanted to see friends
here this morning. I don't know. I don't know. But you're here under the sound
of the gospel. I remember reading a story years
ago. A lady at Metropolitan Tabernacle
in London. And she got to where she couldn't
sleep. Couldn't sleep at night. She
didn't go to church. She stayed up all night. And
then finally she told somebody, she said, could you take me to
the tabernacle? I've had many a good nap there. And so they did. Spurgeon tells
this story. He said, and as he was preaching,
he said the gospel caught her napping. Something happened to
her. Her motive in being there was,
I think I can get a good nap in at church. Maybe that's the
reason you came. Whatever it is, you're under the sound of the
gospel of Christ Jesus. And this is what's vital. This
is a man who came to our Lord Jesus. He came by night. By night. You know what his name means?
And I've read several Bible dictionaries on Bible names. His mom and dad
named him a Gentile name, which is actually Victor of the people. The Victor of the people. And
you know, he had risen to be like the victor over the people.
He's the greatest teacher that they knew. But he didn't know God. He didn't
know Christ. He didn't know how God saves
sinners. And he didn't know who this man was that he was approaching
at night. The only thing he knew about
him was he's a great miracle worker. And he even said, no
man can do the things that you do except God be with you. And so our Lord begins to speak
to him. He says in verse 3, Jesus answered
and said unto him, Verily, verily, what does that word mean? Well,
you could say amen, amen, truly, truly. Verily, literally, it's thus
saith the Lord, thus saith the Lord. If the Lord's got something
to say, I want to hear, don't you? I want to be all ears. He says, except a man be born
again, he can't see the kingdom of God. He can't understand.
To see is to perceive. You know, sometimes we'll say
to people when we're talking, do you see what I'm saying? Well,
we don't mean, can you see with these eyes? We're saying, do
you understand what I'm trying to tell you? And our Lord Jesus
says, you can't understand the kingdom of God unless you're
born again. This matter of salvation, of
forgiveness, and righteousness, and blood redemption, you can't
understand these things unless you're born again. And of course,
then Nicodemus, he smarts off, he mouths off in verse 4, and
Jesus says to him in verse 5, Verily, verily, thus saith the
Lord, thus saith the Lord, I say unto you, except a man be born
of water. What's that? Well, he said, it's
baptism. No, that's not baptism. That's the Word of God. That's
the Word of God. The Scripture says in James 1,
of His own will begat He us with the Word of truth. That's what
the water is. Wherewithal shall a young man
cleanse his way by taking heed thereto to the Word of God. The
Bible is called a fire. The Bible is called a hammer.
And the Bible is called in this passage of Scripture, water,
because it cleanses. Born of the water and of the
Spirit. That's the reason I say you need to take your Bible.
You need to follow with me. You need to read the Scriptures.
I guarantee nothing is going to happen to you. Boy, girl,
man, woman, young, old, whoever you are, nothing good's gonna
happen to you outside of the confines of the Word of God. That's why I just insist and
I hope that you will take your Bibles always and follow with
me because I promise you this, God will do nothing for you outside
of this book. You've got to put importance
on the Book of God. You gotta be born of the water,
of the Word of God, and of the Spirit. And he says, that which
is born of the flesh is flesh. It'll always be flesh. You'll
never get any better. But that which is born of the
Spirit is Spirit. That's our need, to be born of
the Spirit. And then our Lord says this in
verse eight. He says, the wind bloweth where
it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not
tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth, so is every one that
is born in the Spirit. Did you know the Spirit of God,
the word actually means breath or wind? One thing you can't
control, there's a lot of things men can control. They can take
rivers and dam them up and to a degree control them. I can
tell you this, they can't control the wind. You can put wind turbines
up and use them to make electricity, but you can't cause the wind
to blow. When I was a boy growing up in
Bassett, Virginia, we didn't know anything about air conditioning.
I'd lay there in southern Virginia at night, had the, we even had
screams. You just open the window, you
just pray for a breath of air. And there's some of y'all here,
you know what, and you lay there and you just sweat. You just
sweat. And I'd say, oh, if the wind
would stir. Boy, if I had the power it would,
because that breeze, it feels so good. Blowing across a sweaty
body. Cool you down. You can't control
the wind. And you can't control the Spirit
of God either. That's why in Ezekiel chapter 37, the Lord
said to Ezekiel, You go out and prophesy to a valley of bones. And he preached to bones. He
preached to dead people, just like I do. Except you're clothed
with flesh. And then it began to stir and
come together. And then the Lord said to him,
prophesy to the spirit. and say, come from the four winds,
oh breath of God, and breathe into these dead ones that they
might live. Guess what? God breathed into
them. And that's what I'm saying's
gotta happen to you, my friend. To all of us. God's got to breathe
into us the breath of life. He doesn't have to. He doesn't owe you a gentle breeze. He doesn't owe you a breath of
life. We've defied Him all our lives. We've sinned against God. We're
rebels in the heart. We're born with our fists in
the face of God. And we've gone through life like
that. He doesn't owe us anything but death, judgment, and hell.
But you know what? He's full of mercy. And He'll
send the wind where He will. And I pray He sends the wind
to you. The wind. The scripture says
God controls the winds. Back in the mid-seventies, that tornado
Went through Xenia, Ohio. My brother lived near there.
His house wasn't affected. But shortly thereafter, Nancy
and I went up to visit him. And we went through Xenia. And
you go through places where everything looked just fine. And then there's
nothing but a cement slab as all is left. They couldn't control
the wind. Because the wind blows wherever
God says for it to blow. And the wind of His Spirit, the
wind of His grace, will blow wherever He sends it. Oh, God, send your life-saving
breath to me and every one of you. Because you must be born
again. And I'll tell you, if He breathes
into you the breath of life, of spiritual life, here's what'll
happen. You'll see the glory of God in
the face of Christ Jesus. And you'll appreciate why Christ
came into this world. He came to live and die and be
raised again for sinners. He came to justify the ungodly. He came to shed His blood to
wash away our sins. He died for sinners. And if the
Spirit of God blows your way, you'll rejoice in that. And you'll
see He's your only hope. He's the only hope you got. You see, the new birth is very
mysterious. It's very miraculous. and it
manifests itself in this way, you look to Christ Jesus. That's
the only way you know you've been born again. And this morning,
if you in your heart of hearts, from your neediness, you look
to Christ. This is the Savior I need. I
need His perfections. I need His blood. I need His
sacrifice. I need His righteousness. I need
Him. If that's truly your attitude,
you've been born again. You've been born again. Mysterious
work. Boy, it's vital work though.
Lord's got to do it. I pray he will for all of us. Well, let's sing a song, shall
we? 112.