Let's go to John, the third chapter. This is a passage of scripture
with which you're very well acquainted. Here we have an exchange of words
between this ruler of the Jews at the demons and the Lord Jesus. In the first nine verses, there's
conversation that goes both ways. But even in this, it's the Savior
who does most of the speaking. But after the first nine verses,
beginning at verse number 10, going down to verse 21, the Savior
speaks and he speaks to Nicodemus, giving him these instructions
or this discourse. I think we could say in the first
10 verses, The main thought is the necessity
of the new birth. Let men say what they will. Our Lord Jesus said, you must,
you must be born again. This is a necessity. It's not optional. You must be
born again. There must be another birth.
There must be a second birth. There must be a birth that is
from above. There must be a birth that doesn't
originate with man. There must be a birth that is
of God, that is effectual within man. That is, man must be a receiver
of life. God has to create Life in the
heart. And it is a life that is spiritual
and therefore only God can give it. You ever sing that the words
of that song, you probably have years ago, barely, barely I say
unto you, I'm sure that several of you know that song. It begins
this way. A ruler once came to Jesus by
night. to ask him the way of salvation
and life. Is that what Nicodemus did? No,
he didn't come asking the way of salvation and life. This is a self-righteous Pharisee. This is a man who thinks he knows
God. This is a man who lives by the
law, at least according to his understanding of the law. This
is a man who, by his own works, by his own deeds, he thinks that
he's justified with God. And the saint says to this self-righteous
Pharisee, this ruler of the Jews, this man who's a member of the
Sanhedrin, this man who is a master in Israel, he is the master teacher
in all of Israel, and our Lord says to him, you must be born
again. So verses one through 10 is about
the necessity of the new birth. Then we get to verses 11 through
21. And in verses 11 through 21,
the main thought is the necessity of believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. Now, as you notice, or as you
read through these verses, you'll notice that the subject of not
believing the Savior or not receiving the Savior, it arises, and then
also this thought of believing the Lord Jesus. And we've dealt
with the necessity of the new birth. Look at this in verse
11. He says, barely, barely, I say
unto thee, here are the words of our master. Here's the words
of the Savior. Barely, barely, truly, truly,
of a truth, of a truth, or amen, amen. Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen,
and ye receive not our witness. Ye receive not, in other words,
you don't believe the witness. The word witness is record. You don't believe the record
that we're giving to you. You don't believe the report.
I talked Sunday night about we give the report. That's what
a preacher does. That's what our Lord Jesus did.
It says he went forth preaching the gospel of the kingdom. He's
giving the report. He's giving the record concerning
himself that he came from above. Later in verse 14, he talked
about as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even
so must the son of man be lifted up, here's the subject, the record,
here is the report of substitution. Here's the necessity of his work
upon the cross. Our Lord says, you heard the
witness, but don't receive the witness. You don't believe the
record that God has given concerning his son. Notice again, a little
further down in the next verse. If I have told you earthly things,
verse number 12. If I have told you earthly things,
and ye believe not. Again, the emphasis in this section
is on belief, the necessity of belief. The first section is
the necessity of the new birth. And the new birth is necessary
in order for a man to believe. You remember at the end of the
second chapter, there were many who professed to believe on the
Lord Jesus, but he didn't commit himself to them because he knew
all. He knew everything that was in
these people, and he knew that their heart was not filled with
faith in him. There had not been that life
given that must be given before faith will exist. You see, faith
doesn't grow naturally within the human heart, it is a result
of the life of God that's created within the soul. There must be
the new birth. A man must be born from above,
and then he believes the gospel. Then he receives the record that
God has given concerning his son. After God gives life, that's
when interest will be seen. That's when a man's heart From
his heart, he desires to know God, to know Christ Jesus. He
desires to know more about the gospel. But until this light
comes into the soul, there will be no faith. There will be no
reception of Christ Jesus. There will be no belief. He says here, I told you earlier
things, you don't believe them. In other words, I've spoken to
you using illustrations, using figures, and you don't believe
that? You can't receive that? Well,
it wouldn't be any good if I told you just straightforward, pure,
heavenly truth. You sure enough couldn't understand
that. There's no reception of the gospel of a natural man until
there's the new birth, the new birth. Notice he says in the
15th verse, that whosoever believeth in him, here's the subject of
belief, whosoever believeth. And this believing is not a one
time single act. It's believing, we have believed,
we are believing, we shall continue to believe. This is faith that
is continual, because the work of God within the soul, the life
of God within the soul, leads us to keep on believing, receiving,
embracing, looking to, clinging to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is a faith that doesn't
end. Now, if somebody makes a confession of faith and they run well for
a while, then they just stop. They just leave the God, they
just walk away from the gospel and they have no more interest
and have been regenerated. They have been born again with
the Spirit of God because a man who's born of the Spirit of God,
that life doesn't die. And that life leads a man to
embrace Christ Jesus, to look to him and never take his eyes
off of Christ. He always embraces the Savior. He's looking to the blood, and
the blood becomes more precious to him the older he gets. He
looks to the righteousness of Jesus Christ freely imputed to
him, and that righteousness becomes more and more precious to him
as he grows in the grace and in the knowledge of our Lord
Jesus Christ. The Savior said, and whosoever
believeth in him, should not perish, but eternal life. Notice in verse number 16, for
God so loved the world. And this was too big a pill for
the Jews to swallow because they were expecting Messiah to come
into the world and to save them from all the oppression of the
enemy. But the Savior comes and he says
to this man, who is a ruler of the Jews, he said, for God so
loved the world. You think the love of God, the
kindness of God, you think it's just confined to the Jewish nation? It's for all kinds of people,
people throughout the world. You know, that must have hit
Nicodemus mighty hard. He's so precious against the
Gentiles. But he says, for God so loved
the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever,
and here's the theme again in this section, believe it, believe
it, in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. Notice
in verse 18, even believe it, the Savior's insisting upon belief. He that believeth on him is not
condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because
he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. Notice, look at the 50th verse. For everyone that doeth evil
hateth the life, neither cometh to the life. What is it to come
to the life? Well, let me ask you this, who
is the life? The light is somebody. I know
there's the light of God's word, but the light of the world is
the Lord Jesus. And those who are still in darkness,
they won't come to the light. That's faith. Faith is to come
to the light. But then he says in verse 21,
but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds
may be made manifest, that they're raw in God. And so in the first
section, the main issue is the new birth. You must be born again.
Now, the second section is the necessity of faith. Make no mistake
about it. You must believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. You must. There's nobody in glory. There's nobody in heaven who
refused to believe on the son of God. Everybody who's there,
willingly, lovingly, decisively, from the heart, embrace, believe
on Jesus Christ, the Lord, as he's revealed in the book. They
have revealed, they believe Christ Jesus, they've received Christ
Jesus, and they believe what the word of God says about who
he is, what he did, why he did it, and where he is now. They
look to Christ Jesus alone. You must believe on Christ. Whoever you are, if you're here
tonight, you may have been in church for years and years and
years, you may be watching on the internet, you've got to believe
on Jesus Christ. That is a necessity. Believe
on him. What must I do to be saved? Brother
Tim James dealt with this from the book of Acts chapter 16.
The jailer said, what must I do to be saved? Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. And my house, if they
believe, they shall be saved as well. Believe on Christ Jesus. But understand this, if you do in fact believe on
the Lord Jesus, that faith is not the reason
for you being born again. But rather, faith is a result
of you being born again, baby. They still put the cart before
the horse, and this is what, this is where all religion, all
religion, this is what they said, this is what they always say.
Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be born again. Well, that's
not scriptural. That's contrary to the word of
God. The Word of God teaches us this. We're dead in trespasses
and sins. God makes us alive. God creates
life within us. He doesn't use something that's
already there because there's nothing good there. There's nothing
good within the heart of man. All this death, all this rottenness,
all this depravity. Rather, he speaks life. to the soul. He creates light. He shines the light of the gospel
within us, and the evidence of the new birth is faith. Believe
me on the Son of God. Let me show you a couple of verses.
Look at Ephesians, the second chapter. Stay with me. Ephesians, the
second chapter. You know this passage well. It says, when life is given,
And it's miraculous, there's no question about that. This
giving of life is mysterious. But when God the Spirit resurrects
a sinner, when he speaks life within the heart, then the soul
is sensitive, it has become tender, and the
gospel begins to mean something. You see, for regeneration, the
gospel doesn't mean anything to us. Oh, we may get, we may get carried away a little
bit every once in a while and, you know, kind of have some feelings
of, well, I don't want to go to hell. I want to go to heaven. But really there's no, there's
no life in the soul. Feelings, feelings and sight
and hearing, those are evidences of life. There's no life in the
soul of man. There's no life in the heart
of man. The heart of man is deceitful above all things and desperately
wicked who cannot. Then God sends his word of the
gospel. The spirit of grace, he takes
that word. And in a way that we can't begin
to fathom, he makes us alive. You were dead. He says here in
Ephesians chapter 2 and verse 1. And you who were dead in trespasses
and sins, he quickened you. He quickened you. And what's
the evidence of that? What's the evidence of this quickening
power of God? Well, verse 8. For by grace he
is saved through faith. That knowledge of yourself is
a gift of God. God gives you faith. He gives
you faith to believe. You know, many years ago, when
we didn't know better, when I didn't know better, I'd
sing Rescue the Parachute. There's another song we used
to sing, right? Rescue the Parachute and care for the dying. Jesus
is merciful. Jesus will say, well, first of
all, we can't rescue you. You can't rescue anybody. You
can't rescue yourself. We give out the gospel. We preach
the word of Christ Jesus, but we can't rescue anybody. I can
rescue the perishing, only he who is life can give life. Watch this. One of the verses
in that song goes, down in the human heart, crushed by the tempter,
feelings lie buried that grace can restore. Remember that, Stanley?
Feelings lie buried, really? Are there feelings, are there
feelings toward God that lie buried in some remote part of
the heart that the grace of God kind of fans upon it and stirs
it up and wow, and then it's alive? No, there are no feelings
in the heart. There's only death in the heart.
There's violence in the heart. There's rottenness in the heart.
There's corruption in the heart. There's nothing good. kind of
lying over in a corner, just waiting for grace to kind of
touch it, and then it kind of blossoms. No, it's not like that
at all. Not at all. Those feelings the
hymn writer wrote about, they're non-existent. They just aren't
there. The spiritually dead sinner is
lifeless toward God. There's nothing within which
the Lord uses. Grace doesn't bring forth feelings
that are there. Grace creates life. Grace creates
feelings. Grace creates the breath of the
heart. It's grace that creates sight.
It's grace that creates hearing. It's grace that causes the lame
to walk to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. Grace is behind it all.
There's nothing in the heart until God gives life. You know, back in the first chapter
of Ephesians, which you know very well, the Lord leads the
Apostle Paul to write about this great work of salvation, the
work of the Father, and the work of the Son, and the work of the
Spirit. Here's electing grace. Here's redeeming grace. Here's
the sealing grace of the Spirit, of wisdom, and of power. Notice in verse 13 of chapter
one, in whom you also trusted. We're talking about believing
in whom you also trusted. After that, you heard the word
of truth, the gospel of your salvation. You see, there's no,
there's no believing Christ Jesus. There's no trusting the Lord
until after you've heard the word of truth. And somebody says,
well, I was saved before, before I heard the gospel of grace.
No, you weren't. You were religious then. And
you were sincere, maybe, but you weren't converted until after
you heard the word of truth. Because it's the word of truth
that the Lord uses. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. So don't say, well, I was converted
before I heard the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is an impossibility. Amen. Because the word of truth
is the good seed. It is the incorruptible seed
that the spirit of God uses in the new birth. So he says, in whom also you
trusted, after that you heard the word of truth, the gospel
of your salvation, in whom also after that you believed you were
sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise. which is the earnest
of our inheritance unto the redemption of the purchased possession under
the praise of his glory. Where did this faith, where did
this faith originate? Where did this faith come from?
Or we might put it this way, to what do we owe faith? This faith that lays hold of
the Savior, this faith that looks to his blood, This faith that
looks to His work. And really this faith that looks
to the Savior. That looks to the Savior. Where
did it come from? What's the origin of this faith? Well, the apostle is led to tell
us. Look at verse 15. Wherefore I
also after I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and
love unto all the saints, Cease not to get thanks for you, making
mention of you in my prayers, that the God of our Lord Jesus
Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit
of wisdom and revelation and the knowledge of him, the eyes
of your understanding being enlightened, that you may know what is the
hope of his calling and what riches of the glory of his inheritance
in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power
to us who believe according to the working of his mighty power
which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead and
set him at his own right hand in heavenly places. Here's what
he's saying. Those who believe, they believe because of the working
of mighty power within. That's what the apostle Paul
is saying. Certainly God has spoken of his goodwill in the
verses prior to this. As I mentioned, his electing
grace and the redemption that's in the blood of the Lord Jesus
Christ. Well, now he tells us that this
faith to embrace the one who died for us is to be traced back
to God's power. that was effectual in the heart. Look again at verse 19, at what
is the exceeding greatness of its power. Exceeding greatness,
that's the super abounding greatness. This is greatness without dimension. This is unlimited greatness. The greatness of his power to
usher who believe according to the working of His mighty power.
In other words, if we believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, if
you believe on the Savior tonight, not some man's invented picture
of the Lord Jesus, but I mean, if you believe the Lord Jesus
Christ as He's revealed in the Word of God, the reason is because
of the exceeding greatness of His power within you. We believe according to the working,
according to the energy of his mighty power. Now listen, faith
is not a little thing. Faith is not a little thing.
Faith is not an insignificant matter. If you have the faith
of God's elect, if you truly believe on the Lord Jesus Christ,
that is miraculous. That's not an insignificant thing.
That's not a little thing. Because without faith, it's impossible
to please God. Somebody says, well, there's
nothing to faith. All you gotta do is just believe
on Jesus. Do you understand that in order
to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, supernatural power has
to be at work in your heart? That's a necessity. A fellow
one time told me he was saved in faith, believing on the Lord
Jesus Christ. He said, it's so simple, it's
like falling off a log. Falling off a log. This faith, this faith that looks
to Jesus Christ alone forever for forgiveness, for life, salvation,
for righteousness. This faith is not a little thing,
it's not an insignificant matter. It's great, it's glorious, it's
wonderful. It's one, it's miraculous. Now
you would think that we would all believe on the son of God,
but nobody will unless we're the object of a miracle. Then we move. I'll tell you when God works
a miracle in the heart, Nobody's got to talk to you. Nobody's
got to twist your arm. Nobody's going to say, now, won't
you sign this? Won't you sign this commitment card? Won't you
please pray the sinner's prayer? Won't you please make a decision? Oh, no, in the spirit of God,
in this exceeding Mighty energy when he works within the center
must go to Jesus Christ He said I must have this savior. I must
have this salvation I've got to have Jesus Christ the one
revealed in the book. I've said it for nothing less
than God's salvation Get out of my way It's a great thing
if you believe on Christ You're an object of God of His miraculous
energy, divine power. What do we know about this power? Those who really believe on the
Lord Jesus Christ, we believe because of the working of this
great power within. And the working of that great
power within, you know what it's called? The new birth. It's the
new birth. I give you four things to remember
about the new birth, which results in faith. Number one, those who
really believe the Son of God do so, because this Almighty,
which works with him, is a conquering power. It's a victorious power
over all other powers, and no power that opposes it And no
combination of powers that oppose it are a match for this, because
this is divine power. This is a power that goes beyond
all resistance. You see, if God be for us in
regenerating grace, who can be against us? God's power is a
reigning power. It's a dominant power. It's a
power that is backed by the absolute sovereign authority of the almighty
himself. And remember the natural man,
the natural man, you and me, you and me by nature, we're held
captive by Satan's will. We're held captive by Satan's
power. We're bonded by the God of this
world. We can't see the glory of God
in the face of Jesus Christ. He's done a number on us. Satan
has done a number on us. Well, what will it take for us
to have sons? With death to the call of Christ,
what is it going to take for us to have ears to hear? We're blind to the beauties and
the glories of the Son of God. We're blind to the holiness of
God. We're blind to our own sinfulness. What's it going to take for us
to see? This is what it's going to take. It's going to take the
exceeding greatness of His power to us where we believe according
to the working of His mighty power. Amen. This is a power. This is a power that absolutely
conquers every obstacle that stands in the way of the conversion
of the chosen redeemed. It just clears out all the opposites. This sinner who's chosen in grace,
this sinner who's been redeemed by the precious blood of the
Savior, not all the powers of hell itself can oppose that soul
when God himself sends forth his omnipotent energy to quicken
that dead soul. The apostle says, he will have
mercy on whom he will have mercy, for who hath resisted his will. Look at the words that the apostle
uses here in Ephesians 1 about this authority of God. That's
his work within my heart. He gives four words, and all
of them generally set forth the idea of God's power. The first word is indeed, in
verse 19 is the word POWER. It's a different word from that
word POWER at the end of the verse. Those are two different
words. You'll see in verse 19 POWER is used twice. The first
usage is a different one, and it's a word from which we get
our word DYNAMITE. As in Romans chapter 1 verse
16, that the gospel is the power of God unto salvation, the dunamis
of God, the dynamite of God unto salvation to everyone that believe
it. Here, this word first is a reference
to God's inherent ability. Is there anything that God can't
do? I mean, I know he won't do anything contrary to his nature,
but is God's power limited? Absolutely not. He has the power
within himself. Shall we call it this way? God's
natural power, it is inherent to himself. All things are possible
to God. Nothing's impossible to God. The second word is working. And
that is the word, the literal word is working or operative
energy. This is an energy that is at
work. You know what the new birth is? It's energy, divine energy
at work in you. This is absolutely glorious.
This is absolutely wonderful. It's a miracle. This is not decisionism. This is not walk the aisle and
get born again. This is God himself, as it were,
rolling up his sleeve, and with divine energy, he creates life
in the soul. He said to Nicodemus, you must
be born again. This divine energy, it's got
to be operative within you, you old dead Pharisee. You're not
going to believe, you're not going to receive, you're not
going to see the beauties of Jesus Christ until God himself
by his almighty power exerts that power within you and creates
life. The third word is mighty. Mighty,
the word mighty means manifested, manifested force or ability. The fourth word again is power,
but it's a different word because this one means might or authority. So you put all of these words
together and really it takes all of these words together to
begin to fully set forth what is involved in the rebirth. And
if you put them all together, verse 19 would read this way. Here's a paraphrase of it. And
what the super abounding greatness of God's inherent power to us
who are his believing ones as measured by the operative energy
of the manifested strength of God's might. No, believing, it's not a little
thing. It's not an insignificant thing.
This is glorious. If you're a believer, you're
an object of God's miraculous grace. I mean, God has gone to
work with me here. And here, and I said, I've been
here before, Secondly, those who believe the Lord Jesus Christ
do so because of his mighty power, which is the same kind of power
that raised up our Lord Jesus from the grave. That's what he
says in verse number 20, which he wrought in Christ when he
raised him from the dead and then set him at his own right
hand in heavenly places. So what kind of power is it gonna
take for me to be born again? It's the same kind of power that
brought forth the Savior from the dead and sitting at God's
right hand with authority over everybody. That's what's got
to happen immediately. That same kind of power has got
to be effectual in this. Don't talk to me about this.
All you got to do is just believe. Just believe. Just believe. of God's miraculous regeneration. Tell you what, look over to John
chapter five. John chapter five, look at what
the Savior said. John chapter five, look at verse
21. John 5, 21, for as the Father
raises up the dead and quickeneth them, even so the Son quickeneth
who be willed. For the Father judgeth no man,
but hath committed all judgment under the Son, that all men should
honor the Son, even as they honor the Father. He that honoreth
not the Son honoreth not the Father which is sent him. Verily,
verily, I say unto you, he that heareth my word, and believeth
on him that sent me, he's already got everlasting life. You see,
that's the reason he believed. Because he hath everlasting life,
and he shall not come into condemnation, but is passed from death into
life. Verily, verily, I say unto you, the hour is coming, and
now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God,
and they that hear shall live. Those of you who believe, here's
what happened. You heard the voice of the Son
of God. He called you from the grave.
He said to you, just like he said to Lazarus, he said, come
forth. And when he issued that call
to you to life, that's when you came forth from the grave. You're an object of his miraculous
grace. And then thirdly, those who believe
Christ Jesus do so because this is a power that conquers every
obstacle. And because this is a power,
the same kind of power that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead.
And it is irresistible power. It's effective power. Over in
John chapter three, our Lord, he didn't ask Nicodemus, do you
want to be born again? He just said, he must be born
again. And he didn't say, go read a book on how to be born
again. He just said, you got to be born
again. He didn't give him a list of things that he had to do before
he could be born again. He didn't say, do you want to
be born again? He didn't say to Nicodemus, you
need to get some thought to being born again. He just said, you
must be born again. You must be born again. And the new birth of Nicodemus,
and I believe he was regenerated at some point, but the new birth
of Nicodemus and the new birth of any sinner is a sovereign
act of the Holy Spirit of God. The Savior said in John 3, verse
8, like the wind that blows where it wants to, you only see the
effect of it. That's the way the Spirit of
God is in its regenerating hour. He goes where he wills. None
can stop him, none can hinder him. You can't force him to work,
and if he works, you can't stop him. In Ezekiel chapter 37, you're
familiar with that passage. Ezekiel was commissioned to preach
to the dry bones. We read that there was a shaking.
The bones came together. The muscles came together. The
skin covered it all, but there was still a major, major problem. Ezekiel 37 verse eight says,
but there was no breath in them. There's no breath. Well, they
looked good. They looked like it was just dry bones. And now
look at it. They're covered with skin. Oh,
there's something. Yeah, but there's just one problem. You're still dead. So you can join the church. You
can take up some good habits. You can put off some bad habits.
And people say, now you look like a Christian. But there won't be any life.
And for the word of God, through the preaching of the gospel,
the spirit of God, using that gospel, breathes life into the
dead, and then the standard of life he arteth. That's what it
says in Ezekiel 37. But that didn't happen until
the breath of God came. You ever seen that song, breathe
on me, oh breath of God? That's what we need, we need
the breath of God. Just like Adam, it says of Adam,
God breathed into him the breath of life, then he became And you can get religious, you
can do a lot of things, but you'll still be dead until God breathes
the breath of life into you. And when he breathes the breath
of life into you, that's a life that will never die. It's God's life in the soul. And I'll give you this one. Those
who really believe on Christ Jesus, here's the point. Those
who really believe on Christ Jesus do so because of the working
of his mighty power, and that mighty power is continually at
work within us, keeping us alive and keeping us believing. Amen. Look at this reference. It gives
you to Ephesians chapter three. And I said, do you still believe?
After all these years, do you still believe? Are you still
a poor sinner who has nothing at all in himself or in yourself,
Lord Jesus, his blood, his righteousness is your all in all. You're still
looking to him for the reason you believe to begin with is
the reason that you still believe because of that power still working
with you. I'm gonna let you go. Ephesians
chapter three, 20 and 21. Now unto him that is able to
do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think according
to the power that worketh in us, according to the power that
is energetic within us. It's operative within us. It's effectual within us. This
is a power that's active inside. Now listen, the only reason you still believe,
the only reason you're still alive, spiritually, is because
of Christ Jesus, who is your life. And if you were ever to be severed
from him, now that can't happen, right? That can't happen. But go along with me. for the
sake of an illustration. If Christ Jesus were to leave
you, if you could be severed from him, guess what? Wouldn't
be in life, right? Wouldn't be in life. Because
he's your life. Sure, he's your life. Cut off
from him, you'd be dead. He said, I'm the vine, you're
the branches. What's going to happen to a branch
severed from the vine? It's going to wither and die. Thank God we're not going to
be severed from the matter. He's our life. And the reason
we keep on believing is because of this divine energy that maintains
that life. Listen, I didn't do anything
to get that life. And thank God I can't do anything
that will cause that life to leave me. Isn't that good news? This gospel, any way you look
at this gospel, it's just full of abuse. We believe because
of the working of his mind. Nicodemus, you must be born again.
You must believe. He that believeth,
hath believed. Has he but come to believe. Born
again. Born again. Well, let's see.