me to John chapter 3. All right,
let me read here in John chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, the ruler of the Jews. John chapter 3. The
same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, 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. Jesus answered,
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Our
Lord answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel
not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. The wind
bloweth where it listeth, 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. Nicodemus answered
and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and
said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these
things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness. If I told you earthly things,
and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of
heavenly things? Here in John's Gospel, chapter
3, our Lord told Nicodemus, this man who came to him by night,
and he complimented the Lord Jesus Christ. And while he was
complimenting the Lord Jesus and talking about what a great
teacher he was, that he couldn't even do the miracles he did except
God sent him, God be with him. And our Lord just told him, just
said to him right out, just, verily, verily, I say unto thee,
you must be born again. And unless you're born again,
you cannot see the kingdom of God. Our Lord said down in verse
six, and old Nicodemus asked him, how in the world can these
things be? And our Lord says that which
is born of the flesh, that's all it'll ever be. This old flesh,
this old fallen nature, flesh can't do nothing but produce
flesh. Fallen children, fallen men and women can't produce nothing
but fallen men and women. And it'll be with us until, the
old nature will be with us until God changes us and takes us to
be with Him. And that which is born of the
Spirit, you notice the capitalized word, born of the Holy Spirit,
the Spirit of God, He becomes Spirit, He becomes a spiritual
person. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
thou must be born again. I want to ask this question and
hopefully by God's grace, answer it today. What is the new birth? What is the new birth? What is
it? You know, you hear this people
say all the time, I'm a born again Christian, or he's a born
again Christian. Well, let me say this, there's
no other kind. There's no other kind than a
born again believer. And the new birth is not what
man does, but it's what God does for him. They asked our Lord
Jesus the question in John chapter six. They said, what is the work
that we may do? What is the work that we may
do to be saved? And you know what our Lord said
to him? He says, this is the work of God. This is God's work.
God's work, not yours. God's work that you believe on
him whom God has sent. That's what it means. And there
are a lot of verses in the Bible that teaches the new birth teaches
that man is born again. And oh, over here in John chapter
one, just look here in John chapter one with me for a moment. But
oh, so many verses of his own will begat he us with the word
of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
But look here in John one and verse 13, talking about being
born again, talk about the new birth, which were born not of
blood, My blood kin has no relationship with God because I have a relationship
with God, nor the will of man. Man can talk about his free will
and the power of his will all he wants to, but the will of
man has nothing to do with this new blood, nor the will of the
flesh. But of God, but of God, we're born of God. And that's
what he's talking about. He says, you hath he quickened
who were dead in trespasses and sin, giving you life from the
dead. And that's what, you know, first
Peter says this being born again, not of corruptible seed. That's
what we have, corruptible seed. But of incorruptible, that's
the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. And that's
the gospel that we preach unto you. And he said, if any man
be in Christ, what is he? He's a new creation. And the
next verse says this, but for all things are of God. All things
are of God. And the Old Testament, the Old
Testament's full of the new birth. That's why the Lord Jesus said
here to Nicodemus, But down in verse nine, Nicodemus said, how
can these things be when he told him he had to be born again?
How can this be? And he said, you're a master
of Israel and you don't know these things. You're a teacher,
you're teaching other people. You go to synagogues and you
go up and you stand and you teach all these people. You're a master,
you're a rabbi, and you don't know these things. But the Old
Testament is full of the new birth. Full of it. When Noah
went into the ark, what do you think that was? He was going
in there to be what? Saved. He's going to come out
on what? New ground. And Jacob, when the Lord laid
hands on Jacob in the middle of the night, and Jacob got up
with a new name, and got up with a new nature, and got up with
a new walk. What do you think that was? That's
just typical of the new birth. And you go to the Valley of Dry
Bones, There's dead, and he said, son of man, you look at these
bones. He said, look at them. Oh, there's a lot of them. There's
very many of them, and they're very dry. He said, I'm going
to tell you what I want you to do. I want you to stand up and
preach to those valley of dry bones. Now, I'll tell you what,
that would be something. If I were somewhere and God said,
stand up and preach to that valley of dry bones. Why? Because I
said to. What do you want me to tell them?
Tell them, come together. Bone came to bone, bone came
to bone. Rattling and all that. And then
they all were standing there, just skeletons, just skeletons
standing up. And then he said, son of a man,
preach to them tell flesh to come upon flesh come upon and
he says now prophesy to the wind and they prophesied the wind
and the spirit come by and the next thing every one of those
bones had flesh on them and the next thing you know they're living
Why? Because God said they'd live.
And first thing he says, can they live? And that's what I
ask you. Do you know anything about living?
Do you know anything about the new birth? What it is to have
the life of God in your soul? To have the life of God to change
you? And you know when he said he'd
take out the heart of stone? the stony heart and put in a
heart of flesh what do you think that is and that's why he says
oh my look over here in Ezekiel with me look at Ezekiel 36 you
know uh in verse 24 that infant cast out in the field that infant
cast out in the field preached on that here a while back and
and he is laying there polluted in his blood No one cared for
it. No one washed it. No one swaddled
it. And then the Lord passed by,
spread his skirt over him, said, what time is it? It's the time
of love. And he gave him life. He dressed
him. Oh, the new birth is, the scriptures
is full of it. They call it creation. You know,
we're created in Christ Jesus. Look what he said here in verse
24. For I will take you from among the heathen. And that's
what everybody is, outside of Christ the heathen. I don't care
how educated or... How well they smell and how much
education they got and gather you out of all country and bring
you in the oil And then listen to this then I'll sprinkle clean
water upon you and you shall be clean From all your filthiness
and from all your idols. I'll cleanse you I'm gonna save
you from your idols and listen. It's a new heart Also, will I
give you and a new spirit? Will I put a within you and I'll
take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I'll give you
a heart of flesh And listen to this, and I'll put my spirit
within you and cause you, cause you to walk in my statues and
keep my judgments. He said he'd do that. We are
God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus. So what is this
new birth? What is it? Well, first of all,
the scriptures calls it life from the dead. Life from the
dead. That's what it's called. A man's
dead in trespass sins, God's got to give him life. He's as
dead as that valley of dry bones. That's as dead as you know, that's
the way he is. It's called a quickening. It's
called a quickening. Called bringing life, quickening,
you know, just quicken a man, bringing him to life. It's called
being delivered from darkness into the light. It's called being
born of God. It's called being born from above. And I tell you, beloved, so that's,
you know, when the new birth happens. And you know what? The
difference between new birth and a conversion, let me see
if I can tell you what it is. The new birth is what God does
to you. He gives you new life. and conversion is your response
to that life that's in you. And when that life is in you,
just like a baby when it's born, it starts crying, has to be fed,
has to be nurtured, has to be cared for. When the conversion,
when the new birth takes place, God gives you the new heart,
the new life, that life from the dead, that quickening, that
new birth, when he works that in you, puts his spirit within
you, the conversion is, response to that life that's in you. That's
what conversion is. You turn and you start going
towards God. You never had went to him before,
but conversion is you go towards him in repentance and in faith. A man can't repent until he has
life. He can't believe until he has
life. And so what he does, his response to that new birth is,
is yes, Lord. Oh, thank you. Bless you. And
oh, you start crying out. And I tell you, you know, you've
got life, but you don't know much about it, but you know,
you got it. Oh my, and it's a change. Oh
my goodness, what a change it is. But you know, let me tell
you this. When I talk about the new birth,
let me first tell you what it's not. What it's not. It has nothing
to do with the natural birth. Ain't that what our Lord says?
That that's born of the flesh is flesh. Davis said, I was shaped
in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive me. It has nothing
to do with the natural birth. Our Lord said, you must be born
again. Flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. And our Lord Jesus Christ, he
says this, the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit and
they are life. and that's covenant theology
let me say something about covenant theology is that when you're
in the covenant yourself this is what presbyterians teach and
this is what a lot of people teach they teach that if you're
in the covenant you baptize your baby when it's an infant and
you're infinite infant your baby gets in the covenant with you
and that's not the way it is. Covenant theology in my mind
is that God chose us in Christ before the foundation of the
world based on a covenant between the Father and the Son. And don't
you think that if I thought my children could inherit the kingdom
of God by me baptizing them, sprinkling them, don't you think
I'd have done that? I'd bring them up here now and
I'd fill this thing up and I'd hold them under until they said,
oh, let me up, let me up. But that's not the way you get
in the kingdom of God. He says, the words that I speak,
there's words and them words have life in them. And God calls
them the seed, being born again by interruptible seed. And I'll
tell you, so it's not, it's not had nothing to do with the natural
birth. If I could pass it on, I would pass it on, but I can't.
I can't even give like, we can't give, only kind of life we can
give to any of our offspring is the life that we had from
our parents. And oh, listen, I'll tell you
something else it's not. It's not a system of doctrine.
A lot of people think it's a system of doctrine if they get their
doctrine right. And a lot of folks believe that. But Nicodemus,
our Lord says, you're a teacher. He said, he told our Lord, he
said, you're a teacher come from God. We know that you can't do
anything unless God had taught you. But our Lord just turned
around and said to him, you must be born again. You must. And
old Nicodemus said, oh, how in the world can these things be?
How can these be? And our Lord says, you're a masturbation.
And ain't that something that this, I read an article that
Greg gave me the other day from this really educated pastor of
a great big church, and you never heard such a foolishness in your
life. The natural man, I don't care
how educated he is, how well versed he is, and what all he
must know, he has to be born again. Our Lord said, how can
this be? Let me tell you something a natural
man can do. He can learn a logical system
of doctrine. He can do that. Five points of
Calvinism, very easy to remember. Tulip, total depravity. What
does that mean? That means a man is dead in trespasses
and sins. It don't mean he's as bad as
he can be, but he's as bad off as he can be in the sight of
God. limited or unconditional election. If man's dead and trespasses
his sins, how in the world is he going to be saved? God's got
to choose him. And God unconditionally chooses
the people that he's going to save. They're mine, I gave them
to you, all that the Father gave you. Whom he chose before the
foundation of the world. unconditional election, and then
limited atonement or particular redemption. Christ only died
for those that were given to him in a covenant of grace, only
for those that Christ died for, that atonement of Christ was
limited only to those for whom he died. That's easy to remember.
And then irresistible grace or effectual calling. People say,
oh, you can resist the Spirit of God. Not if God gets on your
trail, you can't. Now you can resist the preacher,
you can resist the Bible, you can resist a lot of things, but
when the Holy Spirit reaches out to get you, Zacchaeus come
out of that tree, out of that tree he comes. Lazarus come out
of that tomb, out of that tomb he come. If and I say unto you
live, and that did, thy bones live, and they did. When God
calls you, you're coming. And the fifth thing is this perseverance
of the saints. These all died in faith. That
was the text that David used down there. These all died in
faith. Every child of God will die in faith, believing. And they'll go into eternity
believing. And then faith will be sight.
So a man can get that, and he can get, free willism is just
as natural to a man as breathing. You know that? Free willism is
as natural to a man as breathing. He automatically thinks he's
good. He automatically thinks that God's going to give him
something because he is good. He thinks, you know, that I can
make up my decision, I can decide to go to church, I can decide
not to, I can decide to accept or I can not accept. That's natural. And fatalism is natural. Fatalism,
just, you know, just, nothing, you know what, you know, there's
nothing, no sense in anybody doing anything because what's
going to happen is going to happen. But he can know all of those
things, but he can't know God. until he's born again. He can
know Calvinism. He can know free willism. He
can know fatalism. He can know church membership.
He can go and get him an education and know Old Testament theology,
New Testament theology, A, B, C, and D, E, F, and G. But he
cannot know God until God gives him life. Yeah, I know what I'm
talking about. I know what I'm talking about.
Look what our Lord said here in John 3.27. And I tell you,
you can't know God except He's born from above. Look what He
said here in John 3.27. John answers, said unto a man
can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. You can't get a thing unless
God gives it to you. Oh, and I'll tell you what else
it's not. It's not an outward reformation. Not cleaning up
the outside. Look over here. You keep jawning.
Oh, I want you to go over here to Luke 11 with me. Luke 11. I'm going to give you
all a little history lesson right here, if I can. Luke 11, verse
24. You know, they talk about the
reformation. Calvin and Swingly and Martin Luther. They were
reforming the Catholic Church, is what they were doing, and
they called them Protestants, and they called it the Reformation.
But God's people, God's elect, all through history, I've not
protested nothing. I'm not a Protestant. I didn't
reform anything. God didn't reform me. They were
reforming the Catholic Church. That's why they still brought
the infant baptism out with them. That's why they brought the robes
and all that stuff with them. They'd never come all the way
out. But believers, we're not Protestants. Baptists are never
Protestants. God's people, He had an elect
people wherever you could find them. The Wagonauts, the Waldensians,
the Anabaptists. But anyway, that's a short history
lesson. But look here in verse 24 of
Luke chapter, talking about route for reformation. Men look on
the outward appearance, but God looks on the heart. He said,
when the unclean spirit is going out of a man, he walketh through
dry places, seeking rest and finding none. This is what you
call getting cleaned up, making a change. And he says, well,
listen, I can't find no place to go, so I'll just go to my
house I came out of. I'll go back into that man I
came out of. And when he cometh, he finds it swept and garnished.
He's got religion. Bought him a Bible, got him put
a cross around his neck, put a picture of Jesus on the wall,
got him some calendars, you know, that's got a bunch of verses
on them and beautiful pictures. Bought him a big Bible, laid
it on his coffee table and opened it up, and there's the 12 disciples
sitting there. He got cleaned up very good. And oh my, he comes back in,
he's swept and garnished, cleaned up. Oh my, cleaned up his life,
got everything in order and all that. And then he goes back and
he says, listen, let's go back to this house. And he took with
him seven other spirits more wicked than himself and they
enter in and dwell there. And the last state of that man
is worse than the first. Look over here in Luke 11, 37. Talking about reformation, cleaning
up the outside of a person. And that's why I always say,
if you're going to invite anybody to a service, invite them, say,
come hear the gospel. Come hear the gospel. Come hear
our preacher. Come hear the pastor. Come hear
this preacher. You know, coming to church, people equate coming
to church with getting right. They so-called getting right
with God. They equate coming to church as making some kind
of a change. But coming to a building ain't
going to change you. The only thing that can change
you is the gospel. This building can't do nothing
for you. But these people in here who are the church, they
can. They can pray for you. They can
tell you the truth. But look what he said here in
Luke 37. And as he spake, a certain Pharisee
besought him to dine with him. And he went in and sat down to
eat. And when the Pharisees saw it, he marveled that he had not
first washed before dinner. Oh my, he just marveled about
it. Oh, how's he going to eat? He
didn't go wash. And look what he said. And the
Lord said unto him, now do you Pharisees make clean the outside
of the cup. You get all this clean out here.
you take the outside of your plate and you clean all that
up but the inward part down inside of it it's full of inward part
of ravening and wolves and look what he said you fools did not
he made that which is without didn't he make also that which
is within if he made that which is without and you worried about
the outward body and all that what about what's on the inside
and that's what our lord's telling me So it's not a natural birth,
not a system of doctrine, not an outward reformation, and it's
not this. It's not making a profession.
Oh, how many people make a profession. And I tell you, this is one thing
that always hinders, I believe, true believers. They always are
afraid that they're going to make a false profession. I don't
want to make a false profession. And that hinders a lot of people.
They say, well, you know, I don't want to confess something that
I don't believe. I'm afraid that if I profess
it, that it... But let me tell you something.
If you profess Christ, to be your Savior, if you profess Christ
to be your all in all, if you confess Christ to be the only
righteousness you got, if you confess your inability that God
salvation to the Lord and only He can save me, then how could
you possibly make a false profession doing that? Can't do it. But
if you start saying, you know, I accepted the Lord, maybe. Well, I'm going to make a decision. Nope, nope, nope. But oh listen,
make it a profession. Calling a dog a sheep doesn't
make it a sheep. Does it? And they got this claimant
theology saying claim it, don't make it so. Don't make it so.
Here Nicodemus was a master of Israel and still dead in sins.
Still. Now the Lord said, why call you
me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I said unto you.
And look over here with me in Matthew chapter 12. Look in Matthew
chapter 12. You know, making a profession,
and people make a profession. And I want you to, and I profess,
I profess that Jesus Christ is my, all of my salvation. And if you'll profess that, there's
no way in the world you can make a false profession. Can you?
You can't do it. And that's why we keep preaching
Christ. You ain't got no power. You ain't got no ability. You
ain't got no goodness. You ain't got no righteousness.
You ain't got no power. You ain't got no ability. The
only thing you've got is sin. S-I-N. And the only way in the
world you can be saved from that is Christ to save you from it.
He's got to break the power of it. He's got to give you a new
heart. And if that gives you that new heart, that new heart
will look to him. I mean, look to him when he gets
up in the morning, looks to him in the middle of the day, looks
to him at supper, and looks to him when he goes to bed, and
looks to him when he gets up in the middle of the night. He
looks to Christ. Now you can't make a bad profession a false
profession doing that. But look what he said over here
in Matthew 12, verse 46. A man can claim anything, that
don't make it so. Excuse me. Look down here in
verse 46. While he yet talked to the people,
behold, his mother and his brethren stood without desiring to speak
with him. Go in there and tell, tell him, go in there and tell
my son and our, and that, that we're standing out here and we
won't say, we got, we need to talk to him. Then one said unto
him, Behold, thy mother and thy brother stand without desire
to speak with thee. They want you to go out and they
want to talk to you. But the answer said unto them
that told him, Who is my mother and who are my brother? And listen
to this. And he stretched forth his hands
toward all of his disciples and said, Behold, my mother and my
brother. These are my brothers, my mothers,
my people. For whosoever shall do the will of my Father which
is in heaven, the same as my brother, and my sister, and my
mother." That's who they are. They claim that was his mother
and that was his brother. But he said, no, these are mine.
These are my brothers, sisters, and mothers right here. So what
is this new birth? What is this new birth? Well,
let me tell you. It's a divine, absolute change. It's the spirit
that quickeneth. The flesh profits nothing. That's
what our Lord Jesus said. It's God, it's God creating a
new creature. The same power that raised our
Lord Jesus Christ from the dead is the same power that raised
us from the death of our sins. I can show you that in Ephesians
chapter 1. I can show you that. I'm not
just, you know, I'm not making this up as I go along. I can
show you that. It's in Ephesians chapter 1.
You know, Who maketh thee to differ? And the same power that
raised our Lord Jesus from the dead is the same power that's
used to quicken us from the death of our sins. Look what he said
here in verse 18. The eyes of your understanding
being enlightened that you may know what is the hope of his
calling and what the riches of the glory of his inherited and
saints. And listen to this now. And what is the exceeding greatness
of his power to us who believe according to the work 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 the heavenly
places." He said the same power that He wrought in Christ, He
said that's the exceeding greatness of the power that He wrought
in us to give us life from the dead. That's what He did. And
we're created in Christ Jesus is to be born of God. That's
what it is, is to be born of God, is to be born of the Spirit. Let me ask you something. If
you ever thought what nature in you, what caused you to start
seeking the Lord? What causes you right now to
turn towards God? What causes you to call on God?
What causes you to desire God? You got to have a nature like
God had. Two cannot walk together except
they be agreed. And so what nature is it in there? What is it that causes us to
talk to God? and have confidence in God, and
believe in God, and rejoice in God, and call on Him. What is
that? That's that new nature, that's
that new nature that God put in. We're made partakers of the
divine nature. God puts it, He brings into existence,
the new birth, God brings into existence a man who never existed
before, and He's a spiritual man. Listen, if you'd have told
me when I was 22, 23 years old, 24, that I would stand up here
and be preaching the gospel, I said, you're crazy in a bed
bug, you know. I said, you're bexy bug crazy. And you know,
I just can't get it out of your mind. But what happens to take
a man, one day he's going in one direction, the next day he's
going in the other. One day he's cussing God, the
next day he's praising God. One day he sees God don't enter
his mind, and then the next day, that's all he can think about,
God, God, oh, bless God. Oh, how does this happen? And
one day he didn't care about eternity, and now that's all
he wants is go into eternity and be with Christ. One day,
beloved, he goes along and he's enjoying life, enjoying his sin,
and then God does something for him and he no longer enjoys sin. It becomes a burden to him. It
becomes a weight to him. He used to think he knowed everything.
God saves him and he finds out, oh, nothing except what God teaches
me. How's that happen? It's also called being baptized
into Christ being taken and putting you in the body of Christ and
not only is it a Divine change, but it's a complete change You
can't go from death to life and it not be a radical change. I mean, you're dead and then
you got life. You didn't have faith, now you
got faith. Oh, listen. He has translated
us from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his dear
son. What about Saul of Tarsus? This is one of the most real.
It's such a radical change. Saul of Tarsus was on his way
to have wards in his pocket. Had wards in his pocket to go
arrest people. Now if the sheriff comes to my
house and he comes up there and he's got an arrest warrant for
me, he can take me. Take me to jail. And that's what
Paul had. He had a pocket full of wards.
And he was going after people like Ruby, people like these
young folks sitting here. He's going after older ladies.
While he had them warrants, what's he going to do? Well, he's going
to arrest them. For what? For believing on the Lord Jesus
Christ. What's he going to do with them?
He was going to cast them into jail. He's going to cast them
into prison. He said, we can't have this.
We got to stamp out this name. We can't have this. But he's
on his way and got the warrants in his pocket. And there's a
line above right across the eyes. He went
blind as a bat. Down he went. Who art thou, Lord? I am Jesus, who'st thou persecutest? He said, you arise, and you go
over there. And I tell you what, when he
received his sight three days later, he said, I was injurious,
I was a blasphemer, and I was a persecutor, but I obtained
mercy. I obtained mercy and when it
pleased God who separated me from my mother's womb and called
me by His grace to do what? To reveal Christ in me. Oh my, what a miracle it is.
I tell you the greatest people talk about miracles. I'm the
greatest miracle that I know God ever performed. I'm standing
right here, I'm the greatest miracle God ever performed, saving
me. And you think this is something,
you think that this is something, God raising you from the dead
and giving you the life of God in your soul. Wait till he takes
this body that's been in the ground and changes it and makes
it like him. You think giving you a new soul
is something, wait till he gives you a new body. Oh my, if He can give us a new
heart, He can give us a new body. And oh, what a divine change.
And I'm going to tell you something else. It's a conscious change.
You cannot have a new life, a new birth, and not be conscious of
it. I don't know if I am or not.
Well, you cannot have the life of God in your soul and not know
it. Look over in Psalm 40. That's where I was talking about
a false profession. Listen, you cannot make a false profession
if you confess Christ. You know, when God told, when
our Lord told Lazarus, said, Lazarus come forth, Lazarus,
he was dead. He was dead, been dead four days. And when God said, Lazarus come
forth, don't you know that Lazarus knew he was alive? He come out
of there and say, well, I don't know what's going on here. He
was dead and now he's standing there and he's looking at his
two sisters. He's looking at Christ. He's
looking at all them people around him. He knew that he had life.
And if God gives you this life, you know you got it. Look what
he said here in Psalm 40 verses one through three. I waited patiently
for the Lord, And he inclined unto me and heard my cry. Now watch this. He brought me
up also out of an oral pit and out of the miry clay and set
my feet upon a rock and established my going. He didn't say get up
out of there if you can. And not only did he bring us
up out of the pit, out of the miry clay, set us on a rock,
establish our goings and look what he did, he put a new song
in my mouth. What is it? Praise be unto God. Praise God for the glory of His
grace. Praise God for Christ and His
blood. We began to sing praises unto
God. And many shall sin and fear and
shall trust in the Lord. And oh my, what is this new birth? It's hearing the voice of Christ.
And John said it like this. We know, we know we've passed
from death unto life. Why? Because we love the bread.
We love the bread. And I know I've got to hurry
here, but why? Why is the new birth necessary?
Why is it necessary to be born again? Because the character
of man, man being what he is, it demands it. It demands it.
Man's character demands it. There in John chapter 3, look
what it says again. Let me show you. If I can, just
a minute. John chapter 3. Our Lord says,
you know what he asked Nicodemus, says, can a man enter the second
time into his mother's womb when he is old and be born? Our Lord said, oh no, Nicodemus,
that's not right. That's not right. And he says,
you must be born again there in verse three. And down in verse
19, look what it says. Man is under condemnation. He's
under guilt. And this is the condemnation
that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather
than light. Why? Because their deeds are
evil. For everyone that doeth evil,
he hates the light. He don't want to come into the
light. Lest his deeds should be reproved. You know man's ways. You know what man's ways of doing
things is? Is to educate or legislate. Educate a fellow or legislate
morality or negotiate, but you know what God's way is? To regenerate,
is to give life. That's what it is. And then not
only does the character of man, man's fallen state, man's awful
condition, demand it, but the character of God demands it.
The character of God, the world was condemned. And see, God is
holy and righteous and without being made holy and righteous,
no man shall see the Lord. He, God, said, Ates, he is our
truth in the inward parts. And he says the kingdom of God
is not in what you eat, what you drink, or what you wear. You know what it is? Righteousness
and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost. Oh, listen, God's got
to make you righteous. He's got to make you holy. And
let me tell you something, the only righteousness that God will
accept is the righteousness of Christ. And he gives that to
us. And the work of the Lord Jesus
Christ demands that a man must be born again. Look over here
in John 3 in verse 14 and 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent
in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up.
Lifted up on that cross. Lifted up for what? That's the
people bitten with that serpent. All their life was in the look
of that serpent. And our Lord said he must be
lifted up as that serpent was. Must be lifted up on the cross.
Lifted up high. Lifted up, sent forth for God.
Suffering for sins. Not his own, but for his own
people. And then he says, he's lifted up that whosoever believeth
in him should not perish but have eternal life. Men live because
Christ died. Except a corn of wheat fall into
the ground and die, it abideth alone. But if it dies, it brings
forth much fruit. And the voice of his blood cries
out that man must be made new if he's going to know God. And
the work of the Spirit demands it. Look what he says there in
verse 7 and 8. here in John 3. Marvel not that
I said unto thee, you must be born again. The wind blows where
it will. That's what that word listeth
me. Blows where it will. And you can hear the sound, but
you can't tell when it comes, when it's going to come, and
when it's going to go. That's what he's saying. And
that's to everyone that's born of the Spirit. The Spirit of
God comes. You don't know when he's going
to come. When he comes, you can tell he's there. You can tell
when he's coming, and you can't tell when he's going. But you
know when he's there, when he blows on you, you'll know that,
huh? The flesh profits nothing. To thank an unrenewed... This
is so awful, but everybody does it. I've heard musicians saying,
boy, when another musician dies, he's up there playing the guitar
in front of Jesus now. You know, they just make some
of the most absurd statements. I know he's going to be with
the Lord. How do you know? How do you know? How are you
going to know somebody's going to be with the Lord? If they've
not been born again, if they haven't lived a life to the glory
of God, if they haven't had this new heart, this new nature, what
makes a fat man think he can go to heaven without having the
nature of God? He wouldn't enjoy it! If you
think enjoying God here is really wonderful, you imagine what it's
going to be like when we get there, but you can't go there
and be there without being as righteous as God, as holy as
God, and having the nature of God. And the Word demands it,
being born again, not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible. Look
at John 6, 63, and I'm going to wind this thing up. The Word
can't be broken, and the Word demands it, says you must be
born again. You must be born again. It is
the spirit that quickens, gives life. The flesh profits nothing. Oh my, we can't do anything.
The words, the words that I speak unto you, they are spiritual.
They are spirit words. They come from the spirit and
they are life. They are life. Have you heard
the voice of Christ? Have you heard the word of Christ? Has the spirit of God moved on
you? I do know this. If he has, You
know it. You know it. You know it. You
know it. You know it and you know it.
Everybody here, whether they've ever made a profession or not,
you know whether God's gave you life or not. You know that. And
if you don't know it, then that means he hasn't. But if he has,
let me ask you some questions. Do you love the gospel? Do you
love the gospel of the grace of God? That just destroys all
hope in yourself. That gives you no hope whatsoever
out of Christ. Do you love the righteousness
of Christ? Do you feel the need absolutely
of another man's right? Do you want to be saved more
than anything else? You don't want to be deceived.
You want to be fooled. You want to be saved. Lord, I
want to be saved. I want to know Christ. And what
do you love? Do you love his word? Do you
love his word? And do you understand it and
delight in it? And does it move in your heart
when you're hearing it preached? If you like that, I think the
Lord's done something for you. Our Father, in the blessed name
of Christ our Lord, thank you for allowing us this time to
preach the gospel. Oh, what a blessed time to gather
with the gospel of Christ, gather with the saints of God. And I
pray, Lord, that you'd bless the word to our hearts, our understanding. God, you're the author of salvation. Holy Spirit, you're the only
one that can take the things of Christ and make them real
and vital in our lives. We ask that you do that for Christ's
sake. Amen. Amen.