Welcome to Reign of Grace. This
program is brought to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries,
an outreach ministry of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany,
Georgia. It is our pleasure and privilege
to present to you the gospel message of the sovereign grace
and glory of God in the person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We pray that today's program
will be a blessing to you. Thank you for listening and now
for today's program. Welcome to our program. I'm glad
you could join us today. I've been doing a series entitled,
You Must Be Born Again, and this is the third message in that
series. And of course, what I'm doing
in these messages is showing the necessity and the nature
of of what we call the new birth. And the base text that I'm using
is John chapter three, if you'd like to follow along in your
Bibles. This is part three. If you haven't heard the first
two, you must be born again, that's the title. And the first
two messages I've already done. And if you haven't heard those,
get those. If you want to study your Bibles, what I do is try
to infiltrate these messages with the Scripture. Some people
say I use too much, but I don't think that's possible. But I
want to show you what the Word of God, the Bible, God's inerrant,
inspired Word says about being born again. you must be born
again." And of course in John chapter 3, this is where the
Lord Jesus Christ is speaking to a lost religious man named
Nicodemus. He was a ruler of the Jews and
he came to Christ by night. Now, he had some regard for Jesus
of Nazareth, but he didn't believe Jesus of Nazareth to be the Christ
or the Messiah. And it says in verse 2 of John
3, the same Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said unto
him, Rabbi, which means 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." Now, Nicodemus was a Pharisee, and
a Pharisee was a Jewish religionist. They were like the moral majority. They were the conservative sect
of Old Testament Judaism, but they had perverted the Word of
God, even the Old Testament, with the traditions of men. And
it's much the same today in religion, even that which calls itself
Christianity. Much of what is called Christianity
is not Christian at all because it doesn't go by the teachings
of Jesus Christ. A Christian is a sinner saved
by grace who believes in and trusts and rests in the Lord
Jesus Christ for all salvation, for all forgiveness, all righteousness,
eternal life, and glory. And they follow the teachings
of Jesus Christ. I wrote a book on that. What
is a Christian? You can order it. We'll give
it to you free of charge. If you want to examine yourself
and test your claim of being a Christian. Get that book and
study it. And it's infiltrated with Scripture.
That's what it is. How do I know I'm really a Christian?
What is a Christian? And that's very important because
the Bible tells us in 1 John 3 and verse 1 and 2 that the
world does not even know what a Christian is. So understand
that. But anyway, so many, like Nicodemus,
they claim to be followers of the God of Abraham, Isaac, and
Jacob, but because of their traditions and because they were steeped
in self-righteousness and self-will, it's just like today, it's a
religion of works and the works of men and the wills of men.
Man makes the difference. They actually denied the God
of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. They denied the gospel of God's
grace. And when Jesus of Nazareth came
on the scene, He challenged the Pharisees. You remember even
in the Sermon on the Mount, In Matthew chapter 5 and verse 20,
he makes this statement. And you understand now the Pharisees
were accusing him of being a lawbreaker because he wouldn't go along
with their traditions. And Christ said, I didn't come
to break the law, I came to keep the law. They weren't keeping
the law, but he was. And he said in Matthew 5.20,
except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and the Pharisees, you shall in no wise enter the kingdom
of heaven. Later on, he said this to them.
Think about this. Think about saying this to religious
folk today. The publicans and the harlots
will enter the kingdom of heaven before you. Because why is that? Well, it's because the righteous
don't need salvation. The righteous don't need repentance.
The sick don't need a physician. Christ came to call sinners to
repentance. Real sinners. And the Pharisees
were sinners, but they just wouldn't acknowledge it. They wouldn't
confess it. And some of them looked at Christ,
looked at Jesus of Nazareth, this is the way they would see
him, they looked at him as a blasphemer, sin of the devil, a winebibber,
an insurrectionist, all of that, a lawbreaker. But Nicodemus had
more regard for him. And he said, for no man, this
is verse two, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. So Nicodemus saw Jesus of Nazareth
as a prophet sent of God, but not as the Savior, not as the
Lord of glory, not as the King of kings. And then Christ said
in verse three, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born again, or born from above,
So he's talking about a new birth, a spiritual birth that comes
from heaven, comes from God. Except a man be born from above,
born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. He cannot understand
it savingly. He cannot see its value. He cannot
see its reality, its worthiness, how much it means. You see, if
you're born again by the Spirit from above, born of God, You
have what we call spiritual eyes. And I'm going to show you that
in just a moment. Spiritual ears. You remember in the book of Acts
chapter 7 when Stephen preached the gospel in Jerusalem and they
rejected him. And he told them, he says, you
are uncircumcised in heart and in ears. That's a spiritual circumcision. I dealt with that last week when
we talked about Romans 2, 28 and 29, that circumcision is
that of the heart and not of the flesh. That's the new birth.
The new birth is called a spiritual circumcision. And in the new
birth, a person who is naturally dead in trespasses and sins,
Ephesians 2, 1, is quickened, given life from above. It's the
resurrection life of Christ. You see, and there are so many
scriptures that we can go to to support this reality of the
new birth. You must be born again. Back
during the 70s, I remember when Jimmy Carter was president, he
claimed to be a born again Christian. And I've heard a lot of people,
I remember hearing a lady on a TV show, a TV talk show one
time, she said, she said, well, I've been a Christian for 15
years and I've never been born again yet. They don't know what
it is. You cannot be a true Christian
if you haven't been born again. And so the term born-again Christian
became popular. Well, my friend, there's no other
kind of Christian but one who's been born again. You can't be
a Christian. You can't believe in Christ. You cannot follow
Christ. You cannot love Christ except
you're born again. And that's what Christ is saying
here. Except a man be born again, born from above, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. And what is that? Well, Nicodemus,
look at verse four. He says, unto him, he says, how
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Well, Nicodemus, I don't
believe he was being facetious here. I think he was showing
his ignorance, even his ignorance of the Old Testament. And he
says in verse five, Christ answered him in verse five, verily, verily,
truly, truly, I say unto thee, accept a man be born of water,
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God."
Born of water. There are two interpretations
of this issue of born of water here, neither of which do damage
to the gospel. You know, sometimes even believers
can differ on the interpretation of a particular scripture as
long, now listen to this, as long as their interpretation
does not deny the basic principles of the gospel of grace. There's
some people who hold interpretations of particular scriptures that
deny and challenge and oppose the gospel of God's grace. No
scripture, no scripture will deny, challenge, or oppose the
basic principles of the gospel, the good news of how God saves
sinners. By His grace, through the blood
of Christ, through His righteousness, His righteousness imputed, as
I say so often. No scripture will deny that.
And so if you look at a scripture, and this, I deal with this in
the book that I wrote talking about biblical interpretation,
rightly dividing the word, the rules of scripture interpretation.
If you look at a scripture and you don't know the actual right
interpretation of a particular scripture, know this first. Whatever it means, it will not
deny, challenge, confuse the basic gospel principles of how
God saves sinners. That's a truth. The gospel is
a truth. The gospel of God's free and
sovereign grace through the blood and righteousness of Christ is
a truth that is set forth in Genesis and all the way through
the Bible and never changes. And whatever scripture you're
on, and you know, when you read scripture, you gotta realize
that language is sometimes difficult, but whatever interpretation you
give it, if it denies, challenges, opposes anything of the gospel,
it's the wrong one. You don't have it right. So leave
it alone. That's what I tell people. Early
on, when I first became a believer, somebody would ask me about a
particular verse, and I didn't know the interpretation, and
you know what I told them? I said, I don't know. But I know
what the gospel is. And in time, I may have learned
what that scripture means in light of the gospel. And that's
how we interpret the Bible. But sometimes, you can look at
a passage And even believers can differ, have whole different
interpretations, but neither interpretation will deny the
gospel. And that's the way it is with
this verse here when he says, except a man be born of water
and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
What's he talking about, born of water? Some people believe
that because of Nicodemus' question, that he's talking about physical
birth. Yes, you have to be born physically Well, why would he
say that? Well, listen to Nicodemus. He
said, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? And Christ is saying,
well, no, except you be born that first time physically and
born the second time, the new birth, reborn by the Spirit,
you cannot enter in the kingdom of God. Now, he's clear. The
first birth, the physical birth, will not, will not get you into
the kingdom of God. Because by nature, we're born
in sin. Now that's, I talked about this,
how we're ruined by the fall, and that's why if we're going
to be saved, we're ruined by the fall. We all fell in Adam.
We fell into a state of sin and death. Spiritually dead. We can't do anything spiritually
in that state until we're born again by the Spirit. But our
first birth, our physical birth, was a birth in sin. We're born
into a state of sin and death. All of us now. And so if we're
going to enter the kingdom of God, if we're going to see the
kingdom of God, we have to be born again. We have to be given
spiritual eyes. Now, and that's what we read
over here in John chapter one and verse 12 when it talks about
as many as received him, to them gave he the right, the power,
the right to become the sons of God, even them which believe
on his name, which were born, verse 13, not of blood, not coming
out of your mother's womb physically, not of blood, not of physical
birth, Nor the will of the flesh, which is the works of the flesh,
not of the works of the flesh, nor the will of man, that is
not by your choosing or opting in your will to do so. You don't
will yourself into the kingdom of God. As preachers sometimes
say today, you know, God loves you, Christ died for you, now
you make the deciding vote. That's not the way it is, that's
not biblical, that's not the gospel, that's a false gospel.
But you're not born of the will of man, you're born of God, see?
So in this passage here, in verse five, the water could be talking
about physical birth. And if that's what you believe,
or if that's what I believe, that does no damage to the gospel
of God's grace. The second interpretation of
that is that the water is emblematic for the word of God. And the
reason that's said is because the new birth is the operation
and work of the Holy Spirit using the water of the Word to give
life to dead sinners. And I believe that, that's true.
So now, both are true. Now, what did Christ have in
mind? Was he talking about physical
birth here or was he talking about the Word of God? Don't know, but my tendencies
think he's talking about the word, but we won't go into that.
Neither interpretation does damage to the gospel of God's grace.
Neither interpretation challenges the righteousness of Christ freely
imputed as the only ground of a sinner's justification and
the only source of a sinner being born again, having life from
the dead. So verse five again of John three.
Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of
God. Is the new birth a necessity? Yes, it is. If you're not born
again, you cannot see, understand, believe, love, you cannot embrace,
you won't come to Christ unless you're born again. And he says,
the reason is, look at verse six, because that which is born
of the flesh is flesh. Now this may be a support for
the water there being, in verse five, being physical birth. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh. Physical birth cannot
produce spiritual things, spiritual life. That which is born of the
flesh is flesh. And in this, The flesh in humanity,
fallen humanity, the flesh is sinful. The flesh is spiritually
dead. Now Christ was made of flesh
in His humanity, but His flesh was not sinful. He is God manifest in the flesh. He's the Word made flesh. But
His flesh was not sinful. He was born of the Spirit without
the aid of man. conceived in the womb of the
Virgin by the Holy Spirit. So yes, he was a man, but he
was more than a man. He was God-man. He was sinless
man. And his flesh was different from
ours. I was born in sin. You were born
in sin. I was born spiritually dead.
You were born spiritually dead. And that which is born of flesh
is flesh. Verse six, and that which is
born of the Spirit, born of the Holy Spirit, is spirit, is spiritual. Spiritual life. Now, so he says
in verse seven, marvel not that I said unto thee, you must be
born again. You must be born from above.
Now what he's telling Nicodemus there is that Nicodemus was a
student of the scriptures, But it's sad how people can study
the Bible and not know its message. Over in John 5, Christ told the
Pharisees, he says, you do search the Scriptures, verse 39. You
search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal
life. There they, which testified me. They read the Bible, what
Bible they had. They read, they studied, they
memorized, they interpreted, they wrote commentaries, but
they missed Christ. They missed the understanding
of righteousness. Paul wrote about that in Romans
9 and 10. The Jews, which followed after
the law, they studied the law. They sought to live by the law.
And they wanted to attain righteousness, a perfection of the law, the
perfection of righteousness found in the law. But they missed it,
he said, because they sought it by their works and not by
faith. That is, not by looking to Christ,
who is the perfection of the law. to everyone that believeth. You see, that's what the Bible
teaches. And today, people have replaced it with all kinds of
things, and the main thing, the main heresy today that people
have replaced it with is faith. In other words, they've made
faith not the way that a sinner by the power of the Holy Spirit
lays hold of Christ and receives Christ and submits to him as
their righteousness. They've made their faith their
righteousness itself, and that's a deception. And so they sought
it not by faith, but by works. And so he says, don't be amazed
that I said to you, Nicodemus, you must be born again. That's
been taught all along. And then verse eight, here's
something he tells us. He says, this is John 3, eight. The wind bloweth where it listed.
In other words, the wind blows where it blows. You're not out
there with a rope or a guide or something controlling it.
And thou hearest the sound thereof. You can hear the wind. When a
storm comes along and it's outside, the wind's blowing hard and you
can hear it. You know there's a wind blowing.
And he says, but you cannot tell whence it cometh. Now, you might
be able to tell what direction the wind's coming from. You don't
know how it all started and how it's going to end up and whether
it goeth. So is everyone that is born of
the Spirit. Now you know what he's telling
us there? He's telling us the only way
that you can know the new birth is by its evidence. You hear
it. You see it, you can feel the
wind if you go outside, it blows leaves and pine straw down here
in the south all over the place, sometimes blows limbs down, and
you can see it. But now when you look out there
and you don't actually see something, an entity called the wind, I
mean I know sometimes you can see a tornado or a hurricane,
but usually the wind is just clear air. And that's the only
way you know it's theirs because it's blowing and you can feel
it. You can hear the sound thereof. And that's what he's saying.
The new birth, the coming of the spirit to operate invincibly
and powerfully in the life of a person, a life of a dead sinner,
to give that sinner life can only be known by its evidence. And what are the evidences? Now
there's where we get into a lot of different things in the scripture. Well, you know he said back there
in John chapter three, he said, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Can't see it. And I want you
to look over in the book of Matthew chapter 13. What he's saying
here is in the new birth, we're given spiritual eyes. If you're born again, you've
been given spiritual eyes. Now, spiritual eyes has to do
with a knowledge and an understanding by which the Holy Spirit powerfully
and invincibly works faith, gives faith, believing, trusting, depending,
relying upon Christ for all salvation, and brings a sinner to see his
own sinfulness and depravity. I'm a sinner. I cannot save myself. I cannot make myself righteous. I cannot do enough good to qualify for salvation, for heaven,
for blessings. Because I have no good, the Bible
says there's none righteous, no not one. That's what happens. See, the Pharisees thought they
were righteous because they kept the law. But they didn't keep
the law and they weren't righteous at all. People today think that
if you do enough, if you believe enough, if you're sincere enough,
if you give enough, if you're moral enough, if you're kind
enough, then that'll be enough. Well, if you think that, you
don't have spiritual eyes to see. You haven't seen yourself. You haven't seen your sinfulness
and your depravity. Here's what the Bible teaches.
Do you see this? Ask yourself. The Bible teaches
that man at his best is altogether vanity. That is worthless. Now you say, well, wait a minute.
You mean it's worthless if I go out here and try to be a good
person and try to do well and try to be charitable and kind
and all that? I'm not, listen, we always have to make this distinction
when we're talking about salvation, when we're talking about the
Bible. All of us should try to be the best people that we can
be in every way, in every walk of life. As we grow up, a child
should be an obedient child, an obedient student, good student. mothers and fathers, bosses,
employees, in every aspect, we should be the best that we can
be. And that's worth something in this world. But when it comes
to salvation, when it comes to washing away my sins, when it
comes to establishing a righteousness before holy God, All of that
is worthless. You believe that? If you don't,
that means you don't have eyes to see. You see, the Bible teaches
us that righteousness can only come by the grace of God through
the obedience unto death of the Lord Jesus Christ as the surety,
substitute, and redeemer of his people. In order to be saved,
in order to have a right relationship with God, I must have a righteousness
that answers and equals the demands of God's justice, and that can
only be found in Christ. It's not found in me. If God
were to judge me by that standard of righteousness based upon my
best efforts to keep the law, I would be damned forever. Bible
says that in Acts 17, 31, that God has commanded all men everywhere
to repent because he has appointed a day in the which he will judge
the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,
and that he hath given assurance unto all men. Now, and over in
Matthew chapter 13, Christ had been speaking in parables, and
I'll start here next week, because I notice my time is running out,
and that's okay. This is a series of messages.
But he began, he'd been preaching the gospel. And you know, people
like the Pharisees and the Sadducees, the religious people rejected
it. And Christ tells his disciples why over in Matthew 13. We'll
begin there next week. I hope you'll join us next week
for another message from God's word. We are glad you could join us
for another edition of Reign of Grace. This program is brought
to you by Reign of Grace Media Ministries, an outreach ministry
of Eager Avenue Grace Church in Albany, Georgia. To receive
a copy of today's program or to learn more about Reign of
Grace Media Ministries or Eager Avenue Grace Church, write us
at 1-1-0-2 Eager Drive, Albany, Georgia. 317-07. Contact us by
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today and may the Lord be with you.