As Brother Tim said, we're going
to be looking at John chapter 3. And actually, what I'm dealing
with in a few messages here, beginning with what I talked
about last week and today, and probably another message or two,
has to do with this subject, evidences of the new birth. Christ told this man Nicodemus
in John chapter 3, you must be born again. or you cannot see,
which means to know, to understand, to appreciate, to love and believe
the kingdom of God. He said you must be born again
or you cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now that tells us several
things. It tells us that the new birth is our own personal
entrance into the kingdom of God. And that kingdom is Christ. One of the things that I want
to emphasize in these messages is that salvation is described
sometimes in the Bible as being in Christ. What Brother Tim read
there, the Apostle Paul said that I may be found in him. not having mine own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of
Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith. I want to
be in Christ. And that term in Christ has several
applications, several meanings. First of all, the Bible teaches
this now, and to be born again is to be in Christ, but let me
just give you the whole, just very briefly here. To be in Christ,
if you're ever in Christ, you were in Him eternally. And I
would direct you to the book of Ephesians chapter 1 as one
of the many scriptures that relates that. If a sinner is in Christ,
if a person is in Christ, legally, you might say, or eternally,
let's say, you've always been in Him. That is from His point
of view. God chose you in Christ. And
God set you in Him as your surety before the foundation of the
world. Paul spoke of a salvation in 2 Timothy chapter 1 which
was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began. That
word in Christ, the term in Christ Jesus means united to Him. And
even though we are fallen in Adam and born spiritually dead,
Eternally, from God's point of view, wouldn't you say, we've
been in Christ all along. Our sins were imputed to Him.
He's our surety. He is righteousness to us. And
then, secondly, to be in Christ is to be in Him legally and redemptively. Now, a passage that comes to
mind on that is Romans chapter six, which simply states this,
that when Christ died, He died for me. He died for my sins.
I died with Him. When He was buried, I was buried
with Him. When He arose again, I arose
with Him. He did it for me. That's what I'm saying. And that's
very important to today's message. That He redeemed us from our
sins. He didn't redeem the whole world,
everybody, without exception. He redeemed His sheep. The Good Shepherd died for His
sheep. And then, how do I know that
God chose me from the foundation of the world? How do I know that
Christ died for me? Well, that comes the third way.
That's in Christ spiritually by new birth. That's when God
the Holy Spirit comes forth from Christ and gives life to a dead
sinner. Gives that sinner knowledge and
faith and that's what we're gonna talk about. And if you look at
John chapter three here, Look down at verse 14. Now, these
verses here, verses 14, 15, and then in later messages I'm going
into verse 16, John 3, 16, you know, which is one that a lot
of people quote, and they have a lot of misunderstanding about.
But verses 14 and 15 kind of encapsulates what I'm saying
today. He says, verse 14, now listen
to this, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
That's a reference to an event that happened to the children
of Israel as they were wandering through the wilderness. And I'm gonna go back to that
in another message, all right? So don't, I'm not just passing
over, it's because that's significant. That's when, you know, they were,
God sent his judgment on them. They were bitten by poisonous
serpents. God told Moses to make a pole
and make a brass, a brazen serpent, put it up on the pole. He said,
you tell the children of Israel that all who look shall live.
Look and live. Well, that's a picture of Christ
on the cross. And look to Christ. Look upon
me and be ye saved, he says. One old preacher said, salvation's
in a look, always has been, always will be. But it's the look of
faith, God-given faith. And remember now, Christ told
Nicodemus, except you be born again, you cannot what? See the
kingdom of God. You can't see Christ. So until
you're born again, what does that mean? You can't look upon
him until you're born again, isn't that right? Now I'm not
just using human logic here, this is the scripture. Except
you be born again, Nicodemus. Except you be born again, Bill
Parker. Except you be born again, Jim
Casey. Every one of you. You cannot
see the kingdom, you will not look. Again, I'm gonna go back
to that, but he says, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in
the wilderness, even so, in the same way, must the Son of Man
be lifted up. Now how was he lifted up on the
cross? He said over in John chapter
12, I believe it's around verse 31, maybe not that specific verse. He said, and I, if I be lifted
up, he said, I'll draw all unto me. And then it says he was speaking
of the death that he would die. Christ must be lifted up on the
cross. He must die in the place of,
as the surety of, and for the sins of his people, he must be
buried and arose again the third day. That's the cross experience. So he was lifted up on the cross,
but he was also lifted up from the grave, because on the cross,
he satisfied the justice of God for the sins of his people and
brought in everlasting righteousness, whereby God is just to justify
his people. Now, his death was not a token. His death was not a mere expression
of God's love, even though it is an expression of God's love,
but it wasn't just a mere expression of God's love. His death was
not just an example of martyrdom and determination. His death
was a redemption. His death did not make salvation
possible. When we get to John 3, 16, I'm
going to show you that in the scripture. It says in verse 16,
that God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son.
But he gave his son for a specific people called his elect. called his church, called his
sheep, his brethren. We could go on and on. The redeemed
of the Lord. He bought and paid for them and
he will have them. And the basis of the salvation,
the ground of the salvation, and the spiritual life of everyone
for whom he died is his death on the cross. His righteousness,
because that's what his death resulted in. He arose from the
dead. and all of his people will be
given life. So he must be lifted up, that's
the ground. That's the legal ground of our
salvation. That's the source of our spiritual
life. And so he says in verse 15, that,
or in order that, whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but
have eternal life. Now what does that mean? It means
anyone who believes on Him as He is revealed in the Word. It's not saying anybody who believes
on Him as you just think Him to be. Or anyone who believes
on Him as somebody told you about Him. I'm telling you about Him
right now. But, if I don't speak according
to this Word concerning who Jesus Christ is, And what he accomplished
in that death, being lifted up, what good will it do you? Whosoever
believeth. I've got several messages I've
preached entitled Whosoever Believeth, Whosoever Will. But what's the
problem then? Well, the problem is this. Man
by nature will not Isn't that right? The carnal mind. What's a carnal mind? Well, it's
the mind of the flesh. You say, well, carnal mind, what
is that? It's the mind you were born with.
Fallen in Adam. Spiritually dead in trespasses.
It's the mind I was born with. The natural man. Receiveth not
the things of the Spirit of God. Therefore, what did Christ say?
You must be born again or you will not see or enter the kingdom. How are we born again? Well,
he said, he said it's of water and of the Spirit. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh. That's all it'll ever be. And
that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. That's how we're born
again, by the Spirit of God, through the preaching of the
truth. And you can't control that, I can't control that. The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and you know it's not where it
came from. We can't change the wind, we
can't control the wind. All we can do is feel the effects
of it. And that's what I'm talking about,
evidences of the new birth, the effects of it. What are they? Bible says in verse 14, son of
man must be lifted up. He has to make the way for his
people to go to heaven, to have spiritual life. That's the way
of his cross. That's the way of God's grace.
That's why Paul said, God forbid that I should glory save in the
cross. That's the source of my salvation. It's the ground and
the source of my salvation and my spiritual life. If Christ had not died on the
cross, there'd be no whosoever will believeth. There'd be no
faith. And if there were, if Christ
had not died on the cross, it wouldn't do you any good. If
he hadn't died, if he hadn't been raised from the dead, we'd
be of all people most miserable, Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 15. But he says in verse 15, that
whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal
life. This does not say that our faith
is the source of our life. It says that Christ being lifted
up is the source of our life. You see the way This way ensures
that all for whom he died will see, believe, and enter the kingdom
of God, and they will have life from the dead. You see, salvation
in Christian living cannot precede the giving of life in the new
birth. And this life which results in the new birth comes from the
risen Christ and based upon his righteousness imputed to us.
I quote this verse all the time, Romans 8 and verse 10. And what
he's talking about, if Christ be in you. You know, I talked
about how we're in Christ. Well, when we're born again,
not only are we in Christ, but Christ is in us by his spirit
and by his word. And Romans 8, 10 says this, if
Christ be in you, this body is dead because of sin. We feel
the effects of it. But the Spirit is life because
of righteousness. And so salvation involves us
being in Christ and Christ being in us. So, think about it, to
be found in Him. Those who are in Christ are united
to Christ, they're identified with Christ. All blessings in
heavenly places, In Christ Jesus, that's the theme of the scripture,
isn't it? But when we're born again, there's
a spiritual, living union with Christ that results in these
evidences. And I dealt with one last week.
Number one, the revealed knowledge of God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. He says, that whosoever believeth
in him. Do you believe in him? Here's
what I want to know about myself. Am I one of God's elect? Am I
one for whom Christ died? Have I been born again by the
Spirit? Knowledge and faith are virtually
the same thing. And let me show you something.
Turn just the page over to John chapter six. When God brings a sinner to faith
in Christ, He gives that sinner a knowledge that he didn't have
before. It's not just mere, it's not
as some preachers say, just mere head knowledge or some kind of
an intellectual process, even though it does involve the mind. It's not something that only
can really come to those who have a high IQ or anything like
that. It's a simple knowledge of who
God is, who we are, who Christ is. But look at John chapter
six and look at verse 37. Now we've quoted this, it says,
the Lord says, all that the Father giveth me shall come to me. Now faith in Christ is called
coming to him. Remember he said, come unto me
all you that labor and are heavy laden and I'll give you rest.
It involves receiving Him by faith. We read last week over
in John 1 and verse 11 that He came unto His own, His own received
Him not, but they which received Him, to them He gave the right,
the privilege of calling themselves sons of God, who were born not
of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but
born of God. Christ says, all that the Father
giveth me shall come to me, and him that cometh me I will in
no wise cast out. Well, look over at verse 44. He says, no man can come to me. Now that word can, it means ability. No man has the ability, spiritually
speaking, to come to Christ. By nature, we don't have that
ability. except the Father which hath sent me draw him. There's a parable that the Lord
spoke of what he called a drag net, where they would cast the
net into the water and catch the fishes and draw them in.
Same word right here. Remember Christ told his disciples,
he said, I'll make you fishers of men. You throw out the dragnets. You know what that is? That's
the gospel preached in the power of the Holy Spirit who gives
life to dead sinners. And he'll draw you in. No man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me. Draw him. And I'll raise him up at the
last day. They're saved is what he's saying. Well, how does he
draw us in? Look at verse 45. He tells us
plainly. It is written in the prophets.
Now he's quoting, I believe, from Isaiah, Isaiah 54. And they shall be all taught
of God. He teaches us. God teaches. Now he'll use a preacher or a
witness to do that. But if you learn what he's teaching
here, If you're convinced of what he's teaching, it's God
that does the teaching. That's the gospel. They shall
all be taught of God. And so he says, every man therefore
that hath heard, faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the
word of God. Now heard what? Not just anything,
but heard the gospel. Paul said, I'm not ashamed of
the gospel of Christ. It is the power of God unto salvation
to everyone that believes. To the Jew first, the Greek also,
for therein is the righteousness of God. You're gonna hear something
about God and his righteousness. You're gonna hear something about
God and his grace and his mercy. You're gonna hear about Christ,
who's the only seed of God's mercy for sinners. You're going
to hear something about how much of a sinner we really are. That
we're failing at it. We're born spiritually dead. That means without spiritual
life. We cannot work our way or earn
our way into God's salvation. We're in need of a righteousness
we cannot produce. There's none righteous, no not
one. All have sinned and come short of the glory of God. You're
going to hear these things. And God's going to teach you.
He's gonna give life to the dead, that's what he's gonna do. And
if you can't have, except you be born again, you cannot see,
will except you be born again, you cannot hear. Not the way
you ought to hear. I know everyone sitting here
hears me, audibly, but do you hear spiritually? Is this life
and death to you? Is this everything in salvation?
So every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the
Father. Now what does that mean? Well, we call God our Father, but so
many who call God their Father, they don't know God is judge.
In fact, one of the main missing notes in today's false Christianity
is God's wrath and God's judgment against sin. That we by nature,
and based upon our best efforts, we deserve nothing but God's
wrath and God's judgment. So how can God be just? Here's the issue. How can He
be right and still forgive a sinner like me? God demands justice. Justice must be done. That's why Christ's death is
called a redemption. What did He do? He paid a price. The price of redeeming us from
our sins. What was that price? It was His
blood. That's what the blood's all about.
The blood of Christ is all about God's justice satisfied. So it
comes down to this. How can God be a righteous judge
and do right, which means to punish all sinners to whom sin
is charged, and then how can he at the same time be a loving,
gracious, merciful father? That's the issue. Have you learned
that? Well, there's only one way. He
said, therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father
cometh unto me, cometh to Christ. It's only by the blood of Christ
as our surety, our substitute, our redeemer, that God can be
just and still justify sinners like us. Isn't that something? This is the calling of the gospel
and the power of the Spirit. It's the invincible calling.
Christ as the end of the law for righteousness. Well, do you
believe that knowledge, that revealed knowledge that God gives
His people that brings us to faith in Christ? Well, here's
another evidence of being born again. Turn to Philippians 3.
The passage that Brother Tim read. And this evidence of the new
birth comes right along with revealed knowledge and faith
in Christ and its repentance of dead works and idolatry. And
what I'm saying is this, you cannot turn to Christ and come
to Christ without turning away from sin and self. And when we
speak of turning away from sin, I'm not talking about Reformation
of life and conduct. Repentance is not reformation
in the sense of just cleaning the outward part of the cup.
Turning over a new leaf in life. Stopping this and starting that
in the sense that false religion teaches. Now there may be a reformation
of life that's made. There certainly is in most cases
concerning the mind. Repentance is a change of mind. It's a change of heart. And there's
no better passage in the Bible that describes it better than
this right here. Here's the Apostle Paul describing what happened
to him when he was born again. Now who was Paul before he was
born again? He was a religious Pharisee.
A moral man in the eyes of men. One who was just a picture of what a man
should be. Trying to keep the law. Trying
to fight heresy. Born the right way. Circumcised
the right way. All of those things. And he said,
those are the things that at one point in time I had confidence
in for me to have a right relationship with God, to be forgiven, to
be justified, to be right with God. But something happened. He was on the road to Damascus.
And the Lord Jesus Christ appeared to him in a vision. and brought him down in the dust.
You know what? He wasn't, and I always use this
because you need to understand it. What was Paul doing on his
way to Damascus? He was on his way to arrest Christians,
bring them back to Jerusalem and have them tried and executed. He wasn't going to a prayer meeting.
He wasn't seeking the Lord. Now once Christ revealed himself
to Paul, he sought the Lord, didn't he? He had to go to Ananias
and hear some things. But what happened to him? Look
at verse 7 of Philippians 3. When he saw that vision of Christ,
and Christ spoke to him, and he heard the gospel with saving
ears, spiritual ears, and he saw. In fact, he became blind
physically at that time, didn't he? Very 2020 vision spiritually. He said, but what things were
gained to me, those I counted loss for Christ. That's repentance. Verse eight, yea, doubtless I
count all things but loss. Wait a minute, Paul. All things? All things. You know, we grow up in a religious
nation, don't we? religious area. I suspect that
many of you, growing up in false religion, you had a point in
time where you walked down an aisle, you, as they say, gave
your heart to Jesus, which that's not in the Bible, you do realize
that, don't you? And you were baptized, or maybe
some of you were sprinkled as babies, whatever. Do you think that means anything
to God? You think it recommends you to God? You think, oh, that
was a good thing. Well, if you're ever born again
by the Holy Spirit under the gospel, you'll come to a change
of mind on that. Your judgments will change. You'll
count all that but loss for the excellency of the knowledge.
of Christ Jesus my Lord. And look on verse eight, he says,
for whom I've suffered the loss of all things and do count them
but done, that I may win Christ. Now that's a reformation, isn't
it? Wait a minute, Paul, you need
to stop drinking, stop cussing, stop smoking. Well, Paul would
say, well, I never did any of those things. I was a Pharisee
of Pharisees. People do that and they call
it repentance. Paul said that I may win Christ.
Verse 9, be found in Him. Not having my own righteousness
which is of the law, but that which is through the faith or
the faithfulness of Christ. The righteousness which is of
God by faith. The righteousness which Christ
worked out on the cross when He was lifted up. and the righteousness
which God gives us faith to receive as we receive Christ. In other words, I've come to
see this, to know this, to believe this, that when it comes to salvation,
when it comes to a right relationship with God, when it comes to righteousness,
when it comes to forgiveness, when it comes to being accepted
with God, when it comes to living forever in glory, It's all Christ. He's my all and then all. He's
my wisdom. He's my righteousness. He's my
sanctification. He's my redemption. I didn't
make the difference. I didn't cast the deciding vote.
It was already cast before the foundation of the world. I didn't
ask Him to come into my heart. He gave me a new heart. That's
what the new birth is. I didn't exercise my free will.
My will was in bondage to sin. I was doing what I wanted to
do. That's what Paul... Paul was exercising his will
in verses 4 through 6, trying to save himself and make himself
righteous by his works. That's us. But God, by His power
in the new birth, made me willing to receive Christ. The Holy Spirit
convinced me of these truths. And I turned from myself. I turned from my false God, who
I thought accepted me on the basis of my efforts to please
Him. Verse 3 of Philippians 3 tells
us this in just one verse. He says, for we are the circumcision.
He's speaking of spiritual circumcision. You know what spiritual circumcision
is? It's the new birth. It's circumcision of the heart.
Cutting away the filth of the flesh. What's the filth of the
flesh? Here it is. I was circumcised the eighth
day. A Hebrew of Hebrews is touching the law affairs. That's the filth
of the flesh. You know, a sinner trying to
save himself or herself by their works, you know the Bible calls
that the filth of the flesh? Read Romans 8. That's carnality. You say, well I thought that
was talking about the drunks and the prostitutes and the drug-
well them too. But see, here's a filth that
man doesn't see by nature. He has to be given eyes to see
this. That my best efforts to keep
the law, if aimed at the ground of salvation, if aimed at making
myself righteous enough to be saved, that's the filth of the
flesh. Do you believe that? That's repentance. That's that change of mind and
heart. So we're the circumcision, he says, verse 3, which worship
God in the Spirit. That means two things, I believe.
One of the debates, it's a small debate, but should the Spirit
be capitalized there or not? Well, if it's capitalized, that's
the Holy Spirit. If it's not, it's talking about
our spirit, spiritual life within us who have been born again.
But let me give you both ways. For we're the circumcision which
worship God in the spirit. If it's the Holy Spirit, it's
saying this. We worship God as the spirit leads us and motivates
us in the word. If it's talking about our spirit,
it's saying we worship God as He has revealed Himself to us
and as we sincerely believe Him to be from His truth. And both
things are all right. We worship God, not as we think
He is. You know, the Bible says back
in Isaiah 42, they have no knowledge that worship a God of their imagination. Set up the wood of their grave
and image. God reveals Himself as a just God and a Savior. in
Christ and he says, look unto me and be ye saved. He says we
rejoice in Christ Jesus. That word rejoice doesn't mean
to be happy. Now sometimes the word rejoice
does mean to have joy. The word rejoice here means to
boast. It means to glory. We boast,
we brag in Christ Jesus. I'm boasting, not about me. But we boast in Christ. We boast
who He is. Salvation is about who He is,
not who we are. We boast about what He has accomplished. Salvation's about what He has
accomplished, not what we accomplish. When it comes to salvation, we
don't accomplish anything. If we do anything that's successful
to the glory of God, it's God who worketh in us. to do that
which he is pleased to do. We're not here to take credit.
We're here to give him all credit. We're like John the Baptist.
He must increase, we must decrease. We boast in his righteousness,
not our own, and have no confidence in the flesh. Whatever the flesh
can do in religion, morality, philosophy, and certainly what
the flesh can do in immorality, we don't boast in that. We don't
have any confidence in that. We look to Christ. And that's
evidence of the new birth. We believe in Him. We've repented
from dead works and idolatry. We pray that the Lord Continue as long as we're alive
as long as he has not come back yet That he will continue to
do what he said he would do and we know that he will He'll continually
call out his sheep and bring them into the fold And that's
what happens under the preaching of the gospel Gives us a new
heart new eyes new ears all All out of his power and goodness
in Christ. All right