going to continue in our, uh, continue on our study on why
we need sovereign Greece. This is our third installment
of this. And, uh, we've already looked
at in the last two weeks, we've already seen that that we don't
have the mind of God and that we don't understand Him. We can't come to Him. We don't know Him. We don't have the ability to
discern the things of God. Last week we've seen that we
cannot hear God's words unless we are His sheep. So without
sovereign grace, without God's sovereign choosing, We would never have been given
faith. We've never been given spiritual
ears to hear and Today I want us to look at Something that it's talked about
a lot as far as Whether you are preaching a false gospel or whether
you're preaching the true gospel Everyone says somebody you know
We have to be born again, and that's clear from scripture.
The Bible says that, we're fixing to read it here in a minute,
and everything. But how one is born again, that's
where the breakdown comes. A lot of people view being born
again as something that you can do, that you can get born again. Some people believe that there's
a certain formula that you have to do before you can be born
again. Some conditions that must be
met to be born again. Even among sovereign gracers,
they believe that being born again comes by instrumental means,
the preaching of the gospel. So we're going to look at that
a little bit this morning because, again, one of the reasons we
need sovereign grace is because we cannot cause ourselves to
be born again. And Jesus makes that emphatic
in that we can never enter into the kingdom of God. We can never
be a part of the kingdom of God, see the kingdom of God, unless
we're born again. And so we've already talked about
that once before. That was it, I think, in our
first message and everything. But I want to come to look at
what it means about being born again and how one is born again
today and see once again that without sovereign grace, the
new birth never does happen. So let's bow and have a word
of prayer and then we'll read our verses here. Gracious heavenly
Father, we come once again to you humbled by your mercy, humbled
by your grace, humbled by Christ Jesus and the substitute and
the work of the cross that he has done on our behalf. Father,
we come to you this morning knowing that without you, without the
Holy Spirit's work here today, that we cannot worship in spirit
or in truth, which you require of your people, which you desire. The only worship that you accept
is worship that is in spirit and in truth. Worship that is
led and brought on by the spirit, in
the spirit, And that revolves around the truth. Without the
truth, there is no true worship. And so, Father, we pray today
that the Spirit would come and not only help us inwardly to
worship and lift up our praises and honor to you, but Father,
that the Spirit may also come and give us understanding of
the truth to give me ability to preach and to administer truth,
declare truth today. Lord, and I pray that you would
do that, that you would keep my lips from error. Lord, I pray
for those who are listening, that you would give them the
option to hear, the ability to understand spiritual things by
your spirit's power. Lord, we just ask now that you
would just glorify Christ in everything that we do, everything
that we say in the preaching of the gospel. For it's in Christ's
name that we pray, amen. All right, John chapter 3, and
if you would look with me at verse 3. And remember here again,
this is Nicodemus has come to Jesus. Nicodemus was a ruler
of the Jews, a ruler among the Jews. He was a very influential
man. He was a Pharisee, a teacher,
and he came to Jesus And he was asking Jesus some questions. Of course, we already know leading
up to this, especially in the book of John, we know that the
Pharisees, the religious leaders of the time had already seen
that Jesus activity, his life, his activity was already pointing
to the fact that this is the Messiah that has been talked
about for thousands of years. And, um, But he didn't come the way that
they thought he would come. And so because of their evil
hearts and because of them wanting the preeminence, you know, they
were rejecting everything that Jesus did. But yet they knew
this man, this has every signs of being the Messiah. And so
they sent Nicodemus or Nicodemus came on behalf of the Pharisees
to ask Jesus about who he is and about what he's been doing.
And they knew that, you know, everything that you're doing,
you can only do it if God's with you and things like this. And
this is the context of this passage. And Jesus here is saying, you
know, you guys are seeing all these things, hearing all these
things, all these thoughts are going around in your mind. Am
I the Messiah? Am I not the Messiah? You know, is this what you thought
it was with me coming and everything? And Jesus just right off the
bat tells the guy, you're not going to be able to understand
anything of the spiritual kingdom of God. You're not going to know
anything about what I'm doing unless you're born again. It
takes being born again first. Unless a man is born again, they
cannot see the kingdom of God. They cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. the spiritual things of God are
still dead to them unless there is spiritual life there. And
again, this goes back to this debate that I was talking about
a minute ago about guys that are debating these things. Now,
the Arminian, they say that, you know, we're born again after
we believe, that if we believe, then Jesus will cause us to be
born again. So the new birth comes after
we repent and believe, okay, and accept Jesus into our hearts.
The Sovereign Grace person that rejects Holy Spirit, immediate
Holy Spirit quickening, they will say that we are born again
through the preaching of the Gospel. That the Holy Spirit
uses the Gospel as the instrument in quickening the child of grace
and so that it requires knowledge, it requires the preaching of
the gospel, it requires all this stuff to be born again. And again, the preaching of the
gospel cannot permeate dead ears. Me preaching the gospel cannot
permeate dead ears. The Holy Spirit is not using
the word of God As a preach thing to waken up, quicken dead sinners,
it is his voice that quickens the dead sinners. Him saying,
Lazarus come forth. Okay? It wasn't the preacher.
If some preacher would have came out and said, Lazarus come forth,
he wouldn't have come up. The only one who can give life
is Christ. We're going to see that again
today. Look with me here at verse three.
It says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say
unto thee, except a man be born again, except a man be born again,
not get born again, but be born again, unless the state of that
person is a state of new birth, being born again, being spiritually
alive, okay? Except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of heaven. See, that's why we say we only,
all the preaching of the gospel is preaching to the elect of
God. It's declaring the things of God and it's only for them
because they're the only ones who can actually hear the spiritual
message of the gospel. The truth of the gospel are those
who have been given spiritual ears who have been born again.
No man can see the kingdom of God perceive, see, understand,
receive. All these things are synonymous
here. He cannot know the things of the Spirit or the Kingdom
of God, which is a spiritual kingdom. It's not a temporal
kingdom. Everyone keeps talking about
this kingdom that's going to happen. You know, Jesus is going
to come back and rapture the church out, and then there's
going to be a seven-year tribulation. At the end of the seven-year
tribulation, he's going to come Then there's going to be this
thousand year reign. And during this thousand year
reign, he's going to set up that earthly kingdom that was promised
to the Jews back in the Old Testament. And all of Israel will be brought
together and saved. And they will be sitting on thrones
with Jesus on the Mount of Olives or wherever the temple is going
to be rebuilt. And he's going to rule and reign
from there. And the Jews are going to rule
with him over the nations. And there's gonna be this glorious
period of peace during this thousand years. And that during this time,
you know, everything's gonna be great. But that is not, that
is not the kingdom of God. Jesus said, my kingdom is not
of this world. Now it is in this world. I've
mentioned that to y'all before. It is in this world, but it's
not of this world. Just as Jesus said that we, as
the elect of God, are not of this world, even though we're
here in this world. Our life force, and I don't mean
that's a bad word, and I don't want to use that because a lot
of cultists use that word force, our life that is given to us,
especially the new birth, particularly, that life that is put in us in
that new birth, It comes from heaven. It's from above. We are
born from above. That life was hid in Christ with
God. And it was Christ's life that's
given to us. And that life that is given to
us is not from this earth. It's from above. It's from God. And so while we are of this world,
in this world, who we are as the people of God is not of this
world. And so the same thing is being
said of the kingdom of God. The kingdom of God is not a physical
kingdom that Jesus is coming to set up, but it is a spiritual
kingdom that he has with his people as the inhabitants of
that kingdom. It's a spiritual thing. We experience
the spirit of God in power And that is how we enter into the
kingdom of God. We come into the kingdom of God
by the work of the spirit of God. We perceive the things of
the spirit because of the spirit of God. Christ is the one who
is ruling and reigning in this kingdom and he rules and reigns
right now. And so a man, unless he is born
again, he can't understand these things. So the reason we need
sovereign grace is because sovereign grace is found in the Spirit
of God coming and quickening the sinner who never could quicken
himself, who can't apply any means to themselves. There is
no repentance, there is no faith, and that's going to be something
we talk about on another day, but there is no repentance and
faith, there is no turning to God, there is no understanding
the Bible, understanding spiritual things, there is no receiving
the gospel, believing the gospel, having faith on Christ. And what
he has done is our substitute without the Spirit of God coming
and quickening us and giving us new life, a new birth. Jesus here is contrasting two
births. One birth, which was natural,
a second birth, which is spiritual. Okay. Look what he says. Nicodemus
said unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he
enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? So
Nicodemus is looking at the natural, okay? He's talking about the
natural birth, but that wasn't what Jesus was talking about.
Jesus said, 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. Now, brethren, don't let that
phrase there trip you up, being born of water and of the Spirit. This is basically talking about
being born of God. Being born from the Spirit of
God. The Spirit of God throughout
Scripture is equated with water. As a matter of fact, Jesus and
His blood is equated with water. Okay? So, don't let this trip
you up that there's some formula here that you have to be baptized
and then have the Spirit baptism. Okay? It's not talking about
the Spirit baptism. One spirit baptism and it happened
one time. Okay. People often say that people
are born again and that's the Holy Spirit baptism. That's not
what the Bible says is the Holy Spirit baptism. There's only
one baptism of the Holy Spirit and that was one time. Okay. Uh, being born of God is not,
uh, a ongoing thing or being, uh, baptized in the spirit is
not an ongoing thing. So don't let that trip you up.
Being born of water and of the spirit is saying the same thing. Unless a man is born of the spirit,
unless a man is quickened of the spirit, unless he is made
clean by the spirit, then he cannot enter into the kingdom
of God. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. That's the first birth. That
which is born of the spirit is spirit. That's the second birth. The first birth is of the earth,
earthy. The second birth is of the Spirit
from heaven. And so, there is a difference
in what Jesus is saying here. It's not just being born. It's
not just gaining knowledge. It's not appropriating the means. This is a divine act of the Spirit
of God. And when the Spirit of God acts
upon that person, and He doesn't ask you, He doesn't you know,
offer it and wait for you to receive it. The Spirit of God
does it whenever He chooses to do it. Directed by Christ, that
is. But, look at what it says here. Verse 7, marvel not that I said
unto thee, ye must be born again. And He gives an illustration,
He gives an earthly illustration of this spiritual reality. He
says, the wind bloweth where it listeth, where it desireth
to go. And now here's the sound thereof,
but can't not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth. So basically it's saying the
wind does, it blows where it wants to go. You don't tell it
where to go. It doesn't listen to you. It
doesn't come whenever you call it. It goes wherever it goes. And the only way that we know
where it's going and what the effects are is that we see, look
out the window right now. You see the wind is blowing the
trees out there. The leaves are blowing. The wind
is blowing through the trees. It's coming right through here
now. Now it may turn around and blow that direction. Now we see
the trees over there blowing, but this one over here is not.
The wind blows where it wants to go. And you don't know where
it's going. You don't know how it got there.
You just know it's there. Boom, there it is. It says, so
is everyone that is born of the spirit. The spirit being the
wind. The spirit goes wherever it wants
to go. It's sovereign. Why? God is sovereign. The Spirit is of God, from God. It's sovereign. He is a sovereign
God and He can send His Spirit to whom and upon whom at any
time as He desires. And we don't know when, we don't
know how and where, we just see the effects of it. Whenever one
is born of the Spirit of God, he becomes spiritually enlightened
and enabled to understand spiritual things. Therefore, he is able
to repent and believe. He repents from going his way
as Nicodemus and all the Pharisees was establishing their own righteousness
by trying to keep the law. We try to establish our own righteousness
by keeping the law, by doing good things, religious things,
you know, being good people, we repent of that, meaning we
turn from that and we turn to God. That's one of the things
that we see happening now with this Asbury Revival thing. Everybody
keeps talking about how they're up there repenting of all these
sins that they're doing, repenting of these sins, but yet everybody
returns. A dog returns to its vomit, okay? A pig returns to the pigsty and
gets all money again. We continue to go back to sin.
Nobody ever repents of sin in the fact that they make an about
face turn and go the other way and never turn back to it. We
all return back to our sin. You say, well, I've never turned
back from doing this. No, but if you've sinned, you've
sinned. You return to sin. Not individual
sins, you've returned to sin. You're a sinner because you sin. Not because you did this sin
and this sin and this sin and this sin and now you've done
all the sins, now you're a sinner. You're a sinner and you sin. You sin because you are a sinner.
You cannot repent from what you already are. Now, can we ask
forgiveness for sin? Absolutely. Can we try to turn
away and cease from doing things? Yes. If someone's a drunkard,
He should repent and try to turn from that. The Bible instructs
us not to be drunkards. And we ought to turn and try
to do that as God gives him grace and ability to do that. But to
repent of sin means to repent from every sin and never to turn
back to sin. And causing one sin, you've broken
all the laws. So if you've sinned, you quit
doing all these sins, but you kept doing this sin, or you continue
to do this sin, You still are a lawbreaker. You still are a
sinner. You still are in sin. And so
the repentance that we speak of whenever we call people to
repentance, whenever we preach repentance, whenever one is born
again and they hear the cry of repentance, the cry of repentance
is a change of mind in righteousness. I am turning away from seeking
righteousness through my trying to clean myself up, trying to
quit sinning, trying to quit doing all these things, and I'm
trusting solely that Christ was my substitute. He did all the
obeying for me. That all my sins are forgiven.
He's not looking at any more sins. I'm as holy as I'm ever
gonna be in this life. I'm as holy as I can be. I have
all the righteousness of God. I am complete in Him. They keep
crying at these things. Fill us up, fill us up, fill
us up. We want more, we want more. The
Bible says that we're complete in Him. What more are you going
to get than the Holy Spirit of God being in you? See, that's
where we see these things and why it's important for us to
know the Scriptures, to know the false doctrine. That's why
the Bible says to test every spirit, because there are false
prophets out there, false teachers. There are false things going
on out there that the Bible says they masquerade as messengers
of life. They masquerade as preachers
of righteousness. This whole thing with Asbury
is just something that looks on the outside like it's a great
and mighty work of God. And I'm not going to say that
there might not be something in there that God's doing. Obviously,
God is doing something. He predestined everything. But
is this a true revival? Is this a gospel revival? Well,
if there ain't no gospel, there ain't no gospel revival. And
there is no preaching of the gospel there that I've seen so
far. They're still preaching this whole thing of conditional
salvation, of conditional repentance, of cleaning yourself up, establishing
a righteousness by quit sinning and all these types of things.
And that in and of itself shows that they're not preaching Christ
alone for salvation, but that Jesus has provided a way of salvation
and you have to accept it. Okay. You have to start turning
and turning away from all these things to show that you've been
saved. Okay, so there is no gospel that
is being preached there. Not to mention they're not following
the biblical pattern by having women leading the worship there. The Bible is clear that women
are not to observe and teach men in a biblical capacity in
worship service, okay, in the gathered assembly. they're not
following that as well. And it's an emotional thing.
And so, whenever one is born of the Spirit of God, the repentance
isn't to seek after that. The repentance is to change your
mind about righteousness and how righteousness is received. We receive righteousness by imputation,
not impartation, not by work on our part, trying to be righteous. It is to accept that we are not
righteous. Christ is our righteousness and
that His righteousness is laid to our account. Therefore, God
is satisfied with what Jesus did and is never satisfied with
what I do. Therefore, I have faith that
what He said He has given me is mine. because he said it, not because
I'm doing something to make it look like I've got it. Okay? Assurance, the assurance of faith,
the full assurance of hope is never ever ever based upon anything
that we are producing in ourselves, that we are doing in and of ourselves. We can never look at the things
that we do and say, God's doing a work in that. The only thing
that we do is we look up to Jesus as our only hope and say, He's
my substitute. He's my salvation. If I am His,
if I am to be saved, if I am His child, if I am to be forgiven
of all my sins, if I am to be given eternity with Him, it's
because of what Jesus has done and nothing about what I've ever
done. And so that's true biblical repentance. That's true biblical
gospel. Okay? And so if that's not what's
being found, then there has been no being born again. Okay? There is no being converted.
Someone who is born again and thus converted of the gospel
turns from those things and turns and looks to God. So we need to be careful of our
doctrine and watch our doctrine. Jesus here says that except a
man be born again, not get born again. You don't get born again
by going and singing music and swaying back and forth and being
in a prayer service for 120 hours. That's not how you get born again. You don't get born again by inviting
people to come to listen to preaching. The Spirit blows where it listens.
The Spirit is in control of who gets born again, and we don't
choose that. God chooses that. That is something
that God chooses. Now, with that being said, there's
many who believe that it does come by human effort. But look
with me, if you would, while you're there at John chapter
1. Being born again is not a condition. It is not an act of man. It is
not a reception of man to receive it. It is something that's sovereignly
bestowed on someone who doesn't have it, who can't get it, who
never would reach out for it, who would never seek to have
it. In John chapter 1, look with me if you would to verse 13.
Well, actually, let's back up to verse 12. But as many as received
Him," Oh, there you go, preacher, you have to receive Jesus into
your heart. It says it right there, as many
as received Him. Look what it says though, carefully,
read it with me. But as many as received Him,
to them who received Him, gave He power to become the sons of
God. Even to them that believe on
His name, He give power. to become the sons of God. Which were born not of blood. You're my children and just because
I'm a believer and a Christian doesn't mean you are. You don't
become a Christian because you're my kid. Okay? Which were born not of blood.
nor of the will of the flesh. No one else can make you a Christian. Me and your mama can't wish you
or will you into heaven. Listen, we can be as strict as
strict can be and try to make you conform to as many gospels,
as many commandments, as many things of the Bible as we can. We can restrict you from everything
out in that world that we can restrict you. And we have tried
to at least shelter you from a lot of what the world has out
there. But there is no amount of sheltering. There is no amount of instructing. There is no amount of teaching.
There is no amount of praying on our behalf for you. That can cause you to be born
again. It is not of blood, nor of the
will of the flesh, nor the will of God. It's not even your will
that can make you born again. So it doesn't come from heritage
or lineage. It doesn't come from someone
imposing that upon you, instructing you, causing you to be born again.
Because we've given you all the information. We've raised you
in the right way. We've kept you in church all
your entire life. And it doesn't come from your
own desire to be born again. But where does it come? How is
one born again? Well, we just read in John chapter
3 that a person is born again whenever the Spirit blows where
it listeth. Whenever the Spirit comes, and does what it does. But it says right here, which
were born not of the blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the
will of man, but born of God. You have to be born of God. Unless a man is born of God,
he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. Unless a man is born
of the Spirit of God, he cannot see the Kingdom of Heaven. Unless
a man is born By the sovereign choice of life-giving Jesus Christ
giving you life, you cannot be born again. It comes by a sovereign
choice. That's why we need sovereign
grace. Unless God chooses to give you
spiritual life, you will never have it. You cannot find it.
You cannot work for it. You cannot ask for it. You cannot
be born into it. You cannot do anything to be
born again. It has to be sovereignly given
to you. Look with me at Romans chapter
9. It says, For he saith to Moses,
I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy. He didn't say I will
have mercy on those who ask for it. I will have mercy on those
who beg for it, who stand sitting and singing and praying and begging.
I will not have mercy on someone because they have done anything to try to earn it, to merit it. He said, I will have mercy on
whom I will have mercy. And I will have compassion on
whom I will have compassion. Now, what is that saying? Now,
we got to break this down and look and see if the Spirit give
us understanding and we have spiritual ears to hear this.
What is Paul saying? What's happening here? The Christ
has come. His preaching of the gospel has
caused a division. The Jews who thought this was
what Messiah was going to do, this is what Messiah was going
to be, was not what they thought it was going to be. Jesus come
preaching something that they thought, we've never heard this. But he preaches as one who has
authority. Well, he is authority because
he is the word of God. But he comes preaching these
things and it causes a division. There were some that believed
and there were some that didn't believe. And if you remember
last week, we've seen who were the ones who believed? Those
who were of God. Who were the ones who didn't
believe? Those who were of Satan. The children of Satan, they don't
believe. The children of God, they do believe. Again, sovereign
grace is needed. Why? Because it is only by God's
sovereign choice that you are either a sheep or you are a goat,
that you are a wheat or you are a tare, that you are a child
of grace or you are a child of reprobation. Either you're a
child of God or you're a child of Satan. It's only by sovereign
grace. We need sovereign grace to be
a child of grace, and being a child of grace, then we are given the
grace to hear, and that grace to hear comes because we've been
given the grace to be alive spiritually. And so God is saying here, I
will have mercy on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. Now think about that for a minute.
What does that imply? If God says, I will have mercy
on whom I will have mercy, and I will have compassion on whom
I will have compassion, and this is being preached and taught
in the context of the fact that there were some Jews who were
believing, some Jews who were not believing, therefore the
Jews who were not believing are questioning the promise of God
that said that he was going to save his people and that he was
going to be their Messiah, their Christ. The anointed one was
being sent to Israel. Why then is this being preached
in the midst of that conversation? Because what they said was, Jesus is coming for Israel and
we're Israel. We're of our father Abraham.
And so that's why Paul had to say in the verses that precede,
It is not as though the Word of God has taken none effect,
for they are not all Israel which are of Israel. Neither because
they are the seed of Abraham are they all children. But in
Isaac, the child of promise, shall thy seed be called. That
is, they which are the children of the flesh, these are not the
children of God. Israel is not God's children
in the flesh. Israel is a children of God in
the Spirit. The only Israel that is God's
children, spiritually speaking, are those who are the spiritual
seed of Christ. Not the physical seed of Abraham,
but the spiritual seed of Christ. And that's what Christ was saying
to the people that we've seen last week, to those religious
leaders. You guys keep thinking because you are fleshly Jews,
because you are of the lineage of Abraham, because you are in
the Hebrew line, that you are going to be saying that you are
alright because you are of them. That's not the case. Very fact
in point, these are believing, you're not believing. If you
were of Abraham, you would believe me. Why? Because Abraham had
been given faith. Abraham was a spiritual child
of God. Abraham had been given sovereign
grace to believe What those guys can't believe. See, that's why
there was this preaching by Paul and bringing up mercy and compassion. So what does that imply? That
is implying if God can give mercy on whom he will have mercy and
compassion on whom he will have compassion, then that means there
are some that are receiving mercy and compassion and some are not.
Thus, that's why there are some that are believing and some that
are not believing. God has shown mercy and compassion
on His children and He has not on Satan's children. Those who
were elect from the foundation of the world who were given to
Christ and united with Him with a living union, those are the
ones that Christ has mercy and compassion upon. The ones who were chosen before
the foundation of the world whose names were not written in the
Lamb's Book of Life from the foundation of the world. Those
are not shown mercy and compassion. That is the very point that Paul
is making here. God has not lied to us. God has not lied to you. God
is keeping His promise. You have misunderstood His promise.
You thought the promise was a physical, natural thing. But it is a spiritual
thing. It is a heavenly thing. It is
not something that is of this world. It is something that is
of that world. The children of that world are
the ones who have been given the promises. The children of
this world are not given the promises. And there is no unrighteousness
in God for doing that. Now look at verse 16. He will have mercy on him, he'll
have mercy. He'll have compassion on him, he'll have compassion.
So then, in light of that, in light of the truth that God gives
mercy to some and not others, he says, so then it is not of
him that willeth, nor of him that runneth. This being born of God, this
being given mercy and compassion, It doesn't come by you willing,
or choosing, or deciding, or changing your mind to accept
and to reject, or to reject. It doesn't come because you have
done a lot of good things, you have kept biblical principles,
you have studied God's Word, gone to church, been raised in
the family. It is not of him that willeth, nor of him that
runneth. It's not in your desire and it's
not in your efforts. The willing speaks of your desires. You're not shown compassion and
mercy because of your desire for it. And you're not shown
mercy and compassion because of your earning it, because of
your actions. Why? How is it but of God that
shows mercy? Mercy and compassion is given
whenever God shows mercy and compassion, upon whom he wants
to show mercy and compassion. Now listen, brethren, if this
is a part of the gospel that's being preached at Asbury or any
place else that's claiming revival, then that's not the full gospel. That's not the truth. If it's
left to man's decisions, choices, conditions, repent and believe,
then that is not the gospel. Therefore, we know the Bible
says that if it is not the gospel, there is no other gospel, and
anybody who is preaching that other gospel, let them be an
anathema, they are not a servant of Christ. If Asbury and the
people there are not preaching this sovereign grace gospel,
And the Bible says they're not a servant of Christ, even though
everybody in the world thinks they are. And there's 10 million
people lined up outside their door, and they're acting very
nice. They're singing great songs.
They're all in this worship trance there. It doesn't matter. And it doesn't matter what everybody
says. And it doesn't matter How many people want to point the
finger of people that are saying what I'm saying here today? And
they're saying, oh, you're just hateful, oh, you're just mean,
you're just negative, you're just pessimistic, you're just
always rejecting what God's doing, blah, blah, blah. Oh, if we're
not of your single little bit of group. The Bible says narrow
is the way, not broad. The Bible says that there will
be many who goes that way of religion, but only few that find
the way by the gospel. The Bible says that there are
few that hold to these things, not many. The Bible says that
in the last days that things are going to wax worse and worse.
Not the gospel is going to spread and permeate all of society and
all of society is going to be brought up by the gospel. The
Bible says just the opposite. That the preaching of the gospel
is going to bring division. And that in that division, that
men are going to become haters more and more and more. And the
people that are preaching these messages are going to be persecuted.
They're going to be suffering for Christ. Jesus Christ promised
that. But he said not to lose heart,
because in the end, we will be victorious. Not that we're going
to overcome all this stuff that's being talked about us, but we're
going to be victorious in the fact that none of this can destroy
what God is doing and has done in Jesus. And the fact that in
the last day, the last day, not days, we are in the last days,
we've been in the last days since Jesus, But in the last day, when
Jesus comes, the Bible says that he will say, he'll put us on
his right hand. He'll say, enter in to the kingdom
prepared for you, prepared for you. And then to the ones on
his left, he'll say, depart from me, you workers of iniquity,
for I never knew you. And they'll say, didn't we cast
out demons in your name? Did y'all see the video of the
Asbury deal where supposedly this demon was cast out of somebody
or came out of somebody in the middle of the service there?
Didn't we cast out demons in your name? Didn't we do all these
things in your name? And if you want to say it apart
from me, ye workers of iniquity, for I never knew you. Listen,
if the gospel truth is not there, it's not a servant of Christ. And he says here, no man cometh
to Christ by his own willing, his own choosing, his own desire. He only comes whenever compassion
and mercy is put upon a person. That's sovereign grace. Cheap grace is something that
somebody gives you because you beg long enough, you say, well,
I'm here. You ever had that? You've had somebody
asking you, let me have one of those. Let me have one of your
tots. Let me have one of your tots. To the point where all of a sudden
you just, fine, just quit asking. Is that grace? Did that person
show you grace? No, they didn't show you grace.
Grace is something that's given to somebody who doesn't deserve
it. Mercy is something that's given
to somebody who can't get it. Mercy is something that somebody
can't get. I need it, and I can't get it. Grace is something that's given
to somebody that doesn't deserve it, that hasn't earned it, hasn't
worked for it. If I work for something, then
I am owed it. If I do something as a condition
before you can give it to me, then that is a wage that is given. And it is not by wages that we
are saved. It is by grace that we are saved.
Free gift that we are saved. So we can't be born again by
our willing or running. We can't be born again by our
bloodline. Now, some will say, well, you
can be born again by the preaching of the gospel.
We just gotta get them under the preaching of the gospel.
If we get them under the preaching of the gospel, then they'll be born again. Brother,
listen, I've grown up in church, and there have been people put
under preaching of Jesus died, he was buried, and he was resurrected
their whole entire life, but never come to believe the true
gospel of Jesus Christ. I, for most of my life, was under
a gospel that was being preached void of God's sovereign grace. God's sovereignty in choosing
and reprobating. God's particular redemption in
Christ Jesus dying for only his people. That the effectual nature
of the atonement being that everyone for whom Jesus died is saved,
not on conditions, but saved because he did that and that
in time they are given conversion or understanding of their salvation.
They are given repentance and faith sovereignly, not because
they did any learning or growing or preaching or anything like
that. Sovereignly being given that. Listen, I didn't grow up
underneath that. I didn't preach that for many
years. Is that what gets people born
again though? Well, some people will point to certain passages
of scripture, but I want us to, and they'll say, you know, you
have to have the word of God. Otherwise, what is faith going
to reach out to? If you don't hear the preaching
of the gospel, well, what's faith going to reach out to? You have
to have knowledge of something to have faith. Brethren, listen,
whenever faith is given to us, the Holy Spirit is our teacher.
The Holy Spirit's our teacher. And faith is given to us to trust
in Christ alone. And that is a sovereign work
of God by the Spirit of God. Now listen, turn with me if you
would to Hebrews chapter 4. I wrote, put out an article just
the other day And we're going to get to it here in just a minute,
1 Peter 1. But I think we need to look,
and in my article, I didn't deal with this particular verse, I
just was dealing with the verses in 1 Peter. But we get a very
clear definition of the Word of God that quickens, the Word
of God that gives life, the Word of God that is part of this being
born again, and we gotta let the Holy Spirit through the Word
of God, the Scriptures, that is the revelation of who God
is and how God does things, let that be our guide, not by what
theologians and creeds and confessions and your favorite pastor says. What does God's Word teach us
about how one is born again by the Word of God, okay? So let's
first look at Hebrews chapter 4, and I'm going to start reading in verse 12. It says, For the
word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and morrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. Okay, now let me just stop right
there. And I'm going to admit, for a long time I've preached
that that's talking about this right here. The Scriptures. The
Word of God is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword piercing even to the divining center. But we've got to remember,
these are the words of God that have been written for us, right?
Okay? But it comes from God. It is
God who is powerful and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing
even the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints
admiring as a discerner of the thoughts and the tempts of the
heart. Okay? It's talking about here, not
the scriptures, not the preached gospel, but it's talking about
Jesus Christ, who is the Word of God. It's talking about Jesus
here. It's not talking about the preacher
with a message. You say, well, I always heard
that this was talking about the scriptures. I've heard my preacher
say that. I've heard John Gill say that.
I've heard this person say that, this person say that. It doesn't
matter what they say, right? It doesn't matter what I said
or what I say now. What does God's Word say? Let's
read further, verse 13. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest, now pay close attention here, in, what's
the next word? Everyone's got your Bible open.
What's the next word? In. His. His. His. His. His. His side. Wait a minute. The
pronoun there is his. Now if we were talking about
the Bible, we're talking about the scriptures, we're talking
about a gospel message, the pronoun there would be it, not his. If this is powerful and sharper
than any two-edged sword, discerning, and all the things that was talked
about out there, if it was talking about this, it would say, neither
is there any creature that is not manifest in its sight, but
it's just his sight. Not to mention this don't have
sight. Not to mention this is a discerner. A discerner is someone
who can discern. Neither is there any creature
that is not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of, what's the pronoun? Him. With whom we have to do. Seeing then that we have a great
high priest that is passed into the heavens, Jesus, the Son of
God, let us hold fast our profession. For we have not a high priest
which cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities,
but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly
unto the throne of grace that we may obtain mercy, and find
grace to help in time of need. Now, who in the world is the
context of this passage? Jesus. Who in this passage, who
is the context of this passage, happens to have a name of Word
of God? It's Jesus. Then who, then, is
the one who is quick and powerful and sharper than any two-edged
sword, piercing even to the dividing ascender of soul and spirit,
of joints and marrow, and of the discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart? Jesus. He's the one who is quick. Now, turn with me if you would.
Now that we have that established, that the Word of God that is
quick and powerful and sharper, discerner of thoughts and intent
in the heart, turn to 1 Peter. Now that we know the biblical
definition, let's look at 1 Peter chapter
1 and I'm going to start reading in verse 23. It says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but
incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth
forever. Now let's just stop there. We
are here presented with two seeds. Now remember last week we talked
about two seeds. The seed of Christ, seed of Satan,
who effectively is those who are of Adam, without the Spirit,
without Christ, those who are not the children of God, but
the children of the flesh. They are the seed of Satan and
the seed of Christ. There is a corruptible seed and
an incorruptible seed. The corruptible seed being Adam. We come from Adam. We are born
of Adam in the flesh. That which is flesh is flesh,
Jesus said to Nicodemus. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh. So there is an incorruptible
seed and a being born of an incorruptible seed. Remember Jesus was talking
about two different births, right? There's a natural birth that
Nicodemus was focused upon. And then there was a spiritual
birth that Jesus was talking about and trying to get across
that unless you have that spiritual birth, you cannot see the kingdom
of God. You cannot be a part of the kingdom
of God. Now here we see that being born
again, there's a being born again of corruptible seed and an incorruptible
seed. Being born again of corruptible
seed is being born of Adam. but of incorruptible seed, it
says, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, again.
I used to preach that that's talking about this right here,
being born of the Word of God. Whenever someone preaches the
Word of God and the Gospel and they hear it, they believe it,
they're born again from the Word of God being preached, that they
have to have the Word of God being preached or they cannot
be born again. I believe that. I used to preach
that. Now I reject that now. I don't
believe that's what the Scripture teaches and I hope that's what's
come across here in the teaching here. It says, but by the word
of God which liveth and abideth forever. Now, if we are equating the word of
God there to be the Bible, and that's the incorruptible seed,
then what would be the corruptible seed? How were we born of the
corruptible seed? What's the contrast? You have corruptible and incorruptible,
and to incorruptible you're attaching the Word of God, the Bible. Well
then what would be the corruptible? Well we're not born by anything
else. It's talking about being born
of Adam or being born of the second Adam. We're either one's
child or we're the other's child. The ones who are born of the
incorruptible seed are the ones who are being born of the corruptible
seed. So the corruptible seed or incorruptible
seed comes by the Word of God which liveth and abideth forever."
And they say, well, there you go. The Word of God liveth and
abideth forever. We're talking about the Scriptures.
Not one job too will pass. Brethren, is it not true that
the Word of God, Christ Jesus, liveth and abideth forever? He
is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end. There is no changing. He is forever. Everlasting. From everlasting to everlasting. But where we see that it is actually
really talking about Jesus, being born again by Jesus, not being
born again by the preaching of Jesus, about Jesus, not being
born again by Scriptures, being born again by the person of Jesus
Christ. We find down in verse 25, look
at verse 25. But the word of the Lord endureth
forever. It kind of says the same thing
as what verse 23 says, right? The word of God which liveth
and abideth forever, right? But look at the next phrase.
It says, And this is the word which by the gospel is preached
unto you. This is the word which by the
gospel is preached unto you. What is preached in the gospel? Christ is preached in the gospel.
We preach Christ and Him crucified. That's the gospel. Whenever we
preach the gospel, we are preaching Christ, not a plan of salvation. We are preaching Christ and His
finished work, what He has done. The Word of God, being Christ,
is who we preach in the Gospel. And so it says here, the Word
of the Lord endureth forever, Christ endureth forever, and
this is the Word which by the Gospel is preached unto you.
We don't preach unto you the Scriptures. We're preaching a person. We
use the Scriptures has the information that God has given us to declare
about the person, but all of this is the record of the person. It's the record of Christ. The
Bible says in the volume of the book it is written of me. This is written about Jesus. We preach the gospel of Jesus
Christ. not about Jesus Christ. We preach the gospel of what
Jesus has done. The Bible says that the word of God, that the gospel
is the power of God unto salvation. Well, who is the gospel? It's
Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ is the power of
God unto salvation. Why? Because there is no salvation
given unto any other man under any other name except by Jesus
Christ. Salvation doesn't come by any
other way but by the finished work of Jesus Christ, not by
a plan, not by a project, not by a book, not by preaching,
not by singing, not by praying, Not by memorizing scripture,
it comes by the sovereign grace work of Jesus of giving life
because the Bible says that He, Jesus, has been given power over
all flesh to give eternal life to as many as God has given Him. He's the one that's been given
the power. The good news is that there is
power with God to give eternal life to those who are dead in
trespasses and sins, who are without life. He can give it. He can have mercy on whom he
has. Listen, God doesn't have to give anybody mercy and compassion
and he would still be righteous, he would still be holy, he would
still be just if not one person was ever given that. But by grace,
God, desired and loved a people and gave them to Christ and gave
them mercy and compassion, even though they are just like everyone
else who are born of the first Adam. So why do we need sovereign grace?
It's because we cannot do anything to be born again. And no one
else can cause us to be born again. The new birth requires
the sovereign grace of God upon us. All right. Does anybody have
any questions? All right. If the Lord wills,
we'll continue trucking, looking at other things in scripture
and why we need sovereign grace. I know I mentioned earlier that
we're going to deal with repentance and faith. saying, well, if it's
just God, if you're just robots and God makes you be saved even
though you don't want to, then that means that repentance and
faith is, you know, doesn't mean anything. It's not from the heart.
Is that true? It's not true. What they say
about that is it comes from human wisdom and understanding. It
doesn't come from spiritual understanding. If they had spiritual understanding,
they wouldn't be saying that. They would know that it does
come from the heart. The difference is, is by sovereign
grace, we've been given a new heart that can do that. So anyway, all right, let's pray. Father, once again, we thank
you for all that you've done in the Lord Jesus Christ, and
we thank you for the message of the gospel that has been given
to declare to all your people, Lord, for the sounding forth
of liberty, freedom, in Christ Jesus, the sounding forth of
sins forgiven, for the law being kept on our behalf, for wrath
being taken and put away through the death of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And that in rising and newness of life that we have been quickened
together with Christ Jesus, that we are seated with Him in the
heavenlies. And Lord, that we are complete in Him. full as
we can get the Spirit in us working to will and to do your good pleasure
and that we lack nothing. But Lord, we pray that you might
give us that measure of faith to believe what is true in reality. We pray, Lord, that you would
continue to give us that measure of hope that what is being said
is ours. So Father, I pray today that
through the preaching of the gospel today, those who are here
and those who are listening, Lord, that you might edify them,
that you might build them up, that you might grow them in the
grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ, that it might be
an encouragement. Father, I pray that you would
draw all your people to yourself, Lord. I ask this all in Christ's
name.