This week, I'm gonna do a message in John chapter three. So turn to John chapter three, if you would, open your Bibles to John chapter three. The name of the message is, you must be born again. You must be born again. And these are the words of the God man. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. It's not the preacher's opinion. This is the words of scripture. spoken by God incarnate in the flesh.

And he said, you must be born again. That doesn't mean being religious. That doesn't mean being moral. That doesn't mean doing this and doing that and not doing that and not doing this. That means you must be. And the word must there, in the Greek, is necessary. It's a necessity. And then it says you must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven. You know, let me tell you something real quick, right off the bat.

Heaven is not full of good people. Hell's full of good people. Good religious people. Good moral people? Hell's full of people like that. You know what heaven's full of? Sinners who've been saved by the grace and mercy of God. People who once thought they were self-righteous, once thought they were good, but by the power of God the Holy Spirit, He reveals to us, as the scripture declares in Paul, Paul's writings in Romans, there's none good, there's none that understandeth, and there is none that seeketh after God. None.

You know how we seek after God? We're made willing in the day of God's power to flee to Christ, but we're born again. And when we're born again, We're given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. And we're given repentance before God that we never had before. And then now we also have a love for God's people, for the gospel of God's grace. We love God's word. We love the gospel. We love the preaching that salvation is by Christ alone plus nothing we do. And that's the true gospel of the Bible. That's the true gospel of the Bible. Look at this. Let's stand up and read together. John chapter 3, verses 1 to 3. Let's stand up and read these verses to start this message.

There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except the man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What a statement. What a statement. Look at that. Nicodemus. Do you know Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews?

Do you know he studied the Bible? He studied the Old Testament all the time. Do you know he was actually a teacher of teachers? Any Jewish evangelists or anything like that or preachers? He taught them. He taught them. He's one of the who's-whos in the Jewish religious system. He's a man of high honor. But he didn't know the Messiah sitting right in front of him. He says, we know you're a teacher come from God. No. He's God in the flesh. And look what he says to them.

Look what he says to Nicodemus. Except a man be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of heaven. You cannot. Unless you're born again, you will not see God except in his wrath. Period. Period. That's it. And this is the words of our great God. Again, he was a man who read the scriptures all the time. And look at verse three again. Verily, verily, amen and amen, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now here's one of the great men of Israel.

He's coming up to the Lord, and he's coming by night, you notice that? He's coming by night because he doesn't want anyone to know that he's actually going to talk to Jesus. He's doing it in secret. My, oh my. And here he is, he's a teacher, he's a master in Israel. Because the Lord will say, aren't you a master of Israel and you don't know these things? But he does not know the Messiah. He does not know Christ. Now, look it, he's a really religious man, isn't he? Like, I mean, he knows the scriptures. You know, there's a lot of preachers out there, they know scriptures, but they're not preaching Christ. Paul said this, Paul, who was a master at the scriptures, he said, I'm determined to preach nothing unto you, but Christ and Him crucified. That's why when you hear a message from me and other grace preachers, all we're gonna do is preach Christ. That's it. I'm not gonna preach to myself. I may use some examples from my life, but I'm not here to get a crowd. I'm concerned about your soul.

I love preaching, but I love people too, right? Just as much as I love preaching. Because I'm called to preach to people. Lost souls and saved. And I don't know who they are. I know God has elect people. I know that, I believe that. But I don't know who they are, so I preach to everyone. Right? And God does the saving, right? People say, I don't like how God, you say God chose the people. Well, he chose Israel. No one has a problem with that, right? What about all those other nations around? He chose Israel. All those other nations, they did not know God. And then the scripture says he chose the angels. He has elect angels. No one has a problem with that, do they? Oh, I don't have a problem with that. Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord. Well, that's great, hey, everybody agree with that. That's great, that's wonderful. But all those other people perished, didn't they? In their sins.

So, did you choose your bride? Ask you men, and I ask you women. Your husband chose you, right? To be your bride. Why can't God choose his bride? Because that's what the elect are. The elect are the bride of Christ. It's wonderful. And they've been redeemed by him. They've been chosen by him before the world ever was. That's scriptural.

You can't argue with scripture. And he manifests that love by dying on the cross to redeem us from all our sins. And I'm never gonna get over that, are you? Brother Christian, never get over that, will you? That's amazing. That's grace. That's grace manifested. God would save a sinner like me? That God would use a sinner like me to tell other sinners where to find bread? We're starving, aren't we? We're bankrupt sinners. We're famished.

There's life right there. And just look to Him. There's nothing you gotta do. You don't gotta pray no prayer. You gotta walk no aisle. Just look to Christ. And if you look to Christ, it's because God gave you faith to look to Christ. That's it. Why would anybody be upset with that? It's wonderful. But I'll tell you what. You tell that to people and they get mad at you. I'm just going to point you to Christ today. I ask you this. Do you know what it is to be born again? You know what it is to be born again? People talk about it all the time. You know, it used to be, before the Lord saved me, my brother had a friend of his who was born again. And my family and I, I never met him, never knew him. We made fun of him every night at the dinner table, tearing the guy apart, and he was never there. Speaking awful things about him. Well, you know what happened?

Years later, I started working for my brother, and he was working there. And I noticed at lunchtime, he'd just go off and sit in the back. We were doing lettering on tractor trailers. We were sign painters. We'd do lettering on big Coca-Cola trucks and all this on the big trailers. And he'd have the door open in the back, sitting on the back of the trailer reading a Bible. I'm like, what are you doing?

He goes, I'm reading my Bible. Do you know the guy that we made fun of gave me my first Bible? And when I got to know him, I was like, man, this guy's amazing. He's one of the nicest guys I've ever met. And that was, that was the beginning. But see, he was slowly drawing me to him.

I was still dead in my trespasses and sins. But you see, see, Lord sends people into our lives who tell us about Christ. The Lord didn't save me till I was in my 30s, but it's amazing when I look back at that and go, that was all part of the process.

And then I got religious. I had a religious experience. I prayed a prayer in the back of a gospel track. I prayed a prayer. And it said on the back of that gospel track, now that you prayed this prayer, you're saved. I did that. You may have walked an aisle. You may have prayed a prayer or two.

Let me tell you, that's not Holy Spirit regeneration. That's what's called decisional regeneration. That's man-made. Nowhere in this scripture will you find, bow your head and repeat this prayer. You know what you will find? That beautiful portion that Brian read. That old publican, man. He couldn't even lift his head up. He was so ashamed of his sin, he couldn't even lift his head up.

You see the Pharisee? Oh, he's so self-righteous, eh? We can get self-righteous in religion. Vicki reminded me of something in religion. I said, oh, I was so awful when I was in religion. I was so awful. I was so awful that we'd be sitting in a restaurant and there'd be a music playing and Vicki'd just start, you know, bopping around and said, what are you doing that for? Why are you doing that? You shouldn't be doing that with that music.

Oh, praise God. Praise God he delivered me from that. I'll tell you, praise his mighty name he delivered me from that. But that's what can happen to us. We can become proud and self-righteous. And that's exactly what we saw in the text you read, Brian. He was speaking to those who thought themselves righteous in their own eyes. Religious people good at that. I know, because I was a religious person. And then I came across this text here. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

This is a subject I want us to talk about. We see Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, so he thought he wouldn't be seen by any of the other rulers in Israel. Now let's read verses three to eight. John chapter three, verses three to eight. Jesus answered, said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, how can a man be born when he's old? Now that's a legitimate question from natural man. From an unsaved man, that's a legitimate question. He's just showing us our natural ignorance to the things of God. This is a man who read the Bible through and through.

And he says to the king of kings, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter in the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Well, no, that can't happen, can it? That can never happen. Look at this. Jesus answered, verily, verily, I say unto thee, this is wonderful news, except the man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Very plain, isn't it? And notice these words are one and two-syllable words that our Lord uses. We've talked about that, Chris. He uses language that even a child can understand. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. So my son is the son of my flesh. I was the son of my mom and dad's flesh. But I'm also now born again of the Holy Spirit of God. So we sinners, what do we do? We begat little sinners.

Don't we? Who eventually become adult sinners. Right? So it's no surprise when our kids, now we know this now after we're saved, but when we're not saved, that's why people pull their hair out with their kids all the time. They don't realize that they're begetting little sinners. Right? My, even that little cute rowing man that runs around here. Oh man, he's such a sinner. Oh my.

We all are. There's none righteous, no without one. That means that everybody's a sinner. Even a child's born a sinner. My oh my. Look at this. Except the man be born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit is spirit. That's amazing.

So one shows us our birth in the flesh, and one shows us our rebirth by the Holy Spirit of God. Now here's our verse, verse 7. Here's our verse. Marvel not that I say unto thee, you must be born again. And that's our portion right there. You must be born again.

Then what he says in verse 8, look, the wind bloweth where it listeth, And thou hearest the sound thereof, but can't tell whence it cometh and whence it goeth. So is everyone that's born of the Spirit. That's why you can have four family members sitting in a church, listening to the same gospel message, and the Lord will save one of them and pass by the other three. Brother Brian, you're the only one the Lord saved in your family, right? Yeah. Sister Linda? Yeah, me too. Why us? Because it pleased God to do so. That's amazing. That's amazing. It's absolutely incredible.

Marvel not that on a Sunday you must be born again. Our focus Today will be a Nicodemus, but what the Lord said to Nicodemus. And this is a message for sinners today. And I stand before you. I'm just a sinner saved by grace. I'm no better than you. As a matter of fact, I'm probably worse. You know, when I was in religion, I was in an independent, fundamental Baptist church. You know, just real staunch, real, right? Just, man, everything by...

But that preacher never called himself a sinner. And then I started listening to grace preachers, and they were the first people who admitted that they were sinners. And when you hear me preach, I'll say, we're sinners. I don't say, you're a sinner. We are. Brother Brian, we're sinners, saved by the grace of God. Bonafide sinners, but saved. Do we mourn over our sin? Absolutely. We hate it. We hate it. My, that's why we have to be born again. That's why you must be born again.

And this is today's subject. I'm preaching to sinners today. I pray God will show you you're a sinner. If you don't think you are, I pray God will show you you're a sinner. And that you need the grace of God in Christ. I pray you will. This is our subject. You must be born again. And this, again, is words of the Master. It's not my opinion. It's not your opinion. It's what the Scripture says. Who's the true author of these words? God, the Holy Spirit. These are the words of the Lord Jesus Christ. These are the words of God in the flesh.

Now, today, in this world, there's not a lot of people talk about this subject. You don't hear it a lot in sermons. You don't hear it a lot. You should hear it in every sermon. But you don't hear it much in messages today. No. People talk about being born again, but no one really knows what the Word of God says. When you start talking about being born again, they're like, what are you talking about?

I made a decision for Christ. I didn't ask you if you made a decision for Christ. I asked if you're born again, I asked one young man, I was in, what was that store down south by, TJ Maxx, I was in TJ Maxx, saw a guy, he had a hat on. And I said, hey, you're a Christian? He goes, yeah, I've always been a Christian. I said, no you haven't. What do you mean? He says, I was born into it. I said, there's no Christians born into the family of God, unless you're born again. unless you're born again. It's the truth, right?

Folks think, well, I was born into a Christian family, so I'm a Christian. Or they baptize their babies. Well, baptism today, we're going to have a baptism with Chris. It's called Believer's Baptism for a reason. I have several Presbyterian friends. I love them. I love them, who love the gospel. I mean, they love the gospel, the ones that truly believe what we believe. And Spurgeon believed it, and Whitefield, and all these other preachers.

But when they say, well, it makes the baby a child of the covenant. No, that's impossible. Because only God can make his people children of the covenant. And you know when he did it? In eternity. in eternity. So, I, like Chris, just got wet when I was a baby. I was a Catholic. I just got wet. I didn't believe.

What did the Lord say to that Philippian jailer? Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved. Right? Oh, yeah. Believe on... God said, you'll be saved. Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. He didn't say, get baptized, did he? There's no salvation in baptism. If people believe that there's salvation in baptism, that's called baptismal regeneration. Because I remember when I was a Catholic, I didn't know this as a Catholic, but when they baptize babies, they believe they're born again.

That's a lie from the pit of hell, period. It's a lie from the pit of hell. You must be born again. And it's God. that does the work. It's God that does the work. My. So we're gonna make this, I wrote this message in the clearest way I could, so that when we walk out this door, my hope is you will know what it means to be born again. Oh yeah. The abuse of this term, The doctrine of the new birth has been regulated by man to a decision or doing something, walking the aisle or being baptized. They say, oh, now you're part of the family of God. Church of Christ believe that, that you don't receive the Holy Spirit until you're baptized. That's a lie from the pit of hell.

You say, how can you talk like that? Well, it's true. Paul would have said the same thing. As a matter of fact, he did. When he said, if any man come to you with another gospel, that's not the gospel. Let him be anathema. You know what that means in the Greek? Let him be damned. Anyone comes to you preaching works-based salvation based upon anything you do, I mean anything, it's a false gospel. You say, I don't believe that. Well, it's the truth. That's what Paul preached.

Do we come to Christ? Absolutely. We run to Christ, don't we? But you must be born again, and then you will run to Christ. I'll tell you that. You'll run to Christ. Hmm. So I'm going to try to preach this as plainly as I can so that no one can pervert what I'm saying here. Now, remember, Our Lord said this 2,000 years ago. Some of you here may have made a profession of faith. You may say, well, I pray the prayer. I walk denial. But I ask you this. I don't ask you if you made a profession. I don't ask you if you walked a while. I ask you, do you know what it means when the Lord says you must be born again? Oh, my. It's a necessity. It's a necessity.

Okay, let's look at this. Let's look at this here first. Let's look at this. Let's break down this verse here. Let's break it down. Note the first word. It's a personal word. It's a personal word. Ye, means you. You. So the Lord said to Nicodemus, a master of Israel, you must be born again. You must be. It's a necessity. So it's a personal word. So this message is a personal message. It doesn't say you must do this to be saved or do that to be saved. Does it? It says ye. It's a personal word. You. You. So first of all, it's a personal word. Oh my.

Nicodemus was a preacher of preachers. He taught preachers. He was a theologian in Israel. High rank in the Jewish church, or Jewish culture. But we see here, he's still dead in trespasses and sins. He does not know Christ. He's religious. He's religious, but he's lost. He's lost. He's without spiritual life.

So my message to you is, you must be born again. You must be born again. Next look at verse, next verse or next word. A pressing word, a pressing word, a pressing word, must. Look at that. You must, you must, must. In the Greek, this is strong language. I got this from Brother Zane. This is such strong language. And it means it's a necessity. It's a necessity. You must. It's necessary that you be born again. You must be born again. It's a necessity.

In the Greek it means, it is necessary, there is need of. That's the Greek definition for that word. Time is short. What shall profit a man if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul? My, oh my. These words of Christ are not a recommendation. They are not wholesome advice. No. What the Lord says here is imperative. Absolutely imperative. You must. It's vital. It's necessary. You must be born again. Otherwise, you will perish in your sins. Mine. Under the wrath of God. And hell will be your portion forever. See, we who are the redeemed of the Lord are just saved sinners. But the wrath of God that was due us was extinguished by Christ. The wrath of God that was against us was extinguished. It's gone.

I used to think, when I was in religion, when God was angry with me, oh man, I did something wrong, and then something would happen, I'd go, oh God must be so angry with me. I'm just, do you know God is not angry with his people, ever? Do you know that?

He loves us with an everlasting love. Now he may chasten us, right? But it's all done in love. It's not like our fathers chastened us. Like we can all remember how our fathers chastened us, we who are older, right? Oh yeah, we can remember that, can't we? Yeah. He said, this is gonna hurt you more than me, but it never did, did it? No. My.

But when God chastens us, it's in love. He's not angry. All His anger against our sin is gone through the blood and righteousness of Christ. God loves His people with an everlasting love, and He so showed that by sending Christ to die in our room and place, to shed His blood for us, to redeem our souls.

My! Next, we see this word, a passive word. Be. It's a passive word. You must be. You must be. The new birth is not something you do. It's not something you do. Chris told me he was sitting in this church, and he heard the voice of the shepherd through the preaching of the word, and he said, I believe.

Well, a lot of us know what that feels like, don't we? We went through the same thing, didn't we? We were religious. Brian sat for years listening to the preaching, and he's driving home with his wife and his daughter, and all of a sudden he says, I believe. I believe.

I know one of our dear sisters told me she was mourning over her sin, and all of a sudden, she heard a preacher had been talking in the class she was taking, and she's mourning over her sin, and all of a sudden, here comes the bomb of Gilead. She's lost and saved, just like that.

You must be born again. You know, God can save you in your seat today without you moving a muscle. You know that? You don't need our help. He's God. And this is a passive word. There's nothing we can do to save ourselves. This is a passive word. If you believe, if you believe that you're saved by something you believe that you did, you have a false hope.

And the reason I could say that is because I was in that same place. I prayed the prayer. Oh, I'm saved now. And I found out I was still dead in trespasses and sins, became the most biggest Pharisee you could ever think of. And then the Lord saved me. And now I realize I've received such mercy and grace from God. Chris, we talk about this, we don't look at other people anymore, do we? We just look inward. I'm such a sinner, but praise God he had mercy on me. Tell me about my Savior. Tell me about my King who saved me from all my sins. Tell me about Him.

Don't tell me what I got to do, because I know if I try to do something, I'm going to go like that. People say in religion, they say, well, you got to work on not being mad. You got to work on, you know, you got to keep your anger in check. You got to love more. You know what those are called? Those are called the fruits of the Spirit. They're not called the fruit of what we do. God works those in us. Why do we love each other in this congregation? Why do we have such a deep love for one another? Because God's worked that in us.

We didn't muster that up. Why do we now love God when we hated him at one time? People say, well, I didn't hate God. Yeah, you did. Your sins, the fact of our sins proves that we hate God. Why do we now love him? Because of the grace of God in Christ. Because we're born again. It's beautiful. Gives God all the glory. all the glory and honor and praise. Turn, if you would, to John 1, verses 12 and 13.

Now, again, did we have anything to do with our first birth? When we were born into this world, did we have anything to do with that? Nothing, right? Nothing. Why do we think we have something to do with a second birth? Why would we think that there's something we can do to save ourselves? When we had nothing to do with our first birth, and you know what? We don't have nothing to do with our second birth either.

Look at this. John chapter one. This is beautiful. But as many as received him, so that's as many as believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to them gave he power to become the sons of God. Look at that. We don't do it by our own supposed will. Now we have a will. but our will is bound to our nature. So if we're dead in trespasses and sins, all we want to do is sin. When we're born again, we love God, we love the gospel, we want to serve our King now. All right? Look at this, though. This is beautiful. To them gave he power to become the sons of God. So it's not by us. It's not by our doing. Even to them that believe on his name. Now look at verse 13. This just really brings it home.

Which were born not of blood. So you can't be born into the church. Right? Nor the will of flesh. Well, there goes our will right out the window, doesn't it? Oh yeah, look at that. Nor the will of man. Again, so he doubled down on man's will. This is the words of Scripture, but of God. But of God. To them gave he power. See, we're powerless to save ourselves. We're even powerless to come to Christ. That's why the scripture said, we're made willing in the day of his power.

So when we're born again, this is the glorious message. When we're born again in the Holy Spirit of God and trust Christ, who the gospel's about a man, right? It's not about what you do. The gospel's about a man, the man Christ Jesus. It tells us about Christ, what he's done. That's what the gospel does. It's beautiful.

So now we see in this verses here that, because I used to think, oh, I prayed the prayers, my will, I chose Christ. I used to tell people that. I used to tell, oh, oh, it was awful when I was evangelizing, when I was in religion. I'd tell people, well, God cast a vote for you and the devil cast a vote for you, now it's up to you. That's the most horrible thing you can ever say to anyone.

That's the most, because we see, right? It's not by our will. It's by the will of God. He gave us power. That's we're born again. Gives us faith. We lay a hold of Christ. We see Christ in a whole new light, don't we? Oh, He's my Redeemer. He shed His blood for me. And we run to him.

And as we see again in verse 13, it's not by our will. It's not by being born into a Christian family. It's all by God's power. And it's wondrous. I'll tell you, that's why I get so excited about the gospel and so excited about Christ, because we can't save ourselves. We have no ability. And God saves his people from all their sins. And then he applies that salvation and we're born again, right?

It's beautiful, isn't it, Brother Brian? I'll tell you what. It gets better and better, doesn't it? Oh my. My, oh my. It's incredible. Look at that again, which were born, John 1, 13, which were born, not of blood, nor of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

Oh, it's God's doing. We're saved because it's God's doing. Now, He gives us faith, which we run to Christ, yeah. And we exercise that faith, don't we, Sister Barbara? Yeah, we run to Christ. We look to Him. And we never stop looking to Him now, do we? Even though the clouds come in our lives, the storm clouds come in our lives, we just keep looking to Christ. And you know, in Isaiah, it doesn't say you have to do this. It says, look unto me and be saved. This is the Lord speaking all the ends of the earth. Just look. There's life in the look. There's life in the look. Listen to this, and Titus.

But after the kindness and love of God our Savior appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. by the washing of regeneration, that's being born again, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior.

So one cannot become born again by moral reformation. One cannot become born again by doing certain things or not doing certain things. No. No. And you know, even faith is not the cause of our new birth. There's a heresy out there where people say, well, if you believe, now you're born again. That's what that tract told me. You made a decision, now you're born again. How's that even possible? How can a dead man, spiritually dead, make a decision? Now, people get buried all the time in this world. Can they get up and make a decision? I don't want to go in the grave. I'm going to drive home. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous, isn't it? Oh, yeah. It's ridiculous. My.

Faith is a result of a new birth. Repentance is a result of a new birth. Being conscious of what we are as sinners is a result of the new birth. Right? Desiring to serve the Lord, loving the gospel is a result of the new birth. It's like verse 12 there said, or 13, but of God. It's not by our power, it's of God's power. That was in John 1, 13. Oh my. Next, we see a powerful word here, born. Born. And I want to say this quick, too.

If any man or woman ascribes anything of salvation, even the very least thing to their will, the free will of man, they don't know anything about grace. They don't. Because the grace of God comes to sinners. Bonafide sinners. And we're saved, aren't we? Through the grace of God in Christ.

Now look at this, this is a powerful word here, boring. Boring. I'm preaching to you about a gift, and it's not an ordinary gift, beloved. It's not an ordinary gift. It's the gift of eternal life in and through the Lord Jesus Christ, through his blood and righteousness. And our Lord, God in the flesh declares, you must be born again. He is saying that you must be the object and the recipient of divine grace and mercy. That's what we are. Do you realize that? We are recipients of God's divine grace and mercy in and through the Lord Jesus Christ. That's amazing. Why? Because it pleased God to do so.

Not by any works, right? Remember? Not by our works. Not by the will of man. Not because we're born into a Christian family. No. Because of the grace of God in Christ. Just as Adam, God breathed breath into Adam, made him a living soul, so God must breathe into our breath of life by this Holy Spirit. Because we're born dead in trespasses and sins. If he does not regenerate us, if we're not born again, we will perish in our sins.

Plain and simple. But when we are born again, when we're given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, You know who gets all the glory? God gets it all, doesn't he? God gets it all. Now another profound word here. Look at this. You must be what? Born again. So it's a necessity. You must be born again. What a profound word. Again. A new birth. A new birth.

It's a mystery of grace. It can't be explained, can it? Brother Jane, you can't explain that, can you? We can't explain this. It's a work of God. It's an operation of God, it says in Colossians. My. So for us to totally understand that this is a work of God is beyond our comprehension. That's why natural man, when they hear people saying about being born again, they just laugh in the scorn like I used to do. We can't understand it. What is that? What is that? My. We just don't understand it at all. So our Lord's telling us you must be born a second time, not going back into your mother's womb. No, born from above. Born from above by the power of God.

The first birth was of corruptible seed, right? We're born sinners just like our parents. The second birth to be born again is of an incorruptible seed. Incorruptible. Our first birth is in sin, our second birth is in righteousness. By the power of God, the Holy Spirit. By our first birth, we're polluted. Sinners to the core, whether we believe it or not. But, but, oh my, by the second birth, we become holy in Christ.

And I don't say that because I think I'm holy. No, I'm a sinner. But the scripture says I'm holy and without blame before God and love. And you know who that's in? That's not in anything I do. That's only in Christ. And that's how God sees me. That's how God sees me. And that's how God sees his people. But you know how other people see us? Oh, he's one of those Christians. Wonder what happened to him. All he does is talk about Jesus. I get so tired of that. Well, you know why you're tired of it? You know why you don't want to hear it? Because you're not born again.

Right? About five years ago, I was talking to my daughter. And she says, well, I'm not that bad. And I said, you're my daughter. You're a sinner. She goes, well, I'm not really a sinner. And I said, you know, sweetie, you're a sinner. No, I'm not that bad. You know what she says now? You know what she says now? I'm such a sinner, dad. Well, there's a change, isn't there? Something happened. Something happened. Oh, yeah.

See, one of the first things the Lord shows us, we don't know a lot when we're saved, but we know we're sinners and we know we need a Savior, don't we? And then we start to admit that we're sinners and we need a Savior. My, my oh my. Our first birth was fleshy and carnal, our second birth is spiritual. Makes us spiritual too. By the first birth, all men are foolish and ignorant of the things of God. By the second birth, we become wise unto salvation. Why? By our first birth, we're slaves to sin and the lust of the flesh. By our second birth, we're made free. We're free from the law. We're free from condemnation. We're free from judgment in Christ.

That's glorious! Tell me more! Tell me more. Oh my. By our first birth, we're children of wrath just as others. We look just like everyone else. Oh yeah? And we see here our Lord says, you must be born again. You must be born again. Because we're all born wrong the first time. That's why. That's why we have to be born again. Our Lord said, you must be born again, or none of us will ever enter into glory. None of us will ever enter into the presence of our great God and King.

My, oh my. My, oh my. Here, in order for God to save a sinner, two things must be done. God must do something for you and something for me. You know what the second thing is? God must do something in you and something in me for us to be saved, for us to be born again. It's all God. It's all what he does. Redemption is the work of God for sinners and regeneration to be born again is the work of God in sinners. Redemption is the work of God for sinners. Regeneration is the work of God in sinners. You must be born again. Oh my, it's beautiful. And by nature, we're totally void of any spiritual knowledge and understanding. We may be logical. We may be reasonable. We may be rational. We may be even educated people.

But with regard to the things of God, if you're not born again, then you do not know Christ. And we see men can be really religious and not know Christ, right? He's a master of Israel. Oh yeah. You know, before the Lord saved me, first of all, I was an Armenian. Full-on Armenian. Then I became a full-on Calvinist. And I still had no grace, and then the Lord saved me. Yeah. Oh my, then I found out what grace is all about. And it's wonderful. Absolutely wonderful. Okay, here's four quick things. Four quick things and then we'll be done.

Why must we be born again? Well, because we're born wrong. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. So we're born wrong. We don't know about God. We think we know about God, but we really don't. And when we're born again, we're given a new heart to know and love God. Now the second thing is, what is the new birth? Well, I can't really give you an explanation of it.

It's God working in us. Regenerating us. It's actually incomprehensible But our Lord says it must happen and here's a here's a good verse to indicate this 2nd Corinthians 517 if you want to write it down. Therefore if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature He's a new creature new desires new love and I was joking with Chris, I said, you know, I heard Henry Mahan say this, he said, even when a man's saved, when the Lord saves a man, even his animals know it.

Because he treats them better. It's true. They're gifts from God, aren't they? Mine. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. All things are new. We're given a new heart when we're born again to know and love God, a new will to bow to, which is the will of Christ, a new mind to understand the things of God. We're given a spiritual nature. My, we enjoy and live upon spiritual things, the gospel and the preaching of the word. We're given eyes to see Christ, ears to hear the preaching of the gospel.

It's amazing. My, by nature, we're all sprung from the same bad seed, aren't we? Like one old preacher I like to read, he says, we all were quarried from the same, or we were all taken from the quarry of mankind, saved and lost. The same quarry. The only thing that makes us to differ is God. That's it. My oh my. Number three. How are men and women born again? By the Spirit of God. While men and women are born again by the power of God, the Holy Spirit, not by anything we do. We have no power to save ourselves. We have no power to regenerate ourselves. We have no power to believe on God unless he gives it to us. We saw that in John 1, didn't we? Verses 12 and 13. Oh my.

It's a new birth. It's by the sovereign power of God, the Holy Spirit. And it's required to give dead sinners life. You must be born again. You must be. So marvel at what's set before us. The new birth called regeneration is sovereign, irresistible work of God the Holy Spirit. Look at verse eight of John chapter three. The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but cannot tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone that's born of the Spirit. At the appointed time of God's love for one of his lost sheep, God the Holy Spirit comes and regenerates them. they're born again and given faith to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and they're given repentance before God. And it's absolutely beautiful. And it's all the work of God. Oh my. Makes a shout for joy, doesn't it, Brother Brian? Oh my. Oh my.

If you have If I have told you earthly things, look at verses 12 to 16 of this chapter two, John chapter three, verses 12 to 16. If I told you earthly things, you'd believe not. How should you believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Well, he can't understand. He's still talking to Nicodemus here.

And no man hath ascended up into heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. Now here's the gospel, right here. Everybody says the gospel's in John 16, or John 3, 16. No, the gospel is in 14 and 15. We're saved looking to Christ, right? Look at this. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. Do you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ? Oh my.

And then it was, for God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son that whosoever believeth in him, now look at that clause right there. Whosoever believeth in him. Does everybody believe? No. But all who believe in him, right? Should not perish but have everlasting life. It's beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Now the last question. When is a sinner born again? When is a sinner born again? Well, John 17, 3, and this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God in Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Do you know Christ?

I mean the real Christ. I don't mean a figment of your imagination. I don't mean a Jesus who wants you to come to him and he's wringing his hands because, oh, I can't save him unless you make a decision for me. That's not the God of the Bible, is it? Right, sister? That's not the God of the Bible. That's not.

He's not up there wringing his hands over any sinners. He saved his people from their sins at Calvary's cross, and now he's calling them through the preaching of the gospel. And you know what? Every one of the sheep he died for on Calvary's cross will be saved. He will not lose one of them. And you know why? Because He saved us. Because He redeemed us through the shedding of His blood and living that perfect life of righteousness for us so that we would be accepted by God and be in His presence forever.

Oh my, listen to this. When you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, Look at this, verse 36 of John chapter, or John chapter 3, look at verse 15 first, because we're in this, we're in this chapter. That whosoever believeth in him, right, should not perish, but have eternal life. Whosoever believeth on him, whosoever trusts in him. Oh yeah. And then look at John 3, 36. He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life. We have it right now. And he that believeth not the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abideth on him.

Oh my. Here's Isaiah. I mentioned this earlier. Isaiah 45, 22. This is the scripture that the Lord used to save Charles Spurgeon. Look at this. Look unto me. Just look. It doesn't say walk an aisle. It doesn't say pray a prayer. Just look. Just look. Look unto me and be you saved. All the ends of the earth. For I am God and there is none else. That's the God of the Bible. He's not a God that man can twist him around and he's up there wringing his hands because he can't save people unless they're left.

No, he's already, do you know, I preach the salvation already accomplished. Jesus already saved his people 2,000 years ago. We find out about it in time and space, don't we? We find out, and then we spend the rest of our days just rejoicing that He saved our souls. And then we're gonna go to heaven and rejoice with Him forever in heaven. My, my, when you have Christ, you're born again. Get Christ and get eternal life. Miss Christ and miss eternal life. Listen to this.

He that believeth on the Son, this is I believe from 1 John 5. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself. He that believeth not God hath made him a liar. Made him a liar. Because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son.

He says eternal life is in my Son. He's the way, the truth, and the life. There's no salvation in any other. People say there's salvation in someone else or something you do, they're a liar. That's plain and simple, that's from the scripture. And this is the record that God has given to us, eternal life, and this life is in his son. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shall be saved. My. He that hath not the son hath not life. And he that hath not the Son of God hath not life. Or he that hath the Son hath life, and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.

These things have I written unto you, that believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know. There's something we can know. I don't know much, but I know this. That ye may know, right? That ye have eternal life, right now. Right now, and it's not based on anything I've done or will ever do.

It's all in and through the Lord Jesus Christ and Him alone. These things have I written unto you, that ye believe on the name of the Son of God, that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God. That's Jesus Christ. So here's the great difference between the law and the gospel, between religion and grace.

The law demands everything. You must do this. Religion demands a lot, doesn't it? You gotta do this. You gotta do this. Grace says, just look to Christ and rest. My. Just look to Christ and rest. Everything God demands of the sinner is found in and through the Lord Jesus Christ alone. To God be the glory. My oh my. Brother Chris, he calls us in prayer.