John chapter 3, title of the
message, it's our Lord's statements in Nicodemus, ye must be born
again. Now, I have a message this morning
of vital importance. Ye must, our Savior said, ye
must be born again. This is not an option. You must
be born again or perish in your sins. There's no other option.
People talk about a born-again Christian. So-and-so, they say,
is a born-again Christian. And they talk about born-again
Christians like there's some other kind of Christian. There's
no other kind of Christian other than a born-again Christian. None. If they're going to know the
Lord must be born again. That's what our Lord said. I
have a message of vital importance. And I have a personal message.
Ye must be born again. Every one of us needs to take
this message and make it personal to ourselves. Ye must be born
again. It doesn't matter who you are,
what your background is, where you come from. Ye must be born
again. And I have a message to be received.
Ye must be born again. This new birth that we're going
to talk about is not something that you can earn. It must be
received. You must be born again. You must
be given life. The first time you were born,
you didn't have anything to do with that. You didn't will yourself
to be born. You didn't do something to deserve
to be born. That's something someone else
did. Without any request, without any input from you whatsoever,
you were conceived in your mother's womb. And about nine months later,
you were born. Simply because God gave life.
You didn't will that. You didn't have any input in
that. Well, the same thing is true about spiritual life. This
new birth is something that God must give us. And you must be
born again. Why is that? You must be born
a second time because your first birth was all wrong. You must
be born again. Now I have four questions that
I pray will help us understand our Lord's statement to Nicodemus.
Ye must be born again. And the first question is this.
Why is the new birth so necessary? Why must Now if you look at the
end of chapter 2, John, verse 23, Now when he was in Jerusalem
in the Passover, in the feast day, many believed in his name,
when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit
himself unto them, because he knew all men. And he did not
that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man.
Well, what's in man? Nothing but sin. Absolutely nothing. This is why we must be born again,
because we're born dead in trespasses and sins. We are totally depraved
so that we cannot do anything but sin. So the first reason
that the new birth is necessary is because we are spiritually
dead. We don't have any life. Now it
says at the end of chapter two, therefore, the Lord knew what
was in man and there was a man. of the Pharisees. It didn't matter
that he was of the Pharisees. There was a man. The Pharisees
are the same as everybody else. They like to pretend they're
not, but he's just a man. Our Lord knew what was in man,
and 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. Now there came a man who was
a sinner. And he came to Jesus by night.
And most of us assume that Nicodemus came to our Lord by night because
he didn't want to be seen by his religious friends. He didn't
want them to see him talking with the Lord. He didn't want
them to kick him out or persecute him or something. We don't know
that that's true. We just assume that. That's why
he came to Jesus by night. Henry said it could be he was
working all day. This was the only time he could come. We don't
know. But there is a good picture here.
Nicodemus came to the Lord in darkness, both physical and spiritual
darkness. He came to the Lord by night
in darkness. And this is the second reason
the new birth is necessary, because men by nature don't have any
light. They have no life and they have no light. We looked
at this a couple of weeks ago in John 1. John the Baptist came
to bear witness of the light. Now, light should bear witness
of itself, and it does if you've got eyes to see. But we're blind. We have no light. So God's got
to send someone to tell us about the light. John came to bear
witness of the light because by nature we have none. And most
people are very hard on Nicodemus. God say this, I'm glad that Nicodemus
came to the Lord. At least he came to the Lord. That's the only place Nicodemus
or any of us are ever going to find salvation. It's from the
Lord. Now, he may have come for the
wrong reason. He may come to gather information rather than
to know a person, but at least he came to the Lord. And I tell
you this, people have come to the worship service for worse
reasons. Some people just come to the worship service because
they're dating somebody, you know, they want to keep peace,
you know, maybe they go out and give her an ice cream cone after,
so they come to the worship service. Maybe you know somebody at work
or in the neighborhood and you come out of curiosity. Could
be you're playing golf in a big windstorm and a rainstorm came.
You've got nothing better to do so you came to the worship
service. Whatever the reason. Nobody hears the word of the
Lord accidentally. Nobody meets the Lord, comes
in contact with the Lord accidentally. And many people are very hard
on Nicodemus. I don't know whether the Lord
ever saved Nicodemus or not. I hope so, but I don't have any
idea. But I do know this. After our
Lord was crucified, everybody ran and hid. There were two men
who would come in the light of day and claim the dead body of
our Savior. It was Joseph of Arimathea and
Nicodemus who first came to the Lord by night. I don't know whether
that means the Lord saved him or not. I hope so, but I don't
know. But Nicodemus comes to the Lord.
He is coming to gather information. He says, Now we know your teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. And our Lord's answer to Nicodemus
in verse 3 is very interesting. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, Nicodemus
thinks he knows some things. He comes to the Lord and he says,
now, we know that no man can do what you're doing, except
God be with him. He's telling the Lord the things that he can
understand with his natural mind. And our Lord tells Nicodemus,
you don't have any understanding whatsoever. This is the third
reason that the new birth is necessary, because we don't have
any spiritual understanding. When our Lord says that except
a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God, that
word see is understand. It's the exact same word, it's
translated differently, but it's the exact same word that Nicodemus
uses. Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God. That word know is the exact same
word as see that's translated when our Lord says it. And if
you understand what that means, you know, when we're trying to
explain something to someone, we say, do you see what I'm saying?
What we mean is, do you understand what I'm saying? That's what
our Lord is telling Nicodemus. You think you know some things
about who I am, but you have no spiritual understanding. You
think you know some things about righteousness and salvation,
but by nature, no man knows anything. That's why we must be born again.
No one will ever understand the kingdom of God unless they're
born again. No one will ever understand sin. They'll never understand that
sin is a spiritual nature. Sin's not what we do. Sin is
a sin nature that's in us. We'll never understand that unless
we're born again. No one will ever understand righteousness,
the spiritual nature of righteousness. We'll never understand that righteousness
is not our outward actions. But righteousness is inward holiness. We'll never understand that unless
we're born again. And Nicodemus proved our Lord
was right. When our Lord said, Nicodemus,
you don't have any spiritual understanding. He proved our
Lord right. Look in verse 4. Nicodemus saith
unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? To the end of
the second time and to his mother's womb he will be born. Nicodemus
shows the only light he has is a light of nature. And that's
which is darkness. The light of nature is spiritual
darkness. That's all he has. In verse 9,
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? He asked this question because
he has no spiritual understanding. Look over 1 Corinthians chapter
2. Nicodemus is no different than every other son of Adam.
We have no spiritual understanding. In the Apostle Paul, 1 Corinthians
chapter 2 tells us why. But the natural man receiveth
not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness
unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually
discerned." He can't know them because he has nothing to receive
them in. He's got nothing to put them
in. He's got no spiritual understanding. That's why these things are foolishness
to him. And that nature will hear the
gospel and reject it every single time. Because that nature cannot
understand the gospel. That's what our Lord tells Nicodemus
in verse 11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
you receive not our witness. I've told you earthly things
and you believe not. How shall you believe if I tell you heavenly
things? We can't believe by nature because we don't have any spiritual
understanding. Fourth, the new birth is necessary
because we don't have any ability to come to God. Look at verse
five. Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. When our Lord says cannot,
what he means is, is we have no ability. No man by nature
has the ability to come to God. But someone will say, well, don't
I have the ability to make choices? I make choices every day. Absolutely,
you do. But your choices, your ability
to choose is controlled by your sin nature. And your sin nature
will never let you come to God, you cannot come to God because
you don't have the ability by nature. Look over a few pages
of John, chapter six. This cannot be more plainly stated. And the only reason anybody argues
against this is because they don't have any spiritual understanding.
They're dead. Verse 44. Our Lord says no man
can come to me except the Father which has sent me drawing and
I'll raise him up at the last day. We don't have any ability
to come to God. We cannot because our sin nature
will never Choose that, never make that decision. We don't
have any ability. So our Lord says in verse 7,
marvel not that I sent unto thee, ye must be born again. Don't
be surprised that the Lord tells you, you must be born again.
We're dead. We must be given life in the
new birth because we're dead. Now that's so obvious. If you
have eyes to see, and if you don't, you're blind to it. But
if you have eyes to see who and what you are, that's so obvious.
The new birth is necessary because I'm dead in trespasses and sins.
Second question, well, what is the new birth? There's a question,
I mean, a question for our day. What is the new birth? Now, the
new birth is spiritual. It's a spiritual birth. In verse
3, our Lord said, except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God. That word again is from above.
This birth is a heavenly birth. It's a spiritual birth. It's
not an earthly birth. And that's good news. It really
is. We didn't receive anything good in our first birth. Not
one blessed thing. Good. The only thing we received
in our first birth is a sin nature. We received wickedness in our
first birth. So we don't want another fleshly birth. If you
could go back into your mother's womb and be born again, you'd
be born the same way that you are now, flesh. Wouldn't do you
any good. What we need is to be born from
above, a spiritual birth. Our Lord says in verse six, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born
of the spirit is spirit. Now there are two separate distinct
natures in every believer. Flesh and spirit. Flesh is what
we're born with. Flesh. It'll never be anything
but flesh. It'll never improve. It'll never
change. It'll just get worse and decay. Flesh. And the second
nature in every believer is spirit. And the spirit will never be
anything but spirit. And both the flesh and the spirit
are born. That's how you receive both those
natures. They're born. Now, they're born from two very
different fathers. They're born from two very different
seeds, but they are both born. The new birth is not the changing
of the flesh. The new birth is not the infusion
of light into the flesh. The new birth is not the infusion
of some understanding into the flesh. The new birth is the birth
of a new nature. The birth of a new man who never
existed before that moment he was born. Up until January 5th,
1965, Gene Franklin Tate had never existed on this planet
before. Not this one. Somebody with a
similar name, but not this one. Never existed. And just before
noon, time for lunch on January 6th, he did. There was a new
man here that never was here before. And the exact same thing
happens to a sinner when he's born again. There's a new man
born that's never existed before. And our first birth can be a
picture of our second birth, but they are polar opposites. It can be a picture, but they're
polar opposites. In our first birth, we receive
the nature of our father, the nature he received from his father
and his father and his father all the way back to Adam. In
our first birth, we receive the fallen nature of Adam. In our
second birth, we receive the nature of our Heavenly Father.
This is a birth that's from above. We receive in that birth the
nature of our Heavenly Father. Look over in 1 Peter chapter
1, I'll show you that. We receive the nature of our
Father. Verse 23 of 1 Peter 1, being
born again, not of corruptible seed, not of fleshly seed, but
of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. And where that seed comes from
makes a very big difference. Now look over 2 Peter chapter
1. Here's the result of that birth
from that incorruptible seed. 2 Peter 1 verse 4. whereby are
given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by
these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped
the corruption that is in the world through lust." In this
second birth, we receive the nature of our Heavenly Father,
His holy, perfect nature. In our first birth, we receive
from Adam a nature that can do nothing but sin. we partook of
Adam's nature and Adam's guilt. In our second birth, we received
the nature of Christ, a nature that can never sin. In that birth,
we partook of Christ's righteousness and Christ's nature, that nature
that will never sin. Look at 1 John, 1 John chapter
3. This new man who's born, born
from above will Never sin. 1 John 3 verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin because he is born of God. Now we're going to come back
to this matter in a minute of cannot sin. This does not mean
you and I never sin. That's all we ever do is sin.
That's all we do. He's talking about the new man,
that new man that's born. It's impossible for him to sin
because he is born from that incorruptible seed. He's born
from God. He has the nature of God. This
is Christ being formed in you. And that new man will never sin. It's impossible. He cannot sin.
And we'll come back to that in a minute. But we should make
that distinction. This does not mean we go around
never sinning. It doesn't mean that at all.
But that new man. never sins, cannot sin. In our
first birth, what do we receive? A dead, dying nature. We received a spiritual nature
that's already dead and trespasses and sins. And we received a fleshly
body that began dying the moment it was conceived. It began dying
because of our sin nature. In our second birth, we received
a nature that will never die. Now, this body is still going
to die. This body must die because unless the Lord returns and changes
us in that twinkling of an eye, the body must die so that the
spirit and the flesh can finally be separated. And you're going
to lay that flesh in the ground and it's going to go back to
the dust from which it was made. And that new man, that spirit
is going to go be with the Lord who gave it to be with him eternally. It'll never die. Look in John
chapter 11. That new man, that new nature
is going to be set free to go be with the Lord. This is our Lord talking to Martha
outside the tomb of her brother, Lazarus. And in verse 23, Jesus
saith unto her, Thy brother shall rise again. Martha saith unto
him, I know that he shall rise again in the resurrection at
the last day. Jesus saith unto her, I am the
resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though
he were dead, yet shall he live. And whosoever liveth and believeth
in me shall never die." Do you believe this? Do you believe
this? Then you're born again. The flesh
can't believe that. Only the Spirit can believe that.
The new man believes. Do you believe that? Then you're
born again. we received a mind that's enmity
against God. In our second birth, we received
a mind that understands God. In our first birth, we received
a heart that's desperately wicked. In our second birth, we received
a heart that loves the Lord, loves Him with all of our strength
and all of our might. We love the Lord. In our first
birth, we received eyes that are blind to all spiritual light.
In our second birth, we received eyes of faith that will only
ever look to the Lord Jesus Christ. You see him and you won't take
your eyes off of him. Not those eyes of faith you won't.
In our first birth, we received ears that are not only deaf,
but that refuse to hear. In the second birth, we received
ears that not just hear, but knows the voice of the shepherd
and follows him. In our first birth, we receive
feet that are swift to shed blood. In our second birth, we receive
feet that run, flee to the Lord Jesus Christ and won't leave.
In our first birth, we received a throat that is an open sepulcher. Do you know what a sepulcher
is? It's a grave. That's what it is. Our throat
is an open grave. What's in a grave? dead men's
bones. That's what's in us. That's why
our throat is an open sepulcher, because in us is deadness, a
dead spiritual nature. Our throat is an open sepulcher,
and our mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. That's what we
received in the first birth. In the second birth, we receive
a mouth that's full of the praise of our Savior. In our first birth,
we received hands that we used to reject Christ at every turn.
In the second birth, we received hands that lay hold on Christ
and cling to him and will not let go. See, those two births
are similar, but polar opposites, aren't they? So what's the new
birth? The new birth is to be given
eternal life. And that work is the work of
the Lord Jesus Christ alone. Back in our text in verse 13,
John 3. And no man hath ascended up to
heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of
Man which is in heaven." The new birth is not religion. It's
not religious knowledge. If religious knowledge was the
new birth, Nicodemus wouldn't need to be born again. He'd been
born a long time ago if the new birth was religious knowledge.
Nicodemus wasn't just a Pharisee. I mean, that's a pretty separate
sect of men, the Pharisees. He was a ruler of the Jews, a
member of the Sanhedrin. And as I understand it, there's
only 70 of those fellows. I mean, he is in an elite group.
Nicodemus is not just a preacher. He's the teacher down there at
the preacher school. He's the one teaching the preachers. I
mean, this guy's full of knowledge. But he has no spiritual life.
None whatsoever. He needed to be born again because
in all of his knowledge, he didn't know the most important thing.
He didn't know who the Lord Jesus Christ was. He didn't know that
to know Christ was to have life eternal. Knowing Christ, that
is what eternal life is. And Nicodemus and none of us
will ever enter heaven because of all of our good works and
our religious things that we've done. Anyone who ascends into
heaven will only ascend there in the Lord Jesus Christ. He
descended from heaven. He's the Prince of Glory. He
left there. Came here for a while. For a
time. And then he ascended back to
glory. Because he had accomplished, during this time he spent on
earth, he had accomplished the eternal salvation of all those
people that the Father gave him. They're redeemed. He went back
to glory. And the only way we will ever
go there is to go there in the Lord Jesus Christ, to go there
in his merit, to go there in the blood and the righteousness
of the Lord Jesus Christ. That's the new birth. The new
birth is to believe Christ, to know Christ and to have Christ
formed in you. That's the new birth. Now, third
question, what is the source of the new birth? Where does
this new birth come from? If I must be born again, I want
to know where to find it. What's the source of the new
birth? Well, first, the source of the new birth is the sovereign
will of God. Look at verse 8 in our text.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Now, who can control
the wind? I mean, you know, we can watch
the Tony Cavalier might be able to tell us the wind's going to
blow today, but I don't know how he's got some computer module. And they probably go out there
and measure what the wind is that's coming. You know, look
at all that. That's going to be the same thing that gets here. I don't know.
A normal person has no idea if the wind's going to blow today
or not. None whatsoever. We don't know how hard it will blow, where
it'll come from, or where it's going. Certainly, we can't control
the wind. I think, well, I don't want the
wind to blow today. I want to go to the pool, so I'll change the way it's blowing.
We can't do that. Thursday, kids were out here
doing their crafts and eating some snacks and stuff, and I'm
telling you, a wind came. I mean, it got dark. I mean,
just in a matter of seconds, it got dark. And the wind was
blowing. I mean, we had a tent out there.
We were sitting in our tent. The flaps of that thing were
blowing. Michelle had t-shirts set out the kids were going to
paint. T-shirts were everywhere. I mean, they were down in the
parking lot, out in the grass. We never did find two of them, did
we? They're gone. And we could no more control that wind and
stop that so we could do what we wanted to do than anything.
I mean, they were gone. We can't control the wind. That's
the way the new birth comes. By the sovereign will of the
Holy Spirit, he blows where he will and brings life to God's
people. And it's not accidental where
he blows, it's on purpose. He knows and he blows on those
people that Christ died for and he sovereignly gives them life
when he will. Salvation must come from the
sovereign will of God. Because man's will is in bondage
to sin. Only a dead man would say, I
don't want salvation to come from God's will, I want it to
come from my will. Only a dead man would say that. Because only
a dead man does not know your will will not and cannot choose
God. It's dead. It's controlled by
sin. Salvation must come from the
sovereign will of God. God must choose us or we'll never
choose Him ever. Salvation comes by the sovereign
will of God. I'm so thankful because man's
will is dead and man's will cannot will itself to have life. Can't do it. God must give life
or we'll never have it. Look in James chapter 1. James 1, verse 17. Now this life,
this new birth, is a gift of God. What James says in chapter
1, verse 17, every good gift and every perfect gift is from
above. That's why we're born from above,
because this comes to us from above. And cometh down from the
Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, he the shadow
of turning, of his own will begat he us. with the Word of Truth. This new birth comes from His
will that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.
Now, don't hear those words and get this fatalistic attitude
and think, well, if I ever be saved, I'll be saved. There's
nothing I can do about it. If God chose me, I'll be saved.
And if He didn't choose me, I'll be damned. So I'm just going
to sit here and do nothing and wait and see what happens. Even
Nicodemus didn't do that. At least Nicodemus went to the
Lord. Look at verse 19. Now what shall our reaction be?
Of his own will begat he us with the word of truth. Wherefore,
my beloved brethren, because of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Wherefore, my beloved brethren,
let every man be swift to hear, slow to speak, and slow to wrath,
because God sovereignly gives life. We should be swift to hear
his word. He gives life through the word
of his truth. Then we should be swift to hear
the word of his truth, shouldn't we? And we should be slow to
speak because as Janet taught her three, four and five year
olds for all those years she taught her class, every Sunday
she reminded them, you can't hear when you're talking. Be
slow to speak because you can't hear while you're talking. The
new birth comes from the sovereign will of God. Second, the new
birth comes from God's Word and God's Spirit. Verse 5 in our
text, John 3, Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and the Spirit,
he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Now, there have been volumes
and volumes of speculation written about this water and the Spirit.
And maybe we can get a blessing if I don't overcomplicate things
and don't muddy the waters, as it were. Now, I have to say this
first, because people take this verse and build a creed around
it and make it say something that it does not say. This water
is not the water of baptism. Now, I don't say that to minimize
the importance of baptism, but what people try to take this
verse and say is that it's the act of baptism that saves, and
that couldn't be further from the truth. The waters of baptism
don't save. The waters of baptism don't cleanse
us from any filth of our flesh. I mean, take a shower at home
and you can get as much of that off as you can, but it doesn't
have any spiritual cleansing in the waters of baptism. Baptism,
I told you this Wednesday night, is the answer of a good conscience
towards God. Baptism is the physical confession
of what Christ has already done in your heart. Baptism does not
give us the new birth. Baptism is the confession, the
public confession I've been born again by the will of God, by
the power of God, by the grace of God. All right. Do you see
what I'm saying? You understand that? I think
we'll get a blessing here if we don't try to dissect this
and separate the water and the spirit. It's all the work of
the Holy Spirit together. And I think I can show you that
in a couple of scriptures. When a sinner is born again, we are
born with the nature of Christ. Christ is formed in us and we
become partakers of His nature. Now that is a supernatural birth,
isn't it? That's supernatural. We're born
by the supernatural work of the Holy Spirit. Look over in Luke
1. Very much like our Lord Himself
was born in this earth. In Luke 1, verse 30. And the angel said unto her,
Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And, behold,
thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt
call his name Jesus. He shall be great, and shall
be called the Son of the Lord God, and shall give unto him
the throne of his father David. He shall reign over the house
of Jacob for ever, and of his kingdom there shall be no end."
Now, I'm sure Mary thought, okay, well, I believe I should have
a child and he'll reign The throne of David, I guess I could believe
all that, but I've got one problem. How can these things be, seeing
I know not a man? I can't have a son. I don't have
a husband. I don't know a man. And the angel
answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee,
and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore,
also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called
the Son of God. The same way Mary conceived the
Son of God in her womb, that supernatural work is the same
work of the Spirit that causes His people to be born again.
Now, we can't understand that any more than we can understand
the wind blowing, but we can believe it because God's Word
said it. That's the work of the Spirit.
And the Spirit cleanses God's people from all the filth of
our sin with water in the new birth. I'm going to show you
a couple of scriptures. John chapter 6. I want you to see, I'm not just
making this up. This is what God's Word says. John 6 verse 63. It is the Spirit that quickeneth.
The flesh profiteth nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
their spirit and their life. It's the spirit that quickeneth.
Now look over at Titus chapter 3. It's the spirit that quickeneth. Verse 5, Titus 3, not by works
of righteousness which we've done, but according to his mercy
he saved us by the washing of regeneration. Regeneration is
just another word for the new birth. By the washing of regeneration
and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly
through Jesus Christ our Savior. This work of cleansing in the
new birth is the Holy Spirit washing us. So how does he wash?
How does he cleanse us? with the blood and the water
that flowed from the wounded side of our Savior. And that
is a supernatural work of the Spirit. The Spirit uses both
the incarnate word and the written word to cleanse His people from
their sins. I'll read you a scripture from
Psalm 119. If you're in Eric's Bible school
class this week, you're very familiar with this verse at this
point. Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking
heed thereto according to thy word." This is what the Holy
Spirit uses to cleanse his people, is the Word of God, both the
incarnate Word and the written Word. So the new birth comes from God's
Word and God's Spirit. Third, the new birth comes from
faith in God's Word, in the preached Word. Look at John 3 again, verse
11. Verily, verily, I say unto thee,
We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and
ye receive not our witness." Now, when a person is born again,
they quit not believing, not receiving that witness. They
believe. When a person is born again,
they cannot help themselves. They've received a nature that
believes God. They believe God. They have faith
in the Lord Jesus Christ. They're not born again because
they believe. They believe because they're
born again. Just like a baby's not born because
it breathes. That baby breathes because it's
born, because it's been given life. Our Lord says, he that
heareth my word and believeth on him that sent me hath everlasting
life. Not he will have it. He has everlasting
life. The proof that he has everlasting
life is he hears God's word and he believes it. He's been given
faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. God gives this faith as a free
gift to His elect through the preaching of the Word. No one
will ever, ever, ever be born again apart from the Word of
God. They must hear the Word of God. And almost always it must be
the preached Word. How can I understand these things
except some man should guide me? Through the preached Word. Now that puts something on you.
Dale talked about the enormity of that task this morning. Because
of this, we only preach what we know. What we know beyond
a shadow of a doubt. What we know from God's Word.
We preach what we know. We testify what we've seen. Remember that word seen means
know. We testify what we know. We only preach what God has given
us an understanding of. And if I don't understand it,
I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to preach it. I'm just
going to tell you, I don't understand that verse. And we'll go on to
the next one. Maybe I do. But we preach what we know to
be true. We preach boldly and carefully. And by that, I mean this. We
preach boldly the truth of the Lord Jesus Christ. Unapologetically,
boldly and clearly as we can, we preach the truth of the Lord
Jesus Christ. But we're very careful to only
preach the truth. Only preach the truth. Because
it's pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that
believe. How shall they call on him in whom they not believed?
And how shall they believe in him in whom they not heard? And
how shall they hear without a preacher? So we preach Christ boldly and
carefully so that we only preach Christ. And my fourth question
is this. Have I been born again? Now,
I'm telling you, I want to know this. Have I been born again? You can ask yourself the same
question. Have you been born again? Look over 1 John chapter
4. I'm going to show you a couple
of scriptures here in 1 John. It'll answer this question for
us. Have you been born again? Well, let me ask you this. Do
you believe Christ? Do you trust Christ to save you
without any help from Him? If you do, Then you've been born
again. Look at 1 John 4. Now, I've looked
at this several times. I wrote down the wrong scripture.
Well, anyway, if you believe Christ,
you look this up, Sacramento Faction Highway. If you believe
Christ, you've been born again. The only person that believes
Christ. is one who's been born again.
Do you know Christ? Do you know how he saves sinners? I wrote down the correct one
here. I can show you how then you've been born of God. 1 John
4, verse 6. Now we are of God. He that knoweth
God, heareth us. He that is not of God, heareth
not us. Hereby know we the spirit of
truth and the spirit of error. Do you know God? Then you've
been born again. Does the Word of God feed you?
When you hear the Gospel preached, does it bless you? Does it strengthen
you? Does it help you get through
your week when you hear the Gospel preached? Then you've been born
again. That love and that understanding
of God's Word did not come from the flesh. It came from that
new man who's been born. Do you love God? Have you been
born again? Then answer this question. Do
you love God? Do you love His people? Do you
genuinely love people out there in the world? Do you care about
them? Do you hear about some tragedy that happened to somebody?
Do you care about their pain? And especially, do you care about
the eternal welfare of people in our town? I mean, do you want
them to hear the gospel? Then you've been born again.
Because that love didn't come from you. It came from the new
man who's born in you. Look at verse 7 of 1 John 4. Let us love one another, for
love is of God. And everyone that loveth is born
of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not
God, for God is love. Do you love? Then you've been
born of God. And last, this question. Do you
hate sin in yourself? I mean, do you hate it? Look
at 1 John 5 verse 18. Now we know. That whatsoever
is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth
himself, and that wicked one touches him not. Now, you know
good and well, this does not mean a believer never sins. That's
all we do is sin. That's why our Lord taught us
to pray, forgive us our trespasses. He taught us to pray for forgiveness.
So this does not mean that we never sin. What it means is one
of two things. It could mean this. The believer
will not live in a practice of sin. I sin, but I hate it. And it's my goal every day not
to sin. I'll never do that again. Well,
I will, but it is my determination. I will not practice that. That's
my desire. And it certainly means this.
A believer will not commit the sin of apostasy, of leaving Christ,
because you can't. Just like the flesh cannot come
to God, that new man, that spirit cannot leave him. Can't do it. He sins not. Henry said, I never
would have been born again if I could have helped it. But God
birthed me again. That was his act, his grace,
his power. And now I cannot leave him because
I've been born again. Are you born again? Been born
again? I suspect most of us know the
answer to that question. Have I been born again? If the
light's been turned on, you know it. If you're breathing, you
know it. And if you don't, if there's
no light, there's no breathing, there's no life, ask. Ask Him. Lord, I'm dead. Would
you give me life? I can't see. Would you give me
sight? I have no light. Would you give
me light? Asking. Begging. Look to Him. Alright. Well, the Lord bless you.