I know this, that if we're saved
at all, it's going to be by the sovereign grace of God. I know
that without a shadow of a doubt. And we use the term free grace
and sovereign grace to distinguish it just from grace. When you
hear anybody talk about grace, there's always conditions on
it. If you do this, if you do that, grace is free. It comes
unwanted, it comes unmerited, it comes undeserved. And if it wasn't, it wouldn't
be grace, would it? I so appreciate the privilege
of coming and being here with you all and Brother John. I sure
love him and love his preaching. And I've enjoyed the service
so far. That man gets to your heart quick,
don't he? He lays you bare. The Word of
God is quick and powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword, dividing
us, sons, with the soul and spirit and the thoughts and intents
of the heart. And that's what the Gospel does. It's just like
a butcher. It just lays you open. Thank you, Bruce. Thank
God for you. Turn with me to John chapter
3. John chapter 3. I want to bring a message. The
new birth. The new birth. If you couldn't enter into what
Brother Bruce was saying and into these songs, it would be
because you haven't been born again, haven't had the new birth,
haven't been regenerated. But here in these first eight
verses, I'll try to say a few things about them. There was
a man of the Pharisees, going to distinguish him, not just
a man, but a man of the Pharisees. His name was Nicodemus. And he
was a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night,
and every time he's mentioned, he's always mentioned, the same
that came to Jesus by night. And said unto him, Rabbi, called
him Rabbi, teacher, we know thou art a teacher come from God.
For no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be
with him. Our Lord answered and 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 is old? Can he enter the second
time into his mother's womb and be born? The Lord 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.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born
of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee,
Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth.
Now here is the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto
him, How can these things be? How can these things be? Our
Lord Jesus here is telling a man. This man started out by flattering
the Lord Jesus. Came to Him by night. Started
flattering Him. Rabbi, we know you've come from
God. We know that. There ain't nobody
that can do the things that you do. Talk about these miracles
flattering. My Lord Jesus just cut him right
off. Never addressed him in any way.
Only thing He said to him, you must be born again. You can't see the Kingdom of
God without being born again. If all you see is a teacher,
if all you see is a rabbi, if all you see is a miracle worker,
you ain't seen nothing. You ain't seen nothing. And that's
all people saw in Christ, a teacher, miracle worker, a man sent from
God. And I tell you, that's what people
do. And that's what he said. He said, you know, man can do
no miracles except these, except God be with him. And our Lord
says, if you want to talk about miracles, I'm going to tell you
about a miracle that must be done for you. You must be born
again. And that's something you can't
do for yourself. And there's an order, and when we follow
in the scriptures, there's an order followed by God in this
new creation. And that's what I want to talk
about, this new birth, because it's a new creation. It's God bringing
into existence a person who never existed before. It's a new life. It's a new creation. Now you
keep, John, and look with me over in Genesis, just a minute,
Genesis chapter one. I'll take a minute trying to
set this up a little bit. Genesis chapter one. And there's
an order. And it's pictured for us here
in the creation. God is such a God of order, and
He don't leave us confused or trying to figure out what He's
doing. People wonder, I wonder what God's doing. I tell you
what He's doing, He's doing what He wants to, does what He wills
to. You said it, you read it in the psalm. You know, He's
in heaven, He does whatsoever He pleases. I don't ever wonder
what He's doing. He's always doing His will. But
look what it says here. This is what has to happen. In
the beginning, God created. And that's what God has to do
for us. He has to create a man. If any man be in Christ, he's
what? A new creation. Must be created. And as God created,
he got to create that new existence. He got to create that life in
the soul of a man. And not only that, and then the
earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face
of the deep. Chaos, utter chaos and darkness
and voidness. And that's the way the human
soul is. That's the way the human heart is outside of Christ. It's
dark without form and void and chaos all about it. Chaos all
in it. And there's darkness upon it.
And not only, you know, the scripture says that the light shined in
darkness and the darkness comprehended in that. We not only are in darkness,
but the scripture says we are darkness outside of Christ. It's
not we just dwell in it, but we are darkness itself. And then
look what it says here. And the Spirit of God, that's
what's got to happen. There we are in chaos. There
we are in darkness. There we are without form and
void and chaos on our soul. And the Spirit of God moved.
And it come and it brooded over the waters, and it came and moved
over the waters. And the Spirit of God, as you
sung in that hymn, the Spirit of God must come in power and
move on that heart, move on that soul. And if the Spirit of God
don't come, and then watch what happens. The Spirit of God begins
to move. And God said, let there be light. As God commanded the
light to shine out of darkness, He has shined the light in our
hearts to give the knowledge, the glory of God in the face
of Jesus Christ. And God said, let there be light.
And guess what? When the Spirit of God moved, when God said,
let there be light, light comes on. You ever seen the light come
on anybody while you was preaching? You see it in their eyes. And
oh, watch what happened. And then what you said is God
saw the light that is good. Oh, that work that God, that
life that he puts in you, that life that he creates in you,
that life that he puts in your heart. He says it's good. And
what's this? And he divides the light from
the darkness. He separates us from the darkness. And we show
forth the marvelous praises of him who called us out of darkness
into his glorious light. Now, back over in John 3. So
that's, you know, that's just a little illustration that I
want to talk about to utter an absolute necessity of the new
birth. Our Lord Jesus Christ told him
in John 3 here, he says, told Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I
say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the
kingdom of God. And down in verse 5, he says,
Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter
the kingdom of God. Now, when our Lord Jesus Christ
says a man must be born again, except he be born again, when
he says he can't see the kingdom of God, I tell you so many things
he can see. He can see church membership.
He can see tithe paying. He can see coming to the altar.
He can see praying through. He can see free will. He can
see making a decision. He can see joining the church.
He can see shaking the preacher's hand. But he cannot see the rule
of God in Jesus Christ. He cannot see the power and glory
of God in Jesus Christ. And not only that, but it says
he can't enter into the kingdom of God. He can't enter into this
life everlasting. He can't enter into this place
where the realm of the Spirit of God is, this spiritual realm.
And why it is, is that's why Nicodemus says, well, how can
a man be born when he's old? Now, some of us getting old,
we can't be born again. We can't go, like what he said,
how can I be born when I'm old? Can he enter a second time in
his mother's womb? And our Lord Jesus said, except
you be born of the water and the Spirit. And that's what he
says. He says, you know, you can't
enter the kingdom of God because your flesh, that's what he says
in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. And that's
all it can ever be. That's all the flesh can ever
produce. And that which is born of the Spirit. You know, Job
said it this way. He says, can a man bring a clean
thing out of an unclean? Can he that born of a woman be
born clean? Davis said, I was shapen in iniquity
and in sin was I born, brought forth from my mother's womb.
And beloved, that's the way man is. He's born of the flesh. He'll
never be anything but the flesh. If you could go to your mother's
womb, if you come from your mother's womb, you're coming out just
like you was the first time, the second time, the third time.
You're going to be the same every time you come out. You're going
to be flesh! And flesh means Adam's nature,
fallen nature, sinful nature, corrupt nature. devilish nature,
hateful nature, enmity in your mind against God. And they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. A man's born a sinner. You know, people say, well, he's
going to be lost. He's born lost. He's born a sinner. Born without God. Born without
Christ. Born without righteousness. Born
without an understanding of either of them. Of God, Christ, sin,
righteousness, or anything. He has no understanding of them.
That's why it says being under darkened, understanding being
darkened through the ignorance and blindness that's in them.
And oh, they fenced off from Sinai. God was. And oh, when God came down, they
fenced off Sinai and everybody stood back. And God hid himself
behind the veil when he made that tabernacle. And he says
nobody can go behind that veil but the high priest once a year.
And that's what he said here. No man can come into the presence
of God because of flesh. You've got to have a high priest.
You've got to have somebody come into God's kingdom to get into
that presence of God behind the veil. You've got to have the
new birth or you can't get into the kingdom of God. And oh my,
man's away from God. He can't come there. Only the
Holy Spirit can bring him there. This is true now and always will
be. God's got a prepared place for prepared people and unregenerated
men, and I see them all the time, and you do. I've got folks that
I've been preaching to for years. They just don't, they just ain't
got it yet. It's obvious they ain't got it.
They just ain't got it. Unregenerate man has no desire, no love, no
knowledge, no appreciation for the things of God. If you take
a, get a big old gold, get you a big old gold trace, solid gold
trace. Get you a big old gold tray. Get you a bunch of pretty
flowers, fresh flowers. Set your prayer down. Put your
flowers all around it. Get you some perfume, your finest
perfume. Get you some music. Get somebody
like Jason or Mike and just make some piano tickle. Get that music
going real good. Then get you a fish. Lay him
among those flowers. Put that perfume on him. Get
that music going. Let me ask you something. Will
it make him happy? Will it make him contented? Will
he enjoy himself? Will he enjoy the music? Will
he enjoy the perfume? Appreciate the flowers? Of course not. He's out of his
environment. He's out of his element. And
that's exactly the way a man is apart from the new birth.
Huh? Ain't that right? Put all the
flowers you want to around him. Perfume him. But he just cannot
relate. He's out of his environment.
And that's the way the natural man is. And look what our Lord
said here. What is the character of the
new birth? There's a lot of confusion about this. I had a fellow come
to my office one day. He asked me, he said, can I bring
my Bible and show you a few things? I said, oh, I'd love for you
to. Love for you to. So he brought his Bible and he's
going Show me things, show me how bad out wrong I was. He says,
you know, I said, I read the newspaper here you preach and
said, you know, as far as I can tell, you think you're the only
one who knows the gospel in this whole country. But nevertheless, he brought
his Bible, and this is one of the things he won't talk about,
the new birth. The new birth. And he says the new birth was
something that he did, that he by praying through, going to
an altar, and having an experience that he got the new birth that
way. And I says, no, no, no, you got it just backwards. You
got the cart before the horse. It's the new birth. He said he
got the new birth by repenting and believing. I says, no, no,
the new birth comes, then you repent, then you believe. And
that's why there's so much confusion about the average person think
the new birth is something that he by himself can affect by moral
reforming himself, by becoming religious. And nobody was more
religious than Nicodemus. He was a master of Israel. He
was a ruler of the Jews. And that's why our Lord asked
him. He says, you're a master of Israel and you don't know
these things I'm talking about. The Old Testament is full of
the new birth. I mean, you take the infant cast out. That's the
new birth. You take Ezekiel 36, the new heart, the new spirit,
that's the new birth. You take Noah coming out on the
new ground, new earth, that's the new birth. The Old Testament's
full of a new birth. And here this man is, he says,
you mean to tell me that you're a master of Israel and you don't
know these things. But people think all you got
to do is make a change of heart. A person told me here recently,
I said, I hear that you think the Lord done something for you.
He says, yes, and I thought it was about time. And it just grieved
me. Thought it was about time. Oh, then it's about time. It's
a change of heart. And Scripture don't know anything
about a change of heart. That's an anti-Scriptural. That's
anti-Christ. The heart's deceitful above all
things and desperately wicked. Who can know it? I don't even
know more. Only a fool trusts in his own
heart. What then is the new birth? Well,
let me tell you something. It's not God removing, taking
something out of the sinner. He never removes anything from
the sinner. No, no. What it is, is God imparting
something to the sinner. Imparting life where there was
death. Imparting a new nature where
there was a fallen nature. Imparting a new heart where there
was a heart of stone. And in those, you know, and beloved,
it's the impartation of a new nature. In my first birth, I
received the nature of my parents. And I'm so much like my daddy.
If my dad is here, you'd say, boy, that boy is like his daddy.
I'm serious, I'm so much like him, I got so much of his gestures
and so many. I walked in on one of my aunts
one time and she says, boy, Don Bell. I said, boy, because I'm
just like him. And the worst thing about it
is I get the bad part. And my mother, I get the worst
parts. I'm serious. You think about it. You know,
you get their looks, but you always get the parts about them
that you despise. Now, you know, you think about
it. Most of you women say, boy, I don't want to be like my mama
in some ways. Now, don't tell me. And you men,
now I know some of you, you want to be just like your dad. You
should. But, oh, I got the worst parts. I got the bad parts. When
your parents ain't got no good part, you can't get nothing but
a bad part. And I'm telling you the truth
about that. But in my first birth, I received
the nature of my parents. I looked like them, act like
them, had the same gestures. I'd do things with my lips my
dad does, do things with my ears my dad did, hold my hands the
way he did, walk exactly the way he did. Walk exactly the
way he did. And in the new birth, I received
the nature of my new father. It's a new nature. And where
that nature is, you get the nature of God. We are made partakers
of the divine nature. The Holy Spirit begets within
us a spiritual nature, a nature that can relate to God. We're
like that fish. If you can make that fish have
a human nature, Then he'd be enjoying that flowers and all
that. But you can't. But what God does, he don't take
anything out of us. He puts his life in us. He gives
us that new nature. And you know, he puts in us a
seed, just like a seed came from my father to my mother. And in
that seed contained everything that I would be. We were gotten
again by the seed of Christ. The seed of God put in us by
an uninterruptible seed. And he that's born of God cannot
sin. And how many times did John say,
he that's born of God, he that's born of God, he that's born of
God. He just automatically believes and says that he that's born
of God this way does this and acts that way. And God gives
us this new nature and he makes us the taker of the divine nature.
And this is how in the world did we go from not wanting God
till that's all we do want. How did we go from having a nature
where he never entered our minds and now he stays continually
on our minds? Well, it happened to us that we breathe nothing
but iniquity, but now we want to breathe nothing but holiness
and be in an atmosphere like this. And I tell you, one of the fundamental
laws of God in creation is that light produces light. Ain't that
what happened in the... light produces light. Flesh produces
flesh. Spirit produces spirit. Oh, beloved, the character and
the nature of the new birth. Oh, beloved, it's not the reformation
of the outward man. It's not the education of the
natural man. That's what a lot of folks think.
If we can just educate them. Now, teaching. Our Lord, you
know, Nicodemus called him a teacher. And we teach the saints of God.
Men need a savior, not a teacher. And I'll tell you, it's not the
education of the natural man. You can't educate yourself into
the kingdom of God. And you can't have this idea
that I was converted over there in Arminianism and I just grew
into the grace of God and I'm just more mature and understand
better understanding of things that I had before. That's not
the way it works. You don't get educated into the
grace of God. You don't get educated into the
kingdom of God. You get born into the kingdom
of God. And then that's when God starts
educating you. The first education you have
is that humiliation you're taught. And oh, it's not the purification
of the old man. Clean it up all you want to.
But it's the creation of a new man by his own will. Begat he
us with the word of truth, being born again, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and
abideth forever. And in this birth, we have two
natures. And, you know, let's look at
it again. Bruce looked at it, but I want to look at it again.
Galatians 5 with me, just a minute. Galatians chapter 5. In this
new birth, we have two natures. Let me ask you something. Did
you ever have a problem with sin until you got converted? Did you ever have a problem with
sin? Did you ever have a problem with
your flesh? Huh? Did you? Galatians 5.17. Look what it says here. For the
flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
And that's just like two armies. And if you've ever been in the
military, you know they set you against the enemy. You're set
against it. And that's what this is. It's the flesh and the spirit. They're
just like this here. In my old fallen nature, the
Spirit does capitalize. That's the Spirit of God. And
here my flesh is, you know. And watch what happens. And these
are contrary, the one to the other. Flesh and spirit, they're
contrary. And this is what he says, so
that you cannot do the things that you would. Anybody here
as spiritual as you'd like to be? Anybody here as fleshly as you
could be? You know why? Spirit won't let
you be as fleshly as you want to be, and the flesh won't let
you be as spiritual as you want to be. Ain't that right? And I never had a problem with
either one of them until I got converted. I never had a problem
with Sid. Did you, Tom? I could say it.
I never got up and regretted anything I'd done during the
day. I never did. I just, you know, whatever I
said, whatever I did, I had no regrets. I tell you, the only
thing I regretted was if I got out on Friday night and my check
was gone when I got up Saturday morning, I had to borrow money
for the rest of the week. That's the only thing I regretted. I'd
always promised myself I'll never do that again. And I'm not trying
to make light of it, but that's just the things that I regretted. I didn't regret sin. I didn't
regret what I'd done to my wife or my kids. But boy, when God,
when this new birth comes, you start seeing things you never
saw before. You start seeing sin like it. You never saw sin
before until life came. You never saw righteousness in
the need of it until life came. You never saw God till life.
You wasn't conscious of God. You wasn't conscious of Christ.
You wasn't conscious of sin. You wasn't conscious of God.
You weren't conscious of the Bible. And what happened that
made you conscious of that one day? One day you're not and the
next day you are. Oh, my. Oh, Lord Jesus Christ. That's what happens. Look what
he says here again. In verse 7, that which is born of the
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. And oh, ain't you grateful that
long for the day that when this old corruption, this old corruption,
that's what this body's called, this flesh is called corruption.
Corruption. A dead, wretched man. Ain't you
look forward to the day when God will just rip this off of
us? Never have to deal with it ever
again? Never have to deal with depression or fear or anxiety? Never have to have the burden
of the way of the Lord on you when you get up to preach ever
again? Won't that be something? I never thought about any of
those things. I never even thought about heaven. Didn't even know
if there was such a thing. And now I belong to God. I want
to go home. I ain't never been home, but
I want to go home. You know why I want to go home? Because I
got a home to go to. But look what he says. Our Lord
says there in verse 7, Marvel not that I said unto thee, you
must be born again. Don't marvel at it. Don't be
amazed. Don't begin to wonder that I
told you, you must be born again. Now, you're talking about strange
language to this man. This is real strange language
to him. Only thing he knows is salvation by law. Only thing
he knows is salvation by works. Only thing he knows is Moses.
Only thing he knows is what he can do himself. His washings
and his church attendance and his scripture reading and his
prayers and his fasting and his tithing. That's you talking about
strange. You must be born again. Marvel
not, don't stand in wonder and amazement at it. You're talking
about strange language. Why are you talking about a new
birth? I go to synagogue every Saturday. I go pay tithes of
everything I possess. I do all these works and here
I am a ruler. I am a master. But oh, our Lord
Jesus says marvel not, now he is being taught that salvation
is a gift of God. It is not something you earn.
It is not something you deserve. It is a gift. It is an event
in which man is of necessity passive. This gift of God in
this life, a man is necessity passive. A person can do nothing
about this birth. He's passive in it. How much
did you have to do with your first birth? Absolutely nothing. Did you? And that's the same way with
this. And that's why we're so, like Bruce said, it's so necessary
for us to preach the gospel, because that's what God uses
to save his people. And you know it, and a person
can do nothing. This is not a moral duty, but it's a divine decree.
God says you must be born again. He ain't saying when our Lord
says you must be born again, He ain't saying by all means,
see that you do it, do whatever's necessary to get the new birth.
That's not what He's talking about. No, He means something
must happen to you. Something must be done for you. And I tell you, just as I just
had nothing to do with my first birth, I had nothing to do with
His second birth. And that's why our Lord went on to say about
how this thing happens. He says, Marvel not that I said
unto thee, Ye must be born again. He says, The wind bloweth where
it listeth. This is, Thou hearest the sound
thereof, but canst not tell when it cometh, where it goeth. So
is every one that is born of the Spirit. You know, when He
uses the wind here, emblem of the Holy Spirit, blows where
and will as it pleases. Our Lord has hid here the beginning
and processes of life. That we live, we know. I don't
need a birth certificate to show you all that I'm alive. That
I was born. You know, I don't need that.
No more than I need one to know that God's given me the new birth.
But we live, we know. But how we live, we just can't
tell you. We just can't tell you. People used to say when
I was back in religion, you know, you had to have a time and a
place. You had to have an experience. And if you didn't have that time
and place and that experience, they just didn't believe you
had anything. But now when I was converted, I can't tell you.
I just know that I have been. I know I wasn't converted until
I heard the gospel. I know I wasn't converted until I heard Christ.
I know I wasn't saved until I had Christ as my all. That only His
righteousness and His alone was all I trusted in. I do know that.
And I know this, life is evidence to the conscious and manifest
to our senses. But it's so mysterious how it
operates. And that's the new life, beloved, that's born of
the Spirit. I mean, you know, here you are, a person sitting
in the sun. The wind blows, that's a fact. The wind blows, that's
a fact. But it blows when and where it
pleases. It's sovereign in its action.
And it's mysterious in its ways of coming and going. You know,
when we're preaching the gospel, we don't know where the wind's
blowing. It may be coming as a rushing mighty wind over there,
it may be a gentle breeze over here. But the wind blows, and
it goes where it wants to. You know, we want God to save
certain people, and we pray for them, pray for our children and
that, but the wind blows where it pleases. Sovereign, mysterious
in its way of coming and going. You can't tell where it's going.
You can't tell when it's going to come. And I'll tell you something
else, it's irresistible. He comes in power. I don't care
how He comes, but when He comes to a soul, He comes in such power,
He breaks down prejudices, subdues a man's will, overcomes
everything in that soul that opposes God, and opposes Christ
until the sinner throws up his hands and says, Lord, what wilt
thou have me to do? And then look what it says. The wind bloweth where it listeth,
and thou hearest the sound thereof. You know the wind's invisible.
It is invisible. You can see its effect, but you
can't see the wind. You can't see the wind. You can
feel it. You can see it blowing through
trees. We can see rain. We can see snow. We can see lightning.
We can see hail. But you can't see wind. The only
way you can see wind is if it's blowing through a tree. It's
moving something. That's the only way you can tell.
And it's invisible and it's irregular. You can hear it. I can sit in
my house sometimes and I hear the wind going through the trees.
It sounds like somebody coming down the road because it's the
way it goes through them pine trees. It sounds like somebody's
coming down the road. Jump up and look out the window. It's the wind
of the tree. And sometimes it comes in great power. Sometimes
it comes as a gentle breeze, barely perceptible. Sometimes
it's raging. Sometimes it's gusting. But I
do know the answer. Wherever it goes, you know where it's been. You
know where this blowed on you. You don't know where it is and
where it comes. That's the mystery behind the fact. The wind's indispensable.
I know the soul who has experienced a new birth knows he has new
life. He has new life. One day he's
sitting there. And he hears things he never
heard, sees things he never saw. He's just, you know, he's been
sitting there listening to you for years or months. And all
of a sudden, you know, you start watching him change. He starts
listening, starts singing, starts talking to you, starts getting
CDs, starts getting tapes. He starts having and enjoying
the evidence of it. But how the Holy Spirit operates upon a soul,
we don't know. Only God knows. Ain't that right? Only God knows what's going on
in a man's heart right here, right now. Only God knows. Huh? Only God knows whose will
He subdued. Only God knows who He's imparted life to. Only
God knows. But I do know this, that He will
give His own. And He'll give life to whom He
will. And all life belongs to Christ. He says, the Father hath
given me power over all flesh that I should give eternal life
to all that thou hast given me. Thank you, preacher.