John chapter 3 you can follow
me in your pastors commentary as well Your outline is there
for those of you who are visiting with us. We are glad to have
you out to grace today John chapter 3 we are continuing in our series
on basic Bible Doctrine this becomes for us an opportunity
here at grace for us to revisit those glorious glorious truths
by which God in his mercy He drew us to Himself and saved
us by Himself and gave us an everlasting salvation through
His darling Son, Jesus Christ. And we are so thankful for it,
are we not? I am so thankful that God saved
me, that He called me, that He chose me, that He quickened me,
that He qualified me, that He gifted me, gives me assurance,
gives me hope, gives me all grace necessary to get through the
day, my ups and my downs, my ins and my outs, all my troubles
and woes, my sorrows and my pains. None of them shall move me because
I have set the Lord always before my face and I shall not be moved. The Lord is good, isn't he? Now,
I want you to put your seatbelts on because this trip is going
to be rough. You haven't heard me say that
in a while, but you need to put your seat belts on because we
are dealing with core biblical truths that are both glorious
and controversial at the same time. We are dealing today with
doctrines that we call ground zero in the matter of God's glory
and the salvation of men. Today I want to talk to you about
a doctrine that most people assume they know, but very few demonstrate that
they really truly comprehend what the Bible teaches. I want
to deal with you on the doctrine of the new birth, what it means
to be born again. Today I want to deal with the
concept of the new birth, Next week we will deal with it once
more today. Our subject is the new birth
is a must for entering into the kingdom of God And I want to
deal with the nature of the new birth today and the controversy
of it Because do you know child of God that everything that God
does? comes with controversy and that
there's nothing that God has said or done in the world with
which some man or some angel has sought to oppose God's work.
So I say that as a caveat to say this, if you are one who
loves God's word, but you hate controversy, get over it. Because
controversy can be, not always is, can be a token that you actually
have the truth. Nevertheless when it comes to
God his word is controversial Because by nature God's word
is not something that you and I receive easily God's word is
such that when it comes to you and me in its naked proposition
it first and foremost offends us and Then it humbles us Demands
that you and I acquiesce to this fact that God's thoughts are
not your thoughts and His ways are not your ways Now what that
means child of God is this? Every time I think independently
of God's thoughts I'm wrong Today I want to deal with the
subject of the new birth. I want to deal with it from the
context in which our master has so eloquently, wisely and politically
incorrect introduced it to a man named Nicodemus. John chapter
3 verses 1 through 8 will be our text. We will be working
through that portion today and I'll probably only deal with
the first three or four verses. Next week we will come back and
look at it a second time, there are really justifiably five or
six messages to be derived on this subject of the new birth
because it's not a small matter. Now, John chapter 3 verses 1
through 8 describes for us a love and merciful act on the part
of our master, not willing that this man, that is Nicodemus,
should perish. As many will, under the false
assumption of a right into the kingdom of God based upon something
they do. Our Lord Jesus Christ, in his
merciful kindness, is addressing a set of assumptions that Nicodemus
poses and brings to Christ, of which Christ knows if Nicodemus
remains under these false assumptions, he will perish under the wrath
of God, thinking that he is in the kingdom when in fact he is
still very, very far away. And I may assert to you that
there are lots of people that are in this same camp, where
they actually believe that they're in the kingdom of God, based
upon some of the same assumptions that Nicodemus himself is holding.
And those assumptions make them believe that they are secure
with God, when in reality they are not secure with God at all. What makes a theologian A scholar,
a Jewish theologian and scholar want to confound categories and
then reverse nature in order to acquiesce to what Jesus said
is absolutely necessary to enter into the kingdom of God. What
makes a theologian who should understand basic principles of
reason and logic and understanding and knowing different categories
of genre of speech, want to confound categories, confound categories,
he ought to know better, and then reverse nature, reverse
nature, in order to comply with Jesus' statement, you must be
born again. Nicodemus, ladies and gentlemen,
is in trouble. Let me share with you the three
assumptions that got him in trouble. The first assumption is this
that when he came to Jesus He said to Jesus in John chapter
3 verse 2. He said to Jesus we know We know
that thou art a teacher come from God The first assumption
on Nicodemus's part was that he came to Jesus speaking to
Jesus not in a personal way of a personal knowledge of his own
personal assessment of the reality of who Christ was and what he
did, but he came as a representative with a representative knowledge
of a group of men who were touted by everybody in the church as
being already in the kingdom. That group of men of whom he
was speaking in behalf of as a representative were the Pharisees. When he said we know, he's speaking
in the first person plural, he says we Pharisees know. We teachers
know. We rulers of the church, no. We who are the scholars, no.
We who are the wise men, no. So he comes to Jesus on a flawed
premise of being able to perceive or comprehend the kingdom of
God based upon his status with a group of men who are alleged
to know about the kingdom of God. Now, I want you to understand
this very quickly. Entrance of the kingdom of God
It's not done by an HMO program. God doesn't save people in groups
and in categories just because you identify with that category.
Do you understand what I'm getting at? In other words, Baptists
aren't saved because they're Baptists. nor Pentecostals, nor
Methodists, Episcopalians, Catholics, or otherwise. Men and women are
not born again or saved because of their identification with
the group. Now what this is on Nicodemus' part is really a concession
that he is making because he knows better than to talk to
the Lord one-on-one as if him and the Lord got a real personal
relationship. So he's speaking representatively
of him in a group. But that's a problem because
the Bible is very clear that salvation is very personal. It's
very personal. And so that's the first flaw
that he makes. He says, we know. The second thing, the second
assumption that Nicodemus sets forth is that because they were
scribes, because they were Pharisees, because they had a knowledge
of God's word, that therefore they were in the kingdom of God.
The assumption is that you can be in the kingdom of God if you
got your doctrine right. The assumption is that you can
be in the kingdom of God and certainly you are if you are
well learned with letters. The assumption is that you are
in the kingdom of God because you have been able to acquire
enough knowledge by which you can unlock the keys to the kingdom
and enter therein. That's a flawed assumption of
which Jesus is about to demolish. Here's the third flawed assumption
of which Nicodemus is bringing to Christ when he says, we know
that our teacher come from God because no one can do the things
that you're doing unless he's a teacher would come from God
and God is with him. Now he is touting Old Testament
law. He is touting what the scriptures
plainly say concerning a prophet, that a prophet, when he is of
God, he is able to authenticate his calling as a prophet by telling
the truth. That's what we're getting ready
to get into. and then affirming that truth by God working supernaturally
through him to affirm his words. Now, when Nicodemus says, we
know you're a teacher come from God because you are constantly
doing these things, that's what the language says, and he was.
He was constantly healing, constantly doing miracles, constantly affirming
his messiahship. But ladies and gentlemen, don't
you know that the whole of Jewry saw Jesus come, saw Jesus go,
and not many of them were born again? It's a flawed assumption
to think just because you have an observable awareness of the
master that therefore you are naturally in the kingdom of God.
That's a flaw. That's a flaw. That's a flaw.
And then therefore that final assumption that Nicodemus is
holding to, which is connected to all the others, the other
two is this, that Nicodemus is speaking to Jesus on the premise
that he is already in the kingdom of God because he's a Jew, just
like Jesus. You know what the whole concept
was among jews is that we be abraham's seed And because we
are abraham's seed We are automatically into in the kingdom of god because
we are born into the kingdom of god because abraham isaac
and jacob Were in the kingdom of god and therefore us being
his seed are already in the kingdom of god But see john dealt with
that in john chapter 1 verse 12 and 13 remember when he said
as many of us as have received him To them gave he power to
become the sons of God, not those who are born of the flesh, nor
born of the will of man, nor born of blood. So blood doesn't
get you in. And as we're going to see today,
the will of man does not get you in. That fleshly ethnicity
does not get you in. What gets you in is God himself. making you born again. Are you guys following? Can you see why this is such
a contemporary issue? Because many people think they're
all right with God and in the kingdom of God because they're
in the church or because their daddy's a pastor. Or because
they got a whole lot of preachers in their family. It is assumed
that by right of nepotism that they're in the kingdom of two.
Kingdom also. But nothing could be further
from the truth. Am I making some sense? So our Lord immediately
deals with Nicodemus in a very impolitically correct way. He
tells Nicodemus, essentially, Nicodemus, you don't know anything. You and I are not peers. We're
not on the same level. We don't have the same perception.
Your assumption of access into the kingdom of God is radically
and intensely flawed. You must know, Nicodemus, like
everyone else must know that to be in the kingdom, you must
be born into it. This took Nicodemus for a loop. It completely discombobulated
his mind. He said over in verse 4, how
can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter a second
time into his mother's womb and be born a second time? You know
what he's doing? He's struggling with a truth
that you and I have to get. Are you ready? that what Christ
is requiring in the area of salvation is impossible with men. That what Christ is laying down
in terms of entrance into the kingdom is this cardinal truth
of which I'm going to spend an hour teaching you, that you do
not get into the kingdom of God by who you are or what you do. And the analogy grips Nicodemus,
because he's smart enough to know that Jesus is using an analogy
that demands that you submit to this reality. That if I'm
going to be in the kingdom, somebody else has to do it. In the same
way in which you and I are born into this world physically, it
is never a consequence of an act on your part. Other people
have to collaborate to bring you into the kingdom. Once you
are in to get in the kingdom What's required for you to know
that you are in the kingdom? Are you ready is a revelation
a revelation He's on the outside He's stressing because our master
has stripped him of all of his flawed assumptions that he has
a right to the kingdom Because he made a decision for Jesus
Are you with me This is troubling him. He's a brilliant man. He's
one of the greatest of the theologians of that day. And yet he's standing
on the outside of the kingdom based upon our Lord's assessment.
What then does it mean to be born again? Well, being born
again is a very tangential subject of which you and I have to wrestle
with today. And there are two extremes around
this matter of being born again. Let me share with you the first,
and that's this. There is the over excessive use
of the term in religious circles today and it has been for many
decades ever since I've been born again Even I'm using it
Watch this everywhere you go people say I'm a born-again Sanctified
still with the feel with the spirit washed in the blood child
of God. Well, you don't take all of that It don't take all
of that to talk about being born again. I And so there is in religion
what we call an overabundance of the use of the term born again,
born again, born again. And do you know when you use
the term too much, it loses its efficacy? That it simply becomes
a conventional piece of terminology that is more or less a mantra,
a mantra of which if people want to get in on the mantra, they'll
pick it up and say, I'm born again too. So everybody and their
dog and their cat and their chihuahua and their birds and everything
are born again. When we don't even understand
what it means to be born again. But we're using the term because
it's so prolifically used everywhere. Am I making some sense? So there's
an extreme on that end. It's an extreme. It's the group
consensus that we talked about yesterday in our symposium. The danger of being childish
or adolescent in your thinking and thus being involved with
groups. You identify with the group, you start using the group
terminology, the group language, the group dynamic, because you
don't know for yourself. And so there's this mantra been
going on since the 60s, 50s and 60s in the evangelical church.
I'm born again. I'm a born-again Christian. I'm
a born-again Christian. Can I tell you that's a redundant statement?
A redundant statement in theology, we call it a tautology. Tautology
is when you use different words to say the same thing and it
doesn't amount to a further development of the thing you're talking about.
Did you get that? People do it all the time to
act as if they know the thing, but explain to me what it means
to be born again, and you are hard-pressed to get somebody
to explain it clearly. And that's what we're doing today.
The other extreme around the issue of the new birth is the
extreme of people sort of avoiding it. This is the other extreme. It's the idea that the concept
of the new birth is so transcendent, so mysterious, so profound that
we don't even need to talk about it. Essentially, In some circles
of Christianity, the new birth is not even a doctrine to be
discussed because it's really not essential to your salvation.
There are some of you who know, as I do, that you've been in
churches for decades of which in those churches they never
taught the doctrine of the rebirth. Never taught it. You never had
it explained. You were never confronted. with
the doctrine of grace concerning salvation. See, the concept of
the new birth, I want you to get it now, is both personal
and radical. But it's also mysterious and
thus it's humbling. Let me say that again. The problem
with the doctrine for which men find themselves swinging from
one end of the pendulum to the other, is that the doctrine is
extremely personal. And that's what's humbling about
it. Because when you and I are dealing with God, and we're dealing
with God in terms of the personal element of our own soul, that
is humbling. There's a vulnerability to the
reality that I am dealing with God. Is that true? And so this
doctrine humbles people because it actually brings people within
the scope of God's being in a way that they are claiming that they
actually have a real relationship with God on a deep and profound
level. And in many cases, we don't. But it's easy to say it. That
will be the controversial aspect that we will deal with here in
a moment. To say that you are born again is to say that you
are a partaker of the divine nature. It is to say that God
has done something radically in your soul. It is to say that
you are brought into union with God through Christ and therefore
the spirit of God is in you. And to say that you are born
again is to say that God has done something by which he has
brought you into a whole new status of existence. That is
a profound statement to make. of which in doing so, if it's
true, you are going to glorify God in a work which God does
by which he does qualify people to be in the kingdom of God.
But you and I better make sure we're telling the truth. That's
why we're sitting under sound doctrine for these next several
weeks so we can face them and ask the question, am I truly
born again or am I very much like Nicodemus? Now see, Saints,
if I neglect this doctrine and treat this matter as if it's
not really serious... Will set you up for what our
Lord warned about many times in his parables and more particularly
the parable of the ten virgins Remember the five wise virgins
and the five foolish virgins five wise virgins They did what
was necessary in their relationship to the calling to the wedding
feast for which when Jesus came they were ready to go in and
when they went in Jesus brought them in but the five foolish
virgins were under a set of assumptions and that they were all right
because they were bidded to the wedding feast. And while they
had lamps, they didn't have oil in their lamps. And so they went
about playing church like folks do, but not making sure that
they were in a right standing with God so that when Christ
came, they would be ready to enter in and He then say, welcome
into the wedding feast. They found themselves, according
to Matthew 25, on the outside Jesus shutting the door them
knocking on the door saying let us in let us in dreadful Dreadful
You know the fatal flaw of that They were under false teaching
that told them just because they were in the church. They were
in Christ Are y'all with me? and our master had given them
ample time to make their calling and election sure. This is why
we are going through the doctrines that you and I are going through
now. So that we give you ample time to make your calling and
election sure. How dreadful would it be, ladies
and gentlemen, how dreadful would it be for you and I to have the
Lord Jesus Christ rend the heavens right now. Rend the heavens right
now and call us to himself and half of us don't make it. And
you know what my responsibility is? To make sure that I don't
neglect every essential gospel doctrine by which your soul can
be made stable and ready for when the Lord comes. I will not
be found guilty of setting you up for being on the outside of
the kingdom when you thought you were in. So let's get to the doctrinal
part. Tighten your seatbelts up a little bit. as we work through
this. Point number one in our outline,
what is imperative with God is impossible with men. What is
imperative with God is impossible with men. And what we mean by
that is when God lays out commands, particularly commandments in
terms of his salvific work, the work of saving men and women,
God frequently I want you to hear this because I heard this
just recently by a preacher making assumption He made an assumption
that whenever God gives you a commandment. I want you to hear this now This
is what we do in biblical theology in Bible teaching classes. We
demolish false notions Because we understand that the Bible
is saying something and people are saying something else. And
we have to warn you that these assumptions that people are holding
are not consistent with what the Bible clearly reveals. And
here's one assumption that people hold. That if God commands you
to do something, you have the inherent ability to do it. The faulty assumption on the
part of religious folk and preachers teach this all the time as a
synchronous, as a foregone conclusion that when God gives you a commandment,
you already have the ability to do it. That is a fallacy. Do you hear me? Just because
God commands you to do something does not mean that you have the
intrinsic ability to do it. The goal of God in commanding
you and I to do something is not first and foremost to demonstrate
you can do it, but to demonstrate that God is sovereign. Hence,
the miracles that Jesus did all throughout Judea and Jerusalem
and Capernaum and Galilee where men and women were severely diseased
and impeded in their capacity to function and all the miracles
that Christ did were types and shadows of the salvation that
he works in our life. You guys agree with that, right?
When a man is blind, it represents our being spiritually blind.
When a man is lame, it represents our being spiritually lame. When
a man is haught, it represents our being spiritually haught.
When a man is withered, it represents our being spiritually withered.
And didn't we learn last week that when God comes to a sinner,
in his ultimate state, desperate, extreme state, he is what? Dead! That's a bad condition. Now watch this now. Let me show
you how God works with imperatives. Are you ready? When God comes
in the person of the Lord Jesus Christ to a lame man, he ain't
never walked in his life or been lame for 38 years as John chapter
4 puts it. You know what our master says
to him? Get up! Now follow the logic. That man
hasn't been able to get up for 38 years. If he wanted to argue
with Jesus, he could go down Jesus. Don't you understand that
what you're saying is impossible for me. And the Lord Jesus would
say, now lay man, don't you understand that what I am saying is impossible
with you, but not impossible with me. When the Lord Jesus
tells the man with the withered arm, stretch forth your arm in
the sight of all the public. He is not telling that man to
stretch forth his arm because he has the ability to. He wouldn't
be withered if he did. Unless he was one of these crooks
in these false churches that come in all pretending to be
withered up, get their paycheck, and then they straighten up.
You know, they start dancing around. Look at the Lord. You
know how they do? Such a trickery and scam dishonors
the gospel of God's glory Because it steals God's glory and it
really says that man has the ability to fix his own problem
when he does it so our God gives us commands as He did with all
of all of those people who were physically ill to respond in
a way in which it was impossible for them to do and How radical
are those commands? Our Lord told a little girl on
her way to the gravesite, laying in a casket. Little girl, get
up. The people laughing at the master.
Remember that? Laughing at him. You know what
he does? Kicks them out. Get on out. Go
tell your mama to fix you a sandwich and a cup of milk. And when they
saw the little girl alive, they were amazed. What's impossible
with men Possible with God. Here's another imperative. It's
out of Ephesians chapter 5 verse 14 Dealing with being spiritually
dead, which is the state of every man when God comes to them. The
scripture says awake Thou and Christ will give you light Arise
from the dead and God will reveal his glory to you. That's a command. I And yet nobody can do either. Am I making some sense? Here's
what I'm getting at. When you and I talk about the
new birth, being born again, you and I must never assume that
the new birth or being born again is a work that you do. Don't ever say, I made myself
born again. Are you hearing me? It would
be a fallacy of logic. It would be a fallacy of reason.
It would be untrue altogether. And therefore, you and I must
understand what it means when Jesus gives these imperatives.
He gives these imperatives because He wants to demonstrate that
salvation is totally of the Lord, whether it's a healing, whether
it's a recovery from some kind of loss, whether it's actual
salvation, whether it's retrieving you from a backslidden state,
Whether it's recovering you from an error or a fault or a sin,
will you hear me? Salvation is totally of the Lord
all across the board. From the point of God looking
upon you in Jesus Christ before the world began to the point
where you will stand glorified with God for all eternity and
everything in between is a work of grace. Are y'all hearing me? for which we do not frame our
lips and say we did anything to make it happen. So what we
are dealing with is recognizing that our Lord is teaching a doctrine
in the area of the new birth that constitutes us recognizing
it's a work of God all by itself. It's a term in John chapter three,
that's used several times in the New Testament, but particularly
in our present text, when it says in John chapter three, you
must be born again. I want to share with you that
there are three aspects to the new birth of which it Nicodemus
understood partially the implications of it The term born is our Greek
term. Good nest days are good. Nao
are we use the word Genesis? Beginnings the word Genesis is
from which we get the technical term technical term genus genus
the source of life the beginning of life So the book of Genesis
is the beginning of all things, correct? So, geneal means to
be born or brought into existence. The term anothen or again, he
says you must be born again. Some translations say you must
be born from above. Anothen, that's an adjective
and it describes three positions. One is when Christ says you need
to be born again, he means you need to be born first from above. The word means above. In fact,
in the same chapter in verse 31, Here's what the text says. No man can receive anything except
it be given to him from above. Are you guys following me? So
your birth into the kingdom is a birth that first comes from
where? Above. It's a heavenly birth,
it's a spiritual birth, and it's a birth outside of the sphere
and scope of something you can do. Y'all got that? That's point
number one, being born from above. The second use of the term is
to be born again, a second time, again, a second time. That means
when you are told by Christ that we must be born again, he's talking
about being born anew, born anew. Born afresh and this is what
Nicodemus understood about the term is translated in Luke's
gospel chapter 1 verse 3 At the first at the beginning and the
idea of being in the beginning is the idea of being brand-new
Luke says in the beginning when everybody was talking about the
work of our Lord Jesus Christ I thought it good that I would
set in order those things pertaining to Christ having an excellent
understanding of all things. So I began at the first to develop
the doctrine of the gospel of Christ. At the first means brand
new. You know how when babies come
out brand new, they are in their first stages of existence in
the world? That's the term. So first of
all, being born again is to be born from where? Above, as God's
Word. To be born again means to be
born anew, anew, brand new. This is where Nicodemus was struggling.
You mean I got to be brand new? Do I have to reverse nature?
I'm 50 years old. Do I have to climb back in my
mama's womb and start over? See, he understood that adjective,
didn't he? He understood that Jesus wasn't
talking about a renovation of character. He wasn't talking
about a remodeling of something. He wasn't talking about putting
on a new leaf. He wasn't saying Nicodemus, you need to add to
your theology more doctrine so that you can have a kind of new
birth experience. Nicodemus, you got to start all
over again. You see how he was imposing upon
him an impossibility? And then he was saying, not only
do you have to start all over again, the second birth has to
be of a whole nother nature. Nicodemus is struggling because
he understands that what Christ is implying is something he cannot
do. And if you follow the implications,
what I am sharing with you is that you assuming that you are
in the kingdom because of something you did puts you in the same
place as Nicodemus. Got it? So let's go to work on
some more propositions with regards to what it means to be born again.
Point number two in your outline concerning the rebirth. The new
birth is a work of the triune God. What's the word? You better
get used to that word. Being born again is the work
of the triune God alone. It is the work of God, the father.
It is the work of God, the son, and it is the work of God, the
Holy Ghost. Stay with me. I'm a demonstrate this. All three
glorious persons are involved and what it means to be born
again. Remember when I said that one
of the adjectives of Anilton, the term born again is to be
born from above? James chapter one, verse 17 tells
us very plainly, James 1, 17, that every good and every perfect
gift comes from above. Isn't that what it says? Every
good and every perfect gift. Now the good and perfect gift
is who? Christ. The good and perfect
gift is what? Salvation. When a man and woman
are born again, do you know that's a gift? And where does it come
from? Now watch what it says. And it
comes down from who? The father of lights with whom
there is no variable in this neither shadow of turning James
1 18 What does verse 18 say watch this now of his own will stop
right there? Who is the subject the father
of his own will? What's the next word? Begot he
us stop in the NIV. They do a very good translation
of that of his own will the father made us born again The word begot is the old saxon
term goes all the way to the old testament where abraham begot
isaac isaac begot jacob begot begot begot begot He is the father
progenitor of that seed. Are y'all following me? The text
tells us james tells us that it's the will of god the father
That you and I were born again, and we were born again of the
father. Isn't that right? of his will
That corresponds with John 1.13, right? Not born of the flesh,
not born of the will of men, not born of blood, but of what?
God. So we are born of God. We are
born of the will of the Father. The next truth is that we are
also born of the work of Jesus Christ. In John's gospel, we
find this in 1 John 5. I'm sorry, let me start with
John 1.4. Look at John 1.4. This is what
John says. With regards to our master being
the one that gives us life john chapter 1 verse 4 the subject
is the father and the son In john chapter 1 verse 1 2 and
3 and it says in verse 3 all things were made by him. That's
the son And without him Nothing was made that was made y'all
believe that ephesians 3 9 verse 4 in him was what? And the life
was the light of men in who was life christ Am the way the truth
and the life no one comes to the father, but by me y'all got
that so then watch this men and women are born again by the will
of the father and Through the agency of the sons work on calvary's
tree I got that because the father has placed in the son the ability
to quicken whom he wills John chapter 5 as the father has authority
to give life even so he has given the son of man the authority
to give life watch this you can't get to the father apart from
the son and the father has placed in the son all life All life
is in the Son. He that hath the Son, John 5
verse 10-11 says, hath what? Life. He that hath not the Son
of God does not have life. Now I want you to understand
how this works. The second person is the one who actually accomplished
our redemption, purchased our salvation, and provided for us
that actual life. It would be called technically
Him actually being the instrumentality by which we are saved. The Father
is the source of our salvation. The Son is the instrumentality
of our salvation. He's the means through which
we are saved, 1 Peter chapter 1. Verse 23, listen to it. First Peter chapter 1, 23. Now
we are very clear that the Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God,
is he not? We have no problem with that.
That's what John plainly tells us. In the beginning was the
Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same
was in the beginning with God. Jesus Christ is the Word made
flesh and dwell among us. Is that true? Now listen to what
the text tells us in First Peter chapter 1, verse 23. Being born
again, that's our same phrase. Y'all got it? Not of what kind
of seed? Now who is the seed, saints?
Christ! Christ is the seed that runs
from Genesis to Revelation. Y'all got that? He's the seed.
He's the seed that the Father told Eve would be in battle with
the seed of the serpent. He's the seed that the Father
has been seeking all through the Old Testament and came into
the womb of Mary. God's seed is God's Son, Jesus
Christ, Ladies and gentlemen, he is the only incorruptible
seed in the world All the rest of us are seeds too, but we're
corruptible seeds. We're perishing seeds Christ
is the only begotten of the father full of grace and truth and he
is the seed That is necessary to enter into you and I by which
we have life. I Listen to the language being
born again. Not a corruptible see but of
what? incorruptible by what the word
of God which liveth and abided forever the Instrumentality by
which the new birth occurs is the preaching of the gospel The
gospel must be preached for men to be saved Christ must be proclaimed
to you. I Your heart and mind must be
illuminated by the word of God Concerning the person and work
of Jesus Christ for the gospel is the power of God unto salvation
Do you remember? Do you remember? going to church
over and over and over again, hearing all kind of anecdotal
sermons about this, that, and the other thing. And then one
day, somebody preached the glorious gospel of the glorious Son of
God in His redemptive Word, and you saw Christ for who He is. as the one who lived and died
and was buried and rose again as the only sin bearer of your
soul. The Spirit of God took the word
of the gospel and planted it in your heart. That seed. He planted it in your heart.
I'm bringing you to the third person now. Because the first
person willed it. The second person worked it.
But it's the third person that waltzed in the soul. His name
is the holy ghost. We must be born of the spirit
of god The spirit of god is the one that quickens you jesus said
in john 6 63 It is the spirit that gives life Isn't that what
he said? It is the spirit that gives life
now. This is amazing That's why I
love all three persons because you know what they do. They love
glorifying each other The Father gives life. Yeah, but the Son
gives life also. Yeah, but the Holy Ghost gives
life also. Now watch this. And they all give it individually,
but in a unified fashion. Stay with me now. This is what
makes the three one. It's always the will of the Father.
It's never ever apart from God's will. I came to do the will of
Him that sent me and to finish His work. This is the loving
obedience of the father-son paradigm. That's a covenant paradigm, right?
And only Jesus Christ loved his daddy all the way to death. I came to do my daddy's will
because I love what my daddy loves. You know what his daddy
loves? Sinners from every nation, kindred,
tribe, and tongue chosen in Christ to be brought to him by the work
of Jesus Christ. Stay with me now. And this is
why Jesus said in John chapter 6, Verse 39 and this is the will
of him that sent me This is the father's will that everyone that
seeth the son and believeth on him hath everlasting life. Ah And this is the will of him
that sent me that all of whom he had given to me I should lose
nothing but raise it up at the last day john 6 40 Listen to
it. John 6 40. Is it 6 40 up there?
I'm depending on it. And this is the will of him that
sent me that everyone which what? seeeth who and do what now stay
right there because that's what we're getting ready to get into
the father wills it the son accomplished that covenant blessing of salvation
by his mediatorial work as our high priest, as our substitute,
as our surety, as our representative, as our go-between. That's why
we love him. Because he stood in our place and accomplished
everything necessary for our salvation. That's why the Father
put all authority in his hand. He said, son, you can have it
all. And then the Son opened up the covenant. And you know
the first thing he did? Sent the Holy Ghost. Because
the job of the Holy Ghost is to hunt down sinners from all
over the world Show them their glorious mediator and Savior
Jesus Christ Revealing Christ to them through the gospel Showing
them all of the offices of Christ as their substitute as their
surety as their representative as their only hope for glory
You know what happens when you are and I are being saved by
the incorruptible seed being poured in your heart You and
I are made to watch a movie I keep telling you, when you're hearing
the gospel, what the gospel does is sits you on the sideline and
tell you plainly you ain't got nothing to do with this. I want
you to check this movie out and tell me whether or not you agree
with what it says. That's how the gospel works.
Because the gospel is not about what you do plus what God does.
The gospel is always what God did for us in Christ. So the Spirit of God takes the
preaching of the Word and shows us the glories of Christ and
we are compelled by that revelation to do one or two things. Either
believe it or not. Got it? Either believe it or
not. And this is where we are in point
number two. The new birth is the work of the triune God alone. It is wrought of the Father.
It is brought by the Son. And the covenant expectations
are sought by the Spirit of God. And thus God will have a people
from every nation, kindred, tribe, and tongue. Problem number three.
Here's where it gets more difficult. The cause for so many spiritual
miscarriages. The cause for so many spiritual
miscarriages I am staying with the analogy just to help you
comprehend the problem You know what a spiritual miscarriage
is is when someone say they pregnant with life But never ever come
to term It's a spiritual miscarriage And the spiritual miscarriage
would indicate that there was a flaw in the process of conception
And here's what I would assert to you that in the evangelical
church in which you and I live, I want you, this is gonna hurt,
but I want you to get this. The evangelical church has the
temerity to exercise methods of salvation by which they depict
that you can be born again by something you do. This is the
ominous thing that got Nicodemus. He will be the subject we will
close on today. And this is the ominous thing
that gets us. Can I be frank with you for a
moment while I unpack Ezekiel chapter 13? When someone comes
to you and says, so are you saved? Oh yeah, I'm saved. What do you
mean? Yeah, I'm saved. Why would you even ask me that?
Well, then well, how you know you say because one day I See
right there. You didn't messed it up right
there. Stay with me now You didn't messed it up one day using the
word I It's very much again like the first bird. I Would you dare
to frame your lips and tell people that you were born physically
by prior to your being born, you telling your mama and telling
your daddy that you're actually going to be born of them by negotiation
between you and them so that you climb in their womb and wait
for them to go through the biological process to bring you into the
world so that when you get here, you say, you know how I got here?
I got here by my own will. It's a fallacy of logic, isn't
it? It's a fallacy of reason, isn't it? And therefore people
ought to be alarmed when they open their mouth and try to equate
actually being born again with a decision for Jesus, or walking
an aisle, or signing a card, or going repeat after me. Are you hearing me? Now here's
the point that I think is crucial with that. The point that I think
is crucial with that is that many people know that that kind
of exercise has been futile for multitudes of people. For folks
have come to the altar and left the altar the same way. And yet
preachers will tell you, there, there you go, you did it. Welcome
to the family of God. You made yourself born again. You're in the kingdom. Isn't
that how they talk? You're in the kingdom now. Ezekiel
13, I want to show you a few things in Ezekiel 13 now, here's
the problem with what they're doing You might have a little
bit better perspective on their intentions than I do but I'm
basically taking the position that our master did with Nicodemus
and When Nicodemus came with the assumptions that he was in
the kingdom based upon something he did knew and was Jesus said
you're not in the kingdom And so fundamentally, I'm going to
say that if people should continue to perpetuate the notion that
they are in the kingdom by something they do, or by something that
they are, by something that they did, I would assert that you
are not in the kingdom. If the Bible is clear that being
in the kingdom is a work of God alone, and you don't tell men
and women that to be born again was something that God did, of
which I had nothing to do, and you don't use that terminology,
the likelihood is you're not born of God. Because, you know,
there's a problem that went on in the days of Ezekiel. Ezekiel
was very much like Jeremiah, one of the prophets that had
to deal with the captivity. Jeremiah was a lamentation prophet,
crying and weeping to his people because he was telling them that
God's judgment was coming against them. And they weren't paying
him no attention. Very much like in our generation,
when we try to tell men and women what the gospel really is, folks
don't pay no attention to us. Because they got it going on
large today in church. Why pay attention to a few little
knucklehead preachers who are telling you salvation is totally
of the Lord when their pragmatism is working? Why pay attention
to us? Well, Jeremiah said, hey, God
done told me Nebuchadnezzar is right around the corner. And
they said, we're not paying you no attention. In fact, they took
Jeremiah and threw him in a pit. And they didn't even give him
any water. They were trying to kill that brother. It was a black
man that snuck in by night, dropped down some rags and said, come
on, man. Watch this. I know how you feel. Felt sorry for the brother. Ebed
Milak. Pulled him out the pit. God's
amazing, isn't he? Now watch this. And then Ezekiel
comes along, and God has already allowed Babylon to come and start
tearing up Judah and Jerusalem. And Ezekiel is the prophet that's
actually describing it. And in the early chapters of
Ezekiel, there are people running from Jerusalem, coming to Ezekiel,
saying, Ezekiel, he's here, he's tearing it up, he's destroying
our people. And Ezekiel is just grieving
over God's judgment. Horrible visions are given to
Ezekiel concerning God's judgment on Israel. And you know why God
judged Israel? Because when he sent his prophets telling them
that God is holy and God is sovereign, they rejected their prophets.
You know what they were doing? They were teaching a salvation
that basically gave Israel a peace that was not true and a security
that never came to pass. They were saying to Israel, peace,
peace. Peace, peace, when there was
no peace. The false prophets in their day
was telling them, don't you worry, the judgment won't come. Don't
you worry, Nebuchadnezzar is not coming. Don't you worry,
don't listen to Jeremiah. Don't listen to Ezekiel. Don't
listen to Isaiah. The judgment's not coming. And
what they were doing, according to God's own indictment in Ezekiel
13, they were building a false wall. a false wall. wall that God says that they
were building they were building a false wall Ezekiel chapter
13 a false wall they were building assuming that they would bring
the kind of peace to the people under the the controversy the
controversy of This this battle that Israel was engaged in the
false prophets were building a false wall verse 1 through
3 of Ezekiel 13 and the word of the Lord came unto me saying
son of man prophesy against the prophets of that prophesy, and
sin to them that prophesy out of their own what? Hear ye the
word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord, Woe unto
the foolish prophets that follow their own spirit and have seen
nothing. Do you see that? They're saying,
thus saith the Lord, but God hasn't spoken. They're saying
this is what the Bible teaches. But it's not in there look at
verse 6 7 and 8 they have seen vanity and lying divinations
saying the Lord said and The Lord hath not sent them. Do you
see that saying the Lord said and the Lord has not sent them
and they have made others to hope That they would confirm
the word verse 7. Have you not seen a vain vision?
Have you not spoken a lying divination? Whereas you say the Lord said
that albeit I have not spoken now, you know you in trouble
prophet when God himself speaks in the first person and tells
you, I have not spoken by you. You are in trouble. Verse 8. Therefore, thus saith the Lord
God, because you have spoken vanity and have seen lies, therefore,
behold, I am against you, saith the Lord. I am against you for
telling my people to hope in something that has no basis. I am against you for declaring
that you are speaking by me when I'm not speaking through you
at all. I am against you when you say, thus said the Lord. And I was never in that word.
I am against you when you say that men and women can have peace
with God by something they do versus what God must do alone. I'm against you. I'm against
you because you are actually going against my own counsel.
My counsel is that the wrath of God comes against all sinners
who do not bow the knee and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. You
got that? My counsel is salvation is never ever going to be by
works of righteousness which you have done. That's my counsel.
And yet you are telling people that you can be right with God
by what you do. Now watch it. And you are giving
them a false peace. false peace. I'm over at verse
10. Because even, because they have seduced my people saying
what? Peace. When God says ain't no
peace between us yet. There is no peace. The wrath
of God is upon you. No peace. Now watch this. Here's the metaphor. And one
built up a wall. Do you see the picture? One prophet
builds up a wall. What's a wall for? A wall is
designed to protect people against the enemy. So a prophet is building
up a wall. Now how is he building up the
wall? Through his rhetoric, through his doctrine, through his prophecies. He's telling the people, it's
gonna be alright, you're gonna be secure. This wall will protect
you. I have a wall of revelation,
a wall of inspiration, a wall of prophecy to protect you from
everything those true prophets are saying would come. And they're
causing the people to believe in a security and a peace based
upon their false teachings. Are y'all hearing what I'm saying?
Building up a wall now, that's one preacher preaching a false
wall of security by false doctrine and the text goes on to say and
others you know what that means a collaborative effort on the
part of a group of false prophets agreeing to deceive the masses
By building a wall together to tell them that they're all right
with God and that when the storm comes The wall that we have built
up will protect you Y'all got that Now watch this, one builds
a wall, the other dobs it. Listen to what God said. Now
this is God talking and others dobed it with untempered mortar. Now for those of you who are
carpenters and those of you who build houses, y'all know what
this is. This is the junk that people buy and use when they
build homes with the kind of mortar and cement that does not
have the consistency necessary to build a solid, consistent,
coherent wall. And what it speaks to is the
false doctrines and false teachings of false prophets whose doctrines
are not solid. They are not consistent. They
are not coherent. They don't hold together. When
you examine them carefully, you find that they contradict one
another. That in one part of the Bible
they say this, in another part of the Bible they say that. And
it doesn't carry a unity through the Scriptures. This is why so
many of you, having been under false doctrine and false teaching
for years, never grew in the Word of God. Can I tell you why?
Because their teachings are not coherent. They're not consistent. They don't have the continuity
of the gospel. They don't maintain what we call
the unity of the truth from Genesis to Revelation. They can't build
you a safe enough wall when one has a doctrine, another has a
prophecy, another has a revelation, another has a tongue, and they
all contradict each other. It's cement and mortar that can't
hold up. And isn't God good to warn you
when you are sitting under that junk? And they're telling you,
you can trust us. Here's what God says about these
men that are doing this. I want you to see it. Say unto
them, verse 11. God's got a controversy with
it. Listen, when God talked to you personally, you better listen.
Say unto them which daub it with untempered martyr, that it shall
fall. It's coming down. You who think
you are all right with God, just because of some work you have
done, are just like these people. You who think you are all right
with God, because you do something. I've been paying my tithes for
50 years. Whoop-de-doo. You are no better
than the Pharisees. They tithe, mint, rue, and cumin,
are fastidious about their tithes. But it's as stingy as a rat when
it comes to the glory of God, and they steal from God. They
are thieves. Are you hearing me? See, what
God is saying is in this matter of the eternity-bound nature
of the soul, you have nothing to do with it. And don't teach
my people to live under contradiction of terms. Because if salvation
is by the grace of God, then it is never by works. Which we
have done don't ever make grace a work For when you make grace
a work, it is no longer grace. It is altogether works And works
will send you to hell Are you guys hearing me? It's very important
for you to get now. Do you feel like nicodemus right
about now? Do you feel like nicodemus are you being stripped? of your
false assumption That you are saved because you've been in
the church for 30 years 40 years and you know your doctrine, and
you've been baptized, and you've been filled with the Holy Ghost,
and you speak in tongues, and you are as cantankerous as a
skunk. You think you're saved. So I want you to understand,
you are seeking to steal God's glory, and you are building a
wall that God's gonna run through one day, because he's gonna demonstrate
that you depended upon your words, your words, rather than the grace
of God. Are you hearing me? Now watch
this now. He says it's coming down. It's coming down. He has
a lot to say about the coming down. But I want you to move
on down now to verse 17 because apparently the women was in on
this. See, this is the problem. We're going to deal with 17 in
a second. Here's the problem with false doctrine. Once false doctrine
starts to emerge, it's like leaven. It's like leaven. Everybody gets
in on it. Because false doctrine will deceive people who are not
rooted and grounded in the truth. The problem with false doctrine
is initially it makes you feel good. Can I tell you why? Because it's all about you. That's
the junk that's going on in our churches today. It's a man-centered
humanism where the preacher is catering to your felt needs.
Will you start asking the question when you listen to these preachers,
where is Christ? Where is the glorious, lovely
Lord Jesus? Where is the Savior in this message? Where is the honor of God, the
glory of God, the holiness of God? Where is God at in all of
the hoopla, in all of the talk, in all the ranting going on?
Do we see the Holy One in our midst in the teaching today?
If you don't ask that, you are distracted. Are you hearing me? Oh, that's a great message. Not
one time was Christ exalted. Not one time. And people are
taken in by this stuff all the time. And then the women. Verse 17. Here we go. Likewise thou son of man, set
your face against the daughters of your people. Here it is. Which
prophesy out of their own heart. See? You talk about egalitarianism
in false religion everybody doing the same thing men women and
children Do you understand we used to we teach the doctrine
of total depravity of man in here? Y'all may not believe that
but we teach we teach that man is totally depraved From the
soles of his foot to the crown of his head He is by nature a
putrefying sword that there is nothing good in man nothing Nothing
that is vile through and through. There is no good thing in our
fallen nature. Do you believe that? We teach
the total depravity of men, but guess what else we teach? The
total depravity of women. Now y'all a little bit better
than us, but not a lot. I'm learning that as I get a
little older. My sister's is cold too, brother. I'm you know,
I you know, we used to I used to think you know the big gap
between us and women y'all y'all bridging that gap I'm telling
you it's just about equal now just about equal y'all messing
up just as bad as the men and there's a devil's hell for women
to Give me a few more minutes of
your time. We got a part two If you come back Listen to it Likewise our son
of man set your face against the daughter of my people who
prophesy out of their own heart While we don't play games with
the Lord told me this the Lord told me that open the book Open
the book Do you hear me? Cuz see the days are short We
got to say thus saith the Lord and not only say it know what
it means Thus saith the Lord woe unto the women that which
are prophesying out of their own heart and say against them,
woe to the women that sew pillows to make all arm holes and make
handkerchiefs upon the head of every stature in order to hunt
souls. Will you hunt the souls of my
people? And will you save the souls alive
that come unto you? Will you pollute me among my
people? for money, do you see it? Hands full of barley and for
a piece of bread. And this is what your false prophets,
false teachings, and your, what we call material mediums, I'm
gonna talk about that in a moment, do. You slay the souls that should
not die and to save the souls alive that should not live by
your lying to my people that hear your lies. You see how God
sees it? Now let me help you understand
the analogy. With the men, they were building
a wall because they were pretending to be soldiers for God. Untempered
martyr. Incoherent, inconsistent, contrary
doctrine. Doctrine that could not hold
up. False doctrine, false teaching. What the women were doing was
going out to the marketplace with pillows that they had made.
Now you know what pillows are designed to do? Give you a sense
of comfort. And what they were doing was
setting the pillows up on a stave and they were prophesying on
the pillow in the presence of the people. What they were saying
to the people was this, I'm at peace, why don't you be at peace? And the people would come rushing
to them to receive a prophecy from the women while they were
sitting on the pillows. Are you hearing me? The idea
of a pillow in the midst of a war when enemies are coming? is a
contradiction. But what it was doing was deceiving
the masses into thinking that peace was with them. The other
thing they had done was make this the word kerchief in the
Hebrew is the word for veil. Veils. And they had made all
sorts of veils. I want you to watch this now.
And every time one of these fellas who are desperate for salvation
ran up to the women, what they did was put a veil over their
head and start prophesying to them. This was a pagan practice
that you can find in many religions where the veil signified entering
into the mysteries of the spirit. And they would put veils over
the head of the person that was coming for the revelation while
they lay their arms on their pillows, pretending to be at
peace with God and telling them, thus said the Lord. The whole
thing was designed to give them a false security. Are y'all hearing
me? But I'm so glad God talked about
their medium, their method, their means by which they deceive people.
Because whenever anyone puts a veil over your head, you are
being deceived. You are being duped. You are
being lied to. You are being blinded. Will you
hear me? When the gospel comes, it doesn't
put a veil on, it takes the veil off. When the gospel come, it
doesn't blind you, it opens your eyes. When the gospel come, it
doesn't take you into a secret place, it brings you out into
the light so you can see everything the way that it really is. The
idea of having a veil over your head is the idea of you submitting
to a set of deceptive practices that brings you into a false
peace and makes you an enemy of God. I know it hurts. but we have to hear it. And I'm
finishing here and we'll come back next week and deal with
the struggle of what it means to really be born again. So I
don't want you to raise your hand. I don't want you to lie
on yourself. If you are born again, here's
the one thing that you know, that you believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ. If you're born again, here's
the thing that you know, you love him because faith works
by love here's the other thing that you know when you are truly
born of God you live for his glory because obedience flows
from love and love is manifested by faith and this is what you
know that obedience rooted in love rooted in faith Is christ
the hope of glory working in you the will and to do of his
good place. Are y'all hearing me? When a
man or woman is born again, you know what you become you become
a parasite And your host is the lord jesus christ And god takes
you and places you on christ and you drink from him and get
your life from him All your life comes from Christ. Are you hearing
what I'm saying? All your life comes from Christ. You are in
Christ and Christ is in you. And the reason why you believe
the gospel is not because of something you did, but because
he planted faith in your heart. Now stay with me now. To be born
again is to believe the gospel. And believing the gospel is not
the same as making a decision. When a man or woman is believing,
They have come into a revelation, a revelation of the heart as
a consequence of the preaching of the gospel. And here's what
you discover. I actually believe that Jesus
Christ is the son of God. Are you hearing me? It's a revelation. It's not something you muster
up. It's the consequence of faithful preaching. Faith comes by what?
Hearing by what? Do you know that the hearing
ear and the seeing eye, the Lord made them both? Proverbs 20,
12. So when you discover you can hear the word and you discover
that you believe the word, what you are discovering is that God
has made you born again. Now stay with me. That work is
not a one-time action done 50 years ago when you came up to
the altar after just as I am without one plea. I believe all
that. I believe it with all my heart.
And I believe that men and women must come. I believe that men
and women must bow the knee to Christ. I believe that they must
obey the gospel. I believe that you and I must
trust Christ as our Savior. But that's a far cry from a decision. By the time you say yes to Christ,
you are already born again. Are you hearing me? You are already born from above. Already. Here's Nicodemus' crisis. I'm done. We'll come back and
pick it up next week. Our master told Nicodemus, in order for
you to authenticate what you have just said with your lips,
that you're not only in the kingdom, but you can see the kingdom,
you can comprehend the kingdom, and you recognize that Jesus
is in the kingdom because Jesus couldn't be in the kingdom if
Jesus didn't constantly do what Jesus did. The kingdom of God
had come, right? But Nicodemus realized when Jesus
says you must be born from above, you must be born again, and he
went into his wrath. How can these things be? How can I be born a second time? How can I enter into my mother's
womb? It was almost irreverent. Because
what Jesus was doing was stripping him of any assumption that he
could get into the kingdom by his good words. He was left on the outside of
the kingdom to do but one thing, which is what I'm going to tell
you. to wait on God, to wait on God to reveal His glory to
you, to wait on God to reveal Christ to you, to discover whether
you believe the gospel, whether you're going to trust Christ,
and whether you're going to follow Him. See, I love the Master.
You know what he didn't say? He said, Nicodemus, you want
in the kingdom? Yes, I want in the kingdom. That's why I came.
That's why I came at night. I ran from my posse to get you
out. I want in on the kingdom. What Jesus didn't say was this,
repeat after me. What Peter didn't say when they
fell before him in Acts 2, which we'll be developing. What must
we do, men and brethren, to be saved? Peter didn't say, repeat
after me. When Paul was knocked down on
the Damascus road, and he saw the glory of Christ, and he said,
Master, what would you have me to do? The Master didn't say,
repeat after me. When, what's his name? Philip
was on the road to Gaza. And you know they having trouble
over there right now. And that black brother was headed
back to Africa reading the scriptures. Peter ran up to that chariot,
that escalator. Remember he ran up to it? Say,
what are you reading? What are you reading? Isaiah
the prophet. Do you understand what you're
reading? No, I don't. How can I? Until somebody that's
called to preach the gospel, open the scriptures and show
me Christ. And Philip started at the same
text and preached Christ. And finally, the Ethiopian said,
Philip, Philip, I got it, brother. Hey, look, some water right here.
This is one shot for me. What hinders me from being what? Baptized. You know what Philip
didn't say? Just repeat after me. There's an eternity of difference.
between an act of the human will in making a decision and the
heart discovering that it believes and loves this glorious Savior
who did everything to make a man and woman acceptable with God.
You know what that Ethiopian said? This is what I submit to
you. If you want to determine whether
or not you're in the kingdom, you know what he said? He said, Philip,
I believe with all my heart that Jesus is the son of God. See the difference? See the difference? Do you see the difference? Now
we can get in the water. Amen. Amen.