I want to begin this morning
by giving you some interesting statistics on this world's current
death rate. There are, according to my research
here, 1.78 deaths every second. Almost two
people die every second. per minute. 6,390 deaths per
hour in this world. 153,000 on average people die
every day. 153,000. 56 million deaths will occur this year. Death is a certain thing. It's a sobering thing. It's a
thing that men fear unless they know the God with whom they have
to do. And then death becomes a promotion. It becomes an entering into glory,
a sinless state plagued no more by corruption. There are very
few today who are telling men the truth about what awaits them
in eternity. Why, even the majority of churches
and friends, I know you know this, they're on every street
corner. The sad thing is, is that most churches today are
entertaining men and women, excuse me, on their way to hell. And
they never mention the absolute necessity that is needed by every
man, woman, and child. Preaching of the gospel has become
almost non-existent. Telling the people the truth
about God has become a thing that they did years ago. We're
doing things more contemporary now. Men and women want to sing
and socialize and get up and testify, but didn't nobody want
to hear the preaching of the gospel, except God's people.
We live in a country which, for the most part, seems greatly
concerned with the necessities of the world. If there's a famine
somewhere in the world, we go and we feed them. If there's
a disease somewhere, we take them medicine. But yet, as a
nation, we disregard the one and most needful thing that every
man and woman desperately must have, desperately needs. Spiritually speaking, you see,
all the world is in a famine. All the world desperately sick
with the disease of sin. And what it needs most is God,
the Lord Jesus Christ. This is truly the one thing needful. That's a saving knowledge, faith,
and total dependence on Him who loved us and gave Himself for
us. But unfortunately, men, they're
not interested. They're not interested in their
souls. And they'll one day go out in this physical death and
meet God in eternity. Where is the world's concern
for the souls of men and women? And I know as a child of God,
This is an earnest desire of yours that lost souls be saved. This morning, if the Lord enable
me, I want to tell you what the greatest necessity is. We just read it in John 3, so
if you'd turn with me back there if you're not already. And let
me say, oh, what a necessity it is. For the time being, I
want to concentrate on one verse, verse 7. John 3, verse 7. Our Lord Jesus Christ tells Nicodemus,
marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. Do you see the emphasis put here
on that word must? It doesn't say you should be.
You ought to be. It didn't ask him if he wanted
to be. He said you must be born again. You must be. It's a necessity.
You must be born again. Now listen to me. It's not that
you be simply improved. The desire to be improved won't
get the job done. It's not that you must merely
have a change of opinion or a change in your way of thinking. That's
not what this means, being born again. I had a man ask me one
time, he said, are you a born again Christian? And I'm not
trying to be smart, I was being serious. My response was, is
there any other kind? You know, that's just a term
that's become of no value. Born again Christian. Friends,
if you're a Christian, if you're a believer, you must be born
again. You must be a believer, a child
of God, the chosen elect of God. However you want to determine
it, must be born again. It doesn't require improvement. It requires a new creation. It's not a change of mind or
a change of heart. It's a desperate need of a new
mind and a new heart. It's being born again, not of
corruptible seed, as we are born in Adam, but of incorruptible.
God's got to give us a new birth, a new creation. That's what Peter
said in 1 Peter 1.23, being born again, not of corrupt seed, but
of incorruptible by the Word of God which liveth and abideth
forever. The only way you'll ever be born
again is by the preaching and hearing of God's Word in truth
and in spirit. And I'm telling you, friends,
this morning, by the authority of God, that if you're ever to
be saved, redeemed, reconciled to God, you must be born again. Hold your place here, but turn
with me to 1 Corinthians 15. I want you to look at verse 53. Many times this passage of Scripture
is read at the gravesite of those that have passed on. It needs
to be read more often and studied before the grave. 1 Corinthians
15 verse 53, For this corruptible must... There's that word again. must put on incorruption. You
must be born again, dear friends. You're corrupt. You're born in
sin. The wages of sin is death and
you're corrupt. It must put on incorruption. And this mortal must put on immortality. That comes by being born of God,
a new creation in Christ Jesus. So when this corruptible shall
have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on
immortality, then shall be brought to pass the same that is written,
Death, where is thy victory? Death is swallowed up in victory.
I'm sorry verse 55 old death. Where is thy sting? Oh grave
Where is thy victory verse 56 the sting of death is sin and
the strength of sin is the law But thanks be to God which giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ You must be born
again, and there's how through, in, and by the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, if a person is to live and
abide forever, they must bow, trust, and adhere to the Word
of God, which abided forever. You must be given a new nature,
not a new opinion. You need a new nature, not a
new notion. You need a new heart, not just
a new awareness. This isn't a matter of becoming
aware of some doctrinal truths. This is a matter of having your
heart changed and given a new nature by God Almighty and only
God can do it. You must be born again. You see, notions and thinking
can be altered again and again and we become no nearer a child
of God. I guess my opinions on God changed
a thousand times before He ever revealed the truth to me. And
one time did that change make me closer a child of the living
God. It wasn't until God intervened,
gave me a new nature, showed me by grace that Christ was my
substitute, that He died and took my sin at Calvary's cross
was I made the righteousness of God in him. You see, nothing
short of this will redeem and save men and women. They must
become a new creature in Christ. That's why Paul said in 2 Corinthians
5.17, therefore, if any man be in Christ, what? He's a new creature. New. It doesn't say improved.
We take an old car that's dilapidated and we restore it. We polish
it, we paint it, we sand the rough spots out, we do work on
the engine, whatever needs to be done to restore it. But they're
making a new car. The man being Christ is a new creature.
Old things passed away, done away with, just as if they never
happened. And behold, all things are become
new. Now, I don't know about you,
but when I consider my past and old things, that's a blessing.
New creature. New creature. This and nothing
short of this, my dear friends, will redeem and save men and
women. They must become a new creature in Christ. And you can
take all the religious traditions, all the ceremonies in the world,
and they won't profit you a thing. Whether you were baptized in
infancy, or whether you've been baptized and re-baptized, or
even re-baptized again in adulthood, will not matter if you don't
have a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ. None of these
things will benefit you if the Spirit of God is not born in
your hearts. It's a dire necessity. You must
be, must be born again. Let me also say that many profess
to be born again. I know that. You ask a man, are
you a believer? Oh yeah, I'm born again. But where's people's love for
the preaching of the Gospel? Where's people's love and desire
to hear once again that story, precious story that we just sung
about? Tell me that story again and
again. Never grow tired of hearing how
Christ came to save the worst of the worst. That's talking
about me. That's talking about me. Where
is men's urgency to feed upon the bread of life and to drink
from that eternal fountain which is Christ and Christ alone? Where is it? You can profess
until you're blue in the face. It will do you no good. Men and
women profess to know God, but they don't seem to have a real
love for the brethren, any desire to fellowship with them. Let
me tell you, if you do not love the brethren and desire fellowship
with God's people, I'd say that your profession is false. And
let me rephrase that. God says your profession is false. The beloved John said in his
first epistle, chapter 314, we know that we've passed from death
to life because we love the brethren. He that loveth not his brother
bideth in death. If you love the gospel, if you
love God's message of good news to sinners in Christ, I mean
love it. I mean love it above all things.
I mean, I can't live without it, love. I've got to have it.
I've got to hear it. I'd say your profession is real
and you've been born of God. If you love other believers,
now I mean truly love, I'm not talking about just in word only.
It's easy for me to say I love you and then you knock on my
door and want water or bread and I send you away without it.
That's not love. I'm talking about real love,
true love. So much love that you look upon
the needs of others more than you do your own. Then there's
a good reason that you're born again. You know we've passed
from death to life. I'm reminded of a story that
I once read about an old country preacher who was called to a
new church. He shows up and the church was full that day, being
its first Sunday. And he stood and he turned to
this passage in John 3, verse 7. And as he read the words of
Christ, which said, Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must
be born again, he preached a message on the necessity of the new birth. The next Sunday he stood again
and he proclaimed the gospel from the same text. Sunday after
Sunday after Sunday he read and preached, proclaiming to his
listeners that they must be born again. And after several weeks
of this, the deacons in the church met with him in his study and
they said, Pastor, we think it's necessary for you to move on. It's a necessity for you to do
so or we're going to lose our congregation. Don't you have
any other sermons that you can preach? Must you keep on preaching
that same sermon over and over?" And the new pastor responded,
and he said, oh yes, I have other sermons and other texts that
I can preach from. But let me say this. He said,
your concern is losing the congregation. He said, my concern is a congregation
that's lost. Oh, do you see that there? You
must be born again, friends. You must be. He said your concern
is the necessity of Me to move on to another subject, and My
concern is the necessity of the sinner to be born again in Christ,
who is the only subject. That's the only subject. Now,
I told you that little story to say this. There is no other
message. There is no other subject. There
are other texts. This Bible is full of them. Every
word in the Scriptures points men to the necessity of being
in Christ. What do you think of Him? Whose
son is He? The greatest question that has
ever been asked is just that. Do you see Him? Do you love Him? Do you lean on Him? Do you trust
in Him for all things? Do you love Him when things are
good and love Him when things aren't so good? Do you say, not
my will, but Thine will be done, O Lord? Then just maybe you've
been born again. You won't ever see the Gospel.
You'll never see that good news until you are born again. And
I borrow again the words from the beloved Apostle John. He
said, Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is what? Born of God. Born of God. You have to be born of God. And
everyone that loveth Him that beget loveth Him also that is
begotten of Him. You'll love Him. If you're born
to God, you'll love Him. What a wonderful necessity this
is. Now, religion makes men and women
moral. There's nothing wrong with being
a good moral person. It's not a bad thing, but it's
not salvation. I wish people could understand
that. Straightening up and flying right
and doing good things, that's not salvation. Salvation is a
person. The Lord Jesus Christ's morality
may improve men's manners and habits, even cause them to do
good things, but in order to be saved, redeemed, and to know
God in a personal way, you've got to be born again. Religious
morality will actually, in most cases, cause a man to trust in
his morality instead of Christ. Men get to thinking good about
the good things they do. That's exactly what happened
in the Scriptures. Turn with me to Matthew chapter
7 real quick. More religious men and women
without Christ go to hell doing good works. Matthew 7 verse 22. Many will say to me in that day,
Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied? That means preached. Hadn't we
preached in Thy name? Hadn't we preached the Gospel?
the good news. And had we in thy name cast out
devils, and notice these next words, in thy name done what
many wonderful works. And the Lord himself says, then
I will profess unto them, I never knew you. I never knew you. Depart from me ye that work iniquity. You see, friends, to be born
again is to be known of God. Many mistake their good works
as knowing God. The salvation and the new nature
comes from God knowing you. That's right. But what makes
you say that? This book, we are bound to give
thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord,
because God had from the beginning chosen you. Chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the Spirit and belief in the truth.
God chose you. God loved you. We love Him because
He first loved us. Ephesians 1-4, according as He
hath chosen us and Him before the foundation of the world,
that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love. If
it was before the foundation of the world, I can assure you
I didn't have anything to do with it. Our Lord, as I just
quoted, said, You have not chosen me. Why do people think that?
I chose Jesus. I've decided to follow Jesus.
Not until God gave you a new heart. That's the result. You might say I chose him, but
friends, he chose you before the foundation of the world if
you're one of his. Paul wrote to Titus, he said,
Titus, my brother, he said, salvation's not by works of righteousness
that you and I have done. But it's according to His mercy.
Oh, it's a wonderful thing that the Spirit of God should condescend
to undertake this work of a new birth. Didn't have to. We sure
didn't deserve it. It could have left us where we
were, and as we said earlier, been immutable, unchanging. wouldn't
change or diminish His holiness, His goodness, His righteousness
in any way to have left us right where we were. Mr. Scurgeon once
said, it's a wonderful thing that when the vessel was mired
upon the wheel by the sovereign potter and spoiled to destruction,
instead of breaking it up and consigning it to destruction,
that he put forth his power again and fashioned the clay to his
own body. The sovereign potter has the
right to form the clay as he sees fit. He stoops to make us
twice-born, newly created, begotten again, that we might be conformed
to the image of Christ, his beloved Son, the firstborn among many
brethren. Now listen, I started this message
out giving you statistics about death. Death's certain, as I've
said. 1 Corinthians 15 says, for as
in Adam, all die. All die. Each and every one of
us as descendants of our father Adam are going to die. But here's
the Gospel. Even so, even though that's true,
even so, in Christ shall all be made alive. All that look
to Him. All that trust in Him. All that
God gives a new heart to. A child that's born, a newborn
child, has a father from the very fact that it was born. Now
I know in some cases a child may never know their father,
but that don't mean they didn't have one. If they were born,
they had a father, the same as they had a mother. And the child
of God, now listen, the child of God that's born from above
by God Almighty cries, have a father. A beautiful definition of that
Abba father is, Daddy. Daddy. Those of you that are
parents, I don't know about you, but especially my two girls,
when they were young, they could look at me and bat those eyes
and say, Daddy. And I'd just hand them my billfold.
Whatever they wanted. And that's the way it is with
the child of God. We love our Heavenly Father.
We call upon Him because we know He loves us. And we learn by
grace to ask, not for what we want, but for what we need and
what He wills for us to have. He knows what's best. He knows
what's best. Beloved, now are we the sons
of God, and it does not yet appear what we shall be. But we know,
we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him, for we
shall see Him as He is." Oh, don't you look forward to that
glorious day. I'd have no hope at all if it
wasn't for that hope. Those that have been born again
rejoice in that great truth. And what special privileges we
have that spring forth out of this relationship which arises
from the new birth. God Himself has pledged, promised
Himself to support, comfort, to do good to those that are
born of Him, that trust His Son. All is necessary for our perfection
in the day that He brings us home and we see Him face to face. All. Everything we need. Christ
provides everything that God requires. Oh, dear friends, I
could go on and on. And this surpasses our finite
perception of things and our understanding. That's why back
in John 3, if you'll turn there with me, Nicodemus was so baffled
and so confused. Look at John 3 again. Look at
verse 4 where we read it. Nicodemus said unto him after
the Lord had said, Except ye be born again, ye cannot see
the kingdom of God. Here's a smart man. He's a ruler
of the Jews. And it's so over his head that
he goes, in verse 4, how can a man be born when he's old?
How can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be
born? We don't understand this by nature. This is not talking about physical. It's not talking about corruptible. It's talking about spiritual. We can't even fathom what being
born again is until we're born again. Our first birth makes
us sons of Adam. Our second birth makes us sons
of God. We must be born again. Born of
the flesh, we inherit corruption. We must be born of the Spirit,
and in that we inherit incorruption. In the flesh, nothing but mortal. In Christ, immortality, eternal
life. We come into this world heirs
of sorrow and we are the sons of fallen man, but in our new
life. And that life, that birth given
by God, we're in hair of glory. But Christ did for us what God
required in joint heirs with Christ. All that's His is ours. Now let me ask you, do you see
that more than just a change of morality is required to be
saved? Don't you see that? Do you see
that more than just a change of opinion or a new notion about
God is required to be saved? Our hearts, according to the
Scripture, are deceitful above all things. Nothing more deceitful
than the heart of man. It's desperately wicked. Well,
I don't much appreciate you saying that. I didn't say it. God says
it. And a child of God says, He's
right. And ours is wicked, deceitful above all things. Friends, I'm
endeavoring to say to you simply this, only God, only God can
create a new life and a new nature in you. And you must be born
of God to be saved. You must be. We sing that old
hymn, I can hear the Savior say, Thy strength indeed is small. Child of weakness, watch and
pray. Find in me thine all in all. Jesus paid it all. All to Him
I owe. Sin had left a crimson stain,
but He washed it. He, He, He washed it. white as snow. Yes, death is
coming for each one of us. That's certain. And with that,
I want to close with another little story that I once heard.
There was an old and wise believer, an elderly man who was a pillar
of faith in his church and well respected in the community in
which he lived. One day, as he went to the post
office, he was met on the street corner by a friend that he had
not seen in a while. The two men exchanged greetings
and they spoke for a while, as men do, whether at work, whatever. Then the friend of the older
gentleman, who seemed to be troubled about many things, asked the
wise older child of God, he said, Brother, what is life? What is
life? Have you ever asked yourself
that question? I can remember asking myself that. What is life?
Those that don't know God don't know. What is life? And the wise
man, he didn't say a word. He paused for a second or two,
turned around and walked off. Much to the surprise of the man
who had asked the question. A few weeks later, And providence
caused their paths to cross once again. And immediately, the troubled
man said, Friend, when I saw you last, I asked you a most
urgent question that plagued my heart greatly. I asked you,
What is life? And you didn't answer me. You
didn't answer me. And the man of faith said, friend,
I did most certainly answer you. The puzzled friend said, no,
I'm quite sure you didn't answer me at all. You see, this was
a deep concern of mine. What is life? I don't know. He
said, you didn't answer me. You just paused for a moment,
and then you turned around and walked away. And again, the enlightened
man said, that was your answer. That was your answer. He said,
how did you answer me? You didn't say a word. And the
wise man said, oh, I gave you the answer. You asked me what
is life? I stood there for just a short
moment, and then I was gone. That's life. That's just natural
life. That's what it is. Here for a
moment, and then it's gone. I ask this with utmost sincerity. How long will some of you remain
unaffected by the solemn fact that death is knocking at the
door and you are yet without Christ? The minute we're born,
we start dying. Did you know that? The minute
we're born, we start dying. Some live even to a hundred. But how short is that compared
to eternity? That's no time at all. Life is
short. And that's why James so clearly
said in chapter 4 of the book that he penned, he said, you
that say... Now listen, he says, some of
you say today, or tomorrow we're going to go into such a city
and we're going to continue there a year and we're going to buy
and we're going to sell and we're going to make money. James goes
on to say, whereas you know not what shall be on tomorrow. There's
no guarantee of tomorrow for any of us. And he says, what
is your life? And he gives the same answer
that the old man gave his friend without saying a word. James
says, it's a vapor. It's just a vapor that appears
for a little time, a little time, and then vanishes away. Now listen,
today, right now, there's really only one thing that's of dire
necessity. That's being born again, born
of God. That's bowing to Christ. Saying, I must have Him. Lord,
I see what I am. I see what I deserve. And give
me Christ. I beg you, give me Christ. Those
of you that are without Him, if you ask Him for Him, He'll
give you. He always has. He always has. Born again. You must be born
again. Can you sing? Can you believe
Him? Can you trust in Him alone for
all that God requires of you, sinner? Has God shown you that
He was made to be sin for you? That you might be made the righteousness
of God in Him? I'm telling you, if you can,
and you've been born again,