Well, we do need Him, don't we?
If He doesn't bless us, then we won't be blessed. If He doesn't
meet with us, then we will have met in vain. If He doesn't teach
us, then we won't know anything. John 3 this morning, we'll read
the first 15 verses of John 3. There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher
come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest,
except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto
him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except 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? 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. and 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,
and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh and whither it goeth. So is every one that is born
of the Spirit." Now let's stop there for now. We have here in
this passage the account of a sinner coming to the Lord Jesus Christ
to speak with Him, to converse with Him regarding who He is
and the things that He had taught. And this is of the utmost significance.
Think about what it is that we're reading about here. Not only
is it interesting to see this man, who he was and why he came
and in what way he came and even when he came, which we'll see
in greater detail in a while, But the Lord here speaks to him
of spiritual things, teaches him vital truth. This is a precious
account. And nowhere in the Scripture
do I know of such a lengthy account of the Lord dealing with a lost
sinner and what he said to him as he dealt with him concerning
his sin. How valuable that ought to be
to us. The so-called soul winners that we hear about in religion,
they deal with sinners every day. And the way in which they
do and the things that they say when they do do not remotely
resemble what we have before us here, not in any way. And
that's a sad commentary on the state of religion in every age. People say, oh, religion is so
bad today. It always has been. It's always
been that way. And it always will be. It's the
nature of it. It's the nature of the world.
It's the nature of us. without the grace of God. On
what authority do people deal with sinners and call themselves
soul winners if not the Word of God? If the way that people
are dealt with and taught is not the way the Lord did, then
on what authority do people say what they say concerning who
God is and who the sinner is and how God deals with sin and
how He saves a sinner? There was a man of the Pharisees
named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. Now, he was of the Pharisees. That says something about Nicodemus. The Pharisees were characterized
by their pride, their self-righteousness, and their hypocrisy. Now, some
might get upset about us making generalizations like that. You
know, well, you can't say that Nicodemus, you know, the Pharisees
may have been like that in general, but you can't judge. Our Lord
did. Our Lord made that exact generalization. He said to His disciples in Matthew
16, 6, take heed and beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and
of the Sadducees. He didn't say you've got to watch
out for some of those Pharisees. He said beware of the leaven
of the Pharisees. And Nicodemus was a Pharisee.
And then in verse 12, it says, then after he had taught them
there in Matthew 16, they understood how that he bade them not beware
of the leaven of bread. Leaven was yeast. And he said
he taught them. They thought, well, what's he
talking about yeast? What does bread got to do with
it? It doesn't have anything to do with it. It's a comparison.
It's a picture. He talked to them not of the
leaven of bread, but of the doctrine of the Pharisees and the Sadducees. The fact that he was a Pharisee
said something about him. It's the same in our day. If
somebody calls themselves a Methodist or a Catholic, it says something
about them. And it tells me something immediately.
Christ was more specific about the Pharisees in Matthew 23,
27. He said, Woe unto you scribes
and Pharisees, hypocrites. Not some of you. If you're a
Pharisee, By definition of the title of the word, you're a hypocrite. For you're like under whited
sepulchers, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within
full of dead men's bones and of all uncleanness." So it's
the hypocrisy, the self-righteousness. You polish the outside, and you
think because of that you have favor with God. You recall that
it was a Pharisee in Luke 18 that prayed. The Lord said he
prayed with himself. And he said, I thank you, Lord,
that I'm not like other men. I'm not a sinner like them. I
do this, that, I tithe and pray and give and do what I'm supposed
to do. I'm not like that publican over
there that's beating on his breast and standing afar off and wouldn't
so much as lift up his eyes into heaven, but prayed to God and
said, Lord, be merciful to me. And he was right. He wasn't like
him because the grace of God had not broken his pharisaical,
proud, self-righteous, hypocritical heart. He was nothing like that
publican. He was right about that. So this
is what characterized these men. So you see who it is now that's
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. Says he's a ruler of the Jews.
That means he was of the Sanhedrin. He was of the chief priests and
rulers of the Jews. Even among Pharisees, he was
a well-respected and admired leader. The Lord refers to him
in verse 10 as a master of Israel. And he was in the eyes of those
who called him a master. So we don't know Nicodemus' heart,
wouldn't presume to, wouldn't pretend to. We don't know exactly
what caused him to come to Christ this way. But we do know something
about what a Pharisee was and what a Pharisee is. There are
still Pharisees, though they don't call themselves that. And
we do know this about why he came to Christ. Because the Lord
Jesus said, All that the Father giveth me shall come to me, and
him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out. That's why
he came to him. But verse 2, The same came to
Jesus by night, said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art
a teacher come from God, For no man can do these miracles
that thou doest, except God be with him." He came by night because
being a lost man and a Pharisee, proud, self-righteous, he was
ashamed to be associated with Christ. If you look in the Word
of God, Nicodemus is referred to at least two or three more
times in the Scriptures, and always he's shown to be that
one that came to Jesus by night. The fact that he did so characterized
him. Being an authority himself on
the Scriptures and being a leader of Israel, he was ashamed to
come to the Lord Jesus Christ as rabbi. He did come to him
that way. He said rabbi. And it does say
something about what was going on in his heart that he did that,
that he said that, rabbi. The word rabbi, it means literally
my great one, my honorable sir, my teacher. It was a term of
respect, a title that was used by the Jews to refer to their
teachers. This man was a teacher, but he came to the Lord as a
teacher. And I believe there was some
sincerity in that. The Lord had already begun a work in Nicodemus'
heart here. Well, how do you know that? Well,
Nicodemus was one of these ones that's referred to in chapter
2 here. In chapter 2, Look at it. Now, when He was
in Jerusalem at the Passover, that is the Lord Jesus, in the
feast day, many believed in His name when they saw the miracles
which He did. But Jesus did not commit Himself
unto them, because He knew all men and needed not that any should
testify of man, for He knew what was in man. And then it says
that they believed because of the miracles that He did. And
then Nicodemus comes along here and says, Nobody could do the
miracles that you're doing except God sent them. So he's one of
these, no doubt, that's spoken of there in chapter 2. The Lord
had already, I believe, begun to work on Nicodemus' heart.
And this is why when these other multitudes, when the Lord did
not commit Himself to them, as far as we know, they went away
and the Lord never had any more dealings with them. But Nicodemus
came after the crowds were gone. and spoke to the Lord Jesus Christ
and said, Rabbi, I believe it's like the case of Saul. When the
Lord met Saul on the road to Damascus, he said, is it hard
for you to kick against the goads? The Lord had already been dealing
with Saul before he ever met him face to face on the road
to Damascus. And I believe that he had been
dealing with Nicodemus as well. We see a seeking heart here in
Nicodemus that we just don't have by nature. The psalmist
said, the Lord looked down upon the children of men to see if
there were any that didn't understand and seek God. And you know what
he saw. They're all gone aside. They're
all together become filthy. There's none that doeth good,
no not one. Nobody was seeking him. And they're still not until
he seeks them out and does something for them. And I believe Nicodemus
was seeking here. I believe that's evident in the
text. All these ones that saw the miracles
loved the spectacle of the miracles. But for Nicodemus, that wasn't
enough. He wasn't satisfied with that. He came to the Lord Jesus
when he wasn't doing any miracles, at night, and sat down with Him
and spoke with the Lord Jesus Christ. I believe that says something
about the condition of his heart. But Nicodemus was still a Pharisee
at this point. And thus, his first words are
these, we know. Usually when those who do not
know God come asking questions about the Bible, about God, it
is that they want to tell you what they know. You may have
experienced that. I have experienced it often,
often. Invariably, the conversation
starts out this way. I was wondering what you thought
about this verse. Here's what I think about it. And for the
next 10 or 15 minutes, they're going to tell you what they know.
That's exactly what Nicodemus did here. We know some things
about you. And that was the first thing
he said. 1 Corinthians 3.18, let no man deceive himself. If
any man among you seemeth to be wise in this world, let him
become a fool. You think you know something
about God, let him become a fool that he may be wise. It's significant
now that Nicodemus starts the conversation this way. And then
everything that Christ told him, in the next ten verses at least,
is designed, among other things, to show Nicodemus that he did
not know anything. Don't let that truth escape you.
In verse 3, there when he says, No man can see except a man be
born again. He cannot see. That word means
to perceive or discern. In verses 4 and 9, Nicodemus
says this, how? How? In response to what the
Lord had taught him. How can these things be? Verse
9, indicating complete ignorance of what was being said. And then
in verse 10, the Lord Jesus Christ drives a nail in this Pharisee's
heart. Are you a master in Israel and
you don't know anything about how God saves a sinner? You don't
even know these basic, simple truths of the Gospel. How did
you become a master in Israel and not know these things? You
talk about a nail in a Pharisee's heart now, and he often drove
that nail. He told them one time, you do
err not knowing the Scriptures. And if they were known for anything,
it was their knowledge of the Scriptures. Christ said, you
don't know who God is or what He said in His Word. And that's
clear here that he taught Nicodemus that right off the bat, right
from the very start, and really all through this. You see, the
first thing that a sinner, that's you and me, the first thing that
we need to know about God and ourselves and how God saves a
sinner is that we know nothing about God, ourselves, or how
God saves a sinner. That's the first thing you need
to learn, and me too. The Lord Jesus knew exactly how
to deal with this Pharisee. Exactly. Because of what John
says in 2, chapter 2, verse 25. It says there, he needed not
that anybody should testify unto him of man, because he knew what
was in man. And then the very next words
are, there was a man. He knew Nicodemus' heart, and
he knows yours and mine. He knew exactly how to deal with
this Pharisee. And God knows how to bring the
pride down. Did you know that? When he spoke
to Job there in the book of Job, he said, Who are you to say the
things that you're saying? Can you humble the proud heart
and break the proud sinner's heart like God can? Only God
can do that. Man in his best state is altogether
vanity. And Nicodemus is a representative
of man in his best state. knowledge of the scriptures.
He didn't believe in Mohammed or somebody, he believed in Jehovah
God. Thought he knew who he was and
was very familiar with the Word of God. Was well respected, religious,
but man in his best state is not just all he's cracked up
to be, he's altogether vanity. Altogether. And the other thing
revealed here about the human heart that we see in Nicodemus
is that we are sensual creatures. That is, what we are interested
in and impressed by is the outward. God doesn't look on the outward
appearance. God looks on the heart. We're
just the opposite. The heart doesn't mean that much
to us, but we see the outward and we're impressed by that and
interested in that. He said, nobody can do these
miracles. It was the outward sign that
impressed Him. Only by God's grace is Nicodemus
brought to the place where he was not just impressed with the
miracles, but he heard the message, the message of God's grace in
a substitute. And he heard it from the very
lips of God's Christ. Nicodemus is conversing with
Him of whom Paul said in Colossians 2, 3, "...in Him are hid all
the treasures of wisdom and knowledge." How would you like to have a
conversation with Him? He speaks to sinners today through
His gospel. And He says the same thing that
He did to Nicodemus. Jesus answered, verse 3, and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. It says Jesus
answered him. And you might think at first,
well, the Lord didn't answer him. There's nothing about the
Lord's reply that referred to anything Nicodemus said. He didn't
talk about himself. He didn't say anything about
who he was yet to Nicodemus, nor did he say anything about
the miracles that Nicodemus referred to. The only thing in what Nicodemus
said that the Lord Jesus Christ's reply answers to is this. Nicodemus
spoke of knowing something, and the Lord Jesus Christ spoke of
not knowing something. That's the only thing that answers
to what he said. You compare the statements. Otherwise,
he did not address in any way what Nicodemus had said. He doesn't
acknowledge anything about the miracles that Nicodemus referred
to, nor does he acknowledge his inference from the miracles that
Jesus was come from God. He didn't even recognize that
he had even said that. Christ does not teach us what
we want to hear. He tells us what we need to hear.
He often ignored or refused to answer the questions that were
asked him by men. Do we study and hear the gospel
preached to have our own knowledge and understanding of things verified
and validated? Or do we come to learn from God?
That's a big question now. That's a big question. It sounds,
listen, what was wrong with what Nicodemus knew? Oh, we know that
you come from God. You couldn't be doing these miracles
that you do otherwise. It sounds flattering, doesn't
it? It sounds quite good. But he was dead wrong. He was
dead wrong. Nicodemus knew that Christ was
a teacher come from God. But what he is about to find
out is that Christ is God come to teach. There's a big difference. Nicodemus also, the only other
thing that he knew is that God is with you. God must be with
you or you wouldn't be able to do these miracles. What he's
fixing to find out from Christ is that He is God with us. There's a big difference. Big
difference. They shall call His name Immanuel,
which being interpreted is God with us. It is not that God is
with Christ. It is that when Christ is sitting
across from you, Nicodemus, speaking to you, God Almighty is with
you. He's with you." And that's what
he was about to find out by God's grace. Now, how does a man deal
with a lost sinner who comes to talk about God and the things
of God, thinking he already knows some things? Well, I'll tell
you how our Lord did so. He declared the simple, basic,
and by the way, humiliating truth of God to Nicodemus, that with
men It is impossible for a sinner to know anything about God or
His kingdom. Impossible. The words born again
in the text, a phrase bandied about by religion, a religious
catchphrase now. I'm a born again Christian. Here's
what the words mean. Born from above. The word above,
the word that's translated again in the scriptures is above. And
it's a word that's used in reference to things coming from heaven
or things coming from God, more specifically. The word born has
to do literally with men fathering children. That's the actual definition
of it. It's men fathering children.
And what Christ said to this man, He said, for you to know
anything about God and the things of God, you must be fathered,
begotten again by God. Think about what he said. Nicodemus
came saying, here's what I know. And Christ said, unless God has
begotten you again from above, you don't know anything. You
don't know anything. Otherwise, you cannot, you cannot
Now, why was Christ so negative? You know, the soul winners of
our day would never present the gospel that is so negative. Except
you be born, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven? That sounds
like shutting men out. We wouldn't talk like that, would
we? Oh, we'd say, oh, if you just do these three easy steps
of salvation, you're a Christian. The Lord didn't confront Nicodemus
that way. The gospel message begins in
a very negative way. You see, the Lord, you've got
to be lost before God will save you. You've got to be stripped
of your self-righteous rags before God will clothe you. God will
kill you before He'll give you life. That's what He did to Nicodemus
here. He revealed to him what an ignorant,
blind fool he was first. And then He taught him the truth.
You see, he's about to talk to Nicodemus about that serpent
that Moses lifted up in the wilderness. He's going to say, as Moses lifted
up that serpent in the wilderness, when all the children of Israel
had been bitten, and the poison, the deadly, fatal poison was
in their blood, and God told Moses, raise up a serpent of
brass on a wooden pole, and you tell the children of Israel this,
look and live. And he said, as Moses lifted
up that serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted
up. The remedy for sin. Look and
live. But first, he tells Nicodemus,
unless God does a work in your heart, you can't look. You can't
see the Kingdom of God. You never will. It's going to
take the grace, the power, the miraculous, life-giving power
of God Almighty before you can look to the Lord Jesus Christ
and live. Now, soul winners, again, and
I keep bringing that up because here's a sinner now coming to
the Lord Jesus Christ inquiring regarding the things of God.
And when that happens, what would you say to them? If somebody
came to you honestly inquiring, wanting to be taught, rabbi,
Nicodemus wanted to be taught, what would you say to them? Soul
winners are interested in finding out what a sinner knows and believes
and declaring them as sure for heaven as if they were already
there. I've heard it before now. Do you know you're a sinner?
That's the first thing they're going to ask you. Do you know
you're a sinner? Oh, good, good. Do you know that Jesus died on
the cross? Do you believe that? Do you believe
that He died for you? And if you know these things,
hallelujah, you're a born-again Christian. The Lord Jesus Christ
made sure that Nicodemus understood from the start that if he ever
did know anything about God or His kingdom, that it was by the
free, sovereign, distinguishing grace of God that he did so. You see the difference? The Lord
said to him the same thing that Jonah preached. That the prophets
throughout all the ages have preached. Salvation is of the
Lord. That's the first thing that Christ
established here. It comes from God from above,
not by knowledge and learning. Forget about what you know, Nicodemus. And listen, verily, verily, I
say unto you, that's what you need to concentrate on, Nicodemus,
and every one of us. If God begets you again, fathers
you unto a lively hope in Christ, you will learn some things. No
question about that. But you are not saved by your
learning and knowledge. After that, in the wisdom of
God, the world by wisdom knew not God. It pleased God by the
foolishness of preaching to save them that believe. Not by wisdom. Salvation is a miraculous work
of God performed in the sinner and for the sinner. You must
be made something you are not, just like when you were born
of the flesh. There was a time when I did not exist. It's according
to the flesh. You must become something that
you are not. Now there's a lot more to say
about that, but we'll say it when we get to verses 5 and 6.
Look at verse 4 for now. Nicodemus saith unto him, How
can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time
into his mother's womb and be born? Now remember who this is.
The proud Pharisee, well learned. Now, this is not an ignorant
man according to the flesh. This is not a foolish man according
to the flesh. He's wise and educated, smart. But look at the ridiculous, ludicrous
nature of these questions. Stupid. Just stupid. And he almost certainly asks
these questions in contempt, with a scoffing attitude. In
an attempt to say, really, what he's saying is that what Christ
had said is ridiculous. Isn't that right? What he's saying,
in effect, is what you're saying is that a man would have to enter
into his mother's womb and be born again. Well, that's not
at all what the Lord had said. This is how lost religious people
debate the truth of the Gospel. They reveal their ignorance and
foolishness by trying to argue about spiritual truth with nothing
but a natural understanding." You see that here? Nicodemus
had no spiritual understanding. He didn't understand the birth
of God from a spiritual perspective because all he had was natural
understanding, so he went back to the natural. How can he be
born of his mother's womb a second time? If there's a lesson to
be learned from Nicodemus here in verse 4, it's simply this.
that when God is teaching you something, just shut up. Just
shut up. Because anything you say will
just reveal your childish ignorance. And it's just embarrassing. It's
embarrassing, isn't it, what Nicodemus said here? And it will
be what I say too. When God is teaching you, just
listen and learn by His grace. Learn. And then verse 5, 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." He told him again, with a little bit more detail, exactly
what he said before. He didn't try to explain away,
he didn't even acknowledge what Nicodemus said. Now, he differentiates
specifically between natural birth and spiritual birth, because
what Nicodemus had said regarded natural birth. And he shows here
that that birth he already spoke of, though it's called a birth,
and it's aptly illustrated in that it's called a birth, because
it's the beginning of life. Yet it's a different birth than
the one that we are familiar with by nature, the one that
involves our mother and being born into this world in the flesh. the one that Nicodemus referred
to in verse four. This is a birth. This being born
again, it's a birth, but it's a separate, different birth. Another birth. A second birth. You must be born of water. That's
our natural birth. Born from our mother's womb,
the water breaks and we come forth. And, and in addition to,
also of the Spirit. You see that? If you're going
to know anything about God and His kingdom, His truth, His gospel,
if you're going to know God, whom to know is life eternal,
you're going to have to be born naturally and spiritually. You see how simple and clear
that is? It's born of water from our mother's
womb and born of the Spirit by the will and power of God. And it's also different seed
that's involved. Peter tells us in 1 Peter 1.23,
being born again, not of corruptible seed as when we were born naturally
of the flesh, but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. But our Lord keeps it very simple
here for Nicodemus for right now. Very simple. Notice that
instead in this verse, instead of saying he cannot see the kingdom
of God, this time he says he cannot enter. It's not only by
this new birth that we have knowledge of God, but it's also by this
new birth that we have access to God. If I'm not interested
in that, and I'm sure enough a fool, I can't know God or have
any access to Him except, Christ said, except you be born again. Paul in Colossians said that
the Father had translated us into the kingdom of His dear
Son. But the Lord says here, not without
this new birth are you translated into His kingdom. You can't enter
the kingdom except you be born again. Because it's the same
kingdom He's talking about here. The kingdom of God and the kingdom
of His dear Son is the same kingdom. Now, how do you know here that
water is talking about natural birth? Some say that this is
the Word of God, that the water is the Word that you must be
born. And certainly it is by or through the means of the Word
of God that we are born again. That's what we just read in 1
Peter 1.23. We're born of incorruptible seed
by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. But I believe
the context is clear here, because look at verse 6. That which is
born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit
is Spirit. He's talking about natural birth
and spiritual birth. They're both birth. They're both
the beginning of life. They're both the giving of life
by God. Is a baby going to be born dead
or alive? It's up to God. It's up to God,
isn't it? Not up to you. And birth is a
miracle of God's grace in both cases. And this is a birth, but
it's a different birth. It's a separate birth. Now, this
is important because many say that salvation is just God teaching
us some truth. that we just learn some things,
that there is no new nature in the believer, but just new enlightenment. But no matter what the quality
of knowledge that you possess, this is just an improvement of
the flesh without this last phrase that Christ said, that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit. And that's strictly refuted here
now. The new birth is not a modification of the old one. It's a different,
separate birth. It's of a different nature. They
are separate and opposed to one another. Read Romans 7. The flesh
warreth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh and can never be anything
but flesh. 1 Corinthians 15.50, Paul said,
Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. You must be born again. Flesh
and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God. If you truly
love, worship, believe, and serve God Almighty, it is not your
flesh doing that. It's because you've been born
again of the Spirit of God Almighty. Your flesh affects all of that.
No question about that. But your flesh cannot do those
things. Only the Spirit of God. Paul said, it's not I but Christ
that dwelleth in me. Our Lord referred to this duality
of natures in the believer when he said in Matthew 26, 41 to
his disciples, watch and pray. He's in the Garden of Gethsemane
now with a few of his disciples. And he said, watch and pray that
you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing,
but the flesh is weak. They're different. They're opposed.
They're not the same. The spirit wants to obey. Desires
to honor the Lord Jesus Christ to watch with him and pray to
do what he says to do But not the flesh the flesh doesn't really
care that much The flesh daydreams when the gospel is preached The
flesh can sit through a three and a half hour ball game and
be excited and involved in what's going on in that game But gets
fidgety and restless during a 45 minute gospel message That's
the flesh And when the Son of God is praying for us in the
Garden of Gethsemane on His way to the cross to die for our sins
and He asks us to pray with Him, we fall asleep. Why? Because
the flesh is weak. Verse 7, marvel not that I said
unto thee, ye must be born again. If we understood the basic, most
evident truth of our depraved nature, which we don't without
His grace, We wouldn't marvel at the necessity of the new birth.
Of course we must be born again. We can't continue as we are.
We can't shake our fist in God's face and God have anything to
do with us. We can't despise Him at every
turn over everything that He does and oppose Him and reject
Him and deny Him. And it's clear that Nicodemus
did marvel at this. He marveled when the Lord said,
You must be born again. Though it's basic, elementary,
Gospel doctrine and don't misunderstand me nothing about God's gospel
is elementary in the sense that it's easily understood or grasped
by anybody apart from God's revealing enlightening grace What I'm saying
is the truth that salvation is a work of powerful creative regenerating
life-giving grace is basic truth and most church-going folks in
our day just like Nicodemus and would be astonished to hear it.
They would marvel at it and they would despise it unless God gave
them grace. Why? Because they've been told
all their lives that salvation is based on a decision that they
make. This is marvelous truth, astonishing truth to the religious
person who knows not God. John 1.12, but as many as received
him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even
to them that believe on his name." Who are they? They which are
born, not of blood, not of the flesh, not of natural generation,
not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. They're not born
by deciding something or wanting something or choosing something,
nor of the will of man, but they're born of God. That's what Christ
is teaching Nicodemus here. Now, three or four things about
this, and we're through. Nicodemus, Christ said here,
you must be born again. You must. Why must he? Nicodemus, particularly, must
be born again because there's no other way that a sinner can
be saved if you're going to know God, if you're going to enter
the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus was about to. You
must be born again. The Lord Jesus Christ said in
John 17, 3, this is life eternal, that they might know Thee, the
only true God, and Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. And he just
got through telling Nicodemus, without this birth, without this
must, you can't know God. Life eternal is to know God,
and you're not going to know God except you be born again.
So therefore, you must. You see that? because of our
spiritual death in Adam. Because when we were born, the
first time we were born in sin, we must be born again. A decision
is not going to help us. Saying a prayer that we repeat
after somebody is not going to help us. Only a miracle of grace
will help us. That's what takes place in the
new birth. A miracle of God's grace. The nature of your first
birth necessitates that if you are to have life and knowledge
of God, there must be a second birth. Secondly, Nicodemus must
be born again because God had purposed it. Before Nicodemus
was ever born, God said, I'll be his God and he'll be my sheep. In 2 Thessalonians 2.13, we are
bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren. We're
not happy for you that you made the right decision. We thank
God for you. Why? Because he hath from the
beginning From the beginning of time, from before the beginning
of time, that beginning where it says, he was in the beginning
with God and he was God. From the beginning, chosen you,
elected you, set his love upon you, chosen you to salvation
through sanctification of the spirit and belief of the truth.
That's why Nicodemus must be born again, because God had chosen
him from the beginning, and he must. Number three, all whom
the Father gave to the Son in this eternal covenant of grace
must be saved, must be born again, must be brought into this kingdom,
because Christ is faithful and victorious. John 10, 16, he said,
"...other sheep I have, which are not of this fold, the disciples
that follow me now, them also I must bring." I must. Because
he had agreed to do so. Because he willingly took upon
him the office of our surety and our mediator and our representative.
And we must be born again because the blood of Christ is sufficient
and satisfactory and effectual, and his righteousness is sufficient
in which to stand before God." God sent his Son into this world
to die for his people, and he has. And that blood that he shed
to redeem us has done just that. Why must Nicodemus be born again?
Because of what Hebrews 9.12 says, "...neither by the blood
of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered once into
the holy place, having obtained." When he did that, when he died
and shed his precious blood, like that high priest in the
Old Testament went into the Holy of Holies once a year, not without
blood, representing the people, our high priest went into the
Holy of Holies not made with hands, where God Himself dwells. And he didn't go without something
to offer. He took his own precious blood that he shed on Calvary,
and he offered it to God on our behalf. And it says right there
that when he did, he obtained eternal redemption for those
he shed it for. And so they must be born again. They must experience that grace. They must experience the benefits
that he purchased for them at Calvary. They must and they shall. You must be born again. And then
number four, you must be born again because the word of God
is effectual. He said in Isaiah 55, 10, as
the rain comes down and the snow from heaven, and it doesn't go
back up until it's done something. It waters the earth and it maketh
it to bring forth and bud. The earth can't just decide,
well, there's water here, but I just don't feel like bringing
forth and budding today. It maketh it do it. And it gives
seed to the sower and bread to the eater. So shall my word be
that goeth forth out of my mouth, he said. And he speaks through
his prophets and his teachers and preachers. It shall not return
unto me empty. It won't come back until it's
done something. It shall accomplish that which
I please, and it shall prosper in that very thing whereto I
send it. God gives his word to sinners
by the preaching of the gospel. Why? Well, I'll tell you this,
why ever he did, That purpose is accomplished. That's what
we just read. Well, why does he give it then? John said it
in John chapter 20. He said these are written. This
book is written. Why? That you might believe that
Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And that believing you might
have life through his name. You might be born again. You
must. Because when God sends his word,
it accomplishes what he sent it to do. And why did he send
it? that you might be begotten again unto a lively hope." How?
By the Word of Truth. By the Word of Truth. You must
be born again because God's Word is effectual. And I'll tell you
this finally, you must be born again because the Spirit of God
is powerful and effectual. Look at verse 8. And I'll go ahead and use this
good word about the Spirit of God, irresistible. Irresistible. It says, the wind bloweth where
it listeth. That word listeth means to be
resolved or determined to purpose or to will. The wind blows where
it wants to. It's that simple. It's that simple.
Now, we're not to despise or take for granted the means of
salvation. It's by the preaching of the
gospel. Please God, by the preaching
to save them that believe. And I want my children to hear
the gospel. I want you, I want all of us to hear the gospel
of Christ. But make no mistake about this,
the wind bloweth where it listeth. And I don't mean by that to say
that he will save a sinner apart from the gospel. You will hear
the gospel if God has saved you. But we tend to think things like
this. If so-and-so hears the truth
or if those children are raised in a Christian home, there's
more of a chance of them being born again. This is not by chance. It's not by chance. And then
if somebody will not hear or is outwardly and openly opposed
to the gospel or outwardly or openly evil, we tend to think,
well, there's no hope for them. If God is pleased, I'm going
to make this statement, I'm going to be done. If God is pleased
to sovereignly invade and impose Himself upon you and arrest you
on your way to hell and by His almighty grace apprehend you,
as Paul said there in Philippians chapter 3, he said, I am apprehended
of Jesus Christ. You look at that sometime and
rejoice. Paul said, I have been apprehended
by Jesus Christ. And that word apprehended there
means to be seized upon and to be made one's own. Has Jesus
Christ done that to you? Seized upon you and made you
His own? Paul said, He did that to me.
He apprehended me. He stopped him on his road to
hell and arrested him and imposed himself upon Saul of Tarsus and
said, You're mine. I've chosen you. I've chosen,
you're a chosen vessel unto me. If God is pleased to do that
for you, then you will and you must and you shall be born again. And if he listeth not, if he's
not pleased to do that, then there's nothing I or anybody
else can do for you. Nothing. Why did Christ shut
Nicodemus up like that to his grace? Because the only thing
that can save a sinner is God's grace in Christ. And the best
place that you can possibly find yourself is shut up to His mercy. As long as you're trusting in
what you know, popping off about what you know, and resting in
what you know or have done or anything about you, there is
no hope for you. Not in that place. But when you're
shut up to the mercy of God in Christ, you're in the best place
you can be.