John chapter 3. I want to deal
with this business of man's nature, state before God, no matter what
that man appears to be, what that man appears to be. It says
here in John chapter 3, in verse 1, 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. Our Lord answered and
said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man
be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
saith unto him, How, how can a man be born when he is old? That's a real question there.
You find so many hows in the Scripture. Mary said, How can
this be? Saying, I know not a man. Job
asked the question, How can a man be just with God? How? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? How can a man be born when he's
old? Some of you are getting a little
age on you. How are you going to be born again? You've already
been born once. How is it going to happen a second
time? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and
be born? Again, our Lord 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." Now, I want
you to notice what our Savior said in the last two verses of
John, chapter 2. He says this in John. When the
Passover in Jerusalem was over and he was there, many believed
on his name because of the miracles that he did. But watch this,
but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all,
and need it not that any man should testify of man. He didn't
need anybody to come and say, this fellow, you know, I'll tell
you what he's like. I'll tell you how he thinks.
I'll tell you what he's going to do. I'll tell you his nature.
If this fellow here is a fine fellow, that fellow over there,
I'd watch him. He didn't need anybody to come and tell him
about anything about one human being. Now, me and you do that.
I get called all the time. What do you think about this
person? And would you recommend that person? What do you think
about this preacher? Would you have that preacher
preach for you? And oh, they always say, when we testify of
man, we say, well, you know, we can trust Him. I don't know
about that fellow over there. I just don't know where he's
coming from. But our Lord said He don't need anybody to tell
Him anything about any man on the face of the earth. Don't
need nobody telling anything about one human being. Run up
and say, Lord, if you knew that, that's what that Pharisee did
when that sinner came and said, in our Lord's speech, that he
knew what manner of woman this was, he. Our Lord knew. He knew Simon, and he knew her
both. And he didn't need any man to testify, for he knew what
was in man. What is in man. What is in man? Oh, what is in man? Oh, my. Well, I tell you, our Lord Jesus
has absolute knowledge, absolute knowledge of every man. Always
has and always will. And this is the reason, and man,
people say all the time, preachers say, you know, God's dependent
on you. God's looking to you. What's God going to do without
you? We can't go to church without you. God made mothers because
He did the effort, but man is untrustworthy. God looked among
the sons of men to behold if there was any good, and He came
back with the conclusion God went looking now. came back with
the conclusion that there's none good, no, not one. And he went
to look to see if anybody understood what man is, what God is, and
what salvation is, what the scriptures mean, and he came back with this
conclusion that there's none that understands no, not one. And here's a perfect illustration
of a man in that condition. And then what it says, so he
said, he knew not within man, and then the next line said,
and there was a man. There was a man. He was a religious
man, smart man, educated man, religious man, Bible-reading
man, very, very fundamentalist, but there was a man. Man in his
best state is altogether a man. There was a man. A man. That's
all he is. A man. A man. Now, did anybody need to tell
the Lord Jesus anything about this man? You reckon Nicodemus
needed to tell him anything about him? Then it says, there was a man.
This man was of the Pharisees. That is the most religious sect.
You think the Amish are religious? They wouldn't hold these people
alight. You think the Mennonites are religious? Wouldn't hold
these people alight. You think fundamentalists are super-legalist
and super-religious? Wouldn't hold these people aside.
These men, oh, they were so dedicated, so committed to the Scriptures,
so committed to living to right, that if you even was touched
by, if they even touched somebody or touched something unclean,
they went immediately as quick as they could and went and washed
them. Paul said he was a Pharisee of the Pharisees. Not only was
he a Pharisee, but it says he was a ruler of the Jews. Now,
a ruler of the Jews, and we've seen that here a while back there
in Acts chapter 4, when all the rulers and the elders and the
chief priests and all the kinfolk started gathering around, all
these powerful people. Well, you remember back in Exodus,
I believe it is, where God told Moses, He says, Moses picked
out 70 elders of Israel. to help you judge, princes of
Israel, wise men of Israel, to help you judge these people so
you won't wear yourself out as people come asking questions
all the time. Well, he picked out 70 people
and here, after all these centuries, one of these men, old Nicodemus,
was one of those 70 now. He was one of those 70 who sat
in judgment upon Israel when people had problems. And so he
was a member of the Sanhedrin. This is a religious court. the
highest court in all of Israel. They could say, stone him. They
could say, crucify him. They could say, take him outside
the camp. They could pass judgment. They could say, put him outside
the church. We ain't having nothing else to do with him. He was a
master. Look what it says down in verse
10. Our Lord said unto him, Art thou a master, a master of Israel? He was a master. He was a master. The person gave me a book the
other day, and every single person in that book, different chapter
by different people, they all had Master of Divinities, they
all had Ph.D.s, and a couple of them had double Ph.D.s. Well-educated. Masters in Israel. Well, they
can tell you about the historical faith, but can they tell you
about the faith of the Son of God? They can tell you about
the Reformation, but can they tell you anything about regeneration?
They can tell you what Martin Luther believed, but can they
tell you what Christ believed and taught? Those are the things,
the issues we need to face. Let's view Nicodemus here as
a representative, a representative of man at his best. Not counting
his words, unlike me and you, that he's best. Here's a man
that's the best. Here's a man who wore his robes,
who taught people, got up and opened the Scriptures and instructed
men and women, set best judgment on men and women. Here's a man,
though, when he went out in the street, he loved to pray, standing
on the street corner. He loved to be called Rabbi,
Rabbi. Here was a man who wore his phylactery
up here on his head or on his arm, and when he rolled it out,
it was full of Scripture. Well, did everybody know he understood
the Scriptures and loved the Scriptures? So let's see, here's
this representative man, man at his best. Well, first of all,
look what he did. The same came to Jesus by night.
Why did he come to the Lord by night? Look down there in verse
19 and I'll tell you. John chapter 3 and verse 19.
And this is the condemnation that light has come into the
world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds
were evil. He came to Christ at night because he loved the
darkness. He came to the light and he didn't
see the light. The light was in the world and he didn't see
it. You see, not only did he come by light, but he was spiritually
ignorant. He had no spiritual discernment
whatsoever. He was dead, dead in trespasses,
dead in sins, and he was needing something to desperately take
place in his heart that he couldn't do for himself, and all of his
religious training, all of his scripture reading, all of his
phylacteries, and all of his praying didn't do a thing in
the world for him. He was no better off than everybody
that he was teaching was no better off. And this was the spiritual
condition of a master of Israel. And what a picture of man in
his best state. Man, he looks to so many things. He looks to religion. He looks
to religion. You know what religion is? The
Levites represented, the priesthood represented the best of religion.
And they came to John the Baptist and said, are you he that should
come? They didn't have a clue what the Lord Jesus Christ was
going to be like when he came. And then when the Levites were
sent and asked that question, the Pharisees said, are you he
that should come or should we look for another? Are you that
prophet? And they lived, they worshipped
in a place that our Lord says you made in a den of thieves
and a house of merchandise. They took the place where God
was to be worshipped, the sacrifices were to be offered, and they
made that into a house of merchandise and a den of thieves. Kind of
sounds like the world today, in the church today. And not
only that, but the whole shooting match of the whole 70. was spiritually
dead, spiritually blind, in the same condition Nicodemus was.
And it says the same came to Jesus by night. Why did He come
by night? Well, He was ashamed to be seen
coming to Him. He was ashamed to be seen coming
to Him. You would never be ashamed of
the Lord Jesus Christ, would you? He was ashamed to be seen
coming to the Lord Jesus Christ. This is the last person in the
world they wanted to be identified with. This is the last person
in the world they wanted to go to learn anything from. He can't
teach us nothing. That's what they said in John
chapter 9. This man, he can't teach us nothing. That's what they said. Said,
this man is a sinner. Said, oh, no, no, how can a sinner
open the eyes of a man who's born blind? Only God can do this. And they said, are you going
to teach us? And oh, look what happens now. And what he did,
he came secretly under the cover of darkness. And you know, every
time, from this time right here on, every time Nicodemus' name
is mentioned in the Gospels, every single time it's mentioned,
it says, He that came to Jesus but not. The same came to Jesus
but not. The same came to Jesus but not.
And every time you hear Judas Iscariot's name mentioned in
the scripture, the Judas which betrayed him. The Judas which
betrayed him. Their name is identified with
something they did. Some way they treated the Lord
Jesus Christ. Some way they acted toward the
Lord Jesus Christ. But he became more courageous.
Look over here at John chapter 7 with me just a minute. But
he became more courageous. He came the first time by night.
He was ashamed. He did it secretly under darkness.
But he became more courageous, more identified with Christ.
This says here, When they sent him to lay hold on the Lord and
to bring him back, and the Pharisees and officers and them did. And
they didn't bring him back. And the Pharisee says, but this
people who knoweth not the law, in verse 49, are cursed. Now
watch what Nicodemus saith. Nicodemus saith unto them, now
watch it, he that came to Jesus by night being one of them. Now
here's the Sanhedrin together. They're making some serious decisions. Huh? Doeth our law judge any
man before I hear him, and know what he doeth? Does our law judge any man before
it hears him and know what it is that he's done? Oh, no. So you see, he stood up. He became
more courageous. And in fact, when our Lord Jesus
Christ died, Nicodemus came with Joseph to claim his body and
provided the robe and provided the material and provided the
fragrances to bury our Lord Jesus Christ with. He came and identified
himself with Christ. And then look what he says back
over here in verse 2. Then this same came to Jesus
by night and said unto him, Rabbi, Rabbi, call him a rabbi. Call
him a master. Call him a teacher. We know,
and that's what he says, we know that thou art a teacher. Come
from God. No man can do these miracles
without God being with him. And this is true. What he's saying
is true. The miracles our Lord Jesus Christ
did were different than all that had ever been before and all
that's ever been since. I mean, you know, men would perform
a miracle and it'd just be one time. Elijah performed miracles. Moses performed miracles. Elijah
performed miracles. All the apostles performed miracles.
But nobody has before performed miracles like our Savior did,
or before or since. He raised the dead. People who
were born blind got the sight back. People that were dead were
given life. Lepers, just by His Word, were
cleansed of their leprosy. And this was true. But we need
to examine, and there's a lot of people who claim to perform
miracles today. You see people who claim to perform
miracles, they're miracle workers. And here's the question, how
can they perform these miracles except God be with them, or their
sin of God? Well, I'll tell you what, there's
only one criteria, and our Lord gave this criteria even for Himself.
He said, a man who testifies of himself, speaketh of himself,
his testimony is not true. But He says, there's one that
bears witness to me. Father sent me. The words bear
witness to me. The works bear witness to me.
So when we start wanting to know whether a man is son of God or
not, Whether he really works miracles or not, whether he's
sin of God, how do you tell? What do they say about the Lord
Jesus Christ? What is their message? What do
they say? Look with me over 2 Corinthians
chapter 11. 2 Corinthians chapter 11. You
think there was false prophets now and false teachers. Now,
there's always been false prophets, always been. John said that false
prophets are among you now. Peter says even as false prophets
were among the people, even so are false prophets among you.
And oh my, you know, people, they really get a kick out of
going to these places and they'll bring people in in wheelchairs
and that's how, what was that guy, oh Robert, how he started. You used to have him on television.
I mean, when I was a little boy. And they'd have a big tent and
they'd bring in all these people and they'd throw them crutches
away and oh my, getting out of their wheelchairs and all that
stuff. And now, tell you something, he did. He saw a 900 foot Jesus
and told him that's how high a hospital's supposed to be. So we went from healing to hiring
doctors to do it. But here's the situation, beloved.
We examine people by what they say, by what they say, what they
believe. And look what he says here in
2 Corinthians 11, in verse 13. You know, there were those who
was telling them that Paul wasn't
telling the truth, that Paul was too hard, that Paul was too
strict, that Paul was too narrow. And he said, they like the glory.
They look for occasions to glory. But he says in verse 13, for
such are false apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves
into the apostles of Christ. And that's no marvel. That's
no wonder. That's not nothing to stand and
marvel at. For Satan himself is transformed
into an angel of light. Therefore it is of no great pain
if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness,
whose end shall be according to their works." So you see,
that's the thing. And he said, even him who's coming
is after Satan with all signs and power and lying wonders.
And here's the thing, beloved, a man who's so-called working
miracles, and you know there's even people around here claiming
they can do that. People around here claim they can do that.
Come to the deliverance tabernacle. Come to be delivered from drugs.
Come to be delivered from alcohol. Come to be delivered from tobacco.
Come to be delivered from this demon, that demon, and another
demon. A man working miracles is no proof that he's come from
God. John said it this way, he says,
Beloved, believe not every spirit. Try the spirits, whether they
are of God or not. This we know, he that testifies
and believeth that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God,
believeth that Jesus Christ was God manifested in the flesh,
what he said. And oh, look what he went on
to say here. That's why, you know, if it's not according to
this Word and this testimony, it's because there's no light
in it. Test them by the Word of God. Now, how did our Lord
Jesus receive Nicodemus? Nicodemus came by to him the
night. He was a ruler, he was a master
of Israel. How did our Lord Jesus receive
Nicodemus when he came to him, but not? Well, I tell you, he
didn't refuse him. He didn't refuse him. And our
Lord, no doubt, had labored all day and had a day of preaching
and teaching and ministering and laying hands on people. And no doubt, he had labored
all day. This tells us this, beloved,
that there's no unacceptable time for us to seek the Lord.
Whether it's at night, whether it's in the day, whether it's
early in the morning, whether it's in mid-afternoon, there's
not an unacceptable time to come to the Lord Jesus Christ. to
seek the Lord Jesus Christ. And as you read the Gospels,
I love this, as you read the Gospels, we're confronted with
the blessed accessibility of our Lord Jesus Christ. How easy
and how comfortable people could come to Him. How accessible He
was. You know, the only thing that
keeps a man from coming to Christ was his own self-righteousness.
Everybody who had a need came to Him. Everybody who was sick
came to Him. Those who had a great need, where'd
they come? They come to Him. They said,
if I can come to Him, if I can touch Him, if my daughter's in
trouble, I need Him. And that's the thing. If you
need Him, He's accessible any time, any moment. And the only
reason you don't access him and come to him is because you don't
feel the need of him. Look at our Lord's response to
Nicodemus now. Oh, Nicodemus, you know, he's
this ruler of the Jews. He believes that to be a teacher
comes from God. And that's the conception that
most people have of Christ, is a teacher. No different than
any other teacher, just has a higher concept of it. And a multitude
believe that. But he says, we know that our
teacher comes from God. But I tell you, it's not as a
teacher that a sinner comes to Christ and must approach the
Lord Jesus Christ first. You know what the sinner needs
before he can approach Christ and will approach Christ and
come to Christ? really come to Him, He must be
born again. That's what our Savior said,
except a man be born again. He can't see the Kingdom of God.
Oh, he'll never see the Lord Jesus Christ. He's a teacher,
as a moralist, as an example. But in order to see the Lord
Jesus as to who He is, you must be born again. He's got to have
a Savior, one with the power to give Him life from the dead,
one who has the ability and the power. Our Lord said, as the
Father raises the dead and quickens them, even so the Son quickeneth
whom He will. And oh, you know what teaching
is for? It's for the converted. Teaching is for the Lord's people.
You can't teach a dead man nothing. Is that not right? And our Lord
ignored his address to him. Oh, miracle worker, great teacher.
Our Lord just ignored that and said, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God.
This is the truth. This is the truth that our Lord's
teaching here. And I want to look at three or
four things here, if I can, very quickly, about this new birth. And our Lord Jesus, first thing
He told him in this, is He doesn't tell Nicodemus how to live. He
didn't tell him how to live. He didn't say, you need to start
living for God. He didn't say, you need to start living for
Jesus. He didn't say, you need to learn how to turn the other
cheek. He didn't say, treat others as you'd have them treat you.
Be unto others. He didn't teach him none of that
stuff. He didn't teach him that he ought to get on an altar.
He didn't teach him that he ought to start paying his tithes and
start living right and join the church. He didn't tell him how
he should live, but he told him he had to have something done
for him. Yeah, he had to be made spiritually alive. And here that's
what this man's problem was. A man can't live, can't live
for God, Christ, or anybody else before he's born. His parents
can't enjoy him until he's born. And a dead sinner can't govern
his life, and he surely can't live for God, for Christ, or
nobody else until he's born again. And our Lord said it this way,
verily, verily, I say unto you, of a truth, of a truth. Our Lord
only used this expression when he was going to mention something
momentous. And you go through John's Gospels
and how many times he'd say, verily, verily. This is of a
truth, of a truth. And he says, of a truth, of a
truth, except a man be born again without the new birth. You can't
see the kingdom of God. You can't see it. He's standing
before the King of kings, Lord of lords, the creator and sustainer
of heaven and earth, the Word made manifest, God come down. By speaking His Word, the world
was created, made out of nothing. Here He is standing in front
of Him, the Savior, the Redeemer, the surety that He sung about,
the One that brought the amazing grace of God down to us. He could not see. That's key. He could not see. All he could
see was a teacher and morality and legalism. And Nicodemus saith
unto him, How? How? If you say, I must be born
again, how does that happen? How? I tell you, the natural
man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. He can't
even know them. Why? Because they're spiritually
discerned or spiritually judged. And oh my! So that's got to happen. And the new birth, and I'm telling
you, beloved, it's not something that we can do for ourselves. This whole idea, and that's what
most people do. They honestly think that if they,
that repentance and faith, that when you do those, then God gives
you the new birth. Then God gives you life. They seem to think that if you
get on an altar and pray until you pray through, the burden's
gone, and then you have new life. A dead man can't breathe, dead
man can't see, dead man can't hear, dead man can't walk, dead
man can't feel. And so in this new birth, our
Lord's talking about, He's talking about something life must be
given before you ever see, before you ever hear, before you can
ever walk, before you can ever believe, before you can ever
repent, before you can ever even truly, truly see the Lord Jesus
Christ. That shows us our inability. You say, boy, you're trying to
kill everybody's All men's hope. I certainly hope I can kill every
man's hope that he has in himself. That's what our Lord's doing
with Nicodemus. Nicodemus, you're a master of Israel, and you're
dumb as a box of rocks. You're as blind as a map. You're
as deaf as a post. Your heart is hard as a rock.
And oh my, Billy Graham wrote a book on how to be born again.
Our Lord never even told a man how to be born again. He just
said it has to happen. There's not a soul on the topside
of God's earth, and not a woman or a man knows when a seed is
conceived in a woman, don't know the moment or time until it starts
manifesting itself. And that's the way it is in this
business of the new birth. We don't have a clue when God
puts that seed in there, when that life begins to be made manifest. But I'll tell you this, it's
got to happen. And look what the incident of the new birth
is. He said, how can this be? I'm old, I'm 25, I'm 22, I'm
21, I'm 55, I'm 35, I'm 65, I'm 85. How can this be? How can
a man be born when he's already been born? How can he when he's
old? Ah, what it says. Again, he says, "'Truly, truly,
I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the Spirit.'"
Now, enter implies and teaches us that there's a movement here,
that there's some action here to enter into the kingdom of
God. And he said, "'Except a man be born of water and the Spirit.'"
There ain't going to be no action done. There ain't going to be
no entering. You ain't going to get through the door, nothing
else. You don't even know where the door is at. And when he says, except
the man be born of the water, what is this water? Let me tell
you what this water is not. It's not baptism. I don't care
what the Camelites say. I don't care what the Catholics
say. I don't care what the Presbyterians say. They can sprinkle all the
babies they want. They can christen all the babies
they want. They can get every man fixing to go out into eternity
out of his bed and baptize him in a pool and put him in a tub.
It don't make any difference. This is not baptism. If this
is baptism here, if this water is baptism, no one was saved
before the days of John the Baptist, because you don't hear baptism
mentioned in the Old Testament. You don't hear it mentioned.
And I tell you, God hasn't changed the way He saves sinners. You
know how Abraham was saved? Galatians said he had the gospel
before preached to him 400 years before the law was entered in.
How was Moses saved? He had the gospel preached unto
him. He saw Christ. Isaiah saw the Lord. And if this is water baptism,
then every professing believer who has died without baptism
is eternally lost. If water is absolutely essential
and you've been baptized. Now let me tell you something. Baptism, if you're a believer,
and you're a professed believer, and God has done something in
your heart and soul, this is how you confess Christ. This
is how they did it in the New Testament. Church, what must
I do? Believe on the Son of God. Do you believe with all your
heart that the Son of God is Jesus Christ? God come death?
I do. Here's water. What do you intend
to me for confessing that? Confessing that. Confessing that
I'm going to acknowledge the Lord Jesus Christ as my hope,
my Savior. I want to identify with Him.
I want to identify with His life. I want to identify with His death.
I want to identify with His burial. I want to identify with His resurrection. I want to identify with Christ. That's what baptism is. And it's
an obedience to our Lord Jesus. That's how you become, that's
how you confess the Lord Jesus Christ. It's by baptism. And if you've never confessed
Christ, and you want to confess Christ, That's how it's done. It's not running down the aisle
and saying, oh, I see Jesus, I see Jesus. I feel goosebumps. It's by coming to a saving knowledge
of the Lord Jesus Christ to say, yes, I want Him. Yes, I need
Him. And yes, I want to be identified
with Him. Preacher, bury me. Why do you
bury the very dead people? And when they come from the grave,
when they have that new life, and they come out of that water,
they give an evidence that, yes, I'm going to walk in unison with
the glory of the Son of God, the Lord Jesus. I'm going to
manifest that new life that Christ has given me. I'm going to walk
in it. You know, that thief on the cross, now, I tell you, he
wasn't baptized. But if he had lived long enough
and actually confessed faith in Christ, he would have been.
I really believe he would have. And this baptism is absolutely
necessary. So this new birth, and that's
what this is talking about, that every word that teaches salvation
by grace without works absolutely means nothing. Well, what is
this water then? Well, it's just being born of
water. Look what our Savior said over here in John 4.14. Here in John 4.14. This is our
Lord speaking to the woman at the well. But whosoever drinketh
of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst, but the
water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing
up into everlasting life. You see, he's talking about literal
water right there. Look over in John 7, verse 37. In the last day, that great day
of the feast, Jesus stood and cried and said, Let him come
unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the
scripture saith, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."
Is he talking about literal water there? So is he talking about
literal water in John chapter 3? Of course not. Water is a
figure. Water is emblematic of the Word
of God. And this is the instrument that
God uses in regeneration is His Word. I read it to you there
in 1 Peter this morning. David says, Thy word hath quickened
me, quickened me. Look over here in 1 Corinthians
4.15 with me just a minute. And this is why it's so important
that we be faithful to the gospel, be faithful to Christ, be faithful
to the Word. You know, when I, Lord Jesus
Christ, And that's why I said, Nicodemus, you're a master visual,
you don't know these things. The Old Testament was full, full
of illustrations of the new birth. Full of the new birth. That infant
that was cast out to the loathing of his person. What happened? God came by and God spoke. The Word goes out. God said,
I say unto thee, live. Yes, I say live. By His own will
beget he us, with what? The Word. What Word? The Word of Truth. Look here
in 1 Corinthians 4.15. 1 Corinthians 4.15. For though ye have ten thousands
instructors in Christ, yet ye have not many fathers. For in
Christ Jesus I have begotten you, begotten you, have You go
through the Old Testament, the so-and-so begat so-and-so begat
so-and-so. God begat His children. That's why He calls us children
of God and sons of God. Why? You want to find my genealogy? On my people side, dead, begotten
of, dead, begotten of, dead, begotten of, dead, begotten of,
dead. On my spiritual side, begotten of Jesus Christ, the Lord of
Glory." What did He use? He used the seed, the Word of
God. That's why we're, Behold, what
manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should
be called the sons of God. And oh my, in Ezekiel 37, And
every place where you find the new birth described, it's always
the Word of God that's mentioned. God said to Ezekiel, can these
bones live? Oh Lord, you know. He said, well
son of man, start preaching. That's what he said, start preaching.
And this is what I want you to say. He told him exactly what
to say. And that's what God uses. Oh,
my. And the Word is called a lamp,
a lamp under our feet, a light under our face. It's called a
hammer. Why is it called a hammer in Jeremiah 23? My Word is a
hammer. It's like a fire, and it's like
a hammer. Why is it like a fire? It takes the Word of God to break
that hard heart. It takes the Word of God to crush
that stubborn will. And it's called water because
it cleanses us, it sets us apart, and washes us, the word washes
us, and cleanses us over and over and over again. Wherewithal
shall a young man cleanse his way by taking heed thereto according
to thy word. Paul said, Christ saved the church
and sanctified it with the washing of water. What? By the Word. And what is it that produces
this new birth? The instrument is the Word. Dr.
Stenner, give me this instrument. I'm fixing to cut into that man's
heart. Let me reach over and get the scaffold. God said, this
is the instrument I'm going to use to get into your heart, to
get into your will, to get into your mind, to get into you. This instrument I'm going to
use to cut you open with, and slice you up, and show you where
you're at, and that's the Word of God. And I'm going to just,
that's the instrument. And who's that instrument yielded
in? What hands it yielded in? Look what it says next, be born
of water and the Spirit. The Holy Spirit uses the word,
and the word we know is the seed. We know it's that seed, that
instrument that God uses, that gospel that God uses. And the Holy Spirit, He's the
one who begets us with the word of truth. He's the one who produces
this life in us. Look in John 60 with me just
a moment. Our Lord is talking about eating
His flesh and drinking His blood. And they said, oh, this is a
hard saying. This is just too hard. And many
of therefore His disciples, when they heard this, they said, this
is a hard saying. Who in the world can hear it?
Who can understand it? Who can grasp it? Who's going to believe
it? When Jesus knew in himself that
his disciples murmured that, he said, does this offend you?
Does this cause you to stumble? Does this hurt your feelings?
Does this make you back up and try to say, well, if that's going
to be that way, I just won't have nothing to do with it. I
don't understand it. I don't get it. If you think that, it's tough
to understand. What if you see the Son of Man
has ended up where he was before? I'm here now, but I'm not going
to be here forever. I'm going back where I come from. And if
you see me and don't see me anymore, what are you going to do? If
you think this is hard, what about that? Now here he goes
right to the heart of it. It's the spirit that quickens. It's the spirit that gives life. The flesh profiteth nothing.
Absolutely nothing. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and life. And I want to show you another
one over in 1 John, just a minute. 1 John, Chapter 3. 1 John, Chapter
3, just a minute. I've been really studying through
here. How many places in John's gospel
here, the little John's, does he talk about being born again,
the birth, being born of God? He that's born of God, he that's
born of God, has the seed of God in him. And he said down
there in verse 9, 1 John 3, whosoever is born of God, That's why I
told Nicodemus, when Nicodemus said, how can a man be born when
he's old? How's it going to happen? Can
he enter the second time into his mother's womb, be born again?
Our Lord said, if you're born fresh, that's all you'd be the
next time. Just fresh, just fallen fresh, corrupt, corrupt, fallen. You'd be no better off than you
are right this minute. The fact that he's born of the
Spirit, he becomes a spiritual being. He becomes a living being. He becomes a being who understands
and sees spiritual things. And that's why I said, Whosoever
is born of God doeth not commit sin. Oh, my goodness. That sure
ain't talking about me. If you're born of God, it is. Why? Because His seed remains
in Him. That man that's in us, there's
a corruptible man, and I'm taking too long to know him. He's a
corruptible man, and that's the man we're born with, and that's
the man we're going to live with until it turns into incorruption.
But there's also a new man in us. That new man is that incorruptible
man, born of that incorruptible seed, who has the seed of Christ
in Him, the seed of God in Him. And that scene, that's why it
says the outward man perishes day by day, but the inward man
is renewed. This outward man is dying, but
this inward man is being renewed. And one of these days, this inward
man is going to have a new body to go with this new man. What's
this now? And he cannot sin. He can't deny
God. He can't deny Christ. He can't
deny his sinful nature. He can't deny the Scriptures.
Why? Because he's born of God. And you're not even conscious,
whenever you do sin, it's that new man that tells you the old
man done it. No wonder Paul said, Oh, that good man that I am,
who's going to deliver me from this body of death? Thank God
through Jesus Christ our Lord that there is therefore now no
judgment, now no condemnation. To who? Hell, that are in Christ
Jesus. Huh? And I'm going to show you
one more and I'm done. I'll say another word. Romans
chapter 8. Romans chapter 8. In verse 8. Romans 8.8, so then they that
are in the flesh cannot please God. Nicodemus was in the flesh. He was the ruler of Israel, master
of Israel, of the Sanhedrin, but he was in the flesh. There
wasn't a thing in the world he could do to satisfy God, make
God look on him with favor. But watch this, but you're not
in the flesh. But in the Spirit, how did you
get there? I didn't put myself there, that's
for sure. Oh, if you're in the spirit of
soul, spirit of heart, the spirit of God dwell in you. Now he comes
to this conclusion. Now, if any man had not the spirit
of Christ, he don't even belong to Christ. He's got to have that
new birth. Huh? Oh, my. I'm done. Our Father, our gracious, gracious
God, thank You for Your Word. Thank You for the truth as it
is in our Lord. Thank You for this wonderful,
wonderful, glorious, precious gospel, this gospel of life,
this gospel of righteousness, this gospel of power. This gospel
of Christ, this gospel that gives such hope, such comfort, such
assurance, that so quickens our soul when we sit under it, so
invigorates us, and causes that life to leap up within us and
rejoice in our Lord Jesus Christ. Thank you, Lord. Blessed be your
name. Amen. Amen. There is a name I love to hear,
I love to sing His word. It sounds like music in my ear,
the sweetest thing on earth. O how I love Jesus, O how I love
Jesus, O how I love Jesus, because He first loved me. See you tonight at six o'clock,
God.