I'm going to be using the Bible
quite a bit tonight. I hope you have come prepared
to use the scriptures. Let me introduce my message by
making two or three general remarks. First of all, throughout the
ages, people have been interested in knowledge. I'm talking in
the spiritual realm now. I'm talking about God, and I'm
talking about man's relationship with God. And I'm talking about
a man having a desire to know something about God Almighty.
People want to know the truth about God, don't you? I think
that's why you're here tonight. There's a craving, two things.
There's a craving in our nature. I'm not saying in the nature
of all men. I'm saying in the nature of some. There's a craving
to know God, and there's a craving to know God with certainty. Now that's the two things. I
don't have just a general craving for knowledge, but I crave to
know the truth. I want to know the truth. And
the second thing is, I want to know that it is the truth. That's the key. It's not just
having knowledge, because Paul said they'll come in the latter
days preaching another Jesus, and they'll come preaching another
spirit, and they'll come preaching another gospel. which is not
another but a perversion of the gospel. So I want to know, and
you want to know, that's why you're here tonight. I want to
know the truth, and I want to know that it is the truth. Now
then, the second statement. The true knowledge of God, of
God's salvation, of God's character, of God's attributes, of God's
plan, of God's purpose, the true knowledge of God's law, of God's
judgment, of life after death, of the resurrection, judgment,
heaven, hell, this true knowledge of God and of ourselves comes
only by revelation. It has to come from God, since
we don't know, then the one who does know has to teach us. That's
what the scripture said over here. Turn back to 1 Corinthians
2, in verse 11. It says, What man knoweth the
things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? You don't
know what's going on right now in my mind, and there's no way
you can know unless I tell you. And I do not know what's going
on in your heart, in your mind, and I can't know unless you tell
me. Even so, read on, even so, the
things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God." Now,
we're going to have to have the character, the attributes, the
law of God, God's salvation, how God deals with men. what
God expects of me, and these things are going to have to be
taught us by God. Turn to John 6.44. Listen to
this. Christ said in John 6.44, No
man can come to me except the Father which sent me draw him,
and I'll raise him up at the last day. It is written in the
prophets, And they shall be all taught of God. They'll be taught
of God. I'm not satisfied with what they
say. I'm not satisfied with what people
have always believed. I want to know the truth. Now,
like Ronnie said tonight, we started in the study, and he
said he heard a man on the radio, a preacher. And the preacher
said with all authority over the radio, he said one of the
hymns that was most greatly used of God during the Welch revival
was the song, Tell Mother I'll Be There, and that it blessed
many hearts and was used of God to the salvation of many people.
Well, I know a little bit about Church history, and a little
bit, not a whole lot, but a little bit about these revivals, the
Welch revival and others. And I said, That doesn't sound
right. So I went over and picked up a songbook and I looked up
the song, Tell Mother I'll Be There, to find out when it was
written. It was written the year I was born. I wasn't born during
the Welch revival. That happened a hundred and some
odd years ago. But it happened. It was written in 1926. It wasn't
even heard of. The author wasn't even born during
the Welch revival. And that's the way fellows are.
They just say things. I don't know whether to make
them up or to read them somewhere or to hand it down from mouth
to ear and from mother to daughter and father to son, but I'm not
satisfied with that kind of salvation and that kind of religion. I
want to know what God says. And it says here that they shall
be taught of God. Every man, therefore, that hath
heard and learned of the Father cometh unto me. My soul is too
valuable to risk it to church tradition. I don't have but one,
and it's going to live always somewhere. And my soul is too
important and too valuable for me to go through life defending
Baptist doctrine. or Catholic doctrine, or Nazarene
doctrine, or Christian doctrine, or anybody else's doctrine. I
want to know Christ. Paul said, Oh, that I may know
him and the power of his resurrection, that I may win Christ and be
found in him. I'm not interested in being found
in the walls of somebody's building. I want to be found in Christ,
not having any righteousness of my own, but his righteousness.
I don't want to be found defending a system and defending a ceremony,
and out as the private secretary defending somebody's doctrine
or somebody's tradition. I want to know God, don't you?
The living God. David said, As the heart panteth
for the water brooks, so panteth my soul after thee, the living
God. And Christ said, This is eternal
life, that they might know thee, the living God. and Jesus Christ
whom thou hast sent." You want to know who the man is who's
saved? He's not the man who's quit a few bad habits. It's not
the man that's walked the church aisle. It's not the man who's
been baptized. It's not the man who's made a
profession of faith. The man who has eternal life
is the man who knows God. That's what the Lord says. The
man who knows God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent. Now, how can
I know God? God reveals himself in two ways.
The revelation of God, God reveals himself to men in two ways. Now
you can't argue with this, there's no way in the world you can argue
with it. There are two ways that God reveals himself. You know
what the first one is? Nature. That's right, turn to
Psalms 19, verse 1 through 3. That's the first way. God reveals
himself through nature. That's right, I'm telling you
the truth. It says here in Psalms 19, the flowers in your garden
reveal God. That's right. And the stars and
the moon and the sun, the sky over your head, the raindrops,
the snow, the mountains, the valleys, the trees, the fruit
on the trees, the vegetables that come up and feed the people.
All of this perfect world that God has made, this ordered perfect
universe that God has created reveal God. That's what David
said in Psalm 19, he said, the heavens declare the glory of
God. The heavens declare or reveal
the glory of God, and the firmament showeth his handiwork, his wisdom,
his power. Read on. Day unto day uttereth
speech, and night unto night showeth knowledge. And there
is no speech and no language where their voice is not heard."
There is no language in China, Japan, in Russia, in America,
in South America, wherever you go, God is revealed in the things
that God has made. Turn to Romans chapter 1, and
I'm talking about the way that God revealed Himself to me. I
went in the nursery last Sunday night, one of our precious little
babies in there, about four or five months old, and we were
looking at that baby and the perfect body of that baby, even
down to its little fingernails, and even down to the little creases
in its hand. God has made that child. How
wonderfully, said the psalmist, I am made. And you see God in
those things. You can't see God in the birth
of a child. in the development of a little
infant, you're blind. If you can't see God in the rising
sun, in the twinkling stars, in the moon that rules by night,
in the beautiful sunset, if you can't see God in the trees and
the flowers, then you're blind, because he's there. Turn to Romans
1, verse 19. Because that which may be known
of God is manifest in them," talking about the heathen here
now and those who do not have the law, read on. God has showed
it unto them, for the invisible things of him from the creation
of the world are clearly seen. In other words, the power of
God, the wisdom of God, the purpose of God, the plan of God, these
things are clearly seen. Where are they seen? Read on,
being understood by the things that are made. even his eternal
power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse." A man is
not going to be able to stand in the judgment and say, there's
no way I could have known God. No, sir, the Scripture says here,
all men are without excuse because they didn't walk in the light
that they had. They didn't walk in the light
of the revealed God as he's seen in nature. There's a second way
in which God reveals himself. And that is through his word.
God revealed. Now, I want to know God. I want
to know the living God, not just any God. I was in Japan, some
of you fellows were too, and there's a God for each home.
They say in India there are four or five hundred million people
and there's a God for every person there. They have a half a billion
gods. But I want to know the living
God, the true God, the one and only God, the God who created
all things. And God reveals himself to men
through nature and through his word. Now, before the Bible was
written, God spoke to men. God spoke, he appeared in the
person of Christ called the angel of the Lord. Any time you read
in the Old Testament where the angel of the Lord appeared and
spoke to Adam, and the angel of the Lord appeared and spoke
to Hagar in the wilderness, and the angel of the Lord appeared
and spoke to Abraham, And Abraham fell down and worshiped him.
Now, if that had been just an angel, that angel would have
said, as they did many times, get up, don't worship me, I'm
a creature as you are. But he fell down and worshiped
that angel of the Lord, capital L, capital O, capital R, D. When you read that in the Bible,
that's Christ. And God, in the person of Christ, appeared to
Noah, to Moses, to Joseph. Now then, suppose we didn't have
this recorded book here. Suppose we had to depend upon
the words which God spoke to Abraham and to Moses and to Noah
and to Adam and these others. What do you suppose would have
happened to those words had they been passed down from all these
generations? Adam lived to be over 900 years
of age. Suppose about 800 years after the fall you went to Adam,
and he was 800 and some odd years old, and you discussed with him,
Adam, just exactly what happened back then in the garden nearly
a millennium ago, a thousand years ago. Tell me. Well, Adam
would say, I think it was this way. You see, a long time has
passed, it's been 800 years, and I don't know whether I could
tell you exactly what the Father said, exactly what he said to
the serpent, exactly what he said to my wife Eve. No doubt
there would be a great deal of conflict and misunderstanding.
So God has not left us to depend upon words passed down from generation
to generation. He has given us his recorded
words. I want you to turn to 2 Peter
1. This is very important. You say,
or if I could have just lived in the days of the great prophets,
and I could have heard men speak who heard God speak. If I could
have just been on the Mount of Transfiguration with Peter, James
and John, when they heard God speak from heaven in an audible
voice, if I could have just been there and heard that, I'd exchange
everything. I'd rather live right now than
have lived then. I've got a more sure word of prophecy than they
have." He said, "'Preacher, that's foolish.' Well, let me let the
Apostle Peter speak himself who was there. Look at 2 Peter 1. And he's talking to these people
here in verse 16, and he said, "'We have not followed cunningly
devised fables.' This is not tradition and fables that we're
following. When we made known unto you the
power and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, I was an eyewitness
of his majesty." I was an eyewitness of his glory. I was there. When he was transfigured on that
mountain and Moses and Elijah came down and appeared, I was
an eyewitness. Now, read on. For he received
from God the Father, Jesus Christ did, honor and glory. When there
came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is
my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased. And this voice,
which came from heaven, I heard." I heard that. Oh, you say, Boy,
I'd love to have been there. Now read on. When we were with
him in the holy mountain, we have also a more sure word of
prophecy. This is more certain, this is
more dependable. Peter, you could have been dreaming,
but I'm not dreaming this. This is God's word. We have a
more sure word of prophecy. Read on, "...whereunto you do
well, that you take heed, as unto a light that shineth in
a dark place unto the day dawn." Until I see Christ face to face,
this will do. Until I stand in his eternal
glory, this will do. As the light shines in a dark
place, until that day dawn and the day star rise in your heart,
knowing this first, that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private
interpretation, for the prophecy came not in old time by the will
of man, but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy
Spirit." Now, this is what the Bible gives us. The Bible gives
us absolute certainty. Peter said a sure word, a certain
word, a dependable word, a word in which you can place your confidence. This word is even better than
a voice from heaven. It's a more sure word of prophecy,
and it's far better than to take the word of men that has been
passed down from generation to generation, suffering by the
changes that certainly would occur, having been passed through
so many people. Who wrote the Bible? Well, in 2 Peter 1.21, it says
here the prophecy came not in old time by the will of men,
though God used God used 40 men to write the Bible. The Bible
has 66 books, 39 in the Old Testament or Old Covenant, 27 in the New. And God used 40 men over a period
of 1,500 years to write the Bible. The Bible started, it was written,
we believe, the first book. They think Job was the oldest
book, and it's difficult to establish a date. But the Bible, we think,
was started 3,500 years ago. 3,500 years ago. And the Bible was
completed by the apostles almost 1,900 years ago. Now these men,
most of whom never knew one another, they were different professions.
There were shepherds and there were kings and there were statesmen,
there were prophets, there was a physician, there were fishermen,
wrote the Word of God. Over a period of 1,500 years
it was in the writing. And yet when this book was put
together from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22, it tells the same story. It tells us about the same person.
It pictures and portrays and symbolizes salvation. Every book
of the Bible, every chapter of every book is the story of Christ. And there's no conflict in the
word of God because it was written by the Holy Spirit. Now here's
one of the miracles of the Bible. Here is a book that has overcome
the barrier of language. This book was written in two
languages long ago considered dead. It was written in Hebrew
and written in Greek. This book has overcome the barrier
of nationality. Why this book is read by the
by the peons in South America, it's read by the Eskimos in Alaska,
it's read behind the Iron Curtain, it's read behind the Bamboo Curtain,
it's read on the islands of the Philippines, it's read on the
streets of New York. It's overcome the barriers of
custom. It means the same thing to the
businessman in New York that it means to the servant in a
household somewhere in the center of the jungle. It's overcome
the barrier of time, because men wrote it, but the Holy Spirit
inspired it. It is not the word of men, it
is the word of God. Now let me show you that. Turn
to the book of Acts, chapter 1. In the first chapter of Acts,
in verse 16, here Luke is referring back to the writings of David,
to the And he says that David wrote, not what David planned
to write or what David purposed to write, but he wrote certainly
what he wanted to write because the Holy Spirit of God used the
personalities and they used the desire of these men and used
the genius of these men, but he wrote what the Spirit inspired
him to write. In Acts 1.16, it says, Men and
brethren, this scripture must needs have been fulfilled, has
to be fulfilled, which the Holy Ghost by the mouth of David spake
before concerning Judas." Now, David wrote about Judas. David
didn't know Judas, but the Holy Spirit knew about Judas. Hundreds
of years before Judas was ever born, David wrote about Judas.
And David wrote the very words that Christ would utter from
the cross in Psalm 22. And Isaiah wrote all about his
death, but Isaiah never met Christ, and David never met Judas. And
David didn't have the mind to prophesy what would take place,
because he couldn't determine the future. But the Holy Spirit
spake concerning Judas by the mouth of David. And David sat
down and wrote all about Judas and how he would sell Christ
for 30 pieces of silver, the price of a slave, $18. The Holy
Ghost by David sat down and wrote what Christ would say on the
cross, how he would be betrayed in the house of his friends.
He wrote all those things. Now turn, if you will, to Hebrews
3, verse 7. Listen to this. The Holy Spirit
wrote the Bible. He used men to write it. He used
Paul to write the epistles. He used Matthew, Mark, Luke,
and John to write the gospel. He used Moses to write the first
five books of the Bible, but these men wrote as they were
inspired by the Holy Spirit. In Hebrews 3, verse 7, it says,
wherefore, now this is quoting the Old Testament, wherefore,
as the Holy Ghost saith today, if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your heart. That's found in Psalms 95. David
wrote it, but it says here the Holy Spirit said that. And the
Holy Spirit said it through David. Now turn to 2 Timothy 3, verse
16. Now listen to this. 2 Timothy 3, verse 16. All scripture
is given by inspiration of God. And that word there, all scripture,
is God-breathed. Breath is always a type of the
Holy Spirit. And all Scripture is God-breathed
and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction,
for instruction in righteousness. It's the Scripture that enables
the man of God to grow. It's the Scripture that enables
the man of God to mature. It's the Scripture that is profitable
for doctrine, correction, and instruction in righteousness.
So this is the Word of God. This is the very word of God.
And if any man would have a true knowledge of God, now stay with
me, he's going to have to find out about God as God reveals
himself. And God reveals himself in the
things that he's made. And God reveals himself in his
word. Now, the third thing. But, brethren,
why don't people believe the Bible? Why, you know that everybody
in this town and everybody I know says, well, I don't understand
the Bible. I try to read the Bible, but
it's not interesting to me. And people will look right at
the Bible and read a verse description. This man will say it means this,
this man will say it means that, this man will say it means something
else, and this man will say it means something ten million miles
away. Now, what's the problem? Well, I'll tell you what the
problem is. sin has entered this world, and man's condition as
a result of sin, man's condition since the fall, renders him incapable
of spiritual knowledge, and renders him incapable of spiritual revelation. Canst thou by searching find
God? The wisdom of man is foolishness
with God. And the wisdom of God is foolishness
to men. Isaiah said, your thoughts are
not God's thoughts, and your ways are not God's ways. There is a way that seemeth right
unto man, reasonable unto man, but the end is destruction and
death. So the revelation of nature,
God is still sufficient. God can still be understood by
the things that are made. and the revelation of Scripture,
the Word of God, is sufficient to supply any man with abundant
knowledge of himself and of God and of God's plans and purposes,
the fault is not with nature, the fault is not with Scripture,
the fault is with us. There's where the fault lies.
What the law could not do, in that it was weak through the
flesh, the law wasn't weak. The law's just as holy and just
as strong and just as powerful as it ever was. It's man, it's
the flesh that's in bad shape. You take a blind man out and
there's the sun shining. And you say, look, look straight
up, look at it now. Do you see the sun? He doesn't
see the sun. It's not the sun's fault. The
sun's there. It's there for anybody to see
it who wants to see it. But the trouble is, if a man
has no eyes, there can be ten million suns up there and he's
not going to see it. So the fault is not in the word of God, there
it is. Here is God's nature, here is God's grace, here is
God's holiness, here is God's glory, here is God's son, here
is God's way of salvation. There's no fault with this book,
it's sufficient. The scripture is sufficient.
The problem is right here, and right here. I'll show you that.
Now, let's go through the Bible a little bit. Here's what's happened
since the fall. What happened in the Garden of
Eden? Well, God tells you. It says here in Genesis 6, verse
5. After the fall of Adam, God saw that the wickedness of man
was great in the earth, and every imagination of the thoughts of
man's heart was what? Oh, holy and good, yeah. Every
man and woman, they think holy thoughts. They only think love
and purity and hope. Oh, no. Every imagination of
man's heart is evil, evil, evil, evil. Look at Genesis 8. In Genesis
8 verse 21, it says in the latter part of verse 21, the imagination
of man's heart is evil from his youth. Now, you parents here,
you know good and well, you don't have to teach your children to
lie. They're born knowing how to lie. What you have to do is
try to impress upon them the importance of telling the truth.
You don't have to teach your children to covet. You don't
have to teach them to want what's not theirs. You don't have to
teach them to be unhappy. You don't have to teach them
to get mad. You have to teach them to be
nice. They're born knowing all those other things. That's what
happened in the fall. Now look at Isaiah chapter 1.
Listen to this. In the first chapter of Isaiah,
here in verse 5 and 6, listen to what God says about us. He
said, why should you be stricter? Why should you be punished any
more? You'll just revolt more and more. You'll just revolt
more. Your whole head is sick. That's
the mentality. Your whole heart is faint. That's
the affection. Man loves, but he doesn't love
God. He doesn't love what he ought to love. He loves what
he ought not to love. Man thinks, but he doesn't think on God.
He thinks on evil. And from the sole of your foot,
even to your head, there's no soundness in it, nothing but
wounds and bruises and putrefying sores. That's the condition of
the flesh. That's the condition of human
nature. And then in John 3, verse 19, listen to what Christ says
here. In John 3, verse 19, He says, this is condemnation. Here
it is, here's the whole problem. Light is coming to this world,
light in the person of Christ, the holy, well-beloved, immaculate,
immutable Son of God. Did men love Him? Why did they
crucify Christ? Was it because he was a bank
robber? Was it because he was a murderer? He was holy. He was pure. They hated him because
he was holy, because men by nature hate holiness. Christ didn't
try to change the government. He didn't try to change the Roman
Empire. He didn't walk down the streets
of some of these long-haired beatniks contending that preachers
ought to get out and serve as reformers. Christ didn't try
to change any of that. He said, You render to Caesar
the things that are Caesar's, and to God the things that are
God's. My kingdom is not meat and drink, it's to do the will
of my Father. But they hated light. Christ was light, Christ
was life, Christ was truth, Christ was God, and they hated those
things. And they despised him and rejected
him and crucified him because men, look at it, they love darkness. You ask me, this is the word
of God, why men don't love it? They don't love God. We've studied
that last Sunday in John chapter 8. Christ says, you are of your
father the devil. In verse 47, he said, he that
is of God heareth God's word. You don't hear God's word because
you're not of God. That's the reason you don't hear
God's word, you're not of God. You're of a fallen race, you're
of a rebel race, you're of a sinful race, and the natural mind is
enmity against God. Look at Romans 8. Listen to this,
read it for yourself. In Romans 8, this is talking
about the natural mind. This is talking about the mind
of man, the mind of flesh, the mind as it is born into a natural
world. Verse 7 of Romans 8, Here's the
reason, though the Bible is the word of God, and though the Bible
reveals God, and though the Bible is the truth of God, men do not
understand it and do not love it because, listen, the natural
mind, the carnal mind, is enmity against God. It is not subject
to the law of God. Neither indeed can it be. So
then, they that are in the flesh cannot please God. Now turn to
1 Corinthians 2, in 1 Corinthians 2. Now listen to this, this is
very important here. In 1 Corinthians 2, it says here,
beginning with verse, I read it a while ago, verse 7. We speak
the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom. This
is what we want to know. We want to know the wisdom of
God, but it's hidden. Read on. which God ordained before
the world unto our glory, which none of the princes of this world,
the leaders of this world, knew, had they known it, they would
not have crucified the Lord. If they had loved him, they wouldn't
have crucified him. If they had recognized him, they wouldn't
have crucified him. If they had known who he was
and believed him, they wouldn't have crucified him. But as it
is written," verse 9, listen, "...I have not seen him," that's
the natural Abraham looked for a city, not with these eyes.
Abraham looked for a city whose builder and maker was God, with
eyes that saw beyond this world, eyes of faith. Nor neither hath
ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man the things
that God has prepared for them that love him. It never occurred
to man. It never entered into his heart.
It's never heard by his ears. It's never seen by his eyes.
not the natural man, because as a result of sin, he's blind. As a result of sin, he's stone-deaf. As a result of sin, he's a dead
man. That's what Paul said to the
Ephesians. He said, You have to quicken made alive who were
dead in sin. When David Livingston was an
African, his first convert was an African chief. He professed
to believe the gospel and to believe God. His name was Sir
Kelly. And he came to Mr. Livingston
one time, and he said to Mr. Livingston, I'll call my headsman,
and with our whips of rhinoceros hide, we'll make all the tribes
believe. He thought by force. He thought
by torture. He thought by fear he could bring
men to God, but Rome has tried that for centuries, and they
found out that all the threats in the world of torture and death
and all the fear in the world will not make a man believe.
A man has to receive from God a new heart and a new nature
and be revealed. Now, let's go back to 1 Corinthians
2. It says that man hasn't seen
or heard or understood the things God prepared through for them
that love him. In verse 10 it starts off with,
But God hath revealed them unto us by his Holy Spirit. If you know something of God
and of his word and of his purpose and of his sovereign grace, and
of his redeeming plan in Christ. If you know something of who
Christ is and what he came to do and why he did it, you didn't
learn it by nature. God revealed it to you. One day
he said to the apostles, Whom do men say that I am? That's
carnal men, the men out there in the world. He asked his disciples,
he said, What are they saying out there? Well, the disciples
said, Some say you're Elias, returned from the dead. And some
say you're John the Baptist, and some say you're one of the
prophets. To be honest with you, Lord,
they're just saying about everything they don't know who you are.
And the Lord Jesus looked at the disciples and said, Whom
do you say that I am? And Peter said, We know who you
are. You're the Son of the living
God. You're the Messiah. And Christ
said, Blessed are you. Flesh and blood did not reveal
that unto you. Brother Mahan, if you could get
all of Ashland in here and just tell them what happened in the
garden, what happened on the cross, and what happens in a
sinner's heart when God saves him, and just explain the Bible,
they'd all believe. They wouldn't even hear me. A
man has to be anointed and awakened. Listen, turn to John 3. In John
3, listen to this. Here was a man who came to Christ
by night. Here was a religious man. Here
was a man seeking knowledge. Here was a man who was a ruler
of the Jews, a Pharisee, and he came to Christ by night. And
here was a man who recognized that Jesus Christ was no ordinary
man. Why, he said, we heard the teacher
come from God. I'll acknowledge that, because no man could give
sight to the blind or raise the dead or heal the lame except
God with him. Christ said, except a man be
born again, he cannot see." Now, the word there is perceive. The
word there is understand the kingdom of God. And Nicodemus
was baffled. Now, some of you know what I
mean by being born again. The first time you were born,
you were born into a natural family. Born again, you're born
into a spiritual family. First time, you were born of
corruptible seed, human seed. The second time, you were born
of incorruptible seed, the Word of God. The first time, you were
born of a natural father. The second time, you were born
from above. The first time you received a natural mouth and
natural eyes and natural ears and a natural fleshly heart,
the second time you received a heart from God, he said, I'll
put a new heart in you, I'll put a divine spirit in you. And
if any man be in Christ, he's a new being with spiritual eyes,
spiritual ears and spiritual perception. That's what it is
to be born again. And that's what he said to Nicodemus.
Nicodemus, you're just a fleshly man. You have fleshly wisdom. I'm sure Nicodemus was an educated
man. He was a naturally wise man. He couldn't have been a ruler
of the Jews if he didn't have something on the ball as far
as natural things were concerned. And Christ acknowledged that.
He said, you know these things. You're a master of Israel. But
look at verse 11, if you will, verse 12. If I told you earthly
things and you believe not, how can you believe if I tell you
heavenly things? If your natural wisdom is limited,
think what shape your spiritual wisdom is. So in order to see
the kingdom of God, in order to embrace the kingdom of God
with any understanding at all, we're going to have to receive
a spiritual mind. Now then, let's read on. And
Nicodemus said, How can I be born when I'm old? Can I enter
into my mother's womb again and be born? Now that's foolish.
That's how totally ignorant he was of any spiritual truth. He
didn't even know what Christ was talking about. The key to
God is not to have a nose shaped like Abraham and say, I'm one
of Abraham's seed. The kingdom of God is to be an
Israelite in the heart. Salvation is not of the flesh,
it is of the heart. To know God is not to bow to
certain images, and cross yourself so many times, and count the
beads, and do so many Hail Mary's, and go down beneath the baptismal
pool, or come down the aisle and shake so many hands, or do
all... Eternal life is to know God in your heart. God to dwell in your heart. God to be for you a living person. And Nicodemus here is talking
about being born of the flesh. And Christ said, Nicodemus, that
which is born of the flesh is flesh. You could be reborn from
your mother's womb a dozen times and you'd still be nothing but
flesh. You'd still have a carnal mind and a carnal heart and a
carnal nature. Listen, that which is born of
the Spirit is Spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee.
Don't be amazed. You must be born again. And what happens in the new birth?
If you'll turn to Ephesians 2, and with this I'll quote, what
happens in the new birth? Who is the agent in the new birth? The Holy Spirit. We're born of
the Spirit and of the water. We're born from above. In Ephesians
2, chapter 2, verse 1, it says, "...you hath he made alive who
were dead." who were dead in trespasses and sin. In times
and ages past, you walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the private air, the spirit that
now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past. In what? What was
our pursuit? What was our interest? By the
lust of the flesh, the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and we were by nature children of wrath. But God, who is rich
in mercy, For his great love, wherewith he loved us, even when
we were dead, in trespasses and sins, quickened us, awakened
us, made us alive together with Christ, and raised us up together,
and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ, that in the
ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace."
Not the glory of your righteousness, the riches of his grace. in his
kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by God's grace are
you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is
the gift of God." And that's what Christ said to Nicodemus.
He said, Nicodemus, the wind bloweth where it pleases, and
you hear the sound thereof, but you can't tell from whence it's
coming. Even so are they that are born of the Holy Spirit.
God may breathe here, and God may breathe there, and God may
breathe yonder, but any man that's born One more scripture, and
this is it. In John 1, verse 11. In John 1, verse 10. Now watch
this. He was in this world, that's
Christ, and the world was made by him, and the world didn't
know him. He came unto his own, his own
people, and they knew or received him not. As many as received
him and believed on him, to them gave he the right or the privilege
to become the Son of God, even to them that believe on his name,
which were born, not of blood, that is, not of family inheritance,
not of the will of the flesh. The flesh wills one thing, and
that is self. and evil, and not of the will
of man, but they are born of God. And it is the Holy Spirit
that begets, it is the Holy Spirit that reveals. Now, so two ways
God is known, nature and the Word of God. But man, being in
the fallen condition that he is as a result of the fall, can
look at the Bible all day and not see God. And he can whistle
down the road and be a beneficiary of all the blessings of God's
great creation, and use the air that God gives him to breathe
to curse God. And he can look at the raindrop
fall on his crops and make his corn to grow, and never give
God one word of thanks, because he can't see God in those things.
But once the Holy Spirit comes and gives you an eye that can
see and ears that can hear and a heart that can understand,
you'll see God in every raindrop. You'll see God in every personal
drop of snow, for they're all different. You'll see God in
every twinkle of the stars. You'll open the pages of this
book and you'll see the mercy and the grace of God and the
goodness of God and the blessings of God on every page. You'll
see Christ in every rainbow because you got eyes to see Him with.