Turn with me, please, in your
Bibles to John chapter 3. John chapter three, reading the
first eight verses. 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 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, you must be born again. The wind
bloweth where it listeth. 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. Most of you were
here last Wednesday evening, and my message concerned the
Holy Spirit, in which I emphasize three very simple truths. The
Holy Spirit is God, the Holy Spirit is a person, and the Holy
Spirit lives in every believer. I also pointed out to us that
in the second letter of Peter, that he wrote to the believers,
wherefore, I will not be negligent to put you always in remembrance
of these things. Now listen, Peter said, I'm not
going to be negligent, I'm not going to fail in this, to put
you in remembrance of these things, though you know them. I'm going to remind you of these
things, though you know them. I'm not teaching you anything
new, but I'm going to remind you of these things, though you
know them and be established in the present truth. Even though
those to whom he wrote knew these things, were established in the
truth, yet Peter felt it was his responsibility to remind
them of these things. And that's the work of a Christian
minister. Not only to preach the gospel
to the lost, but to feed God's sheep by reminding us of things
that we know and things in which we are established. The scripture
pictures our minds like a sieve. that we let things just go through
our mind. We hear things, we hear the truth,
but many times, just like water running through a sieve, it goes
through our mind. So we need to be reminded of
these things. And I thought tonight I would
continue to put us in remembrance of truths concerning the ministry,
the office work of God the Holy Spirit. William Jay said, the
gospel therefore is called the ministration of the Spirit. That's
in 1 Corinthians chapter three, where Paul contrasts the old
covenant with the new covenant. The ministry under the old covenant,
the ministry under the new covenant, and he said, The gospel therefore
is called the ministration of the Spirit because His, that
is God the Holy Spirit, His influence renders it efficacious and continues
to make it an instrument of operation to the end of the world. So God
the Holy Spirit, He ministers through the gospel. And I have
three truths I want to bring to us tonight concerning the
Holy Spirit and concerning the subject of these verses that
we've just read. First, the Holy Spirit begins
our experience of salvation with the new birth. If you're saved tonight, if you've
been born again of the Spirit of God, the Holy Spirit began
your experience And I emphasize that, your experience. We know
that your salvation began before the foundation of the world.
And the purpose of God, God purposed the salvation of his people from
all eternity. We recognize that. But in our
experience of being saved, of God saving us, our experience
of salvation begins with the new birth. The Lord Jesus, as
we see here in this passage, He declared that the new birth
is the work of God the Holy Spirit. You notice in verse 8, the last
verse that we read, He said, 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 everyone that is born of
the Spirit. Now, in the context of these
eight verses, this would include, first of all, in verse three,
to be born again, except a man be born again. The new birth,
being born again, is the work of the Spirit. And then we have
a marginal reading in our Bible, which could be from above. Except a man be born from above. And then lastly, except a man
be born of water and of the spirit. All of these three different
terms here, and there are many other terms in the scriptures
that refer to the new birth. The circumcision of the heart. What is that speaking of? That's
speaking of the new birth. That's an Old Testament term,
isn't it? But that's speaking of the new birth. And there's
other verses, other titles or words, I should say, that refer
to the new birth. But the point is, basically,
mostly, I should say mostly, it is the work of God the Holy
Spirit. Now, I might quote Zechariah
chapter four and verse six, where the prophet, where God said through
the prophet, not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit saith
the Lord of hosts. Now we know that God is one. There's one essence. The three
persons in the Godhead, we recognize that. And God is one in essence
and is one in purpose and in will. So when I say here tonight
that mostly, The new birth is ascribed to the work of God the
Holy Spirit. It doesn't surprise us that there
are some verses which tell us that it is the work of the Father
and some that it is the work of the Holy Spirit. Just like
the resurrection of Christ. The resurrection of Christ. Sometimes
we read God raised him from the dead. Sometimes he raised himself
from the dead. And sometimes the Holy Spirit
raised him from the dead. And the same, I would say, is
true about the new birth. Mostly, not exclusively, but
mostly the work of the new birth is ascribed to God, the Holy
Spirit. Let me give us two examples where
that's not true. In 1 Peter 1, in verse 3, we
read, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,
which according to His abundant mercy hath begotten us again. There, the new birth is ascribed
to God the Father. And then in 1 John chapter two,
where it is speaking of Christ, if you know that He, that is
Christ, if you know that He is righteous, You know everyone
that doeth righteousness is born of him. So the new birth, being
born again, is a scribe, sometimes to the father, sometimes to the
son, but mostly we look at this, we understand this to be the
work of God, the Holy Spirit. When we think about salvation,
and this is so important, Because the Lord Jesus Christ came into
this world and died for us on the cross. And we can never emphasize
that too much, but we should not forget that in saving a sinner,
God the Father had a part, as well as God the Son, and certainly
God the Holy Spirit. And we praise God. Salvation
is of the Lord. of the Lord, Father, Son, and
Holy Spirit. We praise God for salvation. We speak of this sometimes as
the Father purposing. The Father purposing from old
eternity to save his chosen people and to save them through a substitute. The Father purposing and then
the Son purchasing. He agreed in that covenant of
grace to be made flesh to come into this world as a man and
to give his life a ransom for men. He purchased. Christ loved
the church which he purchased with his own blood, the scripture
says. And then God the Holy Spirit
as applying this great salvation. So I say again, we begin with
the Holy Spirit in our experience of salvation. Now the second
point I want to make is the Holy Spirit comes to God's elect who
are spiritually dead. The term born again. regeneration. The word again tells us this
is a second birth. Nicodemus, you've been born once. You've been born once. But in
order to see, to perceive the things of God, you must be born
again. You must be born again. We're
all born the first time from sinful parents. You know, sin
is transmitted from father to son, but grace is not transmitted
from father to son. I was thinking of two men in
the Old Testament who were godly men, faithful men, and yet they
both had wicked, evil sons. Eli, remember Hophni and Phinehas. Eli was a godly man. When they
took the Ark of the Covenant, when they went out to battle,
remember they took the Ark of the Covenant thinking this would
give them victory. What was Eli doing? The scripture
says he was trembling, not for his two sons who carried the
Ark of the Covenant. He was trembling for the Ark
of the Covenant. The Ark of the Covenant, of course,
pictures Christ, doesn't it? Pictures Christ. It pictures
the Word of God, too. And that's where his interests
lay, in the things of God. But his two sons were evil. And
then Samuel. Now, I've just been reading through
the scriptures of the Old Testament. I've come through this part of
the Bible, so it's fresh in my mind. But Samuel. You know, he's
considered maybe the first of the prophets. After Moses, there's
only one other time from Deuteronomy to 1 Samuel that we read of a
prophet. Now Moses was the prophet, no
doubt about that, who received the law from God. But the prophets
actually began after the judges, the prophets come along. Samuel
was the first one. and he was a man of God. Remember
when he came to the end of his life, he said, witness, witness
against me. Whose ass have I taken? Whose
donkey have I taken? Whose calf? Anything, witness
against me, you know. I mean, he left the office of
prophet just like he came into it. God had supplied his needs. through the years, but his two
sons, I think it was two sons, what were they doing? They were
stealing, they were covetous. They made the offering of God
odious in the sight of the people because of the way they treated
people. They weren't content with God's
way to feed them. They wanted the best of the food.
They didn't want it partly cooked. They wanted to take it home raw,
put it on their grill, I guess, and cook it the way they liked
it to be cooked. Yes, wouldn't it be wonderful
if grace was transmitted through the blood, but it isn't. It isn't. We come into this world, the
most godly man who's ever lived in this world, whoever that might
have been, if he had children, he had children who were fallen.
who were spiritually dead. We're all born the first time.
Nicodemus, you must be born again. You've been born once, and you've
been born of sinful parents, and you have inherited a fallen
nature, and you are dead in trespasses and sins. You must be born again. We must be born a second time,
the new birth, must be the birth, the Holy Spirit must birth us
as our parents, our natural parents birthed us so that we became,
we came into this world as fallen individuals. We must be birthed
by God, the Holy Spirit, that we may have spiritual or eternal
life. There are two parables. One is
in Matthew, parables of the Lord Jesus Christ. One is in Matthew
and one is in Luke. Many people believe that it's
the same parable, but recorded with some differences as the
gospel narratives do that, you know, from time to time. But
they both concern a dinner. They both concern a feast. In Matthew's gospel, The man who prepared the feast,
he sends his servants out. And he sends his servants out
to call them who he had invited, who were bidden. The feast was
prepared, and he sends his servants out to tell them who were bidden
to come, and none would come. None would come. When his servants
told him that, he sends them out again and he told them, as
many as you find, bid them to the marriage. Then we read that
the servants came back and they had gathered both good and bad. Good and bad. The servants had
gathered both good and bad to the feast. to the wedding feast,
but when the man came in, remember there was one person there who
did not have on a wedding garment, and he was cast out. Now, the
parable in Luke, this is the point. In Matthew's gospel, it
was servants, plural, that were sent out. But in Luke's gospel,
it is servant, singular. And many people have pointed
this out, that this most likely refers to God the Holy Spirit. And he is sent out, and at first
people made excuses, you know, one had married a wife, one had
bought a farm, and then the master sends him out again, and listen,
I believe this is God the Holy Spirit, certainly in type, he
goes out and he finds the poor. Are there any poor? Are there
any people who are spiritually poor? Most people are so self-sufficient. They don't need God. They don't
need the blood of Christ. They don't need a savior. But
he finds the poor. He finds the maimed. The maimed. They couldn't serve God acceptably. They were crippled in some way.
The halt. They couldn't walk in the way
of God. And they were blind. They couldn't
see the things of God. He brings them in. But you know,
there's still room. And so this time the master says,
go out, still singular, to the servant and compel them to come
in. When God comes to a sinner, remember
the Lord Jesus Christ said, no man can come to me. He didn't
say no man may come to me. No man can come to me except
the Father which has sent me draw him. And if you look that
word draw up, the word which is translated draw, you will
find the word drag. Drag, really, drag. No man can come to me except
the Father. Drag him. In the day of his power,
his people become willing. But it is a work of power. It is a work of power. And you hath he quickened who
were dead in trespasses and sins. And Paul in Ephesians 1, There's
a prayer there recorded, and one of his requests is for the
believers that we might know the great power. How much power did it take to
raise Jesus from the dead? Well, there's no way we can measure
God's power, really, is there? Since he's omnipotent. But we
know it took great power. And Paul is saying that believers
might know the great power it took in giving us spiritual life,
in quickening us from a state of being dead in trespasses and
sins. And that's my third point. The
Holy Spirit exercises great power in the new birth. Paul actually said, what is the
exceeding? He prayed and asked God that
believers might know what is the exceeding, exceeding greatness
of his power to usward who believe. What power God, the Holy Spirit
put forth in the new birth and bringing his people to Christ. according to the working of his
mighty power, which he wrought in Christ when he raised him
from the dead and set him at his own right hand. What power
it took to raise Christ, who had been dead three days from
the grave, and to set him, not just raise him, but to set him
on his right hand. It took the same power. to bring
you out of the tomb of spiritual death. The same power, the mighty
power of God. What does it mean to be born
again? To be born of water and of the Spirit. Look with me in
Titus chapter three. I think maybe this is the best
definition of the new birth, as I understand it, in the word
of God here in Titus chapter 3 and verse 4. Paul said, for we ourselves also
were sometimes foolish. Can you identify with that? Foolish. thinking that we could do something
to save ourselves, that we could do something to please God, that
we could do something to remove our sins. We were so foolish,
so self-righteous, foolish, disobedient. Yeah. Deceived. Amen. Thinking that God needed us. Serving divers' lusts and pleasures. That's all we lived for. Self-satisfaction. Living in malice. Envy. Envy in somebody that had more
than I had. Never taking into consideration
how that person had worked. and earned with just being envious
of someone, hateful. And this is the one
that always gets me, hating one another. And that's the way we
all were. Notice Paul was a Pharisee of
the Pharisees, so religious, but you notice he said, for we,
he didn't say just you, you people there at Crete, no, we, we. But after that, the kindness,
kindness. and love of God our Savior toward
man appeared. Not by works of righteousness
which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us. And I believe this is the water
and the spirit, the washing of regeneration and renewing of
the Holy Ghost. Two things that the Holy Spirit
accomplishes in the new birth water for cleansing. He cleanses
us. He cleanses us. He washes us
in that fountain filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins. And all our sins are washed away. And he gives us the spirit, a
new spirit, that we may walk in newness of life. Well, here are five truths about
the new birth, which is also, as I said, called regeneration. Number one, the person born again
contributes nothing to his new birth. Contributes absolutely nothing
to regeneration. It is strictly the work of God. Number two, the person born again
cannot resist the new birth. The wind bloweth where it listed.
So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. It's sovereign. It's a sovereign work, isn't
it? Number three, the person born again is instantly born
again. That is, instantly passes from
death unto life. Translated from the kingdom of
darkness into the kingdom of God's dear Son. It's not a regeneration
or the new birth. It's not a progressive work.
It is an instantaneous work. And number four, the person born
again is perfectly born. I mean, there's nothing that
may be added to it. There's nothing missing. The
new birth. It's God's work. It's perfect. And number five, the person born
again can never be unborn. Can never be unborn. What did
the Lord say? I give unto my sheep eternal
life and they shall never perish. And I thought about this scripture
in Ecclesiastes where Solomon said, I know that whatsoever
God doeth, it shall be forever. Nothing can be put to it. nor
anything taken from it, and God doeth it that man should fear
before him. Well, the new birth is the work
of God, and it shall be forever. Now I want to close with this
question. What is the evidence that a person
is born again? What is the evidence? Well, I
believe the evidence is repentance and faith. Repentance and faith. Repentance toward God and faith
toward the Lord Jesus Christ. That evidence is the flesh doesn't
produce repentance, godly sorrow, change of mind. And the flesh doesn't produce
true saving faith, casting all our salvation upon Christ. No,
that's the new nature, that new birth enabling us to turn from
our sins and to turn to Christ. I pray the Lord would bless the
words here tonight and teach us.