Well, it's good to see you all
out to sea and remember those who requested prayer. Julie did all right with
her lipotripty before they break
up that stone in her. Monday she went and got some
kind of wire or tube put in her to pinpoint where that stone
was and then she had it done yesterday. She spent the last
night in the hospital. uh... uh... uh... uh... I am not skilled to understand
what God hath willed, what God hath planned. I only know at
His right hand is one who is my Savior. I take Him at His word. sinners, this I read, for in
my heart I find a need of Him to be my Savior. that he should leave his place
on high and come for sinful man to die. You counted strange,
so what's did I before I knew my Savior? And oh, that He fulfill,
may see, the travail of His soul in me, and with His work contented
be, as I with my dear Savior. Yea, living, dying, let me bring
my strength, my solace from this spring, that he who lives to
be my king, once died to be my savior. Hymn number 118, When I Survey
the Wondrous Cross. When I survey the wondrous cross
On which the Prince of Glory died My richest gain I count
but loss And poor contempt o'er all my pride Forbid it, Lord,
that I should boast I believe in the death of Christ my God. All the vain things that charm
me most, I sacrifice them to his blood. and love flow mingled down. Did e'er such love and sorrow
meet? O'er thorn's gumbo so rich a
crown, Were the whole realm of nature mine, That were a present
far too small. Love so amazing, so divine, demands
my soul, my life, my all. The Bible's turning with
me to John chapter 3. read verses three through eight. Our Lord speaking to Nicodemus
says, Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, or
truly, truly, I say unto you, except a man be born again, he
cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith, how can a man
be born when he's old? Can he enter in the second time
to his mother's womb and be born? And Jesus answered, Verily, verily,
I say unto you, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit,
he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of
flesh is flesh, and that which is born of Spirit is Spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto you, 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. Let us pray. Our
Father, most gracious Lord and Savior, King of kings, ruler
and reigner in this universe, we thank you for your goodness
and kindness toward folks like us, who deserve nothing but your
wrath, and yet you have been gracious and merciful to us and
continue to be so. You coveted it with your son
to save us, and he came to die in our room instead, put away
our sins, and was made to be our righteousness. We are thankful
that we stand before you in hymn, fully accepted to the praise
of the glory of your grace. We pray for those who are sick,
Those who are going through trials, we ask, Lord, your help for them,
those who've lost loved ones. Continue to pray for the people
in our area who've lost so much in these floods. Ask your help
for them and pray you'll meet with their hearts and minds.
Father, we pray for ourselves tonight as we gather here that
you might be pleased to open up your word to us and teach
us, Father, for we know if we're taught of God, we'll come to
Christ. help us Lord to do so, we pray in Christ's name, Amen. Now the Lord has thrown a giant
kink in the understanding of this religious man, Nicodemus,
who was a scholar, who was a ruler of the Jews, a man very important
in the Jewish religion. He has told him that he cannot
see what he claims to see because the faculties with which he was
born and which he inherited from his birth cannot fathom what
he claims to see. He says, I say something. The
Lord says, you can't see. You can't see. The Lord tells
him that in order to see what he cannot now see, he must be
born again. He said, verily, verily, I say
unto you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of heaven. and we know that our Lord is
explicitly speaking of Himself when He said that, He being the
Sovereign Ruler from Heaven. He is the Kingdom of God. He
is the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. And He was saying to
Nicodemus, These miracles that you say you see and you see who
I am or see that I'm an important fellow because I do these miracles.
You say you see these things, but you don't see that I'm the
one I'm the Lord God who made these miracles happen. Now the
Jews had a philosophical concept of this matter of being born
again, kind of like what people talk about today. When a pagan
would proselytize to the Judaism, it was said he was like a newborn
child. That was in many of their writings. Though he was only changing religions. That's what most people think
about religion. you can convert to one religion
to another. I told you the story of Maurice
Montgomery's daughter-in-law who was a Muslim. and his son,
who was a captain in the army, was stationed over there in that
area and met her. She was a beautiful girl. They
started talking to each other and went on a few dates. He would
read the Bible to her and she would read the Koran to him and
he kept reading the Bible to her. One day she said, I'm going
to convert to Christianity. He said, wait a minute, you can't
do that. you can't just, this ain't a matter of switching religions.
But they were in love and they got married and he came back
to the States and after sitting under Maurice Montgomery for
several months or a year or so, Maurice was riding down the road
with her one day and said, what do you think of Jesus Christ?
And she says, I'm not worthy to speak his name. And Maurice
knew that she had begun to hear the truth of the gospel and the
Lord redeemed her. She wanted to convert. And that's what proselytizing
was, was converting from paganism to Judaism. It didn't involve
the spirit. It involved practices and behavior in another type
of religion. now what our lord spoke of was
something else all together and it was foolishness to nicodemus
as we can see in his answer this is proven by his response in
verse four when the lord said you must be born again he said
how can a man be born again how can a man do that how can a man
go when he's old be born again can he enter in a second time
to his mother's womb and be born That was his response and it
points to what our Lord is going to school this man is in the
rest of this chapter, what he's going to talk to him about. The
thrust of Nicodemus' thinking is generally, and generally that
of natural religion, is that this new birth is something that
is accomplished in the flesh. It must be accomplished. If you're
going to be born, the only birth he knows about is his own. So
he figures this has to be accomplished in the flesh. in the natural
realm by choice or decision. That is to say that man can do
what is necessary to be born again. That's what people feel
today. That's the language they speak.
Billy Graham several years ago wrote a book on how to be born
again. It was actually one of the best selling books he ever
wrote. And it was a list of things like decisions and faith and
repentance and obedience and all tributed all attributed to
the power of the will to receive what God supposedly desired and
was ready to give to anybody who asked for it. The problem,
of course, was that the same that faced Nicodemus, our Lord
was not talking about the flesh at all. And Nicodemus didn't
understand that. Natural man, you and I, as we
are born into this world, can produce none of the things that
are necessary. to be born again because it has
nothing to do with us. If we think faith has something
to do with us, we cannot produce that. That must be a gift of
God. Repentance is granted by God. We do not work that up.
Obedience can only happen if your heart and mind have been
changed by God. All these things wait on the
new birth. The new birth has got to come first. Everything
happens after life comes. Life is the first thing. Now,
we know when the Lord gives a man life, he gives him faith. He gives him repentance. These
things happen simultaneously. There's no use in trying to figure
out when it is. I know the old privilege used
to say, well, man can have life and not know it and many years
later have faith and many years later repent or even die without
even knowing and still be one of the elect. That's not what
the Bible says. Bible says when God gives a man life he believes
and he repents of his sin and he seeks the Lord Jesus Christ. And indeed Nicodemus thought
he already possessed these things just like the rich young ruler
when he went to talk to the Lord Jesus Christ. He said what must
I do to inherit eternal life? I want to get eternal life. I'm
not sure that was his motive. I think that might have been
Saul of Tarsus that was talking to him because in one of the
Gospels it says the Lord loved him lord loved him and I know
whoever the lord loves he saves according to scripture so he
might have been solitarious but he said what must I do and the
lord gave a list of things about the latter part of the ten commandments
he said I've done these things since my youth he said okay that's
good now give everything you have to the poor he said I can't
do that and he walked away very sorrowful Nicodemus thought that
he possessed these things already. He thought that he possessed
repentance, and he did under the old covenant. He'd stop one
bad behavior and start a good behavior. He believed that he
had faith because he believed in God, in God as far as he could
believe in God like the devils believe in God. so he thought
he possessed these things and found that he could not even
understand the concept that the Lord was talking about. You must
be born again. Well, what shall I do? Shall
I go back in my mother's womb? I'm an old man. How can that
be? So it never entered his mind what the Lord was talking about.
That's the important thing to understand. The Bible, employing
all spiritual instruction never in one line or in any paragraph
tells anyone how to be born again you'll not find that from the
first page of Genesis to the last page of Revelation you'll
not find one system category or an idea or a means by which
a person can be born again how am I to be born again it's outside
of me it's beyond me Now it has to be. I must be born again in
order to see the kingdom of God. I must be born again in order
to enter the kingdom of God. But how can that be? I can't
do it, so the power must come from outside myself. The Lord
was speaking of a realm Nicodemus was not even aware of. Now he
was a religious man, but he was not aware of the spiritual realm. The spiritual realm, the new
birth is solely and completely the act of a sovereign God. If
you're born again, something must happen to you. You're not
going to do anything. something must be done to you
in response to make a famous words inverse for our lord does
tell me that they must have a man is born until about to be born
again when he tells him how he is born again in verse fives
as you said i say in the u except a man be born of water and of
the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom lord speaks uh... outside the arena of human ability
He speaks of the work of God. The Lord speaks an entirely new
language to this man, and he doesn't understand it, and in
doing so, the explanation he gives Nicodemus leaves Nicodemus
on the outside again. He still don't know what he's
talking about. First he says, you must be born again, and the
Lord said, the Lord answered his response about going back
to his mother's womb. I said, no, it's by the Spirit,
by the water and by the Spirit. What does that mean? What can
that possibly mean? he speaks a new language in the
explanation he gives Nicodemus puts him on the outside again
first he says that Nicodemus cannot see and now he's told
he can't enter can't enter the kingdom of God the Lord asserts
that for a man to be born again he said he must be born of water
and of the spirit of water and of the spirit now when the Lord
the Lord's reference to water does not speak of believers baptism
That waits on the new birth, too. Baptism doesn't do anything
for anybody. It's a believer's confession
of the Lord Jesus Christ. Our Lord speaks of the two elements
involved in the new birth. What are they? Water and the
Spirit. The word translated water here
is actually RAIN by the RAIN and by the SPIRIT. Now, that
means something in Scripture. rain speaks of a heavenly issue,
something coming down from heaven, water from above, and it's synonymous
with the Word of God several times in Scripture. Let's look
at a few. verse 2 says, My doctrine, that
is My Word, My teaching, shall drop as the rain. Where's it
coming from? It's coming from heaven, from
above. My speech shall distill as the dew, as the small rain
upon the tender herb, and as the showers upon the grass. He
says, My doctrine, My teaching, My Word, because I will publish
The name of the Lord ascribes you greatness to our God. He
is the Rock. His work is perfect, for all
His ways are judgment. A God of truth and without iniquity,
just and right is He." That is a description of the Lord Jesus
Christ as the Just One from God. And He comes down from Heaven
like the rain. And you know what the rain does?
Well, look over to Isaiah, Chapter 55. And again, the Word of God. The
rain is said is the Word of God. In Isaiah 55 and verse 10 it
says, As for as the rain cometh down, and the snow from heaven,
and returneth not thither, but watereth the earth, and maketh
it to bring forth bud, that it may give seed to the sower, and
bread to the eater, so shall my word be. that goeth forth
out of my mouth. It shall not return to me void,
but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall
prosper in the thing whereunto I send it." And again, the rain
is said to be the Word of God and it sits forth as a teacher
of righteousness and the very righteousness of God in Joel
chapter 2 and verse 23. You can look at that later, but
that's the same principle as used. So how is a person born? The first thing mentioned that
a person is born is by the Word, by the Word of God, by that water,
by that rain that comes down. The new birth has to do with
God's Word. It doesn't happen outside there.
It happens within that singular realm. The new birth does not
take place where the Gospel is not preached. Secondly, the new birth is the
work of God's Spirit. So you have the Spirit and the
Word. We know God's Spirit is the Spirit
of Jesus Christ. For He said to His disciples,
I go away, and I'm going to leave you another Comforter, even the
Spirit, even the Spirit of God, when I come to you. So the Spirit
of God is Jesus Christ, His Spirit. So by the preaching of the Gospel
and with the Spirit, this thing called the New Birth takes place. It only occurs in that way. It is a mystery. It is a wonder. The Spirit of Christ planting
the seed, the Gospel, and producing a spiritual life in the recipient,
that is what happens. And since the recipient is dead
to spiritual things, the new birth author was connected to
the quickening and the resurrection of the body from the dead. You
who are dead in trespasses and sin are quickened together with
Christ, it says in Ephesians chapter 2. This occurs only by
the Spirit through the preaching of the Word of God, of His own
will. Every good and perfect gift comes from above, from the
Father of lights in whom there is no shadow of turning. For by His own will He begat
us with the Word of truth. You are born, not of corruptible
seed, but incorruptible seed, even the Word of God which liveth
and abideth forever. and this is the word which by
the gospel is preached unto you. What is the first definition
of the word of God in Hebrews chapter 4 and verse 12? It's
quick. It's quickening. It's resurrecting. And I specified that the gospel
is preached because it must be heard. It must be heard. Somehow God gives ears to the
one He's going to make alive and they actually hear the gospel
of Jesus Christ. they hear it in their mind and
their heart and their soul. Now there are those who sit under
the gospel all their life and never come to know Christ. I
know people who sat under Henry Mahan for 25 years and they were
there every Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, and Sunday
school too. They were solid citizens. And then the Lord opened their
eyes. He opened their eyes. So you
don't never know. I remember when Henry started coming here
come here first you come on Wednesday night you know he told Loretta
I think or maybe told Arlana Cameron says that Tim he's a
he's a good teacher but he ain't much of a preacher it was because
I didn't holler and yell and run back and forth and act like
a crazy person so you know but that's what he was used to but
he kept coming every Wednesday didn't he? Sunday mornings started
showing up on Sunday mornings didn't show up on Sunday nights
later confessed christ he heard the gospel because the gospel
was preached you have to hear it that's why i say it's the
priest with the spirit with the spirit now i'm not going to pigeonhole
god put him in a shoebox and say you can't save man a man
who reads this word that can happen I just don't know of any
cases where it does, and we don't have, as ministers of the gospel,
any warrant to tell a man that. We've got to tell him what God
says through the preached word. Whosoever shall call upon the
name of the Lord shall be saved, but how shall they call on him
whom they don't believe? And how shall they believe in
him whom they've not heard? And how shall they hear without
a preacher, and how shall they preach except there be sin? So
faith comes by hearing. and hearing by the word of God
and it's published news it's published news it's good tidings
of good things it says in Isaiah 52 7 good tidings of good things
published published what's that mean it's spoken it's preached
and what's preached is you tell Zion thy God reigneth that's
the beginning of understanding the gospel is who is God who
is God unless a person is born of water and the spirit he cannot
enter the kingdom of heaven. This is an act of God. God uses
preachers to preach the gospel. Now they can't do anything. All
they can do is tell people. All they can do is repeat it,
publish the gospel. But the spirit takes that word
and gives life to men. Spiritual life, eternal life. What a wondrous thing that is. The spirit unless he has a spirit,
he cannot enter the Kingdom of God. The word ENTER is a metaphorical
phrase and it means to arise to life or to come into existence. Man must be born of the water
and the spirit to come into existence in the Kingdom of God. One cannot exist in the Kingdom
of God unless he is born again. Now, we talk about born-again
Christians. There ain't no real other kind
of Christian, but there's a thing called Christendom, which says
it's Christianity, which is basically made up of all Catholicism and
the Reformed churches that came out of Catholicism after the
Reformation. That's called Christendom because
they believe in a type of salvation that has to
do with baptizing or sprinkling a baby when it's a baby and it's
initiated into the church. They believe that's salvation,
so they don't talk about being born again. The Bible does. Our Lord did. But they don't
talk about that. They believe that a person is
issued into the church, which is the body of Christ, which
is salvation and then confirmed when they're 12 years old They
do it again. They confirm it. But they're
issued into the Body of Christ. If you're in the Body of Christ,
you're a child of God because He's the Head and the Church
is His Body. But that's not salvation. Salvation
is the Spirit taking the Word and giving you life. Giving you life. The difference
is life and death. You see, darkness and light,
the lie and the truth. He says this, that which is born
of the flesh is flesh. That's all it'll ever be. And
that which is born of the spirit is spirit. That's all it'll ever
be. That's spiritual life. If you
and I only possessed the life we're born with, we'd remain
without hope or understanding in this world, no matter how
much we've heard. how much we study, no matter
how much we learn, unless God gives us life, we'll perish in
our sins. Romans 8.8 says, They that are
in the flesh cannot please God. 1 Corinthians 15.50 says, They
that are in the flesh cannot enter the kingdom. The flesh
shall not enter the kingdom of God. which is born of the flesh
is flesh. Conversely, however, if one possesses
the life born of the Spirit, he has hope and understanding
of spiritual things, hope born of eternal life. That which is
born of the Spirit is spirit. That's clear in this Word of
God. Verses 7 and 8 says, Marvel not that I said unto you that
ye must be born and be seen together, and ye must be born again. The
wind bloweth where it listeth, thou hearest the sound thereof,
but canst not tell when it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is every
one that is born of the Spirit." Kind of a strange sentence, isn't
it? Kind of a strange sentence. Nicodemus could not fathom. He
had an astonished countenance. So our Lord said, Marvel not
that I said any of you must be born again. you could not fathom
what the Lord meant. What did he hear? He heard a
mystery. A mystery, a wonder. One that can only be understood
by faith and really more believed than understood. Because I can't
explain this. I can't explain this. And neither
can you. Try to explain your spiritual
life to somebody. You're wasting your time. They
can't see it. They can't understand it. you
can understand the concept of the new birth that make sense
to miss foolishness to we believe more than we can understand and
I'm thankful that God has given us faith to do so the believer
cannot himself explain what it is to believe I remember one
time somebody asked Peggy Kerber I think it may have been her
mother what do you mean what is it tell me how to believe
and she started to talk and then she realized I can't tell anybody
how to do that because I don't know how to do that You don't
either. If you're a believer here tonight,
you don't know how you believe. You do, though. You believe. He just does believe, and He
does by the Spirit. The Spirit is He that produced
the new birth is compared to the wind here. The wind bloweth
where it listeth. And it's not in the sense of
a gentle breeze, but in the sense of a mighty blast. A mighty blast. The word wind is also the same
word as breath in Scripture. referring to God breathing life
into a person. An example of that, of course,
is in Genesis. We don't have to turn there when
He breathed the breath of life into Adam. But that was natural
life He breathed into Adam. That's a difference. That's a
ruach. That's called a ruach. That's a natural life. But there's
another life, spiritual life, that belongs only to the children
of God called neshama. And that breath of life speaks
that a person can actually commune with God and God commune with
Him. natural life, dogs have that. It's the same life that
you have, dogs have, in the natural realm. There's no difference
in the breath of life. But those who belong to Christ
have been made alive by the Spirit, they have what is called a neshama,
which is the ability to commune with God, to talk with God, and
to understand what God says in His Word. that's a wonderful
that's that's like example look over ezekiel chapter 37 you're
familiar with this this is the prophet he's told
to go out and preach to a valley full of dead bones ezekiel chapter 37 verse 1 and
the hand of the Lord was upon me and carried me out in the
spirit of the Lord and sent me down in the midst of a valley
which was full of bones and caused me to pass by them round about
and behold there were many and the open valley and lo they were
very dry these are old bones these are dried up bones and
he said to me son of man can these bones live and he said
oh lord god thou knowest I don't know but you know And again,
he said, prophesy, preach unto these bones, and say unto them,
O ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord
God unto these bones, behold, I will cause breath to enter
into them, and ye shall live. I will lay sinews upon you, and
will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and
put breath in you, and ye shall live, and ye shall know that
I am the Lord. So I prophesied as I was commanded, and as I
prophesied there was a noise, and behold a shaking, and the
bones came together, bone to his bone, and I beheld lo the
sinews, and the flesh came upon them, and the skin covered them
above, but there was no breath in them, he said unto me prophesy to the
wind prophesy son of man and say to
the wind thus saith the Lord our come from the four winds
oh breath and breathe upon these slain that they may live so I
prophesied as he commanded and the breath came unto them and
they lived and stood up on their feet an exceeding great army
where did it take you? took the breath of God that's
what it's talking about talks about the spirit and the word
the work of the spirit through the word is mysterious that's
what it says you don't know where it's coming from you don't know
where it's going you can hear it but you can't see where it's
coming from or where it's going and then it says that's the way
you are that's the way I am as a child of God so is everyone
that is born of the Spirit. One cannot direct the Spirit.
We know that from the Word of God. The Spirit goes where He
pleases. The Spirit is the sovereign God.
He cannot be seen, but He can be heard. How is He heard? Through the preaching of the
Gospel. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. Their spirit,
their new life is indiscernible. can't see it, can't display it,
and if they try to show evidence of it, it's just self-righteousness. Their life cannot be discerned.
The wind bloweth where it listeth. You don't know where it's coming
from, you don't know where it's going. So is everyone that's
born of God. Your life cannot be discerned, but you can hear
them. You can hear them when they witness
what God has done for them. when they tell you the gospel
of Jesus Christ. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. God bless you.