If you'll turn to the book of John, chapter three, and I just have a fairly simple message to give you this morning from John, chapter three. Let's begin reading in verse number one. Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God. For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and 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. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from. or where it goes, so it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be? Jesus answered him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony. If I have told you earthly things you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one is ascended into heaven except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent of the wilderness, so must the son of man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. And Father, we do cast ourselves upon your mercy. And we ask, Father, that you might open our eyes, you might open our hearts. Lord, we pray that if there's someone that has never been born again, Lord God, that you might use your Word and you might awaken them to righteousness. Father, would you cause us to rejoice because of the great work of salvation that you've done in those who are saved. We pray that we would not leave this place until we're sure that we have been born again In Jesus' name, Amen. Nicodemus, best that I can tell, of course he was a Pharisee, but I never really knew until this study that he seems to be the brother of Josephus. And Nicodemon Ben-Gurion and Josephus Ben-Gurion, the writer of Wars and Antiquities of the Jews, seem to be one of them. Now, I believe if you look further in John, especially chapter 7 and John chapter 19, you'll come to the conclusion that Nicodemus became a Christian. And I believe with all my heart that whether he did or not, that What Jesus talked about when he talked to this religious man who came to him with an understanding that he was a privileged man, that he was a natural descendant of Abraham, and since he did descend from, well, not just Abraham, but Isaac and Jacob, he was a true member of the family of God. reminded him, as John wrote in chapter 1, that it takes a birth in order to truly know God. I don't want to read the whole chapter, but in John 1, as John introduced Jesus, he said that he came to his own people. Now, he's talking about the Jews there. By and large, they didn't receive Him. Well, some did. We know ultimately that many did. But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, and we'll get to that in just a moment, but they believed. Now, there was a reason that they believed. And He says, anyway, to those who believe He gave the right to become the children of God, or He gave the authority. Now, it means, in other words, they can say with confidence that they've become children of God. He says, who were born, and then He excludes the natural realm. He says, born not of blood. And basically, that means that it doesn't matter who your mother or father are. Then he says, neither were they born of the will of the flesh. Now, this has to do with, well, a number of commentators say that it has to do with the desire of the parents that they would have a godly heritage. And of course, we all desire that, don't we? There's no parent that is a Christian that doesn't desire that their children become Christians also. But it's even more than that. But let's just suffice it to say that no matter what the will of either the parents or the child, then it says, nor the will of man. Now, so John has excluded everyone here. He has said, basically, just because you will to be saved doesn't mean that you're saved. There's a lot of people who have willed to escape the consequences of sin. Many people have willed to go to heaven rather than hell. But that doesn't necessarily mean that you're saved. Because to be saved, what Jesus says here is, you must be born again. And of course, the word He uses is anaphan, which means from above. And granted that, it means from above. For one thing, John here says, born of God. These that believed, believed not because they were born of blood, or the will of the flesh, or the will of man, but they were born of God. And that's what Jesus is saying here. Now, He's saying something else. He's saying that this birth that He's talking about, born again, and Nicodemus understood that He was saying that it was a second birth, unlike the first birth. And he had a little trouble understanding how that really took place, but he did understand that Jesus was saying, when we see the word deuteros, it means the second time, or again, or anew, there has to be a new birthing. And so this was an extraordinary birth. When Jesus told Nicodemus, Truly, truly great teacher in Israel, you know a lot about the things of God, but unless you're born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Later he says, unless you're born of the water and the Spirit, you cannot enter the kingdom of God. So he's talking about an extraordinary, radical thing. It was a miraculous birth. To be born of God is a radical thing. It's a supernatural work and act of God. Titus says, not by works of righteousness, which we have done. It has nothing to do with the will of man. It has nothing to do with what you decide intellectually. I was in a conference Friday, and I don't like to speak critically, but I have to reveal the truth of what's going on out there. This was in Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. The old church where R.G. Lee preached his famous sermon, Payday Someday. If you've never heard that sermon, you need to listen to it. There's going to be a payday someday. Then Adrian Rogers later on took it over. And the fellow who was speaking, basically it came down to, I want you to decide whether or not this morning that this would be beneficial for you. And if so, Would you just pray like this, Lord Jesus, Lord Jesus. And he went on through the prayer and when it was over, then he says, now for all those who made decisions. And of course, I got where he was coming from. I've seen it before. It's like a play. A plague of false religion that has crept into the church, whereby men are made members of a natural organization because of intellectual assent to the facts. It's called believism. I like to call it easy believism, because it's easy to believe those things intellectually. It's easy to prove the veracity, it's easy to prove the truth of the historical Jesus and what He did and what the Bible says. And to convince someone that it will be to their best interest to make a decision by a move of their will, and then to cause them to do those things that you suggest for them to do, It's not too difficult. Anybody can do it. And a lot of people that day supposedly did. But I question. I question whether those who gave intellectual assent to the facts and that the benefits they were to derive from agreeing with those facts and saying, yes, that they acquiesce that they were true, gave them any spiritual life. Now, Nicodemus, he was a religious man. He was evidently interested. in the facts. He came at great danger to himself at night, secretly inquiring, and said, Master, we know that you're a teacher come from God. And Jesus cut him off. He basically said, you don't know anything. He said, unless you're born again. Wow, the whole world came crumbling down around Nicodemus. Everything that he knew was tossed out the window. All the benefits that he was supposed to derive by the things that he did, Jesus said they count for nothing. Later on, Jesus would say, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Paul would teach us the flesh profits nothing. So, the new birth that Jesus is talking about, When one becomes alive to God, when he used that word geneo, or begotten, it's just like in Ephesians 2, verse 1, where Paul says to the Ephesians, he's writing a letter and saying, you Ephesians, has God made alive? He made them alive. What is he saying there? They experienced a new birth. It was so far removed from a reformation of the way that they live that it's called an actual spiritual regeneration or a recreation. God makes something altogether new. Well, he said, of course, not only that, but when Jesus said, unless you're born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God, He is saying that there's no way, Nicodemus, that you can will yourself to be born again. Do you see that? He's saying he's excluding modern-day evangelicalism. Completely tosses it out the window. John said, not by blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man. None of that, but by God. Salvation is exclusively a work of God, whereby God comes to the sinner and He births, by the Word and by the Spirit, He births a new creation. Well, so if it's by the Word Peter said in 1 Peter 1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the Word of God, which lives and abides forever. By the way, I was excited about last week's message. The Word of God. We're born by the Word. You see, that's our responsibility, is to preach the Word. Preach the Word. Your responsibility is to preach the gospel. It's not your responsibility to birth people. That's God's work. You cannot convince someone that they need to do anything. If you do, that is called man trying to do God's work, man's way, and it's iniquity. It is. That's the right description of iniquity. Man trying to do God's work man's way. So our responsibility from the pulpit, and as we go out into the Word, is simply to preach the Gospel. As we give the Word, the Holy Spirit of God takes that and He births His own into new creations. They become children of God. This fellow that was up there trying to do God's work man's way and telling them to make a decision and to pray this prayer was participating in iniquity. Oh, I know that sounds hard in today's modern day evangelicalism, doesn't it? But the New Testament church knew none of this. The New Testament church knew none of this, having people come down the aisle. And I know you've heard this from this pulpit again and again, but it ought to be said. What is it to be born of God? What is it to preach the gospel, that refreshing drink of God's pure truth concerning us and concerning God? And, you know, later on when Jesus says you've got to be born of water and the Spirit, there's a lot of disagreement. I'm going to tell you what I believe. When you're born by water and the Spirit, it's by the Word of God, the Holy Spirit using His Word. Now, some have said it's by baptism. It has nothing to do with baptism. They don't have time to go into it. Some have said, well, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, so the water has to do with the natural birth. I don't have any problem with that, because that's true. You want to look at it like that. But there is no doubt, comparing Scripture with Scripture, Ephesians chapter 5, 1 Peter chapter 1, Jesus Himself talked about the water of the Word. And so what I'm saying is to be born of God is to hear the Word. Read Ezekiel chapter 38. Jesus said, I'll wash them with pure water. I'll give them a new heart. See, when the Word is preached, the Holy Spirit brings conviction, opens the eyes of the believer and makes them a new creature. That's an adequate description of the new birth. See, it can't be baptism. You know, John said, there's one coming after me that I'm not worthy to unloose his shoes. He'll baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire. So, he's illustrating a truth here. He's talking about the person of God. Nicodemus did understand right. The new birth was a second birth, but the emphasis here is on the word born. You must be born again. You must experience a radical birth. John chapter 1, when he talked about that, implies that you will not be saved simply because your parents are saved. Now, the fact is, many, many people who are saved are saved because their parents are saved. And they teach them the Word. And then God opens their eyes. But it is not merely because they were children of their parents. That which is born of the flesh, did He say in verse 6, Flesh. That's it. Flesh refers to the nothingness of man's whole existence. The flesh profits nothing. Flesh refers to the fact that man is ultimately a stranger to his fate and to his own acts. It refers to the fact that as he is now, he does not enjoy an authentic existence. It's a facade. Whether he makes himself aware of the fact, or whether he conceals it from himself, there is still nothing concerning the flesh. Correspondingly, pneuma, or spirit, refers to the miracle of a mode of being in which a man really enjoys actual and authentic existence in himself, He understands and knows that he's no longer threatened by nothingness. He is a real, living, spiritual being. Now, a lost man that has not been regenerated cannot know that. A religious man can learn some of these facts and be intellectually activated and alerted. But except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Unless a man is born from above a second time, unless you're born from God, you have no hope of salvation. I don't care that you gradually came to believe the gospel or that all of a sudden it dawned on you to be true. The fact is, even the devils believe also. Conversion is not believism. When we say that we believe, we're saying what many, many believe. We're saying what we believe, and it has nothing either here or there to do with a new birth. Now, you truly believe when you're born again. But it's not of the will of man. It's nothing that you can decide to do. You can't decide that there are more benefits for you in believing, and all of a sudden, having lived a life of sin, realizing your destruction, you decide now that it'd be better for you to go to heaven than go to hell, and so you give mental assent to the facts, and you know that your life is nothing, you know that you have not been born again, you know that you're still a man of the flesh, and you question the very existence and worth of your being because you've not been born again. What we need is for the Holy Spirit of God to come in mighty power upon men's lives, that they might be mightily regenerated by the mighty power of the Spirit of God, that they might be born of the Spirit and made into new creatures, not that they might become better people or that they might simply believe that something is true, either about themselves or about God. Jesus said, you must be born again. He said, Nicodemus, there's no hope for you unless you're born again. You can go to church all your life. All the Nicodemuses in the world gathered together and frequenting the habitations they've built themselves to experience religion and to feel better and be moral people. This world is filled with those type of people who have mentally acquiesced to the facts of the gospel, but have never been born again. And the reason that we tell them so often, don't worry, you said that prayer, you're a member of the church, just keep talking. And we keep on pumping them up and trying and stressing and fretting for them to live for God because they really don't want to live for God. It's because they've not been born again. They've merely become members of the church. They've merely joined an association. They've merely changed their minds about themselves and about God so that they hope to derive more benefits than they had before. But the effect of the change that God wrought when you were born again as a change of the will that before you did not desire God. And regardless of the benefits, now you desire God. Even if it comes accompanied with hell, you want God more than anything. If there is no such thing as heaven, you still have a desire for Jesus more than anything because there's been a divine Transformation and your will is now bent Godward. You have a supernatural disposition towards God. You have a divine nature, as it were, 1 Peter chapter 1. Not that you're divine, but your life is simply all about God. Not that you don't sin. We know that we sin. But a gospel-centered, God-centered theology would teach us that our hearts had been changed. We had become new creature. No one ever has to consult in man concerning his salvation. Had a lot of people, a lot of people come to me and they're not sure that they're saved. And I've told them all. I told my wife years ago, I'd been a pastor for 10 years and she wasn't sure that she was saved and wanted me to tell her, tell me I'm saved. I've been down the aisle. I said the prayer. I was baptized. I did this. I did all those things. Tell me. I'm not sure that I'm saved. And I said, Hallie, I can't tell you. Only God can tell you. If you don't know beyond any shadow of a doubt that you're saved, you simply need to cast yourself on the mercy of God. You need to cry out to God and tell when you leave that room, nobody can convince you that you're not a child of God. And if you're not convinced, don't go to man. You don't need to be taught by man. You need to be taught of God. You might preach the gospel to someone, but you don't have to tell them, listen to me this morning, you never have to tell anybody how to get saved. Preach the gospel. Preach the gospel. The gospel, Paul said, is the power of God to salvation to everyone that believes, to the Jew first and also the Greek. It's our responsibility to preach the gospel. There's power there to change people. The Spirit of God uses His Word and they're born again. So much different than religion. Your job, and your only job, is to tell the truth about the Gospel. When I hear somebody say that I went to this person and they told me how to be saved, I'm curious. I want to know what they told them. And I don't even have to ask them. I can tell them what they told them. I can tell them that this person told them what to do and called it the new birth. And it's a lie. It's a lie from the pit of hell. Except a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And the new birth is not being baptized. The new birth is not when you give mental assent to the facts and make some decisions and say a prayer that you're told a prayer that may or may not express the desires of your heart that you might accrue the benefits that this person told you about. You preach the gospel not so people can know the facts, but because it's the power of God to salvation. And people are born from above. And when they're born again, all of a sudden they believe with all their heart. And they repent of their sins with all their heart. They're altogether a new person. Radically changed. So if somebody comes to you and tells you they're not sure that they're saved, you must simply and only preach the gospel to them. You can admonish them to cast themselves on the mercy of God and cry out to God, but you might never ever tell them that they are saved. If you get into convincing business and think that you can tell people they're saved, after all, look at their life. After all, look at their works. After all, you've known them. After all, they did this and that. You are perverting the pure gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ who told Nicodemus, Nicodemus, except a man is born again, he will not see the kingdom of God. He will not enter the kingdom of God. I just realized I was getting excited, Why must me be born again? Why? Well, first of all, Psalm 51, we were born in sin. The first birth was a sinful birth. We inherited a sinful nature. We were born sinners. Romans chapter 3, all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. There's none good, no not one. We've all gone astray. There's none righteous, no not one. We're all altogether sinful and separate from a holy God. You're just as far away from God as you could possibly be. unless you've been born again. It doesn't matter if you've been brought up in church all your life. You are still as far away from God as Hitler was. You are still as depraved and desperately wicked as the most wicked, vile, reprobate alive. And as far from God. There's nothing you can do that will give you any hope that God will have anything to do with you unless you're born again. And that is God's work. Not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to His mercy. The imagination of our thoughts are only evil continually. We were conceived in sin, brought forth in iniquity. There is none that does good. The carnal mind is enmity against God. By nature, we were dead and trespassed in sin, but God made us alive. Hallelujah! Thank God that though we were dead in sins, He came to us and He quickened us. He raised us from the dead. And we are now altogether new creatures. Therefore, all things are passed away. All things have become new. We've experienced the supernatural birth. Not a reformation. Not a changing of the mind. Not I finally assented to the teachings of my parents. Have you been born again? You see, in order to see God, you must be holy. In order to enter the Kingdom of God, in order to be part of the Kingdom of God, you must be spotlessly holy. Now, you and I know there's only one way that that happens. Only one way. You must be born again. and all your sins, then when you're born again and your eyes are open and you're a new creature and you say, I believe. You didn't work it up. It came from God. I believe. I repent. I turn from my sins. I give myself to Christ. You're a new creature and you're a holy creature. That's why Paul called them saints. If you've been born again today, you are a saint, a set-apart one. God took you and set you apart for Himself. Here's the world. He set you apart. You belong to God. You're not your own. You're bought with a price. But if you've never been born again, no matter how moral you are, no matter how much I might love you myself, or others get along with you that are supposed to be Christians, if you've never been born again, you're as lost in your sins as you ever were. You are still in your sins. You are still hopeless. You can be religious. You can be moral. You can be honest. You can be a student of the Scriptures. You can be a person who prays. You can be a person who goes to church every Sunday. But if you're not born again, you cannot see the Kingdom of God. Also, not only must you be holy, but in order to go to heaven, you must be a spiritual creature. Actually, you must be a spirit creature. Actually, talking about authentic existence, you must be a spirit. That takes too long to go into. But people who are born again are now spiritual beings. Yes, we still have a body of flesh, and we can't wait to get rid of it because of all that it brings, but we are primarily spiritual beings. And only spiritual beings go to heaven. The rest of them, the goats God cast out into hell forever. No matter how pretty they might look on the outside, they're still dead in their sins. You must be born again because nothing that you can do can prepare you for heaven. You can continue to darken the doors of a church. You can continue to study the Scriptures. But what we're talking about is getting in the door. Jesus said, I am the door. By me, if any man will enter in, he'll be saved, but only through the door. And it's not a decision that you unlock and say, I think now I'll go through. He's using an allegory there. See? You, having been awakened to righteousness, you believe into Christ and you're transferred. You're transferred from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light. It's a totally different realm. It's a spiritual realm. Now, all of a sudden, you're living in the kingdom of God. There is still a kingdom of darkness, but the saint is part of the kingdom of God. Why? Because he's been born again. Except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God It's supernatural it's all together of God You haven't let me give a caveat having said that I do Understand that there have been times when people have heard the gospel message and they've gone down an aisle and they prayed a prayer and they become believers but more often than not While they sat in the pew and the Word was preached, the Holy Ghost came upon them and they were saved. And they believed. And they came down and the preacher didn't know any better. He didn't know anything to do. When people come down the aisle now and say, Brother Bob, tell me how to be saved, I don't know what to do. I just preached the Gospel to them. And they say, well, tell me what to do. And I'm like, you can't do anything! I urge you to cast yourself on the mercy of God and cry out to God until you know that you've been born again. Because unless you've been born again, you have no hope. There's no life except you've been born again. Then you're able to believe. Do not marvel, Jesus said. This is so radical. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. Don't think that it's strange that I said that this is altogether something entirely different than religious things that He'd experienced. Then when the Son of God is lifted up and the gospel is preached and you believe, whoever believes has eternal life. Yes, you believe. And it's because of a work of God, not a work of man. I'm telling you the truth because I love you. If you're born again, I'm happy. I'm thrilled. I praise God because God has glorified Himself in doing a work among sinners. But if you're not born again, I'm concerned because you are being deceived by religion. You're deceiving yourself. You know that there's not a real spiritual existence. There's no relation with God. There's no hunger for God. There's no real desire for a God-centered life where it's all about God. It's all about you. And here's why you've not been born again. Now, I preach like this. A lot of people say, oh, Brother Bob, it's so bad to just start trying to convince people they're not saved. Have I done that? I'm just preaching the gospel. Jesus said you must be born again. Oh, Jesus, don't preach. You must be born again. You'll shake people up and cause them to think that if they're not born again, they're not saved. And that's exactly right. If they're not born again, they're not saved. You must be born again. or you have no hope. Let's pray together. Oh Father, this has just been such a feeble way to try to tell the truth and to preach the gospel. How our hearts desire for those that are lost, oh God, that you would save them. Mostly, Lord, we just think about the multitudes multitudes that have simply joined churches or become religious. And they know their loss, but the evangelical world has convinced them that they're saved and that is not worth anything. Oh, God, that you would awaken us to righteousness as the gospel is preached from this pulpit, that we would not comfort ourself with notions of eternal life, except we've been born from above. And we praise you and thank you for that marvelous work that you do through that through your gospel. I pray you take these few words and whatever of worth was said that you a planet in the heart of unbelievers that they would understand except they're born again. They have no hope of heaven. They cannot see the kingdom of God that they're still in their sins. Encourage the things. Those who genuinely been born again that you've done a marvelous, courageous work. Without which we would be lost for all eternity. Thank you for saving us, and we do pray that you might save many. Have mercy, O God, upon sinners like ourselves. and take the preaching of your word and plant it in hearts and birth many into the kingdom. For we ask it in Jesus name. Amen.