We're turning to John chapter 3 again today. John chapter 3, we spent a number of weeks thinking of the doctrine of regeneration and we're trusting to conclude that today and to really come here to the chapter and glean some truths from it. John chapter 3, we will be going to 1 John, so if you want to find 1 John as well, put your hand there, we'll think about that in our introductory remarks. But John chapter 3 and reading from the verse number 1, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. 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 into 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, ye must be born again. 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. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things? No man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. Amen. Let's offer and come to the Lord again in prayer, please. Let's seek the Lord in prayer. Our loving Father, we come before thee, before thy word, and we pray that thou wilt open The Scriptures again to our hearts give us understanding. This is the work of Thy Spirit to illuminate the mind and to bring us to a greater understanding, a greater apprehension biblically about what God does in salvation. We pray that Thou will bless our souls as we meet around the Word. May the Word be a blessing, a blessing to Thy people and a challenge to the unconverted to gather with us today. Even this day be the day of their new birth, a day, O God, when they enter the family of God, and they become a member of that family, having been saved by grace alone, through faith alone, and in Christ alone. Answer prayer and meet with us now, and help this preacher, filling him with thy spirit, for I pray these are prayers, in and through Jesus' precious name. Amen. Well, as I've said, over the last two weeks, we've been considering together this great doctrine of regeneration. Those messages have been complex and yet have contained profound biblical truth. And I'm sure that for some, maybe with respect to those who are young in the congregation, even what I've been saying has been hard, to understand. I must admit that at times I find it hard to understand. At times I cannot fully grasp what God has done and what God has accomplished within my life as I have thought about God's so great salvation. And yet I want to say that God does not base our salvation on whether or not we have fully understood the doctrinal doctrine of regeneration or not. Salvation from sin is simply a turning from sin and a receiving of Jesus Christ as Savior. It is a simple believing of what God has revealed to us through His Word, what He has revealed to us about us and our sin, and what He has revealed to us about Himself, and what He has done in order to put away our sin. The Lord Jesus Christ said in Matthew 18, verse 3, to thee, or to you, except ye be converted, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven." A child was used by the Savior on that occasion to convey many lessons about his person's salvation, and one of those lessons being that a child in its early years simply takes the word of its parent as fact. And in a similar way, because of our spiritual childishness, we may not understand the integral workings of what happens in regeneration, the illuminating of the mind, the renewing of the will, the effectual call of the spirit in the gospel, and so on. But that does not inhibit us from taking God at His word when He reveals that such things do happen in regeneration. We are to simply leave the outworking of what God does within our lives to an all-wise, to an all-knowing, to an all-powerful God. It is simply ours to trust and to believe. Now while Paul was the outstanding theologian of the early New Testament church, the Apostle John was also one who was enabled by the Spirit to grapple with great and deep theological truth. And this he does within his gospel, the gospel of John, part of which we have read today, and also in his epistles, 1st, 2nd, and 3rd John. And one of the main doctrines that he presents, both in his gospel and in his epistle, is this doctrine of regeneration. He likes to use the term born again, but as we've seen, that is simply what regeneration is. It is the bringing to birth of a spiritual child, the bringing us to new life in the Lord Jesus Christ. And so this is one of the doctrines that John unfolds in his gospel and in his epistles. Now we're coming back to John 3, but we want to turn to 1 John and the chapter number 2, we'll begin there. Because in this epistle, in 1 John, John, he sets forth certain distinctives of the new birth. In other words, he sets forth the evidences that a person has been genuinely regenerated by the Spirit of God. We have been speaking about regeneration, and maybe you've been asking yourself the question, am I? Am I a regenerate person? I trust that is what all have been asking. And so John, in his epistle, he sets forth seven distinctives or seven evidences of the new birth. And I want us to think about them and then go back to John chapter 3. I see first of all in this epistle in 1 John, the evidence life word. And for that we turn to 1 John 2 and the verse number 3. 1 John 2 verse 3, and hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments. That's how you'll know that you know the Lord, if you have a desire to keep his commandments. And so you could ask yourself these questions, what is my attitude to the commandments of God. Am I one who delights to keep his commandments, or have I no qualms in breaking his commandments? Have I come to see that his commandments are not grievous, but that they are the delight of my soul." And so what is your attitude to the commandments of God as they are found in the Word of God? If ye love me, keep my commandments. This will be an evidence that you have been genuinely converted, regenerated by the Spirit of God. Because the sinner has no thought of God's commandments. The sinner quite happily breaks the commandments of God, they have no problems with transgressing God's law, and they certainly feel no guilt about it, no shame about it, but they habitually break the commandments of God. And so that's the first evidence, the evidence lifeward. The second evidence is the evidence sinward. 1 John 3, this time in the verse number 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Now this verse is not teaching sinless perfection. The tense of the verb is that he does not habitually sin or perpetually sin. In other words, he sins on a daily basis and is quite happy to do so. This is not teaching the doctrine, the false teaching of sinless perfection, but rather it is teaching the thought the individual who remains apart from sin, an individual who runs from sin, someone who's happy and who is glad to stay away from those things that would cause them to sin. So ask yourself then this question, am I happy to live habitually in my sin? Feeling no guilt, no shame, no disgrace about doing so, or does my soul mourn? Does it grieve when I do sin against God? Do I understand by my sinning, by the witness of the spirit within, that I have grieved his spirit? And as a result of that, I go mourning because I know that I have hurt him. And so the evidence with respect to sin, what do you think of sin? Then the evidence heartward, 1 John 4 and the verse number 7. 1 John 4, verse number 7. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God, and everyone that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. Have you any love for God? Is that not what Christ asked Peter thereafter he had denied the Lord? After he had backslidden, grown cold? That's the question. Love us by me more than these. And really that is the touchstone to see whether or not we are in Christ. Do we love Him? Because by nature we do not. By nature, we hate God. By nature, we are at enmity with God, but not whenever we're born again. No, we love Him. We love His people. We love His house. We love His praise. We love His Word. We love prayer. These things are evident, and thank God for that. We need to ask ourselves the question, do we delight? Is it our joy to be here? To meet with the family of God? To sing God's praise? To listen to God's word? Or am I more at ease in the company of the ungodly? Do I feel more comfortable among my unsaved friends at school or in my place of employment? Do I find more in common with the ungodly than I do with the people of God? Where does my love lie today? With God's people or with the people of the world, the sinners. Then we have the evidence Christ's word, 1 John 5 and the verse number 1. Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God and everyone that loveth him and everyone that loveth him that begat loveth him also that is begotten of him. There it is again, the thought of loving the brethren. If we love him, then we'll love those whom God has begotten, those who have come to the birth, those who have been regenerated, those who have been saved. But the initial part of the verse says, whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Let me ask you, do you believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God? sent one into the world. If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be seen. Do you believe that he was sent into the world to be the saviour of sinners? Do you believe that he was sent into the world to be your saviour? Or do you see the Lord Jesus Christ as merely a historical figure and nothing else than that? What do you think of Jesus Christ? Is he to you the altogether lovely one? Is he your Redeemer, your Savior, your Friend? Then what about the evidence world-ward? 1 John 5 and the verse number 4, Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. Listen, mark it. But he that believeth that Jesus is, sorry, and this is the victory that over cometh the world, even our faith whatsoever is born of God over cometh the world. And so, brethren and sisters, there is no such thing as a worldly Christian. We put those terms together. The Christian is the one who has said goodbye to the world. The world no longer holds an attraction for them anymore. We live in the world but we're not off the world. And unfortunately today it seems to be that there is much worldliness within the church. But I believe the reason because such worldliness is in the church is because there are people and they're not even saved. They're not even saved. That's why they're worldly. They've never been regenerated by the Spirit of God. They've never experienced the new birth. And so they live like a Christian or pretend to be a Christian, but it eventually works itself out in the places they go, the music that they listen to, the way that they dress, the things that they do. It all eventually works itself out outwardly because they are an unregenerate individual. Because the Bible tells me here that the Christian is one who overcomes the world. It's not that the world overcomes them, but rather they overcome the world. I wonder today, is that your experience? Have you desires for this world? Do you love this world? Because I certainly do not. A world full of sin, A world full of immorality, a world full of iniquity, a world that has forgotten God, a world that is godless and careless. But do you love the world? You see, in this epistle, we're told to love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. For if any man loved the world, the love of the Father is not in him. See it, John's clear. If there is that worldliness within that heart of yours, a desire for the positions and the plaudits and the pleasures and the positions and the possessions of this world, if that is constantly within that heart of yours, I would question whether or not you have ever been regenerated. You may have made a profession of faith, But there's no reality. Do you long for another world? A better country that is a heavenly? You see, Moses did. Moses endured. He saw him, he was invisible. And as he did so, and as he thought about God and all that lay up for him in heaven, it says that he refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter, choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God. He esteemed the riches that were in Christ better than all the riches of this world. And he forsook it. He said goodbye to the world. The world had no hold on Moses because he saw him who was invisible. Oh, that God would win our hearts. And then the evidence selfward, 1 John 5 and the verse number 18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself." Keepeth himself. When it comes to sin, do you desire to follow after sin or flee from it? Is it your desire to keep yourself pure in this world? Is that your desire? You see, the Christian keeps himself. guards himself against sin and its encroachments. They don't give themselves to sin. And then lastly, the evidence, Satan, where the same verse again, the end of the verse 18, he that has begotten himself of God keepeth himself and that wicked one toucheth him not. We're at war with the devil. The Christian is. In certain places in your way, some temptation, is it your desire to flee from that temptation or do you gladly yield to it? Is your life under the control of God today? Or is your life still under the control of the devil? Are you in league with the devil? Are you in league with the devil or have you pledged allegiance to Jesus Christ? One who's believed, the one who's been begotten of God, the wicked one touches him not. Thank God they're blood-marked. Blood-marked, the believer. But let's go back to John chapter three today, and it presents this chapter. These are the evidence, the evidences, the marks of the believer. But let's think today about the nature, the nature of regeneration. Let's think about it again. Before I do so, let me say that this outline is not mine. I don't want to be taking another man's work and not publicly acknowledging it. This is one of the lectures that Mr. Beggs gave whenever I studied under him in theology. And so his headings, the headings are his. I trust that the content is mine. And so I just want to acknowledge that, be very clear about it before I preach the message. John 3 is the chapter that presents to us the encounter, the detailed conversation that Jesus Christ has with a religious yet unregenerate man by the name of Nicodemus. That nighttime conversation centered around the doctrine of regeneration. And within that account, Jesus Christ underlines, underscores a number of essentials regarding the nature of regeneration, and we want to look at them today. The first essential that the Savior underlines to Nicodemus about regeneration is that it is an inward work of the Spirit of God. It is an inward work of the Spirit of God. The Lord Jesus Christ said to Nicodemus that he had to be born again. Nicodemus with his rational, logical, methodical mind tried to understand the words of Jesus Christ in a physical, concrete way. And hence he asked the questions in the verse number four, how can a man be born when he is old? How can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Here's a man whose heart is unregenerate. Here's a man whose understanding is darkened. Here's a man who is dead, spiritually speaking, and he's trying to understand spiritual things. And you and I know that such is an impossible task. The ungodly cannot understand or grasp spiritual truth. Paul reminded the Corinthian believers of that. 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14, But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him, neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned. The ungodly cannot grasp or grapple with spiritual things. To them, it is foolishness. And Paul would say that when he wrote again to the Corinthian saints. He would say concerning the preaching of the cross and all the doctrines that flow out of the great atonement, he would say that the preaching of Christ crucified was onto the Jews a stumbling block and onto the Greeks foolishness. He was simply showing them that the sinner has no ability in and of themselves to comprehend the things of God in their natural fallen and sinful state. You see what Nicodemus failed to grasp in John chapter 3 was this, that the birth that Jesus Christ was speaking about was not some kind of outward physical birth, but rather it was an inward spiritual birth, a birth that could only be accomplished by the Spirit of God working within the inner life of man's soul. Thus when the Son of God was speaking about being born again, he was referring to something more than moral reformation. He was speaking about something more than spiritual education. Rather, he was referring to the spirit's regeneration of a man. And such requires a work that runs much deeper than the mere surface, but rather it requires a deep penetrating work that radically changes the whole disposition, the inclination, the bent off the human will, that eventually leads a man or woman, a boy or girl, to exercise faith in Jesus Christ. Now this man was a man who was well-schooled in religious matters. He was a Pharisee. He was a man who was schooled in the Old Testament Scriptures, and yet he remains ignorant concerning these very things, because he was in his unregenerate state. Jesus Christ stated such to be the case. He asked the question, Nicodemus, how can these things be? Verse number 10, the Savior gives the reply, art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things? No matter how much he was educated, No matter how much he understood these things intellectually, he had never experienced them experimentally. And that's the difference between salvation and damnation, whether a person has experienced the truth of God experimentally within the soul. You may be well-schooled in theology. You may understand very well that if I'm ever to be in heaven, I must be born again. I need a new birth. I need to be saved from my sin. I need to be converted. You may know the language of Scripture and yet never experience it within the soul. And Nicodemus was just like this. He knew it experimentally, he knew it theologically, he knew it intellectually, but he did not know it experimentally. He knew not those very things. You see, regeneration is a radical, internal, intrinsic operation of the Spirit of God by which he implants new life into the dead and soul of the sinner. A new heart is given. The stony heart is taken out and a heart of flesh is given. Now I asked you this afternoon, honestly, I want you to be honest. I want you to be as honest as if you were standing at the great white throne judgment. I want you to ask you to be honest and ask, has God, the Holy Spirit, has he done an inner work in my soul? Have I known what it is to be regenerated? by the Spirit of God. I'm not asking you, have you reformed your life in some way? I'm not asking or inquiring, have you become religious over the last little while in your life? I'm not asking you, have you been helped by some process of rehabilitation? What I'm looking for is an answer to the question, have you been regenerated by the Spirit of God? Has God done a work within your soul that you could only ever attribute it to God? Because certainly it was not accomplished by a man or by yourself. Have you experienced such a work whereby all things have passed away and all things are become you? Or is it the case that all you have is a mere profession of faith? And really, there is no reality of God within your life. Have you been regenerated by the Spirit of God? It is an inward work deep within the soul that is wrought by the Spirit of God. The second essential that the Savior underlines to Nicodemus about regeneration is that it is an indispensable work. of the Spirit of God. It is an indispensable work of the Spirit of God. Indispensable in the sense that without it, without the Spirit working in regeneration, no person can ever be brought to the enjoyment of sins forgiven and all of the benefits and all of the blessings that flow out of it. They can never enjoy it. It is indispensable. This must be wrought. If you're ever to know pardon and peace, if you're ever to be assured of heaven, if you're ever to enjoy the blessings that flow out of God's salvation, then it will have to be a work of the Spirit of God. Anything less will be nothing but sham. Nothing but sham. Now, the emphatic language that was used by the Savior in the conversation that he has with Nicodemus, I believe, shows how indispensable he saw the work of the Spirit of God in regeneration. Let me point out a number of verses. Verse number three, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, truly, truly, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. How emphatic can you get? There's no ambiguity, no uncertainty of what Jesus Christ is saying. Look at verse five. 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. Verse number seven, marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. How emphatic he is. He's emphatic for this very reason. He wants to enforce upon Nicodemus' mind the great indispensability with respect to the Spirit of God working within the soul. Nicodemus, unless the Spirit of God brings you to the birth, you'll never see the kingdom. You'll never even enter the kingdom of God. You'll never see the kingdom of God. And he wants to emphasize it, and he is so forceful for doing so, because the Lord Jesus Christ understands something. What does he understand? This is what he understands. He understands the total inability that paralyzes every human being when it comes to spiritual matters. You see, he understood man's inability to create life. And because we are unable to create new life, spiritual life, none of us can do that. Christ aware of that, he was then aware that it necessitated the work of the Holy Spirit. He alone could create such life. Now, as the Son of God converses with Nicodemus, he on two occasions refers to what the sinner cannot do. That's really speaking about inability, what the sinner cannot do. Let me point them out to you, because then whenever we understand what we cannot do, do what does folks? It shuts us in to the fact that God must intervene then. If I understand what I cannot do, it closes me into the fact that if I cannot do it, Someone outside of me must do it. It closes us in to the fact that God must intervene, that God must step in if ever we are to be born again. And in doing so, as we understand that, God is greater glorified. God is greater glorified. Now, for the children here today, you see if you can find the little word cannot. in the opening verses of John 3, because that's where we're going. So you look down there, John chapter 3, you try and find the words cannot, because that's where we're going. Because those verses that contain that little word at the beginning of John 3 bring us to consider man's inability, and then how indispensable the Spirit is then required to work within the soul. So look at the words there at the verse number three. I'm sure you found the first one already. We've already quoted it. Verily, verily, Jesus answered and said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot. There's my inability. Nicodemus, there's your inability. You cannot, you cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, the Lord Jesus Christ is bringing to Nicodemus' mind this truth of the darkened mind of the sinner. See, unless the sinner is born again, regenerated, he cannot see. Why the inability to see? Well, we've said it before, the mind has been darkened by sin. And if ever the sinner is to be recovered from that darkened and that blinded sight, they need two things. They need, first of all, they need light. You need light. If you're to be brought out of the darkened state that you're in today because of your sin, sinner, you need light. Light to dispel the darkness. And where do we find such light? Well, we find it in the Word of God, in the Son of God, and in the Gospel of God. Psalm 119 verse 105, thy word. is a lamp unto my feet and a light unto my path. Jesus Christ said, I am the light of the world. 2 Corinthians 4 verse 4 speaks about the light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ. And so the word, yes, and the gospel and Christ, in this we find light. light to show how dark we are because of our sin. But not only does the sinner need light, but the sinner also needs sight. You see, for a blind individual, you could hold as bright a light in front of them, and they would never comprehend that light, because they cannot see the light. They're blind to the light. And so it's not just light that is required. Because folks, there's plenty of light that goes out from this pulpit week after week. The gospel is preached. The claims of the gospel are presented. Christ is held forth to the sinner. Plenty of light. The word of God is opened. The Savior is held forth. The gospel is preached. But the sinner sits in their sin. Why? Because they need sight. Not just light. But they need sight. And that sight comes when the Spirit of God opens the eyes. Isaiah 42, 6 and 7, I the Lord have called thee in righteousness and will hold thy right hand and will keep thee and give thee for a covenant of the people for a light of the Gentiles to open the blind eyes. to bring out the prisoners from the prison and them that sit in darkness out of the prison house. He came to preach the gospel, the Savior. This is speaking of Christ, it's prophetic. He came to open the blinded eyes. Do you remember there in Luke's gospel, in the chapter number four, when Christ stood there in the synagogue in Nazareth? He took the book. What did he say? He took it, the passage there, the Spirit of the Lord, verse 18, is upon me because he has anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord. He recovers the sight of the blind. He gives sight to those who are blind. And sinner, that's what you need. You need sight. You need your eyes to be open. You need the Spirit of God to come and open those blinded eyes of yours. It stares you in the very face. You're a sinner, a transgressor of His law, guilty before God, the judgment in front of you, hell beneath you, an angry God in front of you. Sinner, you need sights to see yourself for what you are, a guilty, hell-deserving, ill-deserving sinner. Serving of God's judgment, oh, that he would give you sight, and that he would open your eyes today, that you would see yourself. Yes, a darkened mind, he also speaks about a disabled will. That's the second cannot. Have you found it? Verse number five, Jesus answered and said, answered verily, verily I say unto thee, except the man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot, there's my inability, Nicodemus, There's your inability. You cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Now, to enter something requires someone to take a step. If I was to enter into the minister's room, that requires me to take steps. And to take a step requires a choice in the will. I must choose to take that step. I must choose to walk. I must choose to go in that direction. There is a choice within the will. But you know, folks, whenever it comes to the sinner's will, the sinner's will is disabled. They cannot take the step. They cannot take the step. Yes, we say take the step of faith. We understand what that is, but that can never happen until the sinner's heart has been regenerated by the Spirit of God. Their feet are turned out of the way. They run from God. And because of our sin, the human will is so paralyzed that it is unable to make one move, one step to God of its own accord. No, for that to happen, the will must be renewed. enabling the sinner to seek after God, the disabled will. And so, folks, we know that gifted preachers are a blessing to the work of God. Evangelists are a gift from God to His church. Dynamic preaching and biblical exegesis are all beneficial to the ministry of any local New Testament church. But all of these things, will not of themselves bring any sinner to Christ. For that to happen, we need the ministry of the Holy Spirit. Without Him working in the life of the sinner, the sinner will remain in their sin. And that's why we need to be in prayer, seeking ever the help, the ministry, and the work of the Spirit of God. Because man has a darkened mind, Man has a disabled will, and because of those two things that Christ reveals to Nicodemus here, because of those two things, he shows Nicodemus the indispensability of the work of the Spirit of God. Without that, the mind will remain dark. Without that, the will will remain disabled. It'll never seek after God. Quickly, we think in the third place, the third essential, with respect to regeneration, the irresistible work of the Spirit of God. When God begins to work, no one and nothing can hinder him. It was Nebuchadnezzar who said the following about God. He doeth according to his will in the army of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth. And none can stay his hand or say unto him, what doest thou? And when it comes to regeneration, thank God, none can stay his hand. And certainly none will say, what doest thou? Why regenerate one and not the other? That question will never, never, ever cross the believer's mind. The Savior highlights the irresistibility and the irresistible nature of the Spirit's work in regeneration by using the image of the wind. We pointed that out again last week. The wind bloweth, verse 8, John 3, where it listeth, and now here's the sounder of, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whether it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Can anyone stop the blowing of the wind? Let me invite you to go out into the car park today. The wind's blowing. Let me invite you to try and stop the wind from blowing. Can you do that? It's not in your power, is it? It's not in my power. I cannot stop the wind blowing. This is outside the command of man. This is outside the control of man. The wind is irresistible in its progress and its power and its might. Only God has the control of the wind. Only God can still the wind. Outside of us, no, only God can work. Only God can still, yes, the wind. And so it is in salvation. In a similar way, when God works upon the soul, His work can never be hindered. When He begins that work, nothing, nothing can hinder Him. He carries it right through to its full perfection, right through to its maturity, because He's as much Almighty God as the Father and the Son is, and therefore, as with them, so with Him. Nothing is impossible with Him. Nothing. when the Spirit of God begins to move. He sweeps aside all hindrances and all obstacles and all forms of opposition and makes that unwilling sinner willing in the day of his power. What a day it is. And I know that I am praying, and others are praying in this place, that you, the sinner, will come to know the irresistible work of the Spirit of God in your life, that you, the sinner, will, as it were, raise the white flag of surrender and gladly yield to Christ today in the gospel. It's irresistible. And he begins to work. Just like the wind, nothing and no one can stop it. So when the Spirit Do we not read of that in Revival? I think I have a book at home. It's entitled, When the Wind Blows. When the Wind Blows. It's a book on Revival. And oh, for the wind of God to blow through this congregation. Irresistible. Lastly, quickly, the imperative work of the Holy Spirit. The word imperative, it simply means it's non-optional. The second birth is not optional. It's an imperative. Without the new birth taking place within the soul, no sinner will ever enter into the kingdom of heaven. There's no pardon without being born again. No peace without being born again. No prospect of heaven without this vital work of the Spirit wrought within the soul. Jesus said to Nicodemus, you must be born again. And to me that sounds like a non-optional statement. It's not as if Christ offers him and throws out a few suggestions to Nicodemus. No, this is an imperative. Nicodemus, you'll have to be born again. Sinner, you'll have to be born again. If you're ever to know sin's forgiven, this is not an option. This is imperative. And so sinner, because it is, you must never rest. You must never rest until you know that such a divine work has been accomplished in your life. Do not live with a mere profession. Please do not do that. with simply a mere profession of faith, but make sure that God has genuinely wrought a work of grace within your soul. What have we learned today? As we've come to conclude our series, a little messages on regeneration, what I've learned today concerning regeneration is this, that it is an inward work of the Spirit of God. It is an indispensable work of the Spirit of God. Without it, we'll never get into heaven. It is an irresistible work of the Spirit of God. When he works, we're brought to the birth. It is an imperative work of the Spirit of God. Yes, it is a necessity. And without it, without it, we'll never see or be in the kingdom of God. Are you regenerate? Have you been saved? Have you known the work of the Spirit within your soul? The evidences that John gives in his epistle, can you say, yes, to some degree, yes, these things are evident in my life. If not, seek him until you find him. May God be pleased to save you by his grace. Let's bow in prayer, please. Our Father and our God in heaven.