You will find my text this morning in the chapter we read, John chapter 3. And I want especially to look at verse 3. John 3, verse 3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Nicodemus, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, why should we be looking at these words? Let me give you some reasons why I choose these words. First of all, because of the person who is speaking here. It is the Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, who is the most perfect person who ever walked on the face of the earth, being both God and man in two natures and yet one person. There never was a teacher like Jesus. There's plenty of clever people plenty with university degrees, but nobody ever preached and taught as the Lord Jesus Christ did. So we're listening then to what Christ is saying to us here. That's why we should pay attention to it. A second reason why I give you this text is this. It's because How serious is the message here? Jesus says to us, if we are not born again, we cannot possibly go to heaven. My dear friends, there's nothing so important as that. The absolutely most important thing in all the world is to want to go to heaven. You can be a rich millionaire, many people are, But if you don't go to heaven, what have you got in the end? Nothing, but only eternal punishment. Because, as I hope you know, there are two places we could go to after we die. One is heaven, where God is and all the angels are, and where people are perfectly happy forever. Or the other place is down there, hell, hell. And when people go to hell, they go there not just for a week or a fortnight or a year, they go forever. Those who go to hell are in hell forever. Don't overlook how serious that is. If we don't go to heaven, then we go to hell forever. And that's a place of absolute pitch darkness. There's no light in hell. Nobody can see anything in hell. Everybody hates everybody else in hell. And God is punishing them in hell. So that's why I want to look at these words. Except a man be born again, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. And that's another way of saying that if we are not born again, we must, must, must go to hell. Now, I'm speaking not just for myself, I'm speaking for all the members of this church. We want every one of you here to go to heaven. We love you all, especially the boys and girls. I'm an old school teacher before I was a minister and I had boys and girls in my class and I loved them and I taught them the Bible and I showed them how to get to heaven and some of them were converted. I happened to go to a faraway country in Mexico some years ago And there I met a man who had been a school child in England when I was teaching there. And this boy came to me and said, oh, he said, I remember I was converted through something you once said. And he's now a Christian in Mexico. I say that to simply show that I want everyone here in heaven. And so do these beloved men sitting in front of me, these elders, beloved men they are. We all want you all in heaven, men and women, boys and girls. So the question is, how can we get to heaven? The answer is in what Jesus says. We must be born again. All right. The question now is, what does it mean to be born again? Did you notice in the reading that this clever man called Nicodemus, mentioned in verse one, he didn't understand what this meant. You get that, you see, in verse four, Nicodemus says to Jesus, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he get the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Well, of course, that's a joke, isn't it? You can't get into your mother's womb and be born twice. So whatever Jesus meant, he wasn't joking. He was telling the truth. Jesus never jokes. He always told the truth. And that's what we're doing here today. We're speaking the truth. So the question arises, what does it mean to be born again? So that's what I want to try to explain. And if, when the sermon's over and we're meeting outside, you didn't understand some of what I said, I don't mind if you come up to me and ask me now, tell me. Because I want you all to be baptized. I want you all to be Converted, I want you all to be born again and brought to faith in Christ. All right. I want to explain what it means to be born again. Men and women, boys and girls, we all have two parts. Two parts. First of all, we have a body. Well, we all know that. We have a body. And you can see each other with the body, can't you? You can see my body and I can see yours. Every human being has a body. All right, that's only one part. What's the other part of it? The other part is called the soul, S-O-U-L, the soul. Now, a lot of people don't realize we have this second part. We have a body and we have a soul. Everybody does. And when Jesus talks about being born again, he is talking about what we need in our soul. Now, you might want to say to me, I don't know what a soul is. What is a soul? Well, let me tell you. A soul is one of two parts which every human being has, whether you know it or not. And when we die, the soul is going to live forever somewhere else, either up there or down there. And Jesus tells us, if we are not born again, our soul, which we have now with us in this world, will go down there into eternal punishment. So when he tells us we need to be born again, he says there are two kinds of birth. There's the birth of the body, and that's something we all understand. The lady, when she's having a baby, she goes to the hospital, and the baby comes out of the womb and is born, and there is the child's body. Wonderful, isn't it? Little boy, little girl. Only God could make these. But now, what about the soul? Well, every child that's born, when they have a body, they also have a soul. Now, you want to say to me, What's the soul? Let me tell you. Can you see five fingers here? Every soul has five things about it which are extremely important. Five things, let me tell you what they are and then I'll explain them. There's the mind, the will, the emotion, the memory, The conscience. We got those? Every person has a soul, whether they realize it or not. And every soul has these five parts, or five aspects, five elements. I'll give you them again. The mind, the will, the emotion, the memory, and the conscience. Now, let me just spend a little moment on some of those things. Every human being has a mind. Now, animals don't. You don't take your dog or cat to school and put them in a classroom to learn mathematics, or do you? Or how to speak French or Gaelic. A dog can't do that. Why not? It hasn't got a soul. And it hasn't got a mind. But every human being has a mind. Now, that means God gave us a mind so we could think about him. God made us in his image originally. And so God gave us a mind so we could think about God and talk to God. What about the will? What is the will? Well, I'll try and make it as simple as I can. The will is that part of the soul which is able to say yes or no. Now, let me explain that. If I say to somebody, would you like to come with me tomorrow to go to China? There are two things you could do to say. You could say, oh, yes, or oh, no. I have no wish to go to China, thank you. So you see, that's what's called the will, the ability to say yes or no. So that's what's meant by the will. So there are five faculties, the mind, the will, the emotion. What's the emotion? The emotion is our feelings. Some people we like, don't we? And some people we don't like. Some things we hate. Some things we love. Now all of that is emotion. It's all part of the soul. The mind, the will, the emotion. And then the next one's the memory. The memory. The memory is a wonderful thing. If I say to you, what's the date of your birthday? You don't have to rush home and get a diary out. You say, well, I was born on the 1st of July so many years ago. I remember it. And we remember a lot of things, don't we? And the memory is part of the soul. It's a wonderful part of the soul. We couldn't live without it, could we? When people lose their memories, they have to go into a care home because they don't recognize their own wife or their own husband or their own family. So that's the fourth thing. mind, the will, the emotion, the memory, and last one is the conscience. And that's a wonderful thing that God has put inside the soul. It's like a little red warning light. When you do something wrong, You feel a funny feeling. Oh, I shouldn't have done that. Don't tell anybody. I stole it yesterday. I went into some shop and there was nobody there. So I went behind the counter and I stole some money out of the box and put it in my pocket. Don't tell anyone, will you? But, you know, ever since I've done that, I've been thinking of my wickedness all the time. I shouldn't have done it. What's telling him that? It's the conscience. We've all done something wrong, haven't we? I remember when I was a young boy, I wasn't then a Christian. When I was a young boy, I was walking past a farm one day and I saw that there was a nice little pot of flowers. So I said, there's nobody looking. And I said, I'll take it with me. So I took it home. And when I got home, my conscience said to me, you shouldn't have done that. The next day, I went to the farmer and I said, here's the thing I stole from you. I'm very sorry. I shouldn't have done it. Please forgive me. I'll give you some money as a compensation for what I stole. The farmer said, you must have had a very bad conscience. I did. But don't we all have a conscience? You've felt something similar, haven't you? Now, the soul has these five things, and they're all very important. So why does Jesus tell us we need to be born again? The answer is, we all need to have our soul born. That's what's meant by again. There are two parts to us. There is a body, we can see that. And there's a soul, which you can't see. But now, when we come into this world from our mother's womb, We are born as to our body. But there's something very sad I have to tell you now. Every child born into this world is born sinful. I think you know that. The Bible tells us that. And because we are born sinful, our soul is not working properly. Our soul is spoiled. Our soul is ruined. Some people are born and their body is ruined, aren't they? I have a dear friend who is a lovely Christian and he's never been able to move his right arm. His right arm is always like this because it was born and it was wrong when it came into the world. It was rotten and ruined. Dear friend, the problem is the Bible tells us every human being born into this world, whether a man or a woman, a boy or a girl, Everybody born into this world has a soul that is ruined. Now you may want to say to me, how is it ruined? And that's what I want to explain, because that's what Jesus is talking about. Our soul is ruined in this way, that it is not a soul that loves God. Now, when God created Adam and Eve in the beginning of history, the book of Genesis, chapters one and two, when God created Adam and Eve, he gave them a body and he gave them each a soul. And he told that they were not to eat of a certain tree in the garden, the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. And God said, in a day you eat the love, you shall certainly die. Well, I think you know that they did eat. You know that part of the Bible, of course. Adam and Eve did eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of Muthunib, and they did become sinners. But let me explain, when they became sinners, something happened to them. What was that? Their soul became dead. Their soul died. And that's another way of saying they no longer loved God. If we were all born of Adam and Eve, And if Adam and Eve had never sinned, every one of us would be born loving God. And we would put Him first. If we were what we were when God made us, we would all love God with all our heart and soul and mind and strength. God would be all in all to us. But that's no longer true, is it, sadly? So I explain it in this way, you see, that what Jesus means to be born again is he means our soul needs to be dealt with powerfully and put right. You know, sometimes electricity doesn't work well, does it? And all the lights go out. And what you do is you go to the box where the Electricity is registered and you switch something on again, and all the lights go on. Now, that's an illustration as to what happened when Adam and Eve sinned against God. When they disobeyed God, they died spiritually. They didn't die physically. I think Adam was over 60, yes, over 600 years old, wasn't he? Adam was about 600 years old or so when he died. So he didn't die that same day in which he sinned, but yet he died spiritually. He didn't die physically, but he died spiritually. And when you and I were born, because Adam sinned, the effect of his sin has come upon the whole human race. All of us are now born with a soul that is dead when we're born. And if we die with a soul that is dead, we'll go to hell. I don't enjoy saying that, but I say that in love for you. I don't want any of you to go there. That's why it's so important. You must ask God to make you to be born again. So how can the soul be born again? Not by the mother, but by the Holy Spirit. What happens is this. When God gives to a person to be born again, what happens is this, God's Holy Spirit comes into the soul, and it changes it from being dead to being alive. Now, of course, you can't see that with the eyes, but the Bible tells us that. And when you read this carefully, you'll see verse 5, Jesus says this, except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. So notice the word Spirit there has a capital S, that's the Holy Spirit in verse five. So the way in which a person is born again is this. God sends the Holy Spirit into the soul of that person and he brings him around to being alive after being dead. We call it sometimes being converted, or we sometimes refer to it as new birth. That's what Jesus is doing here. It's the new birth. We have two parts. We have the body and we have the soul. The body is alive when it comes out of the womb of the mother and born into this world when you're in hospital. When is the soul? born. The soul is born when the Holy Spirit comes into the soul, and with a tremendously wonderful power, he changes all the five faculties of the soul. Let me use a little illustration for the sake of the young people, because the young ones especially want to help to get to heaven, don't we? The older ones have our chance to read the books, but they don't have the chance to read what we can read so easily. Let me use just a little illustration for the young ones. Supposing now I have two men standing in front of us here. One man standing here. I'm not pointing to any of these men. One man standing here, another one standing here. Now, why do I say that? Well, my illustration is this. This man here is a Christian. This man here is not a Christian. So why am I saying this? Well, because I'm going to ask them questions. Because when I ask questions of people, you can tell whether they are born again or not. So this gentleman, I'm going to ask him some questions. Now, sir, I say, let me get the answer to these questions, please, so that the young people and others can see and understand. Have you been born again? Oh, yes, he says, I have, yes. And what's your attitude to God? Oh, he says, God, I love God. I love him. I pray to him night and day. Oh, I think of God. I bless him, he was so kind to me. I used to be a sinner like everybody else, but oh, God was so kind to me. He gave me the new birth. And now I love God. I thank you. What do you think of Jesus? Oh, Jesus, I love Jesus. He died on the cross for me. I can never thank him enough. When I go to heaven and see him, I want to throw myself at Jesus's feet and kiss his feet and say, oh, Jesus, Jesus, how I thank you for saving my wicked soul. Right? And what do you think of the Bible? Oh, the Bible. I think of the Bible as God's infallible, perfect word. I live my everyday life by the Bible. I read it every morning. I take my family worship every day with the Bible in my hand. When I go to church, I have a faithful minister who preaches the Bible. It's the Bible I love because it's the word of God. I thank you. And what do you think about going to die? Oh, he said, I can't die soon enough. I long to get to heaven. I want to see God because Jesus has said that those who live as they ought to live in a pure way, they will see God. So that's the answer to my questions. Thank you, sir. You sit down again. We'll ask the other gentleman who is not a Christian. He is not a born again. This one here. Now, sir, let me ask you the same question. What do you think of God? Oh, he says, I don't think of God at all. I'm an atheist. I don't believe there is a God. How can I know there's a God? Can I get a telescope and look right up into the sky? No, I don't believe in God. Next question. What do you think of Jesus? Well, they say he was a very nice person, but of course, I don't know anything because I never met him, but I'm not interested in him really anymore. I'm interested in the man in the moon, just another man. All right, thank you. What do you think of this question? What do you think of the Bible? The Bible. Well, now you're asking a question which I'd really like to answer. I hate the Bible. It's full of nonsense telling us things that I couldn't possibly believe. When I get a Bible, I want to throw it in the dustbin. All right, thank you. And what do you think of death? Oh, death. Oh, I don't want to go there. I don't talk about death. I hate the thought of death. I'm terrified of the thought of death. I don't want to die. I want to look after myself as much as I can. So that's my answer to your question. All right, thank you, sir. So that's the Christians' answers. And that's the unbeliever's answer. Now, you see, what the born-again person thinks about these things is absolutely the opposite of what the non-born-again person thinks. So you see why Jesus says to us, unless a man is born again, 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. So, my dear friends, That's why a person can never go to heaven who's not been born again. Because he hates God. He hates Christ. Well, you say to me, that's very strong. All right, let me give you something practical to think about. Why do so few people these days go to church? I'll tell you the answer. It's because they hate God. Why do so few people take the Bible seriously? Because they hate God. Why do so few people get so terrified about death and they don't say, I'm preparing to death by coming to Christ? Because they hate everything to do with what the Bible teaches. I'm not exaggerating, the Bible tells us this. If we are not born again, Then we hate God. And that's the terrible situation, I'm afraid, that's coming to our beloved country. People who used once upon a time to love God in places of government and church offices, positions of authority, they're not there anymore. These loving, born-again people are up there. They've gone to heaven. But a new generation has come into the power of our government, and they don't worry about the things that their forefathers took that would be so important. The Covenanters, they gave their lives to believe God, and to serve God, and to be faithful to God, and to give to you and me the Bible. Oh, my friends, what a book this is. God's divine, infallible, perfect word. But you see, when people aren't born again, They don't read it. They don't believe it. They think it's a joke. Why should I read that old book? Look at the number of pages there. Whoa, it would take me a lifetime to read all those pages. No, no, I can't waste my time reading the Bible. That's what the unbeliever says. That's why our nation's in a mess it's in. Now I must close in a moment because I don't want to make a too long sermon, but let me say this to every one of you here today. who are not Christians and are not born again. Let me say to you, my beloved men and women, boys and girls, make this the most important thing of all in life, to ask God that he will give you his Holy Spirit to make your soul different. You see, if your soul is the soul of an unbeliever, you hate God, you hate the Bible, you hate Jesus, you hate having to do with the church. That's why people don't come to church. They don't want to come to church. They want to be watching the football match. How many thousands watch the football? How many thousands watch the football? There are not many thousands come to church anyway, are there? But in the past, you see, when our forefathers were living, Thousands of people came to church. When the famous preacher in London called Spurgeon, very famous preacher, you may know his name, Spurgeon, when he went into his new church that they built for him, how big was it? It held 2,000 people. How many churches could you get 2,000 people to build today? But you see, this is what we need to see to be all important. My dearly beloved boys and girls, I want you all to be in heaven. My dearly beloved older people, men and women, I want you all to be in heaven. And there's only one way there. I can't give you a ticket to get to heaven. I can't stamp my name on something and say, when you get up there, it'll let you in. No, I can't do that. I can't do that. Oh, but Jesus can. He is the way, the truth, and the life. And he tells us here, if we are born again, we will certainly go to heaven. Very interesting, the way he keeps on saying, verily, verily. Look at verse three, verily, verily, I say this to you. Verse five, verily, verily. What does that mean, verily, verily? It means, I'm telling you this because it's extremely important. You must be born again. I think as we read on in the book of John, we see that this Nicodemus man, I think he was probably converted. He shows signs of getting right with God as the book of John goes on. It looks like that anyway. But as I close my sermon now to you, my dearly beloved boys and girls and men and women, let me ask you this. Are you born again? Perhaps you want to say, I don't know. Well, if you don't know, then the best way to interpret that is to say, you are not born again. I'm going to close by telling you how I was born again. I'm not doing this to show off or to make myself look important. I'm doing it because it may be a help to people who don't know what happens when you're born again. I was about 18 at the time and I was enjoying sport, football and cricket. That's all I cared about, football and cricket. That's all I wanted. And to enjoy life, you know, eating and drinking and everything you do when you're a boy of that age. But one day I met a Christian boy And he did this, he turned to me and said, you need to be converted. You need to be born again. And I didn't like it. I wanted to enjoy life. Why should I be born again? What's wrong with me? But I couldn't get rid of those words. They clung to me, they stuck to me. And day after day, I tried to get rid of them, out of my mind, but I couldn't. God in his mercy to me, fool that I was, He kept on pressing my conscience and telling me, you need to get right with God. Well, I couldn't go on and on and on forever in that state of mind. So one day I was so struck in my conscience, this is what I did. And with this, I finished. I was in the university and I went to the library and I sat on a seat in the library. And I was so troubled with this conscience of mine, I said to God, Oh God, I'll do anything to get peace. I got it, there and then. I was born again. How do I know? My whole life was changed. Now it wasn't football and cricket I wanted, it was fellowship with Christians, reading the Bible, studying the theology, telling other people that they needed to be born again, So I went home and told my father and mother and sister, I've been born again, I'm a true Christian. Oh, they said, no, it's just a phase, you'll get out of that. But it didn't get out of me. And I pressed on the gospel on them. And by the grace of God, they were all converted. My father, my mother, my sister became a missionary in the Middle East. In Turkey for years, she's still living. All her family are making a profession of faith in Christ, I believe. So my dearly beloved boys and girls, men and women, it's not what I'm telling you that matters, it's what Jesus says. Verse three, here's my text. I say to you, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So I beg you, boys and girls, and all the people, Oh, give your hearts to God and pray to him saying, Lord, oh, make me to be born again. Let us pray. Almighty God, we have not words to thank thee for the unspeakable kindness. When the angels sinned against thee, Satan and others of them did, there was no savior given to die upon the cross for them. but for us fallen ruined sinners. Thy beloved Son came to die and pay the price for our wickedness and give us eternal life. Oh, bless, we pray, thy word to us all, and may these very precious older and younger people experience the new birth and live to praise thee for it. Through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.