THE NEW BIRTH
John Wesley was asked why he
preached so often on, “Ye must be born again.” He answered, “Because ye
must be born again.” Have YOU been born again? Without the new birth,
you have no hope of escaping the terrors of Hell or enjoying the glories
of Heaven. The Lord Jesus said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7).
I. WHAT THE NEW BIRTH IS NOT
1. It is not religion.
Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a very strict religionist. He celebrated the
Passover, paid tithes, said prayers, brought sacrifices, and tried to
keep the Law. To HIM, the Lord Jesus said, “Ye must be born again.”
Law-keeping, joining a church, being baptized, or living up to a
religious creed will not save you. There will be many in Hell who did
all of these things. Will you? Ye MUST be born again.
2. It is not morality.
You may try to keep the Golden Rule, pay your bills, be a good
neighbor, stay out of jail, and live a clean, moral life, but that won’t
save you.
It is not recorded that our Lord said, “Ye must be born
again,” to cowardly, vacillating Pilate, or to two-faced, hypocritical
Judas. Why? Because you would say, “I know miserable hypocrites like
Judas and men like Pilate need to be born again, but I’m not like them. I
wouldn’t betray Christ with a kiss after professing to be His friend. I
wouldn’t order Jesus to be beaten and turn Him over to a howling,
blood-thirsty mob to be crucified. Gangsters, thugs, adulterers, liars,
drunkards, and gamblers need to be born again, but not I. I’m all
right.”
My friend, do you realize that God’s Son spoke these words
on the new birth to a man who was doing his best to gain Heaven? Without
a doubt, he was neither a crook, drunkard, nor gambler. He was a true
husband, a good neighbor, a man of clean morals, and religious. If he
needed to be born again, so do you. How do you expect to make it to
Heaven without being born again if Nicodemus couldn’t?
3. It is not reformation.
Even if you quit all your meanness, that would not be the new birth.
Your trouble is not on the outside but the inside. You don’t need
exterior decoration, but interior regeneration. Satan wants you to rest
in a false peace. We warn you in Jesus’ name, don’t be satisfied unless
you have been born again.
II. WHAT THE NEW BIRTH IS
1. It is a mystery you cannot explain, but a reality no man can explain away.
“The wind bloweth where it listeth (pleaseth), 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” (John 3:8). Just as
Nicodemus could not understand or explain the wind, so no man can
understand or explain the new birth.
But the wind is a reality no
man can explain away. Only a fool would say, “I don’t believe in the
wind because I have never seen it, and I can’t understand it.”
See
the wind move the big limbs of an oak. Watch the wind tear a house to
splinters. You cannot deny the reality of wind! You cannot see the Holy
Spirit. You cannot explain Him. But see His mighty power make the harlot
pure, the liar honest, the drunkard sober, the blasphemer pray, and
then try to deny the reality of it.
2. It is the work of
God by which a poor, lost, guilty, hell-deserving sinner who receives
the Lord Jesus receives a new nature, becomes a child of God, and begins
a new life. It is a second birth, a spiritual birth.
Physical life begins with birth. Spiritual life begins the same way—not
by joining a church and becoming religious. You cannot JOIN the family
of God. You must be BORN into it. Someone has said, “You can’t make a
Christian out of anybody.” True, Christians are not made; they are born.
Birth is the coming into being of a new life which has the nature of
its parents. When you were born the first time, you were made a partaker
of the old nature, the sinful nature we all received from Adam. When
you are born again, you become a partaker of the divine nature (II Peter
1:4). Is this true of you? DO YOU have the divine nature?
No
matter what kind of religious profession you have made, no matter how
moral a person you may be, unless you have been made the partaker of the
divine nature, you are not saved. God gives you this new nature the
moment you receive His Son. It is instantaneous. You can no more be born
again by degrees than you can shoot a firecracker by degrees.
When
you are born again, you begin living a new life. That is what happened
when you were born the first time; you started living a life you had
never lived before.
Some think they are going to Heaven just
because they went forward in a meeting. Be sure you are born again.
There may be a more dramatic change in the life of a drunken, railing
blasphemer, but even in you who have not been down deep in sin, there is
bound to be a change when you are born again. There will be a new
attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ, His Word, and His people.
Are you SURE you have been born again? You may not know the exact day or
hour you trusted Christ, but you should be able to say, “I know NOW I
am born again.” If you are not sure about this most serious matter, I
beg of you to tell the Lord Jesus that you receive Him now. Then read
John 3:36 and believe it. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting
life.”
III. WHY YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN
1. Because the Lord Jesus Christ said so. That ought to settle it.
2. Because you have a sinful nature.
The nature we all receive from Adam is fallen, corrupt, and totally
depraved. God says the heart of man is desperately wicked and deceitful
above all things. With this old nature, you could not enjoy yourself in
Heaven. If you can’t find any pleasure in a prayer meeting now, how can
you expect to enjoy Heaven hereafter? Heaven is a holy place. When you
are born again, God gives you a holy nature that you might enjoy
yourself in Heaven, a holy place.
3. Because you cannot save yourself.
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves:
it is the gift of God: not of works, lest any man should boast” (Eph
2:8, 9). “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to His mercy He saved us” (Titus 3:5). Now don’t skip lightly
over these two quotations from God’s Holy Word. Read them again and
again until the truth grips you. You cannot save yourself—you MUST be
born again.
IV. HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN
“He
came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as received
Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on His Name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God,” (John 1:11-13).
1. It is not of blood.
You are not a Christian just because your parents may be. You do not
inherit salvation from your parents. Even though your folks may be
saved, if you have not been born again, you are lost.
2. Nor of the will of the flesh.
It is not by your efforts and willpower. You will fail. So why not stop
trying? Instead of working, trust, receive and depend upon the One Who
died and rose again.
If I’d ask some of you if you were a child of
God, you would say, “I don’t know for sure, but I’m trying to be, in my
poor, weak way.” Now suppose you ask Johnny Jones if he is the son of
Mr. and Mrs. Jones, and he answers, “I’m not certain, but I’m trying to
be in my poor, weak way.” How silly. He is not their son because he
tries to be, but because he was born into their home. If you are a child
of God, it is not because you are trying to be, but because you have
been born into His family.
3. Nor of the will of man.
It is not brought about by any of man’s religious creeds, systems, or
ceremonies. No man or organization can do anything to you that will make
you a child of God. Join what you will, go through ceremony after
ceremony, memorize creeds, and try to keep the rules and regulations of
man-made systems, but it will not save you.
I heard a man testify,
“I have been the president of the men’s Bible class in our church for
the past two years, but I didn’t get saved until just two months ago.”
For twenty-two months, the president of the men’s Bible class, a member
of the church, believing in God and the Bible, but lost because he had
never been born again.
4. But of God. The Lord
Jesus said you must be born “of the SPIRIT.” It is God’s work, not
yours. It is a miracle. Only God can perform it. If God has not done a
work in your life, you are not born again. Your part is to believe in
God’s record that you are lost and in need of Christ and receive Him as
your Lord and personal Saviour. He died at Calvary, satisfying the
righteousness and justice of God, that He might take your sins and
punishment upon Himself. He arose and is seated today as God’s Man at
the right hand of the Majesty on high (see Heb. 1:3), and He is offered
to you as God’s salvation. When you receive HIM, you will be saved, for
Paul says we are “children of God by faith in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:26).
You do not receive Christ by taking communion. You receive Christ by
faith. Just tell Him that you accept Him as your personal Saviour.
A
personal friend of mine, a preacher of the Gospel, told me that he was a
Sunday School superintendent before he was saved. A lady told me she
was a church member 38 years before she was saved.
Before it is
eternally too late, I beg of you again for your sake, for your family’s
sake, for Jesus’ sake, do not trifle with this thing. Bow at the feet of
the risen Lord and tell Him you receive Him now. “He that hath the SON
hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life” (I John
5:12).
Just bow your head and say: Lord, I am a guilty, lost
helpless sinner. I believe You suffered on the cross for my sins and
died in my place, paying the penalty for my sins, and You rose again. I
call on You my sins and give me eternal life.
Now read Romans
10:13: “Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
Did you call upon Him? Then He says you are saved!
See John 6:47:
“He that believeth on me hath everlasting life.” Did you believe on
Him—that is, did you receive Him and trust Him for salvation? Then He
says you have eternal life!
