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Brainstorming the New Birth Msg 6 12 · INSIGHT FOR LIVING: Biblical Wisdom For Everyday Living

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Speaker 1: If you have the opportunity to give one message for
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Speaker 1: one time to a group of Christians, what would that
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Speaker 1: one message be? Now think about it for a moment.
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Speaker 1: You have one opportunity to speak to one group of
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Speaker 1: believers one time, what would you speak on. I can
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Speaker 1: think of many possible subjects. One might be the assurance
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Speaker 1: of salvation. Many Christians need to hear about that. Another
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Speaker 1: subject might be our future. Someday Christ will return and
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Speaker 1: will gather his own to be with him forever. Now
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Speaker 1: that's a powerful message to bring. Or you might speak
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Speaker 1: on forgiveness or the need for mutual encouragement. And I
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Speaker 1: can't even think of a half a dozen others. All
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Speaker 1: those are important, but none of them would be thee
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Speaker 1: I would bring if I had one time to speak
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Speaker 1: to a group of God's people. I thought about this
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Speaker 1: for a while, and this would be my message, how
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Speaker 1: to be a Christian without becoming religious. You see, we
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Speaker 1: often equate those two terms Christian and religious, but they're
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Speaker 1: not to be equated. When I think of a religious person,
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Speaker 1: I imagine someone's striving to win God's approval. The image that
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Speaker 1: comes to mind is a person on a treadmill running
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Speaker 1: faster and faster on that treadmill of religious activities, working
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Speaker 1: and striving and hoping and praying that somehow he or
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Speaker 1: she might please God. People on the religious treadmill assume
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Speaker 1: that there is so much between what they're doing and
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Speaker 1: what God requires of them that they just have to
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Speaker 1: stay at it day and night, work at it, and
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Speaker 1: strive and labor, hoping somehow to find God in the
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Speaker 1: middle of it, and to know that they please God
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Speaker 1: in order to gain his favor and earn his love
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Speaker 1: and approval. But that's not only wrong, that's heresy. In fact,
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Speaker 1: I would consider it the greatest heresy on this earth.
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Speaker 1: A works based religion says this, if I work hard
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Speaker 1: enough and long enough, I might somehow please God. But
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Speaker 1: the truth is you can't. No, you cannot. No one
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Speaker 1: can run fast enough on the religious treadmill to reach
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Speaker 1: the level of God's holiness, in God's righteousness. Now why
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Speaker 1: is that Well, because we're sin and none of that
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Speaker 1: effort will cancel out our sinfulness and enable us to
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Speaker 1: earn God's righteousness. So the one message I would declare
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Speaker 1: to Christians, or to anyone for that matter, would be
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Speaker 1: to stop working so hard to be religious. Instead live
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Speaker 1: your life from a mindset of grace. Now, let me
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Speaker 1: explain that grace is what God does for us that
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Speaker 1: we cannot earn, that we don't deserve, and we can
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Speaker 1: never repay. Only by his grace can we gain a
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Speaker 1: right standing before God. His acceptance of us is unmerited.
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Speaker 1: As Paul wrote to the Ephesians in Chapter two, verse eight,
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Speaker 1: by grace you have been saved. All we must do
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Speaker 1: is believe in Jesus Christ as our savior. That's it.
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Speaker 2: That's all.
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Speaker 1: The passage that I'm going to read today from the
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Speaker 1: Book of John expresses this truth in the simplest terms.
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Speaker 1: For this is how much God loved the world. He
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Speaker 1: gave his one and only son, so that everyone who
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Speaker 1: believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.
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Speaker 1: We read that in John three sixteen. It's the single
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Speaker 1: most recognizable and most familiar verse in all the Bible.
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Speaker 1: Did you know Jesus spoke those words of grace to
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Speaker 1: a very religious person. He said them to Nicodemus, a
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Speaker 1: high ranking Pharisee. And Pharisees, according to Jesus, were people
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Speaker 1: who had great confidence in their own righteousness.
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Speaker 2: Fed out in.
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Speaker 1: Luke eighteen verse nine, and that describes Nicodemus to a
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Speaker 1: t confident in his own righteousness. At least that's how
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Speaker 1: he appeared on the outside. Perhaps down deep on the inside,
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Speaker 1: Like most religious people, he worried that he was not
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Speaker 1: doing enough, and must have often wondered whether there was
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Speaker 1: something else that he should be doing to please God.
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Speaker 1: He heard about this new rabbi, Jesus, and so he
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Speaker 1: came to him at night for a private conversation about
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Speaker 1: what he would call religion. Religion, however, was the last
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Speaker 1: thing Jesus would want to talk about. Let's find out
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Speaker 1: exactly what Jesus said to Nicodemus as I read for
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Speaker 1: you John chapter three, verses one through twenty one. Please
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Speaker 1: open your bibles, find the passing, and listen carefully as
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Speaker 1: I read from the New Living Translation. Our passage once
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Speaker 1: again is John chapter three, verses one to twenty one.
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Speaker 1: There was a man named Nicodemus, a Jewish religious leader
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Speaker 1: who was a pharisee. After dark one evening, he came
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Speaker 1: to speak with Jesus, Rabbi. He said, we all know
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Speaker 1: that God has sent you to teach us. Your miraculous
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Speaker 1: signs are evidence that God is with you, Jesus replied,
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Speaker 1: I tell you the truth. Unless you are born again,
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Speaker 1: you cannot see the Kingdom of God. What do you mean,
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Speaker 1: exclaimed Nicodemus. How can an old man go back into
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Speaker 1: his mother's womb and be born again? Jesus replied, I
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Speaker 1: assure you, no one can enter the Kingdom of God
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Speaker 1: without being born of water and the spirit. Humans can
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Speaker 1: reproduce only human life, but the Holy Spirit gives birth
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Speaker 1: to spiritual life. So don't be surprised when I say
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Speaker 1: you must be born again. The wind blows wherever it wants,
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Speaker 1: just as you can hear the wind, but can't tell
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Speaker 1: where it comes from or where it is going. So
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Speaker 1: you can't explain how people are born of the spirit.
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Speaker 1: How are these things possible, Nicodemus asked. Jesus replied, you
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Speaker 1: are a respected Jewish teacher, and yet you don't understand
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Speaker 1: these things. I assure you. We tell you what we
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Speaker 1: know and have seen, and yet you won't believe our testimony.
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Speaker 1: But if you don't believe me when I tell you
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Speaker 1: about earthly things, how can you possibly believe if I
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Speaker 1: tell you about heavenly things. No one has ever gone
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Speaker 1: to heaven and returned but the Son of Man has
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Speaker 1: come down from heaven. And as Moses lifted up the
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Speaker 1: bronze snake on a pole in the wilderness, so the
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Speaker 1: Son of Man must be lifted up, so that everyone
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Speaker 1: who believes in him will have eternal life. For this
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Speaker 1: is how God loved the world. He gave his one
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Speaker 1: and only son, so that everyone who believes in him
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Speaker 1: will not perish, but have eternal life. God sent his
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Speaker 1: son into the world not to judge the world, but
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Speaker 1: to save the world through him. There is no judgment
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Speaker 1: against anyone who believes in him, but anyone who does
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Speaker 1: not believe in him has already been judged for not
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Speaker 1: believing in God's one and only son, and the judgment
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Speaker 1: is based on this fact. God's light came into the world,
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Speaker 1: but people loved the darkness more than the light, for
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Speaker 1: their actions were evil. All who do evil hate the
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Speaker 1: light and refuse to go near it for fear their
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Speaker 1: sins will be exposed. But those who do what is
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Speaker 1: right come to the light so others can see that
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Speaker 1: they are doing what God wants.
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Speaker 2: I have a close personal friend who was born began
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Speaker 2: when he was twenty seven years old. It all started
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Speaker 2: back when he was ten and wanted to know God.
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Speaker 2: Two years later he found out that the way to
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Speaker 2: know God was to join a church. He thought, and
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Speaker 2: so he did. He joined a church, was baptized, but
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Speaker 2: nothing changed. Three years later, he began to develop as
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Speaker 2: a young man. He had drives and pressures and interests
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Speaker 2: that obviously were not godly. So he tried another approach,
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Speaker 2: that is the same approach through another church. He went
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Speaker 2: to a church, walked down an aisle, joined the church,
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Speaker 2: was baptized the second time. Except in this church they
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Speaker 2: taught that in order to really know God, you have
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Speaker 2: to give up, so he did. He gave up the
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Speaker 2: habit of drinking, which he had already begun to pick up.
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Speaker 2: He gave up smoking, he gave up playing cards, he
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Speaker 2: gave up dancing. He even stopped dating, which was a
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Speaker 2: strange thing for a fifteen year old boy. To day,
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Speaker 2: he thought, but to know God, it's worth it. But
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Speaker 2: he still didn't know God, and he wondered, isn't God available?
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Speaker 2: Two years later, he realized he couldn't keep all of
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Speaker 2: those regiments and rules that he had spelled out or
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Speaker 2: the church had. So he found another church, and you
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Speaker 2: guessed it, walked down front, joined the church, and that
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Speaker 2: night was baptized the third time. But only a few
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Speaker 2: months passed before he realized he was no different, no power,
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Speaker 2: no change, And so in his own words, he kissed
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Speaker 2: it all off and he ran wild. He went to
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Speaker 2: a university, and he parted himself out of the school.
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Speaker 2: He joined the military, and he became virtually an alcoholic
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Speaker 2: in a period of years. He finally was discharged and
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Speaker 2: found a woman and married her, and before long that
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Speaker 2: marriage was on the rocks. He got a job in
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Speaker 2: the Deep South, tried his best to live before God
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Speaker 2: and discovered finally it isn't worth it. So he devoted
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Speaker 2: himself to one motto, and I quote, live fast, play hard,
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Speaker 2: die young, leave a good looking corpse. So he tried it.
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Speaker 2: Before long he was a moral degenerate, and after a
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Speaker 2: very fresh brush with death, he raced to his sea
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Speaker 2: bag and began to look through his belongings from his
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Speaker 2: days in the military, and he pulled out a little testament,
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Speaker 2: a Gideon New Testament. Started reading in Matthew One. He
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Speaker 2: got to chapter five, six and seven, and he knew
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Speaker 2: he couldn't keep those rules that Jesus mentioned in the
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Speaker 2: sermon on the mound, so he rushed over to Mark
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Speaker 2: to see if there was some hope there and Luke,
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Speaker 2: and the more commandments he read from Jesus, the more
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Speaker 2: he realized he couldn't do it. He was so frustrated
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Speaker 2: and so miserable. He turned to John and he found
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Speaker 2: an interesting conversation in the third chapter between Jesus and
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Speaker 2: a man whose name he couldn't pronounce. And he began
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Speaker 2: to read about a new birth, and he thought, that's
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Speaker 2: what I need. I was born wrong the first time.
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Speaker 2: If I could be born new and different the second time,
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Speaker 2: it'll all be better. So, like a little child, he
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Speaker 2: got on his knees and he said, Lord, if you
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Speaker 2: accept me like I am, I'll accept you like you are,
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Speaker 2: and I'll expect from you that new birth. I take
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Speaker 2: Jesus Christ by faith. That night, hal was born again,
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Speaker 2: not because he tried to do things that were good
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Speaker 2: and right, but because he realized his inability to do
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Speaker 2: what was right, and so he trusted Jesus, the righteous one,
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Speaker 2: who by a new birth, could bring new changes, new
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Speaker 2: results in his life. That true account points out to
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Speaker 2: me the simple contrast between religion and regeneration. Don't you
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Speaker 2: think for a minute there is any similarity between the two.
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Speaker 2: There is a world of difference. Correction, there is an
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Speaker 2: eternities difference. Religion says this, by an external system of works,
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Speaker 2: you gain God's favor. Regeneration says, no internal gift. God
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Speaker 2: gives you his life through Jesus Christ. Religion says, by
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Speaker 2: something that I do or something that I am, I
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Speaker 2: can earn God's favor. I can achieve it. And when
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Speaker 2: eternity comes, God will weigh my good with my evil,
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Speaker 2: and he will see that that the good outweighs the evil,
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Speaker 2: and then he will say, come into heaven. But Regeneration says,
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Speaker 2: all our righteousness says, are as filthy rags. You have
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Speaker 2: no help in yourself. I offer you the death of
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Speaker 2: my son, says God, his resurrection on your behalf. And
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Speaker 2: I give you all the power you need to give
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Speaker 2: up those habits that plague you and ruin your physical life.
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Speaker 2: I will make it possible for you to really know
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Speaker 2: what it is to live and to move in this
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Speaker 2: world with meaning and definition. Religion is working hard to
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Speaker 2: be someone before God. Regeneration is giving up my works
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Speaker 2: and accepting Jesus' work At Calvary and the new life
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Speaker 2: that he promises. There's the difference. You see. I'm convinced
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Speaker 2: in this congregation today there are some of you that
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Speaker 2: are extremely religious, but you've never been re generated. And
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Speaker 2: it's especially for you that this sermon is dedicated this morning,
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Speaker 2: because it's based on a conversation, indeed, that Jesus had
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Speaker 2: with a man who was the religionist of his day.
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Speaker 2: Look at this third chapter with me. Please notice, in
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Speaker 2: the third chapter of John, it's a rather simple presentation
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Speaker 2: of and encounter Jesus' head with Nicodemus, the man of
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Speaker 2: the hour in his day. Humanly speaking, I say that
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Speaker 2: because of the credentials that are given to us in
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Speaker 2: these verses. There are three. Look in your Bible with me.
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Speaker 2: Verse one describes Nicodemus as a man of the Pharisees.
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Speaker 2: It concludes with the fact that he was a ruler
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Speaker 2: of the Jews. Thirdly, Verse ten tells us he was
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Speaker 2: the teacher of Israel. Don't miss that he was a
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Speaker 2: Pharisee to begin with. Now we don't have Pharisees to well,
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Speaker 2: we don't have We do have Pharisees, but we don't
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Speaker 2: have the brotherhood named Pharisees. Today, the word pharisee comes
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Speaker 2: from an original term that means to be separated. They
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Speaker 2: were the separatists. They were the religious rigid men of
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Speaker 2: the day. There was never more than six thousand of
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Speaker 2: them in Palestine at any one time. It was a
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Speaker 2: brotherhood made up of men who split theological hairs and
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Speaker 2: lived up not to the system of God's law, but
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Speaker 2: to their own law, which they legalistically enforced upon the
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Speaker 2: people of Jury. A Pharisee in that day was noted
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Speaker 2: for his religious hair splitting. Let me give you an example.
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Speaker 2: In the Old Testament, Moses, under God's direction, wrote out
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Speaker 2: the commandment to keep the Sabbath holy. That means don't
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Speaker 2: work on the Sabbath. When Saturday comes, the jew is
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Speaker 2: to stop working, said Moses, and he is not to
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Speaker 2: start working until what we would call the dawn or
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Speaker 2: the beginning of Sunday, the first day of the week.
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Speaker 2: But on that last day of the week there is
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Speaker 2: to be no work. It's a rather simple plan. But
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Speaker 2: the Pharisees were satisfied with that, would you believe. For generations,
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Speaker 2: literally they worked over that commandment, so much so that
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Speaker 2: in their manual called the mish not. They wrote twenty
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Speaker 2: four chapters on what it means to work and not
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Speaker 2: work on the Sabbath. Not satisfied with the simple plan,
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Speaker 2: they spelled out what was involved in working and not working.
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Speaker 2: Certain kind of knots involved working, but tying another kind
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Speaker 2: of knot did not. Oh, it's interesting, one knot did
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Speaker 2: one did not. It's something as simple as walking over
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Speaker 2: grass means you blak, you break the blade of the grass,
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Speaker 2: and that's working, whereas you can walk a path without
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Speaker 2: grass and it's not working. See how ridiculous it became.
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Speaker 2: The Talmud another one of their bylaws, as it were,
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Speaker 2: devote sixty four and a half columns to the Sabbath requirements.
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Speaker 2: A pharisee was noted for his external dos and don'ts,
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Speaker 2: and he not only embraced them, he forced those under
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Speaker 2: his teaching to embrace them or to be terribly criticized.
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Speaker 2: It says in verse one he was a ruler of
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Speaker 2: the Jews. This narrows it from sixty from six thousand
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Speaker 2: to seventy. Just like in our own land, we have
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Speaker 2: a supreme court. The people of Israel had a supreme
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Speaker 2: court in their day. It was called the Sanhedrin. It
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Speaker 2: was one of the members of the Sanhedrin. The Sanhedron
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Speaker 2: had religious jurisdiction over every Jew in the world, so
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Speaker 2: he carried a great deal of swat. He was a
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Speaker 2: very responsible person. But I think more than these two
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Speaker 2: is the fact that Jesus calls him the teacher of Israel.
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Speaker 2: That's the most impressive. Maybe you didn't realize it in
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Speaker 2: your years of the studying and reading about Nicodemus and Jesus,
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Speaker 2: that Nicodemus was, without question the voice of the Jews.
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Speaker 2: He was the spokesman when it came to rabbitic teachings.
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Speaker 2: Bill Counts in his book Once a Carpenter says this,
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Speaker 2: so far as we know, Jesus never encountered a more prestigious, knowledgeable,
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Speaker 2: refined representative of Judaism than Nicodemus. He was the man
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Speaker 2: of the day. That explains in verse two why he
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Speaker 2: came at night. He was no dummy. Nicodemus knew in
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Speaker 2: his heart that for him to go in the day
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Speaker 2: would surely be seen by people around the city. Any
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Speaker 2: well known personage knows that wherever he goes, he's going
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Speaker 2: to be spotted, especially when you're the teacher of Israel.
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Speaker 2: So he went at night. Furthermore, it was a time
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Speaker 2: for privacy. They would have an uninterrupted occasion for conversation
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Speaker 2: and interaction regarding this crucial decision that Nicodemus was wrestling with.
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Speaker 2: So he came, I believe, and I give him full credit.
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Speaker 2: He came in all sincerity as a religious man, not
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Speaker 2: knowing that the conversation would be turned from religion to regeneration.
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Speaker 2: Look at his approach verse two. Rabbi, that was a
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Speaker 2: courteous and kind title he gave to one who was
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Speaker 2: not a graduate of the rabbinic schools. But he knew
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Speaker 2: he was a teacher. And he said, Rabbi, we know,
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Speaker 2: including himself he'd watch the things go on in Jesus'
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Speaker 2: early ministry. We know that you have come from God
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Speaker 2: as a teacher. He didn't say, we know that you
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Speaker 2: were God in the flesh, but he said, we know
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Speaker 2: that you have been obviously a God gifted teacher. Or
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Speaker 2: no one can do these signs that you do unless
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Speaker 2: God is with him. All due respect for this courteous approach,
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Speaker 2: I have to add that religious people often rely on flattery.
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Speaker 2: Religious people are very enamored with human achievement. They're very
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Speaker 2: impressed with the importance of people, and so when around people,
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Speaker 2: they frequently go to the realm of flattery when not
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Speaker 2: knowing what else to talk about. And Nicodemus came in
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Speaker 2: this rather awkward situation, and he stood with Jesus, perhaps
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Speaker 2: in the alley in an appointed place. Maybe he had
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Speaker 2: made an appointment some other time, and they had met
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Speaker 2: in an inn or a room of a house. Where
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Speaker 2: they met is not given us. But he came at
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Speaker 2: night and he said, we know you're a teacher from God.
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Speaker 2: Now what did Jesus think of that approach? Verse three?
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Speaker 2: He went right for the juggler vain. Jesus answered and
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Speaker 2: said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless
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Speaker 2: one is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of
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Speaker 2: God God. What does that have to do with what
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Speaker 2: Nicodemus just said. Zero. He was not embroiled. He was
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Speaker 2: not impressed with the embellished beginning that Nicodemus brought to
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Speaker 2: the conversation. Jesus saw in him what he saw in
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Speaker 2: every man. Look at verse twenty five of the preceding chapter.
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Speaker 2: Just look up to the last verse of chapter two.
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Speaker 2: This describes why Jesus answered like he did because he
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Speaker 2: that's Jesus did not need anyone to bear witness concerning man,
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Speaker 2: for he himself knew what was in man. He had
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Speaker 2: that spiritual X ray vision. Don't you wish you had
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Speaker 2: that ability? Sometime? Other times? I guess we're glad we don't.
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Speaker 2: Don't you wish you really knew if your boss meant
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Speaker 2: what he said to you when he told you what
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Speaker 2: a good job you're doing. And again, maybe it would
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Speaker 2: be better that you didn't know the truth of that.
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Speaker 2: But you wish you really knew what that person thought
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Speaker 2: of you when you're conversing with him at the church
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Speaker 2: or in your home. Then again, maybe it wouldn't be
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Speaker 2: wise for us to really know the truth because we
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Speaker 2: lack omniscience in knowing how to put it all together. Now,
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Speaker 2: Jesus blended with the x ray ability to penetrate the
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Speaker 2: heart of man. He had full knowledge of man from
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Speaker 2: beginning to ending. He saw right through Nicodemus. It has
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Speaker 2: been said of one great spiritual leader of our era.
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Speaker 2: When I talk with him, he looks right into my soul.
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Speaker 2: That's what it was with Nicodemus. He was exposed on
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Speaker 2: zipped shown forth manifested right before the Son of God,
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Speaker 2: when Jesus said Nicodemus, you've got to be born again.
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Speaker 2: Look carefully at that third verse. I think it has
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Speaker 2: a great deal we might have missed first. It's the
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Speaker 2: first time in all the scriptures the words born again
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Speaker 2: are connected. It's the first place where you will find
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Speaker 2: in detail the spelling out of read generation. It's not
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Speaker 2: the first time the thought of being born into God's
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Speaker 2: family appears. Go back a couple of chapters to verse twelve.
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Speaker 2: In chapter one, let me show you something you read
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Speaker 2: a few days ago but maybe never connected with Chapter three.
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Speaker 2: John one, Verse twelve describes.
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Speaker 3: Those that believe in Jesus those that receive him. But
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Speaker 3: as many as received him, to them, he gave the
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Speaker 3: right to become children of God. Notice the terms children
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Speaker 3: of God, even to those who belive in his name.
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Speaker 2: Don't stop reading. These are the ones who were born,
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Speaker 2: not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor
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Speaker 2: of the will of man, but of God. Those that
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Speaker 2: receive Jesus Christ, those that accept him as personal savior,
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Speaker 2: are born. And if you take away all of the
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Speaker 2: subordinates in verse thirteen, they are born of God. Underline
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Speaker 2: that who were born of God? What does it mean
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Speaker 2: to experience Christianity? What does it mean to be in
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Speaker 2: the family of God? It means that you begin with
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Speaker 2: a new birth. Your old birth won't satisfy. I was
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Speaker 2: born wrong the first time. I need a righteous birth.
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Speaker 2: The best I can say I got from my first
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Speaker 2: birth is physical life. But with it I got the
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Speaker 2: same disease my parent's head, and they got the same
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Speaker 2: their parents' head, the disease of sin. And I can
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Speaker 2: never find the counteracting power against sin apart from a
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Speaker 2: new birth through Christ. Now back to chapter three. One
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Speaker 2: more thought on verse three. I think because the words
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Speaker 2: born again are so significant, we have missed the importance
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Speaker 2: of another word. Cannot I want you to meditate on that?
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Speaker 2: Will you? Jesus said to him. Unless one is born again,
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Speaker 2: he cannot see the Kingdom of God. Merrill Tinney, in
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Speaker 2: his fine work The Gospel of Belief, does a good
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Speaker 2: job with the word. Cannot listen to what he said.
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Speaker 2: The natural man cannot enter the spiritual kingdom. Cannot implies
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Speaker 2: cape incapability rather than prohibition. The natural man is not
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Speaker 2: arbitrarily debarred from the kingdom. He is inherently incapable of
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Speaker 2: apprehending it seeing it, just as a blind man cannot
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Speaker 2: enjoy a sunset. It's not that a lost man can
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Speaker 2: look and see the Kingdom and say, well, that would
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Speaker 2: be great, But I don't buy the plan believing in Jesus.
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Speaker 2: He can't even apprehend it in himself. Not only is
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Speaker 2: it true, dead men tell no tales, dead men see
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Speaker 2: no kingdom. The dead man, apart from the work of
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Speaker 2: grace in his life through the power of the Holy Spirit,
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Speaker 2: lives his life blinded to the Kingdom of God. All
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Speaker 2: he sees is the results. He can't get the plan together.
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Speaker 2: That's why the Spirit of God comes to our rescue
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Speaker 2: and meets us where we are. Now, That's why Nicodemus says,
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Speaker 2: how can a man be born when he is old?
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Speaker 2: Now before you are critical, and I've heard it tut
31:42
Speaker 2: almost to a point of making Nicodemus look like a
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Speaker 2: an imbecile. He was a brilliant man, but he was frustrated.
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Speaker 2: He said, look, wait a minute, you're talking about a
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Speaker 2: new birth. I'm old. Maybe he was the age of Jesus. Now,
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Speaker 2: how can a man old like I am come to
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Speaker 2: this new birth? Yeah? I can't go back to my
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Speaker 2: mother's womb, can I? I like the way the new
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Speaker 2: asv renders this, It's asked it with the negative answer implied.
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Speaker 2: That's precisely the way the Greek does it. I can't
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Speaker 2: do that, can I? Meaning I want to? It seems
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Speaker 2: to be the thought. I'd like to know it, But
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Speaker 2: I'm old. How many people feel that because they are
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Speaker 2: older they cannot enter into the Kingdom of God. You know,
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Speaker 2: there's no age limit on salvation. That's what makes it
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Speaker 2: so marvelous. Not only is it not a salvation by works,
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Speaker 2: it's not a salvation by age. A little child that
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Speaker 2: comes to God through faith in Jesus is being born again,
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Speaker 2: just like one. In his eighties and nineties, Nicodemus didn't
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Speaker 2: understand it. Another point I want to make is you
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Speaker 2: can go through the schools of the day. You can
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Speaker 2: begin to approach life from this academic standpoint and be
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Speaker 2: so terribly wanting spiritually. That's the way. Nicodemus was such
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Speaker 2: a maverick thought as this new birth through him and
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Speaker 2: Jesus is so gracious. His approach to him is clear
33:30
Speaker 2: and deliberate. He used two illustrations verses six. Verses five
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Speaker 2: through eight, you find two simple illustrations that even an
33:43
Speaker 2: intellectual could understand it. Look at this verse five. Truly, truly,
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Speaker 2: I say to you, unless one is born of water
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Speaker 2: and spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God,
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Speaker 2: as that which is born of flesh as flesh. That
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Speaker 2: which is born of spirit is spirit. What is the
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Speaker 2: illustration physical birth? Before you can have the human life,
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Speaker 2: You've got to be born, before you can have the
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Speaker 2: divine life. You've got to be born. Before we go
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Speaker 2: to the next illustration, which is the wind. Verse eight,
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Speaker 2: let's go back to this matter of water. In verse five,
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Speaker 2: some teach that it means baptism. Unless one is born
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Speaker 2: by baptism, meaning water baptism, he cannot be born again.
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Speaker 2: I do not accept that first, because I believe baptism
34:49
Speaker 2: would be in an act of one's own work, something
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Speaker 2: you do. And one of the many who are no baptized, Well,
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Speaker 2: the thief on the cross, What did Phillips say to
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Speaker 2: the eunuch as he was riding along? The eunuch said, look,
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Speaker 2: can I be baptized? Philip said, sure, so long as
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Speaker 2: you believe that Jesus Christ as your savior. Why did
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Speaker 2: you put that preface on the answer because he did
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Speaker 2: not want to teach baptismal regeneration, not by water of baptism.
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Speaker 2: That's not what it's saying. For a long time, I
35:32
Speaker 2: have thought that it means physical birth, water birth, in
35:38
Speaker 2: other words, and if a person wants to be in
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Speaker 2: God's family, he has to be born physically by water
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Speaker 2: from his mother, and then he must be born spiritually
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Speaker 2: by God. But you know, the more I think about that,
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Speaker 2: the more I believe that's too elementary for a man
35:54
Speaker 2: like Nicodemus. It's obvious to anyone that if you want
35:58
Speaker 2: to experience something in life, you've got to be born,
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Speaker 2: You've got to be living. I think it's elementary. I
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Speaker 2: take it to mean the cleansing of the Holy Spirit.
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Speaker 2: Unless one is born through the cleansing work of the
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Speaker 2: Spirit of God within, namely water and spirit, he cannot
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Speaker 2: enter God's kingdom. I've got three reasons for holding to
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Speaker 2: that position, which is a rather recent one for me.
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Speaker 2: I've always held of the second. First of all, to
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Speaker 2: a pharisee, it communicates those six thousand Pharisees that walked
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Speaker 2: up and down the streets of jury connected water with
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Speaker 2: cleansing all the time. They had rights and rituals in
36:53
Speaker 2: which they would cleanse their hands with water a certain way,
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Speaker 2: and cleanse the heart was commonly a term used by them.
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Speaker 2: It was a symbol of cleansing. Water was so as
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Speaker 2: a pharisee, he'd understand that Jesus often couched his terms
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Speaker 2: so that those listening understood clearer. But there's a better
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Speaker 2: reason than that. Linguistically, the text reads with a preposition
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Speaker 2: and no definite article, simply two objects together. In other words,
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Speaker 2: verse five, unless one is born of there's the preposition
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Speaker 2: water and spirit. Perhaps we could render it water even spirit.
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Speaker 2: The thought is the spirit and the water are connected
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Speaker 2: in a rather simple fashion in the original text. Perhaps
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Speaker 2: it would be clearer for you to see the third reason,
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Speaker 2: not from John three, but from Titus Chapter three. Turned
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Speaker 2: there will you over to the right. If you're not
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Speaker 2: familiar with your Bible beyond the letters, that is, into
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Speaker 2: the latter part of the Letters of Paul, beyond Timothy
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Speaker 2: to Titus, look at verse four of chapter three Titus three,
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Speaker 2: Verses four and five. The third reason I hold to
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Speaker 2: this position is because of this clear and other parallel passages.
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Speaker 2: It's describing salvation to the believer. When the kindness of God,
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Speaker 2: our Savior, and his love for mankind appeared, he saved us.
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Speaker 2: Notice by the way, regeneration is something God prompts, not man.
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Speaker 2: Religion is something man prompts, not God. So God, out
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Speaker 2: of kindness appears and saves us first the negative, not
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Speaker 2: on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness,
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Speaker 2: but the positive according to His mercy, by the washing
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Speaker 2: of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit. You notice
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Speaker 2: how regeneration is described as the washing, the washing work
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Speaker 2: of the spirit of God. How back to John three,
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Speaker 2: and let's put it this way, Jesus said to Nicodemus,
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Speaker 2: this new birth, Nicodemus, is not that complicated. There must
39:46
Speaker 2: be an inward cleansing that God will make possible through
39:50
Speaker 2: his spirit. You're accepting me as your personal savior. What
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Speaker 2: a marvelous inward change takes over. And no longer will
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Speaker 2: you be guided by the ladders of your own building
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Speaker 2: to climb to heaven. You will immediately have a God
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Speaker 2: sent bridge that will take you to me and bring
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Speaker 2: me to you. It will bridge the gap. Now so
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Speaker 2: much for the first illustration fiscal birth. The second the wind.
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Speaker 2: Maybe when he was speaking there there came a gust
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Speaker 2: of wind down the alley and blew up the dust.
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Speaker 2: Maybe there were some clothes on the line blowing. Is
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Speaker 2: that you see there, Nicodemus, You see the results of
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Speaker 2: the wind. That's what he says in verse eight. The
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Speaker 2: wind here it blows where it wishes. You can hear it,
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Speaker 2: but you don't know where it comes from or where
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Speaker 2: it is going. So is everyone born of the spirit Nicodemus.
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Speaker 2: We see the results of the wind, but we can't
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Speaker 2: control it. We know neither its origin nor its destiny.
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Speaker 2: Given enough power, it can sweep a city under dirt,
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Speaker 2: put it in the water, and it can cause an
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Speaker 2: immense whirlpool. Bring wind to this earth, and it causes
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Speaker 2: all sorts of changes, and you cannot direct it. You
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Speaker 2: cannot control it. The spirit of God is like that.
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Speaker 2: The only thing you know is the result of it.
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Speaker 2: In other words, Nicodemus, there is a mysterious, unseen work
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Speaker 2: God does in the hearts of men and women. Daniel
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Speaker 2: Whittle has left as a legacy of his life several
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Speaker 2: songs that we love to sing. There shall be the
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Speaker 2: showers of blessing moment by moment the banner of the Cross.
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Speaker 2: But my favorite is the third stanza of his best hymn.
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Speaker 2: I know not how the spirit moves, convincing men of sin,
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Speaker 2: revealing Jesus through the word, creating faith in him. But
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Speaker 2: I know whom I have believed. What's he saying, what's
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Speaker 2: whittle capturing for us and that familiar him. I know
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Speaker 2: whom I have believed he's saying. I don't know how
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Speaker 2: to explain the beginning of it. I don't know how
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Speaker 2: to explain the work of it. All I can tell
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Speaker 2: you is the result. I know that I've believed, and
42:54
Speaker 2: I praise God. I'm kept in Him. Why is it
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Speaker 2: but the Spirit of God would move up and down
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Speaker 2: the pews of this church in a television room over
43:05
Speaker 2: a cassette recording of the message and touch one heart
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Speaker 2: and miss another, touch a third and miss the four,
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Speaker 2: touch a whole row and miss the next five. I
43:15
Speaker 2: don't know how to explain it, but I know that
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Speaker 2: in his sovereign plan, He's picked several of us, and
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Speaker 2: praise God, the majority of us. And he said, your
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Speaker 2: mind created that faith in him, responding in such a
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Speaker 2: marvelous act of faith. That's what Jesus is saying. And
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Speaker 2: Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Let's
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Speaker 2: give Nicodemus credit. He wrestled with the issue, and he
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Speaker 2: kept his head on his neck, and he said, all
43:50
Speaker 2: through my life, I've been able to put it together
43:53
Speaker 2: in my own logical fashion. But I have to confess
43:56
Speaker 2: I'm at a loss, no longer able to build my
44:00
Speaker 2: own structure. I'm out in the cold. You know, I've
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Speaker 2: been born wrong and I can't get it together. Jesus
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Speaker 2: tells him, why, maybe you've missed him, underlying three statements
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Speaker 2: in the next three verses. You do not understand verse ten,
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Speaker 2: you do not receive. Verse eleven, you do not believe.
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Speaker 2: Verse twelve. That's the reason, Nicodemus, that's why it's such
44:30
Speaker 2: a struggle. You literally you there. You are the teacher
44:40
Speaker 2: of Israel, and you don't understand, you don't receive, you
44:47
Speaker 2: don't believe. On the one hand, I see that sovereign
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Speaker 2: act of God, and I cannot remove. From the other hand,
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Speaker 2: the response in the heart of Nicodemus, you're not belie
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Speaker 2: you're not receiving. It revolves around me. Verse thirteen. The
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Speaker 2: son of Man, not a system of works. Now, perhaps
45:14
Speaker 2: seeing a great perplexity on the face of Nicodemus, Jesus
45:18
Speaker 2: gave him an illustration. Spurgeon has put it perhaps better
45:23
Speaker 2: than any other preacher. Illustrations are like windows of light
45:26
Speaker 2: that opened truth in a sermon, and he threw open
45:31
Speaker 2: the drapes in a window of history that pricked the
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Speaker 2: conscience of Nicodemus. Remember a story he asked him. Back
45:41
Speaker 2: in the days of the Old Testament. Moses was with
45:44
Speaker 2: those thousands of Jews, and they were being snake bitten
45:48
Speaker 2: in the desert. God raised up fiery snakes that apparently
45:53
Speaker 2: means red snakes that had a red epidermis, and they
45:59
Speaker 2: moved among the his for a light camp, and they
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Speaker 2: bit people, and the venom spread, creating a disease and death.
46:05
Speaker 2: Remember that, remember Nicodemus. God said to Moses, and now, Moses,
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Speaker 2: here's the plane out of bronze fashion a serpent. Put
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Speaker 2: it on a pole and hold it up high. By
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Speaker 2: the way, the same symbol is used today with regard
46:25
Speaker 2: to the medical profession. You still see it on hospitals
46:29
Speaker 2: and on small lapels and little symbols on lapels, and
46:32
Speaker 2: even on some license plates. You see that serpent. It
46:36
Speaker 2: all goes back to the days in Israel, and he
46:39
Speaker 2: held the snake up high, and all of those in
46:41
Speaker 2: the tents from round about, all they had to do
46:44
Speaker 2: was look, and they'd be healed. Now for a thinking
46:52
Speaker 2: man with a problem of snake bite, that created a problem,
46:57
Speaker 2: A don't kid me. You know you got to do
47:01
Speaker 2: more than look. They were never told to kill the snakes.
47:06
Speaker 2: They were never told to send a substitute. They were
47:09
Speaker 2: told simply to look at that snake, and that be healed.
47:15
Speaker 2: Remember that, Nicodemus, Yes, verse fourteen, as Moses lifted up
47:25
Speaker 2: the serpent, even so must the son of man be
47:28
Speaker 2: lifted up. That's the cross. And here's the plan, Nicodemus,
47:37
Speaker 2: that whoever believes in him may have eternal life. Now
47:43
Speaker 2: for an intellectual, for a thinking person, doesn't make good logic.
47:51
Speaker 2: How can simply a belief in the heart create such
47:55
Speaker 2: a new birth and change. I'm at a loss to
47:58
Speaker 2: tell you. The only thing I can say is it
48:01
Speaker 2: makes it universal. The little child who runs around hungry
48:07
Speaker 2: in the streets of Watts has as much a chance
48:11
Speaker 2: as the one who lives in the lovely homes of
48:15
Speaker 2: the suburbs. The person in the bush today in Africa
48:21
Speaker 2: who hears it for the first time can understand it,
48:24
Speaker 2: just like the professor at New York University at the
48:27
Speaker 2: same moment can receive it. It's the same basic plan.
48:32
Speaker 2: It makes it available. Don't wrestle with it, don't even
48:37
Speaker 2: try to explain it. Believe it. That's why John adds
48:43
Speaker 2: in verse sixteen, God so loved the world. You could
48:46
Speaker 2: read that in the original text. You'd see the word
48:49
Speaker 2: so first, so much. I can still hear my Greek
48:53
Speaker 2: teacher teaching. It's so interesting the way he emphasized. He
48:57
Speaker 2: would put his voice up about four pitches and then
49:00
Speaker 2: come back down. So God loved the world. Ah, that's it,
49:05
Speaker 2: you know, that's the way. It's emphasized so much. That
49:11
Speaker 2: he gave his son that includes you, Thank God, that
49:17
Speaker 2: includes me. He loved us so much. He gave his
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Speaker 2: son so that whoever earns his way. Now that's religion.
49:27
Speaker 2: Whoever believes in him might never perish. You hear that,
49:33
Speaker 2: whoever believes would no longer suffer the death brought about
49:39
Speaker 2: by that disease, but have eternal life. There are two
49:45
Speaker 2: basic responses belief and unbelief. Two basic results are destinies
49:57
Speaker 2: eternity with God and eternity heat in hell called perishing
50:03
Speaker 2: in this verse. Now, Jesus Christ taught this. John captures
50:11
Speaker 2: it in simple commentary form, and we're left with the results.
50:17
Speaker 2: If you were to take the time to read eighteen
50:19
Speaker 2: through twenty one, you would see a discourse that simply
50:24
Speaker 2: presents contrasts light dart the truth, the lie, hating loving
50:36
Speaker 2: running for the truth, or practicing the truth and running
50:40
Speaker 2: in darkness and practicing evil. I think the Lord is
50:44
Speaker 2: saying simply this.
50:48
Speaker 1: The plan.
50:51
Speaker 2: Is that you accept my son as the solution for
50:56
Speaker 2: your sin problem. And if you reject that plan, there
51:03
Speaker 2: is no other option. Being religious people, mankind has always
51:15
Speaker 2: worked out a plan to twist what God rased. I
51:23
Speaker 2: want to take a moment to show you why I
51:25
Speaker 2: say that. Turn to Second Kings, chapter eighteen. I don't
51:34
Speaker 2: just pass this up because it's a couple of three
51:36
Speaker 2: minutes before the end of the sermon. I want you
51:39
Speaker 2: to see this. You know, I had been many years
51:42
Speaker 2: in the ministry before I knew this that I'm going
51:45
Speaker 2: to share with you, and more and more it's coming
51:49
Speaker 2: across to me as being one of the most significant
51:53
Speaker 2: observations in all the Bible regarding religion. Second King eighteen,
52:02
Speaker 2: Verse one. Now, it came about in the third year
52:08
Speaker 2: of Hoshea, the son of Elah, king of Israel, that Hezekiah,
52:15
Speaker 2: the son of Ahaz, king of Judah, became king. He
52:21
Speaker 2: was twenty five years old when he became king. Verse three.
52:26
Speaker 2: He did right in the sight of the Lord, according
52:30
Speaker 2: to all that his father David had done. Now the
52:33
Speaker 2: verse he removed the high places and broke down the
52:38
Speaker 2: sacred pillars and cut down the asherah, that's an idol altar,
52:44
Speaker 2: the Asherah. He also broke in pieces the bronze serpent
52:52
Speaker 2: that Moses had made for until those days. The sons
52:59
Speaker 2: of Israel burned incense to it, and it was called nahushtan,
53:06
Speaker 2: a piece of brass. Look.
53:11
Speaker 4: Seven hundred years plus later, they'd been dragging that snake
53:17
Speaker 4: all over the desert, through the water, from one experience
53:22
Speaker 4: to another, worshiping, burning stinking candles to.
53:26
Speaker 2: It, going through all the stuff. They made a thing
53:30
Speaker 2: out of the serpent. Why, because by nature they're religious,
53:37
Speaker 2: it had served its purpose. They didn't leave it at that,
53:41
Speaker 2: and they dragged it and turned it into an idol,
53:44
Speaker 2: And finally Hezekiah said, it's nahushtan a piece of brass.
53:50
Speaker 2: What am I saying? I'm saying that you can carry
53:53
Speaker 2: with your life for years, decades, your old little eyels,
54:01
Speaker 2: worshiping the idols, church membership, christening, baptism, faithfulness, even Bible classes.
54:14
Speaker 2: But you are hard pressed to go back and say,
54:17
Speaker 2: at that point in my life, I gave my heart
54:20
Speaker 2: to Jesus Christ. Right now I make that decision for him.
54:26
Speaker 2: I no longer trust in the Nahushtans. I trust in Jesus. Now.
54:34
Speaker 2: The end of the story isn't over. You know that.
54:40
Speaker 2: Just about a year later, How was with his father
54:43
Speaker 2: and mother in Houston and my family, and what a
54:46
Speaker 2: delightful experience of working and loving being with them. Hal
54:53
Speaker 2: was in his home and his father saw it. He
54:58
Speaker 2: was carrying a Bible around and quoting verses and studying
55:02
Speaker 2: with a strange couple that lived not far away and
55:06
Speaker 2: spending a lot of time together. He said to his boy, Hal,
55:11
Speaker 2: you know you're weird man. You're goes with you in
55:15
Speaker 2: New Orleans and you were running wild. It shocked me.
55:20
Speaker 2: Here you are quoting Bible verses and talking about seminary
55:25
Speaker 2: of all things. You haven't got any money, you haven't
55:30
Speaker 2: got any background. You're a failure from the year one,
55:34
Speaker 2: as it were. And how you're changed. I want to
55:38
Speaker 2: know the difference. So how I sat down with his
55:41
Speaker 2: fifty two year old father and they bridged the gap
55:46
Speaker 2: together with tears in the father's eyes. He gave his
55:50
Speaker 2: heart to Jesus Christ. He led his own dad to
55:56
Speaker 2: the Savior. It may very well be that some parents
56:02
Speaker 2: are here whose children have gotten turned on, and you've
56:07
Speaker 2: become a part of the action, but you've never been
56:11
Speaker 2: born again. And I closed that message with that wonderful
56:20
Speaker 2: invitation to you, maybe bow our heads without a lot
56:34
Speaker 2: of fall de roy or special ritual or even singing
56:38
Speaker 2: or pleading. I offer you, as an intelligent, practical, logical,
56:43
Speaker 2: thinking person, the person of Jesus Christ. If you, in
56:49
Speaker 2: all honesty, can never look back to a point in
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Speaker 2: your time and life when you gave your heart to
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Speaker 2: Jesus Christ, clear up the matter right now. He invites
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Speaker 2: fifty two year olds, eighty two year olds and twelve
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Speaker 2: year olds and younger and older to give their hearts
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Speaker 2: to him. Oh what a great moment for you. Tell
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Speaker 2: the father you accept the gift of Jesus Christ. You
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Speaker 2: believe at this point in your life that he died
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Speaker 2: for you, he was raised for you, he took your place,
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Speaker 2: and that He's got your heart. I promise you he
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Speaker 2: will come in our loving and our gracious, merciful Father.
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Speaker 2: Thank you for the reminder from John's gospel of eternal
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Speaker 2: life sourced in Christ. Thank you for the simple black
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Speaker 2: and white promise that comes with no strings attached. And
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Speaker 2: so I pray for those today who have not yet
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Speaker 2: received the Lord Jesus, that they might remove from their
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Speaker 2: heads the nahushtans with which they have been walking into
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Speaker 2: which they have been clinging, that they might give themselves
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Speaker 2: to your son and him only. We commit to you,
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Speaker 2: our Father, the truth that we have heard, and the
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Speaker 2: message and ministry through Jesus Christ, our Lord. The preceding message,
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Speaker 2: Brainstorming the New Birth was copyrighted in nineteen seventy five,
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Speaker 2: nineteen eighty seven, two thousand and twenty eighteen, and the
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Speaker 2: sound recording was copyrighted in twenty eighteen by Charles RS
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Speaker 2: with No eight.
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Speaker 1: All rights are reserved worldwide. Duplication of copyrighted material for
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Speaker 1: commercial use is strictly prohibited,