Would you turn with me to John’s Gospel? We will begin at the end of John 2 and read through John 3:21. It is a very familiar story, and it has to do with this issue of new birth.
The title of this message, the burden that is on my heart, is simply taken from the Authorized Version: “Ye must be born again.”
Most people do not begin at the end of John 2, but I think, as we move into this, you will have a better understanding. We will begin in John 2:23.
And when He was in Jerusalem at the Passover, during the feast, many believed on His name, beholding His signs which He did.
But Jesus did not trust Himself unto them, because He knew all men,
and because He needed not that any one should bear witness concerning man; for He Himself knew what was in man.Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
the same came unto Him by night, and said to Him, Rabbi, we know that Thou art a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that Thou doest, except God be with him.Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
Nicodemus saith unto Him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb, and be born?
Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
The wind bloweth where it will, and thou hearest the voice thereof, but knowest not whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be?
Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things?
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that which We know, and bear witness of that which We have seen; and ye receive not Our witness.
If I told you earthly things and ye believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you heavenly things?
And no one hath ascended into heaven, but He that descended out of heaven, even the Son of Man, who is in heaven.
And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up;
that whosoever believeth may in Him have eternal life.For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
For God sent not His Son into the world to judge the world; but that the world should be saved through Him.
He that believeth on Him is not judged: he that believeth not hath been judged already, because he hath not believed on the name of the only begotten Son of God.
And this is the judgment, that the light is come into the world, and men loved the darkness rather than the light; for their works were evil.
For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, and cometh not to the light, lest his works should be reproved.
But he that doeth the truth cometh to the light, that his works may be made manifest, that they have been wrought in God.
Let us pray.
Father, we commit back to You Your Word. We say again, in that same way Peter declared to You on that day when so many were offended and so many were confused, when You spoke about Your body and Your blood—the thing we have just celebrated—“Thou alone hast the words of eternal life.”
Lord, that is a position we must always take as we come to Your Word. We are totally dependent that the Holy Spirit would speak and make manifest the things of Christ, making them alive and real.
Lord, deliver us from lectures. Grant us to know what the Spirit says to the churches. For together we ask it in that mighty name, that name above every name, that name, the Lord Jesus. Amen.
Well, I think you know that this is the first of the month—or you should know, or maybe someone needs to tell you. On the first of the month, we are taking up a series, and it is a fundamental series.
As we were before the Lord and exercised in His presence, we felt a real need for the saints that we would be rooted and grounded and more deeply know the Word of God; that this very Word, which the Lord said, “My words are spirit, and are life,” would be made real to us.
So, just three months ago, we began a series called Ye Search the Scriptures, or perhaps Searching the Scriptures, with the subtitle To Grow in Christ. This is the third month.
We were looking particularly at Acts, when it speaks of the Berean believers: how they received the Word with all readiness, and not only received the Word, but daily searched the Scriptures. Daily, they looked into the Word to see whether these things which they were told were so.
It says that these were more noble than those in Thessalonica because they did this. This is their legacy. We do not know much about the Bereans. There is only one other comment about Berea in the Scriptures in the New Testament, and that is about one fellow who was with Paul on one of his missionary journeys: so-and-so of Berea. That is the only other mention.
But these ones had a legacy. These ones had, perhaps to borrow the word, a reputation. These ones did something of note. In all that is written in the Book of Acts, this great legacy is laid out before us, and we believe it is to be a model for all that believe.
So we started this series a few months ago, and we said we would take up one message at the beginning of each month. Now, all of us who have some responsibility to speak agree: this is not enough. We agree it is not enough.
But nevertheless, if you help us, and if we will discipline ourselves, we will stick to this course of one message at the beginning of every month, because we do not think it is just about preaching. That will leave time for whatever the Lord has given to other brothers to come and share, just as we heard last week.
But the second component that made the Bereans stand out, which we need to absolutely lay hold of, is that they daily searched the Scriptures. They did not just receive the Word of God from Paul. It was not just a matter of ministry; it was a matter of specific seeking in the Scripture to see what the Lord had to say.
That is the second component. So we are encouraging the saints—this may be new to some of you, but at least bear with me in this brief introduction—we are to take the Word of God and seek in the Word of God, so that we are not merely a spoon-fed people.
In addition to that, we are a fellowship together. We thought we should bring this component of hearing the Word of God, receiving the Word of God, and searching the Scriptures into fellowship, because in the end, what we are called to is fellowship: the sharing of God the Father and the sharing of God the Son.
We are joined in this great fellowship, as we have been hearing. We also thought it would be right, when we come together on our Friday night time, to fellowship about what we have seen in the Scripture.
That is the thing we have been doing. You know already about the first month. Last month, our brother Maury shared with us, and this month the subject is “Ye Must Be Born Again,” as I have said. That comes from that phrase in the Authorized Version.
We have heard about the importance of searching the Scriptures. We have heard about the gospel. And I tell you, dear saints, I had always been like many: when I think of the gospel, when I think of the glad tidings, when I think of the good news, I immediately think of the lost.
But one thing we discovered in searching the Scripture was how vast this subject of the gospel is. It is just as much for believers as it is for unbelievers. It is in this glorious gospel that God transforms us into sons after His own image.
Today, we have the third subject. One thing I think we need to say up front: when we think of John 3, there are not many chapters like it in Scripture.
You just have to think about it: the key to the whole understanding of Scripture is in John 3. Everybody knows the verse, John 3:16:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish, but have eternal life.
That is the context of John 3. This chapter shows us the heart of God like nowhere else in the Scripture. It finally comes down and, in one fell swoop, in one verse, tells us what the motivation was and what the heart of God is.
It is in that context that we see John 3. Now, I want us to touch on three things today, and I hope you follow me. I hope you stay with me in these three things.
First of all, we will look at the necessity of new birth. It is an absolute necessity. You must be born again.
If you miss that point, if you miss that emphasis in John 3, you miss the whole lot of it. You miss everything in it, because throughout this story concerning Nicodemus there is that impression, over and over again, concerning the absolute necessity of new birth.
You cannot live without it as a believer. We were encouraged to think of questions for our fellowship, so I will lace in the questions as we go. The first question dealing with the necessity of new birth is this: Why must we be born again?
The second thing we will deal with is the nature of new birth. New birth is, first of all, the bringing in of a new nature. If we do not understand that, we have Christianity somehow contorted and turned upside down, with altogether the wrong emphasis.
We not only need to understand the necessity of new birth; we need to understand the absolute nature of new birth. The question that seems to be on my heart is this: What does it mean to be born again?
These are simple questions, but if we do not understand the nature, we do not know what it means to be born again. What is it like? What does it mean? What is the nature? What transpires in being born again?
Thirdly—and this is a word you may not use very often, but you know my fondness for alliteration—the nexus of new birth.
Does anyone here, besides a few of us—and it is a miracle an engineer would know a word—understand what “nexus” means? People look at me with blank stares. It just means the connection.
How do we get to new birth? What is the process? If you are like me and enjoy politics—and it is a curse to my wife—you hear people trying to talk about what results in what, and they use this word often. They say, “What is the nexus here?”
What does it mean? How do we connect point A with point B? How do we go from being what we are in our natural state into that new state? What is the connection? That is what nexus means.
So, if you learn nothing else today, you have learned a new word: nexus. The question is: How are we born again?
You can understand the necessity. You can even know something about the nature. But if we do not know how to be born again, if we do not know how to be connected to that, if we do not know how to be brought into that, then it is no use. It is only teaching.
In the end, we need to understand the connection. Is everybody clear about the outline? Okay, we have got it. Well, let us move on.
I love John 3. As I said, I do not think there is anything like it in Scripture. I think it is beautiful. The magnitude of this, where God’s heart for man is revealed and God’s way for man is revealed, is unparalleled in Scripture.
You remember I shared a message like this several years ago. As a matter of fact, that is why the brothers asked me to do this time in our series again. I coined a phrase, and the title of that message was The Meeting That Changed Mankind.
We will not use that again as our title, but I believe that is the sense of John 3. Here is a meeting between two individuals: Nicodemus and the Lord Jesus. Here is a meeting between the son of Adam and the Son of Man.
The result is that mankind is forever changed because of what took place in that nocturnal visitation, in that night meeting. What was laid before them was the heart of God, the condition of man, and the way for man—all in that singular meeting.
It is a beautiful thing. I remember, well, I will bore you with a similar illustration that I used last time. You know how I like illustrations.
There was a meeting of great importance in history that hardly any of us know about anymore. At the time, it was momentous. There was a meeting between Napoleon Bonaparte of France and Tsar Alexander I in a little place called Tilsit, Prussia, on June 25, 1807.
History records this striking phrase: it was a meeting that changed the destiny of mankind. Extraordinary. An extraordinary phrase.
They met at night, just like this meeting. These two great world rulers met in the middle of the Nieman River. I do not even know where the Nieman River is. They met in a little appointed raft, in the middle of the night, and there they discussed the destinies of Europe and Prussia.
It records that mankind’s fate on those scores was settled. Now, do not think too much of this meeting; just think of it as an illustration. They drew up this peace accord that lasted all of four years, so you understand the nature of man.
But here, I just want you to get the sense of it before we really bite deeply into it. In the meeting of these two individuals—the son of Adam and the Son of Man—something spectacular, forever, changed.
God’s heart was forever revealed. God’s estimation of man was exposed. God’s way for man was forever enlightened. That path was laid open. This is, at least to me, the sense of that meeting.
Let us begin talking about the necessity of new birth. New birth is essential to spiritual life. You may think that is just too simple, and it may be. But just as natural birth is essential to natural life, new birth is essential to spiritual life.
You cannot have the one without the other. You cannot skip this part of birth. If you are to have natural life, you need to come through the natural birth process. It is as simple as that.
But if you are to come into real spiritual life, you need to come through the spiritual birth process. There are no options. It is an absolute necessity.
Now, I like options, and I get hung up on options. I am still a fool for certain things, I will admit it. Every time I go to buy an electronic device, they show me the one with all the options. They say, “This is what you need.”
All of a sudden, those options become necessities, and they convince me. Their eyes must just roll in their heads, and they must think, “What a sucker.”
Options are not necessities. I have found out that we can do with far less. But there are certain things we cannot do without. So this is the necessity of new birth.
I think, to begin to understand the necessity of new birth, you need to understand a little bit about this man Nicodemus. He is an extraordinary person.
It begins in John 2, apparently after that great wedding feast in Cana of Galilee, when the Lord turned the water into wine. All of you know that story, and it says that was the first sign the Lord Jesus did.
Then, at the feast, He went to Jerusalem and performed other signs. Apparently, Nicodemus either got wind of those signs, heard about those signs, or perhaps even witnessed those signs, because later in John 3 he says, “Rabbi, none can do these signs unless he is from God.”
So it was the signs that caught him. At the end of John 2, it says that although many believed, the Lord did not trust Himself to them, for He Himself knew what was in man.
Now pay attention to that phrase: God knows man. You may think you know man. You do not know man. He knows what is in man, and He knows what the explicit need of man is.
He brings before man in this chapter that absolute and singular need. That is the sense, at least, of John 3.
There are three verses that prepare the way for understanding the necessity of new birth. First, John 3:1 says, “Now there was a man of the Pharisees.” That is how you know this is a continuation of John 2.
Think about that. This is the highest spiritual order in Jewish life. This man Nicodemus was from among the Pharisees. He was from the strictest sect of all Judaism.
Secondly, it says in the same verse that he was “a ruler of the Jews.” We read right over these verses. They do not mean anything to us. But what that means is that he was of the ruling party.
Not only was he of the ruling party; he was one of the seventy-one people who sat on the Sanhedrin, the ruling governing body of all Judaism. It was an elite group. Nothing was decided among Judaism without this ruling body.
Not only was he a Pharisee, but he was one of the Sanhedrin. You remember that discussion in John 7, where they were talking among themselves. It is often referred to in the New Testament simply as “the council.”
They were talking about Jesus, and dear Nicodemus stuck his foot in his mouth—or so it seems. He said, “Does our law judge a man before they hear what he has to say?” Immediately, that group of the ruling class said to him, “Are you also from Galilee? Are you one of them?”
He was of that ruling party. He was a ruler. Then, thirdly, in John 3:10, the Lord says this extraordinary thing, and I think we tend to read right over it.
Nicodemus is puzzled about the things the Lord is saying, and the Lord Jesus looks at him and says, “Nicodemus, thou art the teacher of Israel, and understandest not these things?”
Now, do you understand? This is not just a plain-vanilla type phrase. The emphasis in the Greek is on the article: “Thou art the teacher of Israel.” And you do not know these things.
Not only was he a Pharisee, and not only was he on the Sanhedrin—the ruling governing body before which even the Lord Jesus stood in His trial—but he was called by the Lord Jesus, “the teacher of Israel.”
Amazing. What a pedigree. What a résumé. It is an extraordinary résumé when you think of it.
But there was a man: Nicodemus. That is all the meaning in these phrases. Not only that, we see that he was a seeker. He came to the Lord Jesus and said, “Rabbi, we know Thou art come a teacher.”
Pay attention to that phrase, because here he is considered the teacher of Israel, and he first calls this One “teacher.” Not only that, he humbles himself and says, “Thou art a teacher come from God.”
He makes a distinction. Probably he is thinking of himself. There is even that Messianic flavor, if you will. This Jew is saying, “You are the sent One, the One come from God.”
He was a seeker. He was humble. Look how he humbled himself. He was sincere.
Some people make a big deal that he came at night. Oh, that is straining at gnats. They take away from his sincerity. Every word he uttered, and every word the Lord uttered to him, shows that he was totally sincere.
He came undistracted from the crowds. He came into the Lord’s presence, hoping to get this Son of Man alone, hoping to ask Him what the essential questions were.
This, to me, seems to be the man Nicodemus. What I conclude from this is one phrase: This is the best man can do.
This is the absolute best. If you were of the highest spiritual class, if you were a ruler of Israel who sat on the judgments of everything that happened to Israel, if you were called even by the Lord Jesus “the teacher of Israel,” if you were sincere and humble, you would think that would be enough.
We have a phrase in business: “That is good enough.” Did you ever say that? I say that all the time at work, because I conclude that we never get it perfect. We often say, forgive all of you municipal employees, “That is good enough for government work.”
The Lord never said, with this special person, “That is good enough.” Here is the best of Israel’s sons, and yet the Lord says, “Not good enough.”
That is the necessity of new birth. We think of the murderer and say, “Wicked.” We think of the child molester and say, “Evil,” and we would all agree.
But here, this is my heart: God looks at the best and says, “Ruined.” Do you understand? Somehow we think good is good enough.
But if you read Romans 3, God’s summary on the whole of mankind is that there is no one good—not even one. Not even one.
Romans 3:9-12 gives us that summary. What a summary. The first thing that comes to me concerning this necessity of new birth is that I believe we see the best of Adam’s sons, but the best is not good enough.
There are good people in this world. You may be mad at me for saying that. There are people who are better than many Christians, myself included. They are exemplary. They are kind. They seem to do everything right. They always seem to say the right thing.
But the Lord’s conclusion about the condition of man is: Not good enough. Something else is needed. You must be born again.
All that you are, and all of your goodness—taking the best of the lot—is not what He is after.
I will go on further. This may offend some of you. Not only, in God’s estimation, are we not good enough; we are dead.
It is pretty rough to get worse than dead. You can see I grew up on the old westerns. They are all standing around looking at someone, and they say, “Is he dead?”
Dead is it. Dead is done. Dead is over. Dead is of no value.
Now, if you think we are speaking in the natural, you are missing the point. You are just as dead as Lazarus in the tomb. Do you know that? You may not stink, but you are just as dead.
Spiritually, man in his condition is dead. When you read Ephesians 2:1-2, it says that we are dead in our trespasses and sins. Dead is bad.
I have used the illustration before. Some of you have heard it. You might object and say, “I am not dead. I am living. I am breathing. I am walking. I am responsive. I meet none of your criteria.”
But I love that illustration from the prison world: dead man walking. I think they made a movie. I do not know anything about the movie. I do not even like Sean Penn, okay? I know that much, for many reasons.
But I know this: I remember watching a special on the Discovery Channel that went into capital punishment. It talked about one who was condemned to death and showed the process—how this one is taken from death row and makes that lonely walk to the death house, where they receive their execution.
I remember the impression it made upon me as I watched it. Those guards walked in, and in solemn voices uttered over and over again this phrase: “Dead man walking.”
Dead man walking. That is what we are. You may be walking. You may be living. You may be breathing. You may even have a pulse. But you are a dead man.
Naturally speaking, without new birth, you are a dead man. That is God’s estimation of this best of Israel’s sons.
This explains the necessity of new birth. Nicodemus came, and I am sure he was full of questions. I am sure this teacher of Israel wanted to have the Lord, this One he sensed was a teacher from God, this One who was sent—I am sure he had questions.
He begins to come to Him, gets out his introduction, and says, “Rabbi, none can do these signs that Thou doest unless He is a teacher from God.” Right at that moment, the Lord Jesus cuts him off.
He does not let him even get to his question. He does not let him get to his point, because the Lord Jesus knows absolutely the need of man. He is saying, “Let us dispense with all of this, Nicodemus. What your need is, is to be born anew.”
“What your need is, is for an altogether global change in your life. There is something about your nature that is wrong. There is something about you entering into what God’s heart is. There is a way for you.”
“Let us dispense with all this, and let Me say to you: Verily, verily, I say unto thee.”
Now, those words are strong words. Three times in John 3, the Lord says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee.” We ought to take note of that repetition.
If you look at all the other Synoptic Gospels, the Lord often uses the word “verily” when He speaks, but in every one of the Synoptic Gospels it is singular.
Somehow, this disciple whom the Lord loved, this disciple who laid upon the Lord’s breast, heard with a different ear the urgency of what the Lord was saying. Only in the Gospel of John does it repeat that phrase: “Verily, verily.”
That is the necessity of new birth. He says it again in John 3:11: “Verily, verily, I say unto thee.”
He says it in John 3:5:
Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Now notice in John 3:3. When He first says it—“Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except one be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God”—notice the difference between John 3:3 and John 3:5.
In the first case, unless we have this new birth, we cannot even see the kingdom. Understand the context. Here is one waiting for the kingdom.
Probably his foremost question—the question that the Lord never let him get out—was, “When will the kingdom come? Are You the Messiah? Are You the King who is coming? Are You the promised One? When will it come?”
The Lord anticipates him and says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except thou art born again, thou canst not even see the kingdom of God.”
Then He says, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except thou be born again, thou canst not enter the kingdom of God.”
This is the necessity of new birth. Excluded from the outset. There is no way in except this one path.
I remember a verse that has always meant much to me. Paul said in 1 Corinthians 9:16, “For necessity is laid upon me; woe is unto me, if I preach not the gospel.”
A necessity is laid upon me. Charles Haddon Spurgeon said this: “Regeneration is the universal necessity of mankind.” That is a striking statement.
Regeneration is the universal necessity of mankind.
Let me ask you this question. Some of you may be sitting here this morning and may not be born again. You know something about the Lord, but you have never once experienced the new birth, when you were made a new creation.
You have never opened your heart in a real way and confessed Jesus as Lord and Savior. Without it, there is no beginning. You may be as good as Nicodemus. You may be better than Nicodemus. But without it, you cannot see the kingdom and you cannot enter the kingdom.
That is the first point. I hope I saturated you with that word necessity. I hope you will not forget it.
The second thing is the nature of new birth. There are three things in this we need to talk about, but the question is: What does it mean to be born again?
If we do not understand the nature of new birth, we may understand its necessity, but we will never be able to get to the last part—how we enter into new birth, what connects us to it.
There are all kinds of misunderstandings about new birth. These words seem to me to make it very clear.
First of all, the Greek word has the meaning born from above. I think most of us know this, but remember, we are dealing with fundamental issues, so do not be offended that you are so far above this.
The Greek word has the sense of being born from above. To me, that is incredibly encouraging, because it tells me who took the initiative.
It was not us who took the initiative. It was not us who sought out God. It was not us who changed our ways. Somehow, from above, the order was given; from above, the Lord came to the earth.
We read those glorious words in that name Emmanuel: God is with us.
It is never man’s initiative. It is always God’s initiative. We have a saying in business, in the military, and probably everywhere else. When we want to know the nature of an order, we say, “Where does it come from?”
If I say it, they might not pay any attention. But the simple answer that gets everybody’s attention is this: “It comes from the top.”
This is what this means. It is God-initiated. We are born from above. He took the initiative. He saw our condition.
He came into His own, and His own received Him not; but as many as received Him—John 1:12 says:
But as many as received Him, to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name:
who were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
It is born from above. It is not what you do; it is what He does. To me, at once, this is the most encouraging thing about being born again.
Just think if we stuck to those old sayings when it comes to spiritual things and said, “Lift yourself up by your bootstraps.” Your bootstraps are not long enough, and your strength is insufficient.
So God, in His mercy, lowered Himself. From above, we are born from above. Do you understand? It is His initiative.
It is not man’s improvement. It is His initiative. I often think we consider Christianity to be some kind of rehabilitation. It is not rehabilitation.
You can go somewhere and get rehabilitated, but Christianity is not rehabilitation. If you think that, you misunderstand the nature of Christianity. You misunderstand the nature of new birth.
It is an all-new thing. It comes from a different source, from above, and it comes to earth. Because He has done that, we can be born anew and enter into all that He is.
Born from above: that is the first aspect of the nature that comes out. The word also means anew. In my version, John 3:3 says, “Except one be born anew.”
The Greek means anew. It is a whole new thing. It is not only from above—His initiative, a heavenly birth from above—but it is altogether anew. It is totally new.
That word new is thrown around too much, and sometimes I think that if we merely use the word anew, we miss the depth of the nature of new birth.
It means from an entirely new source of life. Brothers and sisters, that is vital to understand the nature of Christianity. It is not you improved. It is not you rehabilitated.
It is not somehow that God does something in you and then we become this. It is an altogether new source of life. Do you understand that? That is absolutely critical.
The Christian life is not us living at all. I think many of us have a misunderstanding about what the Christian life is. The Christian life is Christ living.
When you understand the substance in the Greek, it is from a whole new source. It is a whole new source of life. You are given the source of life itself.
I think that has great meaning. The word Christian probably came from the enemies. You remember at Antioch, they looked at these people who were Christ-like and said, “Look at them. They look like Christ. They talk like Christ. They walk like Christ. They are Christians.”
So they were given that name. I think we ought to take a different name. I am proposing for the first time that we take a different name. It is a little awkward, but it is a good name nevertheless because I think it hits the nature of new birth.
We ought to call ourselves Christ-in. Do you get it? Instead of Christian, call yourself Christ-in. That is what we are. It is not me.
New birth is a whole new source of life. It comes down from above, and it is totally anew. It comes into us: a new nature. We now have a new nature.
It is not our own nature. It is a different nature. It is a different source of life. In that source of life, we are able to live the Christian life. That is new birth.
I will forever be Christ-in. I do not care if anybody understands it, but that is the Christian life. Read the Book of Colossians: “Christ in you, the hope of glory.”
Paul the apostle coined that phrase, and he uses it over and over: in Christ and Christ in me. Look at it in the Word; you see it over and over again.
I remember when I was a young believer—and like every believer, I had, and still have, many struggles. I remember thinking about this Christian life: you have this rule, and that rule, and this rule; you have to do this right, and you have to do that right.
If you do not get this right, you get condemned. It became way too cumbersome for me. I was just too simple of a person.
It is the same thing. I have told this story: I went one time to get golf lessons. This pro really messed me up. Now, I am a terrible golfer to begin with, but she really messed me up because she got me thinking about everything I should be doing.
She said, “Hold your head right. Get in the right stance. Hold your hands like this. Keep your eye on the ball. Do not take your eye off the ball. Swing through the club. Do not look up.”
By the end of those lessons, I was a basket case. She jerked the club out of my hand and said, “Who are you?” I said, “I do not know.” She said, “You are messed up.”
I could not hit the ball to save my life. First lesson: bing! That seven iron—it was beautiful. You should have seen it. Best seven iron I ever hit.
She said, “Quit your day job. This was a thing of beauty.” By the end of the lesson: dribble, dribble, dribble.
Oh, Christianity is not getting it all right. Hear the heart: it is not getting it all right. It is Christ in me. It is a new source of life.
There is that wonderful verse in Peter: according to His exceeding great and precious promises, we have become partakers of the divine nature. That is the Christian life.
Do you understand the difference? We have drunk deeply of the wells of salvation and become partakers of His very own nature. That makes Christianity a living reality.
That is the nature of the Christian life.
Well, I hope you are following me. It is anew. It is not only new; it is again—again.
Nicodemus struggled with this. He said, “How can it be that a man can enter his mother’s womb for the second time and be born again? How can these things be?”
It is again. It is the second time.
I will never forget a famous preacher. I read a story about him. Somebody asked him, “Where were you born?” He said, “Dublin and Liverpool.”
The interviewer said, “Dublin and Liverpool? How could you be born in two places?” He said, “I was born of my mother in Dublin, but I was born of the Spirit of God in Liverpool.”
Have you been born again? Are you of the twice-born?
“Once born, twice die” is the phrase people often use—not only a natural death, but a spiritual death later. “Twice born, once die.”
If you are born of your mother and born of the Spirit of God, you may pass in this life, or you may not. That is the good news. He may come back, and then you may never die.
But you will never die again. This is new birth. This is the nature of new birth.
Well, I need to press on. I always seem to get short on time. Now, let us finish. Let us go to that troubling word: the nexus of new birth.
You understand, I have given you the lecture. It is altogether a new word to you. It is the connection. How do I get from there to here? How do I come into new birth?
What does it take to bring me from this former nature into this new nature? What are the steps that I must take? There are a few, and these thoughts we will use to close with.
In John 3:11-15, there is this word concerning the Lord Jesus. He says, “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so the Son of Man must be lifted up.”
I think we are all familiar with that story, but we may not be familiar with the Old Testament story. When you turn to Numbers 21:4-9, you find the story the Lord is speaking about.
The children of Israel were journeying around the land. As they were journeying, they sinned. They sinned against God, it says, and they sinned against Moses. You can do that, you know. They sinned against God and against man.
It says that God sent fiery serpents into the camp, and many of the children of Israel died. Now, you may have that backward and think, “Bad God.”
But sin always results in death. He sent fiery serpents, and then the people—some were caught; their conscience was pricked—came to Moses and said, “Pray for us. Pray to God that He would deliver us. Pray for us.”
Moses sought the Lord, and the Lord said to Moses, “Take a brass serpent, a fiery serpent, and put it upon a pole. All that look unto that serpent will live. They will not die.”
It even goes so far as to say those that were bitten. Have you been bitten by sin? All of us have been bitten by sin. But they will live if they look to that.
Now, brothers and sisters, this is the first way in. The Lord Jesus was nailed to the cross. It is an incredible thing.
Think even more deeply for a moment. The serpent speaks of Satan himself. If you read Genesis 3, he was the first one cursed.
You remember the line: “Because thou hast done this, cursed art thou above all cattle, and above every beast of the field.” You will crawl on your belly, and you know the story.
But here is the thing that struck me with such depth: our Lord Jesus assumed the position of the cursed one.
Incredible. Remarkable. He was not just placed upon a pole; He was impaled upon a cross.
The story goes that all who look to Him will be made alive. This is the way.
Galatians 3:13 says:
Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.
Oh, brothers and sisters, this is almost too glorious to be true. He would become a curse for you and for me.
There is no more curse for us. The curse is gone because He bore the curse. He became the brazen serpent of judgment. He assumed the position, and we are ever free because of it.
The second point is John 3:16. I think all of you know this. Not only is God’s judgment completely satisfied—and that is the way we get in—but God’s love is fully expressed.
John 3:16 is the most remarkable verse in all of Scripture. It tells of the intensity of His love:
For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son.
Do some study sometime in the original languages. Do not get hung up with it. I will never become a Greek scholar, but do some study in the words, and it will help you.
When you look at “only begotten,” it is a different word for our Lord Jesus. If you look up the meaning in Greek, He is the sole One. He is the singular One. He is the only One. There is no one like Him.
Yet God, in His infinite love, said, “This only One I will give up.” Can you imagine? Can you imagine that day? We can speculate what that discussion must have been.
The Lord Jesus only utters those words, “only begotten Son,” here in John 3. Others utter them. God the Father utters them. The apostle utters them. But the Lord Jesus never utters them again.
It is just too sacred. It is just too amazing. We sing that song, “Amazing Love, How Can It Be?” But do we see the depth of it? To me, this is the greatest thing.
Then this whole chapter ends with a repetition of one word: believe. You see it over and over again. Five times you see it in the close of this chapter: believe.
“If anyone believes on Him, he will not perish, but have eternal life.” Dear ones, think of it: has God done so much and asked so little of you?
He initiates your new birth. He pays the judgment that you might be born again. He sends His only begotten Son that He might have other begotten sons. Incredible.
And He utters this one thing: “Believe on Me.”
I think this is an amazing set of verses. If you close out that chapter and see God’s love, He did not come to judge the world. He did not come to condemn the world. He came to save the world.
All He asks is simply: Believe.
Now, I wonder: we often diminish that word. It means more than you think. I mentioned this before: one sister used to read the Amplified to us, and it brings out in John 3 the sense of that word.
It means to rely on, to believe in. It literally means to believe into the Lord Jesus. To cling to.
If you read that story in Numbers 21, and you read it in the Amplified, it talks about a fixed gaze. So many of us have offered Him a passing glance.
Have you believed on Him? This is all the Father asks.
In that is the nexus. In that simple and profound act is the way into new birth: only believe.
I have this sign in my office. It came from a brother. It sits upon my computer. I often stare at that because I wonder about the computer.
It says, “Only.” It is a marvelous phrase in Scripture. Look it up when you go home.
Dear saints, this is new birth. We need to see the necessity—absolute necessity. We need to understand the nature—it is an entirely new nature.
We need to understand the connection. How do we get there? Praise God, He has given us John 3 to show us the way. May the Lord help us to respond.
Lord, we bring Your Word back and say, “Lord, would You breathe upon it and make it living and real to us?”
Lord, we want Your Word to mean something to us. We want it to lay hold of us. We want it to interrupt us, just as You interrupted Nicodemus.
And we want You to find in us that simple response: to believe on the Lord Jesus. For we ask this in Your precious name. Amen.