Good morning to everyone. Thank you again, Mark, for leading us. A beautiful morning. I was out doing chores this morning. I looked up and all the new barn swallow chicks are sitting on the power line. So they were buzzing around, getting bugs, and nice to see that. 

We're continuing our communion service last Sunday of the month in the Gospel of John. And we're in John chapter 3 now. Wonderful text, a tremendously clear text. This week and next month, we'll look at this important first 16, 17, 18 verses here. 

And I was thinking as I read this text that it seems to me that there's a lot of confusion in the church today about what it means to be a Christian, what it means to be saved, how it is that a man can be born again. 

It reminded me of a story that Jerry Clower used to tell. He told a story about Eugene Ledbetter, who lived in Liberty, Mississippi. And he said a traveling evangelist was walking through the streets of Liberty one day. And Eugene was out in his yard working. And he walked up to the edge of his yard seeking to witness to him. And he said, could I talk to you for a minute? And Eugene said, sure. And he said, sir, are you a Christian? And Eugene said, no, sir, I'm a Ledbetter. And the man said, no, you don't understand. What I'm asking is, are you lost? And Eugene said, no, sir, I've lived here most all my life. And the man says, what I mean is, are you ready for Judgment Day? And Eugene said, well, when's it going to be? And the man said, well, it could be today and it could be tomorrow. And he said, well, don't tell my wife. She'll want to go both days. 

One thing that we lack in the evangelical church today is clarity. There's a lot of confusion in the church and the world today concerning what it means to be born again, to be a Christian. 

We meet a man in our text this morning, a religious man, an upstanding member of the community, a very learned man, a familiar with the scriptures, in fact, a ruling member of the Sanhedrin, a teacher of the Jews. We meet a man who is confused about how it is that a man can enter the kingdom of God, can be saved from the wrath to come, and has no understanding of what it means to be born again. 

It's not that he did not have revelation. We see the scriptures in the Old Testament of a promise of the new birth, of regeneration, a whole new creation. We're going to look at that in Ezekiel 36. God made very clear in the Old Testament scriptures the necessity of a suffering Messiah, a sacrifice for sins and salvation through faith in Him. But like so many in our world today, when we at this time have such clarity, amazing amounts of revelation and accessibility to that revelation in the word of God, Nicodemus had no clue what it means to be born again. 

And this is vital, important, because Jesus says in our text, unless a man is born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You must be born again. So if Jesus says the only way to see God's kingdom to be saved is to be born again, then I reckon it is mighty important that we come to understand what it means to be born again and how it is that I can experience this new birth for myself. 

Let's look at our text in John 3 at verse 1. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him. 

Jesus answered and said to him, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to 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, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. 

I've given you five points on your outline. First, the new birth is a necessity for salvation. Second, the new birth is a work of the Holy Spirit. Third, the new birth is by faith. Fourth, the new birth is a promise of the new covenant. And fifth, the new birth has great implications. 

Well, sometimes when people find out that you are a Bible-believing Christian, that you go to a non-denominational church, that you care enough about them to talk to them about the gospel and their eternal salvation, they will ask, are you one of those born-again believers? 

Well, in light of the scripture before us this morning, this really is an amazing question. It's almost a pejorative in our world and in much of the so-called Christian church. I was thinking about this and I calculated that I spent about 2,184 hours from the age of five when I went to kindergarten until about the age of 12 when I left the sixth grade in a formal worship service. I went to mass six days a week all those years. I also spent 30 to 40 hours a week during the school year in the context of religious education. 

After sixth grade, I continued catechism and weekly mass attendance until I went to college. Needless to say, I had a lot of religious education and a lot of time spent in a Christian setting. I also spent all of my life immersed in large Catholic family social gatherings, functions at the KSCs and the basement of the church at parties and religious events. 

Do you know that in all those years, I would venture to say until I was 26 years old, I never heard of being born again. I also never heard the gospel. I never had anyone speak of being born again. And yet here in our text, Jesus says to another very religious man, completely consumed with his religion, listen Nicodemus, nothing else matters unless you are first born again, born of the spirit. 

Now I learned later in my own studies of Roman Catholic dogma that the church teaches that the new birth happens through infant baptism, but no one ever spoke of this, certainly never taught it or made it clear. I went to dozens of baptisms of babies, never heard of the new birth. And of course, this is a false gospel of sacramentalism and not what the Bible teaches about the new birth. 

So when someone asks you if you're one of those born again Christians, I would respond this way, there is no other kind. There is no other kind. Jesus says you must be born again to be a Christian. 

So we see first of all in our text that the new birth is a necessity for salvation. This man, Nicodemus, a ruler of the people of Pharisee came to Jesus by night, it says. Now that's an interesting detail that John puts in here. Why by night? 

Well, Jesus was a controversial figure. We see that Nicodemus recognizes that Jesus must be from God. And the reason for this is the works that he did, amazing works, a multitude of works, healing nearly the entire region of its sick and afflicted. He healed the sick, he cleansed the lepers, he gave sight to the blind, he fed the 5,000, he calmed the seas, he changed the water to wine, he even raised the dead. 

Nicodemus was apparently an honest man seeking to know who Jesus is. He says, we know that you are from God because no man could do these works unless God is with him. And yet he wasn't willing to come openly in the daylight because most of the Jewish leaders sought to kill Jesus. 

So I think we could say that Nicodemus is curious, he's seeking, he's trying to understand who Jesus is and what he's all about. He begins with a sort of flattery, teacher, we know that you are from God. But before he could even really get started, before he could even ask a question, one of the many questions I'm sure he had, Jesus stops him in his tracks. 

And in essence, he says this, Nicodemus, there's only one thing that matters to a man, to a lost man and Adam, all these jots and tittles, religious exercises, theological questions and debates, all the things that the Pharisees spent their lives consumed with, these things have no consequence unless a man first is born again. 

Most assuredly, verily, verily, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. We see the utter confusion of religiosity in the response of Nicodemus in verse four. Nicodemus said to 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? 

He seeks a physical explanation to Jesus' perplexing words, but Jesus explains to him that the new birth is not a natural work, it's a supernatural work, it's a work of the Holy Spirit, verse five. 

Jesus answered, most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 

And Nicodemus speaks here of physical birth. Can a man enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, and Jesus speaks of physical birth in verse six, flesh gives birth to flesh. And then Jesus speaks of a second birth, a spiritual rebirth. He answers in the flow of the text, a man must be born not only of water, but of the Spirit in order to see the kingdom of God. He must experience a second birth, a birth of the Spirit, a supernatural birth. 

He characterizes the birth Nicodemus has in mind, the first birth, the birth of the child from his mother as being born of water. The religions of our world have taken this verse and applied it to water baptism, but this is absolutely foreign to the context, totally inconsistent with the teaching of the rest of Scripture. There is no efficacious work in baptism, it's a symbol representing what has happened to us, and that's why we baptize believers and immerse them, because it symbolizes their death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus Christ. 

Some within Christianity have also related this water reference to the washing of regeneration, speaking of the new birth itself. But I find this to be redundant and unnatural in the context and flow of the text. It's a truth that we see in other Scriptures. Jesus would be saying, you must be born of water, referring to regeneration, and born of the Spirit, referring to regeneration. This metaphor is used in other places in the sense of spiritual cleansing, such as in Titus, and also in Ephesians 5, 26, he uses this language, but it says that this happens through the Word, to wash her by the Word. 

So here in this context, I think the most natural interpretation is that born of water speaks of physical birth. That's what Nicodemus is talking about in the verse before, Jesus talks about that in the verse after, flesh gives birth to flesh. So a man is born of water once, from his mother, natural birth, this is true for every man and woman. And then a second birth, a spiritual birth, is what is necessary if he is to enter the kingdom of God. 

So what is this new birth, and how can a man be born again? As we have seen, the new birth is a work of the Holy Spirit, it is God who causes us to be born again, sort of the namesake verse for our church, is 1 Peter 1, 3, where it says, "'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, "'who according to his abundant mercy has begotten us again.'" That's made us to be born again. He has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. 

We see here that God, according to his abundant mercy, has begotten us again. That is, he has caused us to be born again. He has regenerated us, and this not because of some religious ritual, not because of some work that we do, not because of our righteousness, but according to his abundant mercy. 

If you look at 1 Peter 1 at verse 18 with me, I'd like to just continue reading Peter's explanation of this. 1 Peter 1, 18. Peter says, "'Knowing that you were not redeemed "'with corruptible things, like silver or gold, "'from your aimless or useless conduct "'received by tradition from your fathers, "'but with the precious blood of Christ, "'as of a lamb without blemish, without spot, "'he indeed was foreordained "'before the foundation of the world, "'but was manifest in these last times for you, "'who through him believe in God, "'who raised him from the dead and gave him glory, "'so that your faith and your hope are in God.'" 

Look at verse 22. "'Since you have purified your souls "'in obeying the truth,' "'that speaks of faith, obeying the truth, "'through the spirit and sincere love of the brethren, "'love one another fervently with a pure heart, "'having been born again, "'not of corruptible seed, but incorruptible, "'through the word of God, "'which lives and abides forever.'" 

We see in these clear texts that the new birth is not according to vain, useless tradition from our fathers, religious works and rituals. We place our faith and hope in God alone, in Jesus and what he accomplished on the cross in our place for our sins. 

Having accomplished our salvation, having purged our sins by himself, it says in Hebrews 1, he finished the work in that one-time sacrifice in his death, burial, and resurrection on the third day. And because of Christ, and because we trust in him, because we believe him, because we have obeyed the truth, God has performed this work in us. He has purified our souls, caused us to be born again, given us a new spirit and caused His Spirit to dwell in us. 

This new birth is a spiritual, not a physical work, and it comes not through religion or rituals or good works, but only by faith in Jesus Christ. This brings up an incredibly important theological point on which I think we should spend some time. The new birth, regeneration it says, is by faith. The word here means through, by means of. It is the agent of instrumentality. 

We see this clearly in Ephesians 2.8.9. It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith. Wiest comments on this verse, this phrase through faith. He says, the words through faith speak of the instrument or means whereby the sinner avails himself of this salvation which God offers him in pure grace. Alford says, it, the salvation, has been affected by grace and apprehended by faith. 

So we are saved by the grace of God alone, but this salvation is apprehended, taken hold of personally by or through faith. One other important note in this text of Ephesians 2.8, many of have and do teach that this verse teaches us that faith is the gift of God, and they incorporate this into a fundamental teaching of their whole system of soteriology or doctrine of salvation, and they say that the new birth or regeneration precedes faith. But it's a simple matter of Greek grammar, at least in Ephesians 2.8, that the word tuto, translated that, cannot refer to faith. 

It says, for by grace you have been saved through faith, and that, not of yourselves, it is the gift of God. In the Greek, each noun is assigned a gender. It's either masculine or feminine or neuter. The rule in the Greek language is this, pronouns must agree with the antecedent in gender. Simple, right? For example, if the pronoun is feminine, then the noun that it stands for must be feminine. 

In this case, our pronoun translated that is neuter, and so that must stand for something that is neuter. It cannot be faith because the noun faith is feminine, okay? So it's an important theological point here to understand Ephesians 2.8. 

So the antecedent we find, and we find this to be a very consistent concept that Paul's talking about through this whole section, is salvation. Salvation is the gift of God. According to experts in Greek grammar, if Paul had wanted the pronoun to refer to the idea or concept contained in the verb, then the neuter gender would be the one to use. You could say it this way, for by grace are ye saved through faith, and being saved is not of yourselves, and being saved is the gift of God, and being saved is not of works, lest any man should boast. 

His subject in this whole section is salvation, so what he is saying is that salvation is the gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Sometimes you will hear men teach that the word that, the pronoun there, refers to the whole ball of wax of salvation, of faith, of everything. It's all the gift of God. The problem with this view is that the pronoun translated that here is singular. It refers to one thing, not many things. Faith is not the gift of God in this verse. Salvation is the gift of God. It is the common sense interpretation, it is the proper grammatical interpretation, and the reason that men apply it to faith is only because of their preconceived theological positions. 

It's kind of a burr in my saddle, this Ephesians 2a. Being born again is by God's grace through faith. It comes to the one who believes. The New Testament scriptures are overwhelming concerning this truth by the dozens. Turn back just a page here to Ephesians 1, if you were in Ephesians 2 with me. Go to Ephesians 1 at verse 13. 

In him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is the guarantee of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession to the praise of his glory. Notice the clarity of the order here in Paul's words. He says, in him you also trusted, this is faith, after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation. 

So a man must hear the gospel, the message about Jesus, in order to believe. We see this in Romans 10 17, that faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God, or literally a message about Jesus. Follow now in Ephesians 1 13, in him you also trusted after you heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation, in whom also having believed you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise. 

A man must hear the gospel, then he must place his faith in Christ, then he is sealed by the Holy Spirit, he is saved, he is born again. The New Testament never teaches that a man is saved and then he believes. Nowhere. It consistently says and always teaches that he believes and then he's saved. Faith is the instrument of apprehension of salvation, it is by grace through faith. 

John 1 12, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in his name. Acts 16 30, and he brought them out and he said, sirs, what must I do to be saved? So they said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you will be saved. 

Why didn't Paul tell this man, as many Reformed teachers have and do teach, well you must ask that God would regenerate you so that you can believe. You must pray for the gift of faith. Let me give you a little excerpt from John MacArthur's sermon on this. He says, faith is a gift from God, it is permanent, the faith that God gives begets obedience. God gave it to you and he sustains it. Then he says this in sort of a appeal to people to be saved, may God grant you a true saving faith, a permanent gift that begins in humility and brokenness over sin and ends up in obedience unto righteousness. 

That's true faith and it's a gift that only God can give, and if you desire it, pray and ask that he would grant it to you. Nowhere in the New Testament are we commanded to pray for the gift of faith. We are commanded over and over and over again to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and we will be saved. Never be saved and then you will believe. The doctrine turns the gospel upside down and brings tremendous confusion about the new birth. 

D.L. Moody once said, some say that faith is the gift of God. So is the air, but you have to breathe it. So is bread, but you have to eat it. So is water, but you have to drink it. Some are wanting some miraculous kind of feeling. That is not faith. Faith comes by hearing, hearing by the Word of God. It's not for me to sit down and wait for faith to come stealing over me, it is for me to take God at His Word. 

Salvation, the new birth, is by grace through faith and it's a spiritual work that God does in response to our faith. I'm going to appeal to the Prince of Preachers, Charles Spurgeon, just to put an exclamation point on our discussion here from his sermon, The Warrant of Faith. He says, if I am to preach the faith in Christ to a man who is regenerated, then the man being regenerated is saved already, and it is unnecessary and ridiculous thing for me to preach Christ to him and bid him to believe in order to be saved when he is saved already, being regenerate. 

Am I only to preach faith to those who have it? Absurd indeed! Is not this waiting till the man is cured and then bringing him the medicine? This is preaching Christ to the righteous and not to sinners." 

We see also that this, and it's important in our context of the conversation with Nicodemus, that this new birth is a new covenant promise. Turn to Ezekiel 36 with me, Ezekiel 36 at verse 26. This is a promise in the context of Ezekiel made to the nation of Israel, speaking of a future time when there would be restoration to the nation. In verse 26, God promises, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of your flesh and give you a heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will keep my judgments and do them. 

Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers. You shall be my people and I will be your God. Again, this is a promise made to the nation of Israel, but as we have discussed many times in passages like Luke 22 and Hebrews 8, we see that the new covenant was instituted by Christ at the cross in his blood and now has a pre-fillment in the church time. 

In other words, these promises will ultimately be fulfilled in Israel but are now being experienced in part in the church age. So what are the promises of this new covenant as outlined in Ezekiel 36 or Jeremiah 31? He says, I will give you a new heart and a new spirit. This is the new birth, my friends, regeneration. 

You see, it's our spirit that is made new. We are regenerated, not in our bodies, not in our minds and emotions, but in our spirit. God has given us new hearts and a new spirit. We will see that this has great implications in our lives now. 

Also we see in this Old Testament text this promise of the new covenant that he will cause his spirit to dwell in us permanently. In the old covenant economy, we see that God's spirit would come upon men for a specific purpose but then leave. In the new covenant, the Holy Spirit comes to and dwell us permanently and seal us forever. 

Listen to these amazing words in John 14, 16. He said, I will pray the Father and he will give you another helper that he may abide with you forever, the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive but it neither sees him or knows him but you know him for he dwells with you and he will be in you. In the old covenant, he may dwell with you but in the new covenant, he dwells in you. He will abide with you forever. He is with you. He will be in you. 

This is the great promise of the new covenant, the permanent and dwelling of the Holy Spirit of God and the regenerative work that he does in us when we believe. And this work has profound and amazing implications in our lives because God also promised that on the basis of regeneration, the new birth and what this entails along with the power of the Holy Spirit in us in the very life of Christ, the divine nature imparted to us that he would cause us to walk in his statutes and keep them. 

That the mark of our life in Christ would be righteousness and holiness and an abundant life. We love these truths in passages like Romans 5 to 8 that we died to the dominating controlling power of indwelling sin. We who died to sin can no longer continue in it. That our old man has been crucified with Christ so that we should no longer be slaves of sin. 

We love the truth that we died with Christ and therefore died to the law and the bondage to fear of death. We no longer live by the letter, but we now live by the Holy Spirit and we walk in the Spirit, not in the flesh. Jesus has dealt with not only the penalty of sin by dying in our place for our sins, taking the wrath of God in my place, but he has also in the new birth dealt with the power of indwelling sin, releasing me from its grip, regenerating my spirit, putting a heart of flesh in me, pouring his love out into my heart, and empowering me by his life and spirit who permanently now lives in me. 

What the law could not do and that it was weak through the flesh, God did. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, he condemned sin in the flesh in order that the righteous requirement of the law, which is love, might be fulfilled in me as I no longer walk by the flesh but by the Spirit. 

And now because of the new birth, by his grace and power through faith, I can now believe Jesus, I can trust totally in him, and I can love God and love men as he has commanded me. We love these truths and these texts that make them so clear in such detail, but this truth is pervasive throughout the New Testament. It is in fact the heart and the theme of the new covenant life in Christ. 

Go back to 1st Peter 1, let's look at that again, 1st Peter 1 at verse 13. He just finished talking about the greatness of our salvation, our new birth, security in him, how he keeps us by his power, how we suffer now but the end is going to be our salvation, and all that we have in him. In verse 13 he says, Therefore, gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and rest your hope fully upon the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ. 

As obedient children, not conforming yourselves to the former lusts as in your ignorance, but as he who called you as holy, you also be holy in all your conduct because it is written, Be holy for I am holy. 

Peter calls us to be holy, to live holy lives, but what is the basis for this? Look down to verse 22. Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit, in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart, having been born again, not of corruptible seed but incorruptible through the Word of God which lives and abides forever. 

Salvation, regeneration, a new birth, and all that it means is the basis not only in Paul's letter, but also in Peter's and James' and the whole New Testament. The new birth and the life and power of Christ in us is the basis for the new life of holiness. 

This is the significance of what Jesus is talking to this religious man Nicodemus about in John chapter 3. We see the effects of the Spirit, he says he's like the wind. You see the leaves blow across the lawn here pretty soon, we're going to see that, aren't we? All the birds are going to leave and they're going to quit singing and there's going to be silence and death will be upon us. But it's coming. 

But we see the effects of the wind. We don't see the wind, we don't know where it comes from, it's like the Spirit, he says. But those who are born of the Spirit, we see those effects in their lives. The Spirit is powerful and working and he's producing fruit out through our lives. 

Jesus tells this religious man, you must be born again. This is the great new covenant message of Christ and the cross, the great sacrifice, his blood of the new covenant and that's the reason that we're here this morning, to remember, to celebrate, to proclaim what he's done for us. That's why we gather as he commanded, to celebrate the Lord's Supper. 

Let's close in prayer. 

Father, we're so thankful for clear truth that Jesus gives us the truth and that we can trust him and believe him and that by your word we can come to faith in him and that we can experience this work of regeneration in our lives to become new men, new creations in Christ who now by your power live new lives. As a witness and for your glory, we just praise you and give you thanks, in Jesus' name. Amen.