It is needful to call attention to foundation truths.
John 3:1-101There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: 2The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. 4Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? 5Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. 9Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? (John 3:1‑10). Verse 7 gives us an absolute necessity: “Ye must be born again.” Why is that such a necessity—so necessary that without it it is impossible to see or enter the kingdom of God? That which is born of the flesh is flesh.
What kind of a man is this the Lord is teaching? A teacher in Israel. One to be highly respected. One that other men looked up to. A teacher and instructor of others. No ordinary man. A religious man. Such an one as Nicodemus—a Master in Israel—couldn’t endure heaven if it were possible for him to get there, except he were born again. Why? Not because of what that man was. As far as we know he was like some of whom we read, “walking in the ordinances of the Lord, blameless.” He may have been like Saul of Tarsus, a man you couldn’t point the finger at, but heaven would have been unendurable to him. That is the man to whom the Lord said “Ye must be born again.” Why? As we have said, not because of his ways, his doings, but because of what he was in himself—in his nature.
When the Lord brings before people this necessity of new birth—new nature—he takes a sample man.
All that we, in our nature, love and delight in, is in this world—not in heaven. There is nothing in heaven that we naturally delight in. Who delights in the presence of God—in the knowledge of who He is—what he is in Himself, in holiness and love? Who naturally finds joy in singing the praises of Christ, the Savior? Who naturally—who, unborn again—delights in praising God and His Son? Take the most religious man today, he finds a certain amount of comfort and interest in his religion, but it is in his religion he finds his comfort. It is not what is in heaven, and his religion does not fit him for heaven, and he knows it. In order to enjoy being in heaven, you must be suited to that place. It is a prepared place for prepared people.
E. H. used to tell of an old lady. He asked an old lady when she wanted to go to heaven? She answered,
“When I die.”
“And when do you want to die?”
“I don’t want to die at all.”
That is the truth, people want to go to heaven when they can’t stay here any longer. The thought is not going to heaven, as a place desired, but because of the One there whom the soul knows and is linked up with. It is well to search ourselves in this way: Suppose it were possible to go to heaven—a Christian—one who knows the blessed Lord as his Savior, and when he got to heaven he didn’t find the blessed Savior there. Do you think he would be at home there? No. That is a great truth. No P-L-A-C-E can satisfy our hearts. It is Christ. It is the person.
What do you know about Him? The first thing is, has He become an object of faith to your soul? An object of love? That is another thing. Having Him as an object of faith doesn’t satisfy the soul. It gives conscience rest, but not the soul “Whom having not seen ye love.” We won’t need faith in Christ when we get to heaven. We will have His presence.
Well, now, it is because of what we are in ourselves that we need to be born again, and that means born after a new source—a new kind—a new beginning—a new nature.
“That which is born of the flesh is flesh,” and you can’t change it. “Is flesh.” We get it doctrinally in the 8th of Romans: “The carnal mind,” that is, the natural man’s mind, or the natural man with his mind, “is enmity against God. Is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.” Such is man by nature God-ward. He might be as religious as Nicodemus (Nicodemus’ religion was God-given), and yet the heart and mind unreconciled, and with no capacity for the enjoyment of God Himself. Perhaps there is a certain capacity for the enjoyment of religious services, but religious services are not God.
How beautiful! This man—this master in Israel—has been attracted to the Lord. He has been no casual observer of the works of the Lord—those miracles—they have produced action in his soul. The Lord said to the multitude, “Ye seek Me, not because ye saw the miracles, but because ye did eat of the loaves.” Not so with Nicodemus. “Who could that be?” “O, He is a teacher come from God. I am going to Him. That is just what I want.” I doubt not it was the longings of the new nature to be taught of God. He comes, and comes at night. I like that word, “Came at night.” Why do you think he came at night?
I have sometimes thought he wanted to avoid reproach. Perhaps he did, but Nicodemus, if you did come at night you came, and the fact of your coming at night showed you wanted to come.
I have often pictured those two together. That master in Israel, feeling in his soul that he was in the presence of his superior in that lowly one, and he came to that Superior to be taught—a felt need of being taught of God, and that is one of the first evidences of the new nature.
His coming at night is very touching. It may have been to avoid reproach, because there is no having to do with Christ without sharing His reproach, and no real confession of Christ without reproach.
Psalm 69 is prophetic of the Lord. “The reproaches of them that reproached Thee are fallen upon Me.” Man has reproach in his heart for God. What brought it out? The presence of God in the person of His Son here in this world.
A child is partaker of his father’s nature. We are partakers of the divine nature. The child of God is a partaker of God’s nature. What relationship does “being born again” bring one into? Into the relationship of a child. “To as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God.”
In the 4th of Ephesians “Alienated from the life of God... because of the blindness of their heart,” that is man in his natural state.
The most cultivated and refined person would be no more at home in heaven, than the poor sinful creature taken from the street, who is not cultivated and refined. Not in practice but in nature. A sample person in character and amiability and all that, and the one from the street, both need and must be born again before they can see or enter the kingdom of God. It is so important to learn what we are in nature before God.
(To be continued)