Ye Must Be Born Again
Table of Contents
Ye Must Be Born Again: Part 1
I wish, with the Lord's help, dear friends, to bring John 3 before you in the way in which it has been before me of late.
Perhaps there is no chapter in the New Testament that, in part, at least, is known better than the 3rd chapter of the Gospel by John; and perhaps there is no part of the New Testament that is so little understood.
What has been before me of late in connection with this is how it brings out what God is by nature, and what man is by nature. God and man are brought together in that way.
In this chapter we have—I hardly like to say, three men; although there are three men—I had rather say, three persons. But one of those men is absolutely different from the other two—He came from heaven. That is the testimony of John the Baptist. When John's disciples become jealous for their master, they find that the Lord Jesus is getting a greater hearing than John, "He that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, the same baptizeth, and all come to Him."
They were jealous of their master's glory. And the Christian often is jealous of His Master's glory. That just gives occasion to John the Baptist, who was the greatest born of women, as Jesus said, to tell how he feels—the contrast between himself and his Master,
"He that cometh from above is above all: he that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth."
How each one of us learns for himself the gracious and wonderful truth that One has come down from heaven. And that One delights in the title of being the Son of Man. And we learn who Christ is; and where He came from. That is one of the first things we wish to learn in order to know God.
Well, the other is a great man—Nicodemus. And he has been to some meetings—the passover, where Jesus was—and he has seen and heard some of the miracles of the Lord. And that dear man, that great man Nicodemus, referred to in another translation as "the teacher of Israel," has a need, a felt need in his soul. And that felt need brought him to the Saviour. But his knowledge of who that Saviour was, was very shallow and partial. He comes to Him and says,
"Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God." Well, Nicodemus, how do you know that?
"No man can do these miracles that Thou doest, except God be with him."
When did Nicodemus come? He came at night. What shall we learn of that? We read of Nicodemus twice after this in the Gospel; and each time he is mentioned, it is said of him that he came to Jesus by night. Some have felt that he was ashamed to come by day. That is not the speaker's thought of it. Ah, he had a need in his soul—a felt need. And it is a blessed thing, whether you come to Jesus by night or by day, when you come to Him with a sense of need in your soul. You will receive blessing by coming to Him in that way. What was Nicodemus' felt need? His need of God—have you felt that? Has a realized sense of need in your soul brought you to God, brought you in the presence of God? If not, you are a stranger to Him. And He appeals to you in His love.
I have often thought of those three men. Ah, you and I would not feel very much at home in the presence of Nicodemus; nor would we feel very much at home in the presence of John the Baptist, for he was a thundering servant of God—"Repent," was the word with John the Baptist. But, O, if you came to Jesus, you would find yourself perfectly at home; and He would be happy to have you realize yourself at home in His presence.
I sometimes ask the question, What did Jesus come from heaven for? What was He sent from heaven for? To make known the love of God. On one occasion a poor leper just burst the heart of Christ, when he said,
"I do not question your power, but what about your feelings? What about your heart? If Thou wilt, Thou canst make me clean."
You have the power; have You got the will to do it? At once that Hand went forth and touched him. He says,
"I will; be thou clean." Ah, it was to make known God's love that Christ came!
And so this great man, this master in Israel, finds himself in the presence of perhaps the lowliest man in Israel; for the one characteristic of the Lord Jesus was lowliness—a lowliness that made Him live a life of loneliness. So He comes; and He says,
"Well, you speak in a bantering way, and you own that God is with Me; and you want to be taught. If you want to be taught, you want the truth, do you not?"
Do you and I desire to know the truth of God, or the truth from God? That is what is needful for salvation—to know the truth of God; who He is, and what He is in His nature. So in the first answer of the Lord Jesus to this great man, this master in Israel, He says,
"If you want to know the truth; if you want Me to teach you, I must tell you the truth of God. And I must tell you, though you are a master in Israel and a teacher, `Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' "
Have you learned that? O, that is forgotten, dear friends. The majority of the masters in Israel today, have forgotten that, "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." It is a right thing to tell the people the truth; and woe be the man who stands up to teach or preach the truth of God, when he does not teach the truth of God.
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." Unless you have been born again, you will never see, or enter it.
Now, how is that? What makes man need a new birth? of being born again? or, "born from above," as the margin gives it; the same word is frequently translated, "born from above"?
(To Be Continued)
Ye Must Be Born Again: Part 3
To an unconverted one, there is no joy in God's presence. We are often struck with it, those of us who are parents. We take our children to the meeting, the Gospel meeting—O, how difficult it is to get them. Why? The atmosphere there is not suited to them. Were we to take them to the places of amusement, we should have no trouble to control them. What is the cause of it? What they are in nature; and what they get in the place of amusement, they can enjoy in their nature. But what they get in the Gospel meeting is all contrary to their nature, until the grace of God works.
And many a one passes in this world as a child of God; but unless there is a change, and one is born again, he will find himself at the end a lost soul. He has not been born again; if God were to take him to heaven, if it were possible, he would not be happy; and if He were to put him into hell, it would make him unhappy. What is to be done, then?
The only place that man in his unconverted state can be happy is in this world; what is here suits him in his nature. One is often reminded of it when we go by the theaters on the Lord's day, where they will be standing in line, sometimes for more than two blocks, waiting for the opening. And we have gone down to the Gospel meeting in the evening, after having invited different ones, and there would be no response. Every one in those companies has his money in his hand, and has to pay for admission, while we take the Gospel to them free, and they do not care for it. That makes us feel often as to our children.
And let us, dear Christian parents, be faithful. Let us make them know the truth that they must be born again, or they will never see or enter the kingdom of God.
Take home with you, "Except a man be born again, he can not see the kingdom of God." Young and old, let us give that grand fundamental truth of God a place in our consideration.
How is this new birth brought about—born of God"? It is brought about by the Word of God.
"Born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the Word of God, which liveth and abideth forever." 1 Peter 1:23. Can you mentally understand that?
For instance, an unconverted man goes down the street where there is a Gospel preacher, who has a few hearers; and he hears that preacher quote the Word of God:
"God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us." Rom. 5:8. One man says, "That is the truth." What is taking place? He is being "born again by the Word of God"—the water and the Spirit—he receives a new, spiritual life.
There is no such thing in the Word of God as being born again twice. One is brought into a new and everlasting relationship with God, by receiving the Word of God.
How come we to be so bad in nature? Well, it was through the rejection of the Word of God, and the reception of the word of Satan. God said one thing; Satan said another. Here, on one hand, was one; on the other hand, the other—which will you believe? Ah, Satan got the ear. And that is man's history, if left to himself, down to this day. The truth of God is rejected, save and except where through sovereign grace, it is accepted. And there is no one born again except by the Word of God; and He is bringing this Word in your conversion, that Word in my conversion; that Word in the conversion of another; but each one has been born again by the reception of the Word of God.
There is another thing besides this, born again. Long, long ago there was emphatic attention called to this—these two musts. Why those two musts—the one is to God, and the other is to man. Because of what? Because of these two natures—born of water and of the Spirit. That is just simply the application and reception of the Word of God.
We find this learned man asks this question: How? How? Those hows trouble us so, in the Word of God, sometimes. Where is their origin? In our heads—man's mind. They are only to be answered by the Word of God. We find them, frequently, in the Gospel of John—"How can a man be born when he is old?" And, thank God, many an old man has been born again. See to it that you are born again, or you will never see the kingdom of God.
(To Be Continued)
Ye Must Be Born Again: Part 2
Do not think that when God made man, He made him with such a bad nature that he would need to be born again. O no, when Adam came from the hand of God, he came from that hand a perfect man. And love and power had prepared a scene of blessedness for that man—Paradise. And when he got into paradise, he found everything suited to his nature; and his nature suited to everything there.
How is it that our need of a new life, a new nature, is essential to our seeing, or entering, the kingdom of God? Because the best of us are so bad by nature. And that is what has been impressed in my mind of late to bring before my own soul and others, what I am by nature; and what and who God is by nature.
Friends, you have to do with God—God as God, first. Are you ready for that? Have you had to do with Him?
I speak now for a moment to the unconverted. My unconverted friend, do you think if God took you into heaven, that you would be happy? If God took you into heaven unborn again, unconverted, the first thing you would wish to do, would be to get out. Why? O, you would find the light of the holiness of God there; and you would find yourself all exposed to light. No, if God were to take an unconverted man into heaven, he would be utterly unhappy.
Well, what shall He do with him then? Put him into hell? Would he be happy then? Why, I believe he would be as unhappy in heaven as he would be in hell. In heaven the light of the holiness of God would constantly expose and bear down upon him; in hell, the weight of God's judgment is upon him.
I know it is not common to talk in this way of heaven and hell in these days. But, dear friend, heaven or hell, forever and forever, will be your portion and mine. Think of that. That is worthy of consideration—an eternal home in heaven, all suited to heaven and to the God of heaven; or a place in hell, under the judgment of God, for my sins.
Well, Nicodemus cannot understand it. "How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born?" What would be his need afterward, in order to see or enter the kingdom of God? To be born again; and I repeat the new version in that way. No, it is another kind of birth.
So this perplexed this master in Israel; and it perplexes masters in Israel today. But the Lord Jesus emphasizes the fact:
"Except a man be born again, he cannot enter, or see the kingdom of God."
O, let these fundamental words and Gospel truth remain in our souls. I have known the truth many years; but I find it blessed to go back to the fundamentals. So he goes on, and the Lord Jesus says to him:
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
There might be a great deal of difference in the circumstances of two or three men; but if they have not been born again, they are unsaved masters in Israel.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh"—what does that mean?
Suppose we should send, say, an unconverted child of ours to a theological seminary to be made a preacher; and he would pass the course of study, and graduate. What is he in nature? What he was when he entered—"That which is born of the flesh is flesh." He remains an unconverted man.
I use the terms born again and converted as almost the same, though they are not exactly the same thought in Scripture. But conversion or new birth is essential.
"Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again."
What is the need of it? That I as a sinful man, have a nature that can not be changed, but remains a sinful one. The moral and the immoral man are the same in nature. It was not an immoral man to whom the Lord Jesus was talking here, who had come to Him by night, with a sense of need in his soul. Both the moral and the immoral are in need of conversion, of being born again.
What does this new nature give to those who receive it? The nature from above is another kind of birth; and what does it make them? It makes them children of God—by nature, spiritual nature. What a vast and wonderful change! "Heirs of God, and joint heirs with Christ." (Rom. 8:17). But that is not the rich part of it. The rich part of it is that each child is partaker of the nature of God; he is a child of God by nature. And he can enjoy, and does enjoy and worship God, as one that has a new nature. How fine and sweetly here on earth the child of God gets a foretaste of home; that is, heaven. Communion with God and his Saviour is a foretaste of what will be his everlasting portion.
Well, all this perplexed this learned man—he was a member of the Sanhedrin. And it perplexes the learned at all times; in order to understand it, they have to take the place of being sinners in God's sight, with a nature that is utterly contrary to His.
(To Be Continued)
Ye Must Be Born Again: Part 4
"Ye must be born again." What makes that must? Men's need. "The Son of man must be lifted up." What makes that must? Our need of God.
Well, you think this is a strange thing to think of—our need of God. Ah, there is a strange truth that comes out here, which is often overlooked by the preachers of the Gospel:
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
There are two things there—perish, and eternal life. What led to that lifting up of the Son of man? What is the source? It is a great thing to trace things back to their source; especially in this day when all is so shallow and artificial—surface work. The nature of God. You view that awful scene of the Son of Man being lifted up; "as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness;" of what does it tell? What is its source, its origin?
"For God so loved."
The love of God has found a way of meeting man's need, as well as meeting His own. God looked down from heaven upon the earth in the love of compassion; and it moved His heart, and if I may speak in that familiar way, He says, as it were:
"O, I should like to save that sinner, but there are his sins; I can not pass them over." God must have satisfaction for sin.
When God saves and blesses me (or any other poor sinner), it is because He has had satisfaction as to my sins. Where do we find satisfaction as to those sins? He found it in judging sin. His nature required that He judge sin according to His nature; and that is what He did in Christ. God had such a satisfaction for my sins; and He sees such worth in the cross of His Son, that the message of forgiveness—and a better word, still, is justification—is sent out world wide from Calvary. O, what a wonderful work, the work of Christ on the cross—"so must the Son of Man be lifted up."
One thinks some time of what will be the joy of heaven when we are there, and we look into that Saviour's face and know how God loved Him. Now how God gave Him up for us, and made Him to be a sin offering. Ah, the joy and joys of heaven will be various, but it will ever be Christ, in some way.
"So must the Son of man be lifted up." He came down from heaven; and He manifested the power of God in healing all manner of diseases.
But He had not made atonement for sin. And if He knew from day to day the bitterness of the end, He ever knew what was before Him in the cross. The judgment of God against sin and sins, was what was before Him that He would have to meet it.
We get on certain occasions in His life of ministry, that dark cross coming to mind. And, O, how precious the cross of Christ makes Christ to those who know Him as their Saviour; when we look up to His face and bless Him, we say:
"Ah, Lord, it was Thy atoning death upon the cross that met the musts of God." For man and the world, increasing light is given as to who and what God is in His nature; and man has to do with Him.
Suppose that the Lord Jesus had gone to heaven after He had been on the cross only three hours; at the end of that wondrous life. Do you know what would have been the result? The door would have closed when He went in. What! after all that wondrous life and service? Yes—"The wages of sin is death." (Rom. 6:23). O, how well the Lord Jesus knew that! And so, after those first three hours are past—and they are passed in communion with God—there are three hours in communion with God; after which He finds Himself forsaken of God—for what? Sin? Ah, He was bearing sin. And at the end—after three long hours—and they were days and nights to His soul:
"I cry in the daytime, and Thou hearest not; and in the night season, and am not silent." But at last the spell is broken, and He is back in communion with God. What has He done? He has made propitiation to God for sin and sins.
Another wonderful thing it will be to be in heaven, in all His holiness and enjoying God in His holiness; and the holiness of His love, the holiness of God, judges, and does not pass over, sin.
I was struck with a passage of Scripture just recently:
"Ye shall keep My sabbaths, and reverence My sanctuary." Lev. 19:30.
What a truth is there—God's presence and the reverence of His truth. There will be no levity in heaven—it will be all deep, solid joy in heaven. And there will not be any levity in hell, either.
May the Lord bless John 3 to us; help us to think of those three persons which we have spoken of—Nicodemus, John the Baptist, and the Lord Jesus.
At the close John the Baptist says:
"A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven."... "He that is of the earth is earthly, and speaketh of the earth."
What a wonderful thing it is that One has come down from heaven to let us know what is necessary on our part, and necessary on the part of God, in order that we may enter in.
"No man hath ascended up to heaven, but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven."
In heaven and on earth—the same one—"the Son of Man which is in heaven." And He has told us heavenly things. And what are those heavenly things? Simply:
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see, or enter, the kingdom of God." That is a heavenly thing.
What a Saviour God has found for us! What a Saviour God saved people with, from their sins! What a wonderful work, and wonderfully precious, too.
The Lord teach the speaker and the hearers to value more and more the truth of John 3—those musts.
(Concluded)