The New Birth (http://new-birth.us)

By Evangelist Paul J. Levin

John Wesley was asked why he preached so often on, "Ye must be born again."
He
answered, "Because ye must be born again." Have YOU been born again? Without
it, you have no hope of escaping the terrors of hell or enjoying the glories
of heaven. The Lord Jesus said, "Ye must be born again," (John 3:7).

I. WHAT THE NEW BIRTH IS NOT

1. It is not religion. Nicodemus was a Pharisee, a very strict religionist.
He
celebrated the Passover, paid tithes, said prayers, brought sacrifices and
tried to keep the Law. To HIM the Lord Jesus said, "Ye must be born again."
Lawkeeping, joining church, being baptized or living up to a religious creed
will not save you. There will be many in hell who did all of these things.
Will
you? Ye MUST be born again.

2. It is not morality. You may try to keep the golden rule, pay your bills,
be
a good neighbor, keep out of jail, and live a clean moral life, but that
won't
save you. It is not recorded that our Lord said, "Ye must be born again," to
cowardly, vacillating Pilate, or to two-faced, hypocritical Judas. Why?
Because
you would say, "I know miserable hypocrites like Judas, and men like Pilate
need to be born again, but I'm not like them. I wouldn't betray Christ with
a kiss after professing to be His friend. I wouldn't order Jesus to be beaten
and then turn Him over to a howling blood-thirsty mob to be crucified.
Gangsters, thugs, adulterers, whoremongers, liars, drunkards and gamblers
need
to be
born again, but not I. I'm all right." My friend, do you realize that God's
Son
spoke these words on the new birth to a man who was doing his best to gain
heaven? Without a doubt, he was neither a crook, drunkard, nor gambler. He
was
a true husband, a good neighbor, a man of clean morals, and religious. If he
needed to be born again, so do you. How do you expect to make it to heaven
without being born again if Nicodemus couldn't? 3. It is not reformation.
Even
if you would quit all your meanness, that would not be the new birth. Your
trouble is not on the outside, but on the inside. You don't need exterior
decoration, but interior regeneration. Satan wants you to rest in a false
peace. We warn you in Jesus' name, don't be satisfied unless you have been
born
again.

II. WHAT THE NEW BIRTH IS

1. It is a mystery you cannot explain, but a reality no man can explain
away. "The wind bloweth where it listeth (pleaseth), and thou hearest the
sound
thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is
everyone that is born of the Spirit," (John 3:8). Just as Nicodemus could
not
understand or explain the wind, so no man can understand or explain the new
birth.

But the wind is a reality no man can explain away. Only a fool would
say, "I don't believe in the wind because I have never seen it and I can't
understand it."

See the wind move the big limbs of an oak. Watch the wind tear a house
to splinters. You cannot deny the reality of wind! You cannot see the Holy
Spirit. You cannot explain Him. But see His mighty power make the harlot
pure,
the liar honest, the drunkard sober, the blasphemer pray, and then try to
deny the reality of it.

2. It is the work of God by which a poor, lost, guilty, hell- deserving
sinner who receives the Lord Jesus receives a new nature, becomes a child of
God and begins a new life. It is a second birth, a spiritual birth.

Physical life begins by birth. Spiritual life begins the same way-not
by joining church and becoming religious. You cannot JOIN the family of God,
you must be BORN into it. Someone has said, "You can't make a Christian out
of
anybody." True, Christians are not made, they are born.

A birth is the coming into being of a new life which has the nature of
its parents. When you were born the first time, you were made a partaker of
the
old nature, the sinful nature we all received from Adam. When you are born
again, you become a partaker of the divine nature (II Peter 1:4). Is this
true
of you? DO YOU have the divine nature?

No matter what kind of a religious profession you have made, no matter
how good a person you may be morally, unless you have been made the partaker
of
the divine nature, you are not saved. God gives you this new nature the
moment
you receive His Son. It is instantaneous. You can no more be born again by
degrees than you can shoot a firecracker by degrees.

When you are born again, you begin living a new life. That is what
happened when you were born the first time; you began living a life you had
never lived before.

Some think they are going to heaven just because they went forward in a
meeting. Be sure you are born again. There may be a more spectacular change
in
the life of one who is a drunken, railing blasphemer, but even in you who
have
not been down deep in sin, there is bound to be a change when you are born
again. There will be a new attitude towards the Lord Jesus Christ, His Word,
and His people.

Are you SURE you have been born again? You may not know the exact day
or hour you trusted Christ, but you should be able to say, "I know NOW I am
born again." If you are not certain about this most solemn matter, I beg of
you
to tell the Lord Jesus that you receive Him now. Then read John 3:36 and
believe it. "He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life."

III. WHY YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN

1. Because the Lord Jesus Christ said so. That ought to settle it.

2. Because you have a sinful nature. The nature we all receive from
Adam is fallen, corrupt and totally depraved. God says the heart of man is
desperately wicked and deceitful above all things. With this old nature you
could not enjoy yourself in heaven. If you can't find any pleasure in a
prayer
meeting now, how can you expect to enjoy heaven hereafter? Heaven is a holy
place. When you are born again, God gives you a holy nature that you might
enjoy yourself in heaven, a holy place.

3. Because you cannot save yourself. "For by grace are ye saved through
faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works, lest
any man should boast," (Eph. 2:8, 9). "Not by works of righteousness which
we
have done, but according to His mercy He saved us," (Titus 3:5). Now don't
skip lightly over these two quotations from God's Holy Word. Read them again
and
again until the truth grips you. You cannot save yourself-you MUST be born
again.

IV. HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN

"He came unto His own, and His own received Him not. But as many as
received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them
that believe on His Name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of
the
flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God," (John 1:11-13).

1. It is not of blood. You are not a Christian just because your
parents may be. You do not inherit salvation from your parents. Even though
your folks may be saved, if you have not been born again, you are lost.

2. Nor of the will of the flesh. It is not by your own efforts and will
power. You will fail. So why not stop trying? Instead of trying, trust,
receive, depend upon the One who died and rose again.

If I'd ask some of you if you were a child of God, you would say, "I
don't know for sure, but I'm trying to be, in my poor, weak way." Now
suppose
you ask Johnny Jones if he is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jones and he'd answer,
"I'm not certain, but I'm trying to be, in my poor, weak way." How silly. He
is
not their son because he tries to be, but because he was born into their
home.
If you are a child of God, it is not because you are trying to be, but
because
you have been born into His family.

3. Nor of the will of man. It is not brought about by any of man's
religious creeds, systems, or ceremonies. No man or organization can do
anything to you that will make you a child of God. Join what you will, go
through ceremony after ceremony, memorize creeds, and try to keep the rules
and
regulations of man-made systems, but it will not save you.

I heard a man testify, "I have been the president of the men's Bible
class in our church for the past two years, but I didn't get saved until
just
two months ago." For twenty-two months the president of the men's Bible
class,
a member of the church, believing in God and the Bible, but lost, because he
had never been born again.

4. But of God. The Lord Jesus said you must be born "of the SPIRIT." It
is God's work, not yours. It is a miracle. Only God can perform it. If God
has
not done a work in your life, you are not born again. Your part is to
believe
God's record about you, that you are lost and in need of Christ, and receive
Him as your Lord and personal Saviour. He died at Calvary, satisfying the
righteousness and justice of God, that He might take your sins and
punishment
upon Himself. He arose! and is seated today as God's Man at the right hand
of the Majesty on high (see Heb. 1:3), and He is offered to you as God's
salvation. When you receive HIM, you will be saved, for Paul says we are
"children of God by faith in Christ Jesus," (Gal.3:26).