What Happens in the New Birth? Part 1

by your Sovereign mercy your children in the services this weekend would be granted sweet deep spiritual assurance that they are born of God and for those who are yet lifeless in their spirits and blind spiritually dead I pray for quickening Resurrection sight life so to that end Lord would you come and help me to preach about the new birth in such a way that it happens and in such a way that where it has already happened it is confirmed with joy in Jesus name I pray amen we have begun a series now on the new

birth verse three Chapter 3 of John truly truly Jesus says I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God so he's speaking to all of us not just Nicodemus Nicodemus is not a special case here you and I have to be born again if we're going to to see the kingdom of God that is if we're going to enter into the kingdom of God if we're going to be saved if we're going to not go to hell he makes clear that we understand that Nicodemus is a Pharisee he

said some things to Pharisees about hell so why I mentioned hell he said woe to you scribes and Pharisees hypocrites you travel across sea and land to make a single proelite and when he becomes a proelite you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves and he said you serpents you brood of vipers how will you escape being sentenced to hell so he knows what he's dealing with with Nicodemus this is life and death this is eternity this is heaven and hell when he says unless you're born again Nicodemus you won't see

the kingdom of God he means you'll perish forever where there's Eternal darkness and flames and nashing of teeth and Christ is wooing him in to life and that's what I'm doing this is not marginal this is Central eternity hangs in the balance week after week now for some weeks unless you are born again you cannot see the kingdom of God now in the first message last time we focused on why are we preaching this series what is the point and where are you going in this series that was what we did last time today and

next Sunday Lord willing the the focus will be on what happens in New Birth what is it but before we attempt to answer that question in its first two answers in this service I I want to raise a concern that I have in the preaching of this series I have a very Earnest concern about the way these messages will be heard heard there aren't many topics that raise this issue for me more than this one does as a a preacher I am aware that preaching on the new birth is for many very unsettling I feel

it as I speak I feel it in my bones and I feel it when I talk to you after the services and others make comments to me about it and I want to make clear that I'm aware of that and give you some reasons why I think it's the case and then tell you what my prayer is and summon your prayer so all this is introductory about the challenge that I feel in speaking to thousands of people all over the spiritual map about the New Birth here are the three reasons I think it's so unsettling

to address this issue one Jesus teaching about the New Birth confronts us with our hopeless spiritual moral and legal condition apart from regenerating Grace few topics confront us as directly with our spiritual moral and legal hopelessness apart from this happening spiritually apart from regeneration we're dead morally we are selfish and rebellious apart from the new birth and legally we are guilty before the law of God and under his wrath so when Jesus tells us you must be born again he means that if if you're not you will be hopelessly unresponsive to the truth and you

will be corrupt in your selfishness and and your sin and you will be guilty before God apart from the amazing grace of God in our lives causing us to be born again we simply will perish and we will be dead selfish and guilty that's unsettling is to me just to hear it makes me shake that there is an experience I must have or I stay in that condition and perish righteously God is doing me no wrong when he condemns me the second reason I think it's unsettling is that Jesus is teaching us that the new

birth is not something we do but something that is done to us chapter 1 verse 13 of John he emphasizes it like this he says that the children of God are those who quote were born of God born of God not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God this is something done by God to us not what our will does Peter stresses the same thing in his his first letter chap 1:3 blessed be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his

great Mercy he caused us to be born again unto a living hope he caused us to be we do not cause the new birth God causes the new birth that's unsettling we feel you mean you mean I don't make this happen God just does it any good thing that we do is a result of the new birth not a cause of the new birth this means that the new birth is taken out of our hands it's not in our control and so it confronts us with our absolute and total dependence on God like very few

other Bible teachings do that's the second reason it is so unsettling to us we feel unsettled we Americans especially I control my life I'm the captain of my soul don't tell me I'm totally dependent on the Almighty I don't even know how to function in such a a mode and most people don't the third reason it is so unsettling is following from the second one namely that it confronts us this teaching about the New Birth confronts us with the absolute freedom of God apart from God we're spiritually dead we're selfish we're rebellious we're by Nature

Paul says children of Wrath our Rebellion is so deep we cannot detect or desire let alone Delight in the glory of God revealed in the gospel 2 Corinthians 4:4 we are blind so morally selfish and corrupt and self-reliant I looked up that essay by Emerson this week called selfreliance written in the Heyday of the 19th Cy before it was all blown out of the water by the most wicked evil murderous Century in the history of the world the 20th century and that and I looked up that poem by uh Henley called Invictus I am the

captain of my soul that's who we are by Nature I'm I'm tempted to speculate about why we enjoy Jason Bourne here and the likes of uh 007 and Superman and the old Trinity films from back in the 60s and 70s why do we like these things there may be a good reason and there may be a bad reason I'll leave it with you the bad reason would be we want to be like that more than we want anything nothing can kick me down it resides in here I triumph over everything I am the captain of

myself don't tell me I am absolutely dependent on anything or anybody that's what we are by Nature especially modern Americans and so when we are told by Jesus you must be born again by God by God or you perish inside we're saying we're very unsettled for those three reasons and more I feel that I am taking into my hands in these days Eternal souls and I feel very very nervous about this except for God I I feel like I've got people in my hands of two kinds there are many kinds but the one kind is

I'm am so so solicitous of the tender Soul so prone to doubt he or she just kind of hangs on by their fingernails week after week in life and they're going to sit under these messages with these words and I know the threat to their soul just to preach about the New Birth he going to be like I don't know if I am and then there's this other kind of person so absolutely Cavalier about spiritual things you're here and you're thinking oh how long is this going to last I just I would really like to

get out of here because there's just it is of zero interest eternity is a blank Jesus is boring and a new computer game would be heaven I mean that's that's the other kind of person and I'm so jealous that that person not believe they're born again how do you do that how do you preach this message so that this person doesn't go under and this person doesn't well sure everybody's born again because we're all imperfect so I'm simply saying as I approach these messages I feel helpless I feel like how do you do this and

I'm I invited you last time and I invite you again would you please pray this is a very important series in the life of our church and I cannot handle this on my own I cannot manage these the the bigness of these realities with this little mouth and this little brain God has to move on these services to protect the the babies the little lambs the little little sheep and and to just W up the other kind so that they know I'm am not there how do you how do you do that God can do

that God can take Five Loaves and two fish and feed 5,000 people he can take this mouth and and caress the Lambs and the the uh presumptuous so that's what I'm asking to do is pray here's my confidence I'll tell you why I feel emboldened to press on I believe that God in his heart is really prone to do Ephesians 2 uh 3-5 goes like this four and 5 God being rich in Mercy because of the great love with which he loved us made us alive together in Christ by Grace you have been saved and

seated us with him and the Heavenly places because of the great love with which he loved us he made us alive I hold on to that and I say you love to do this you have great love and it does this for people and then I think I also realize that the holy spirit is sent into the world according to John 16 to glorify the son and therefore if I am faith ful and we are faithful in the kinds of songs we sing the prayers we pray the sermons we preach the conversations we have to

lift up Jesus where I am lifted up I will draw men to myself when Christ is lifted up the Holy Spirit really makes a beine to to eyes why would he want people to be blind where Christ is being lifted up if he was sent into the world to glorify Christ so if I do my part namely lifting him up Faithfully in his word and you do your part praying earnestly that eyes would be opened isn't it likely that God in his freedom would do this so all that by way of introduction here's today's question

and next week's Lord willing what happens in the New Birth what happens what is it we can start with the why question or the what question or the how question or the result question but I'm starting with the what question what is it I'm going to sum it up in three statements and deal with two of them in this message and one of them Lord willing next time here are the two I'll give you all three of them number one what happens in the New Birth is not getting a new religion but getting a new

life that's number one not getting a new religion but getting a new life we'll come back to these number two what happens in the New Birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus but experiencing the supernatural in me get that the new birth is not simply affirming that you see the super natural in Jesus the new birth is experiencing the supernatural in me third statement what happens in the New Birth is not the Improvement of your old human nature but the creation of a new human nature a nature that is really you and forgiven

and cleansed and really new being formed by the presence of the indwelling spirit of God so number three the entire sermon next time one and two we do here so let's take them one at a time number one what happens in the New Birth is not the getting of a new religion but the getting of a new life let's read verses 1 to 3 I'm getting all these from John 3 1 to 10 and then we'll go elsewhere later but I want to deal with this text for a couple of weeks John 3: 1-3 now

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 him truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God wouldn't you just love to be like Jesus just out of the blue this man makes a nice statement about Jesus and Jesus just looks at him and

says you got to be born again just like that now he makes sure John makes sure that we know Nicodemus is a Pharisee he did not need to tell us that this text would make perfectly good sense if he said said a man came to Jesus by night said I know you've been doing some great things and you're from God and Jesus say you need to be born again perfect no no problem why does he tell us he's a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews answer a new religion will do you no good at

all these are the most religious people on the planet they're the most religious Jewish people so you may be a perfectly good Baptist Lutheran Methodist Episcopal Catholic religious to the core and lost that's what he's saying John wanted us to get this that here's the Pharisee the Paragon of disciplines the Paragon of prayer the Paragon of moral uprightness and keeping his nose clean and showing up at all the meetings and he's lost he's dead so the reason I think that John points out he was a Pharisee he was a ruler of the Jews is to

make crystal clear in spite of all that religiosity he needs to be born again he doesn't need religion he needs life he needs life now of course in one sense he's quite alive right I mean if he would if Nicodemus were here and he heard me just say what I just said he would say excuse me I'm alive cuz that's this that's the way he is here he's blind he he doesn't get it at all he's saying to Jesus can I crawl into my mother's womb be born again uh and and he would say to

me you say I'm dead I'm alive excuse me I'm alive I Am Alive Now Jesus apparently had a category for Living Dead can you think of any texts remember the man Luke 960 who came to Jesus and Jesus said follow me and he said can I go please bury my Father and Jesus says Let the dead bury their dead H so there are dead who need burying and there are dead who bury them he's got that category he knows what he's talking about when he says you need to be born you need life he knows

he's talking to a dead man who's alive prodigal of the parag son the parable of the Prodigal Son parable of the Prodigal Son the father he got his boy home what did he say to the older older brother who's been out of shape about this party he says my son was dead and he's alive this is not surprising for Jesus to talk like this to say to a living man in front of him the blood is coursing through his veins thoughts are coming out of his head mouth is working eyes are working ears are working

everything's working and he's dead he needs to live he needs life he needs a birth so first meaning of what happens in the New Birth is not you you get a new religion like become a Baptist that saves nobody or Lutheran or Catholic it's life number two what happens in the New Birth is not merely affirming the supernatural in Jesus but experiencing the supernatural in yourself verse two Rabbi we know that you are teacher come from God for no one can do these signs that you're doing unless God is with him I see genuine Divine

activity in you I I honor your Miracle working power to to which Jesus did not say I wish everybody in Palestine could see like you see instead he said if you're not born again you can't even see the Kingdom from which I infer recognizing Miracles and miracle workers even if it's Jesus is not the key to entering the kingdom looking at Jesus and saying oh yes son of God I'm going Beyond Nicodemus here I'm going Beyond Nicodemus to satanic theology you know where I'm getting that the demons came to him and said we know who

you are son of the most high God demons know he's the son of the most high God they're not saved they know he's working miracles it's getting them in real big what are we going to do he's here before the time and he's delivering people that we've taken captive and they're not saved they know it all they know it all and they're not saved they're not born of God the demons aren't born of God they they don't you don't need merely to recognize in Jesus a miracle worker even to recognize him as the son of

God that saves nobody what you need is for the miracle working God to do the miracle in you truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God now this birth new birth is Supernatural That's why I said it's Miracle It's Supernatural why do I think that because of verse uh six that which is born of the flesh is flesh so that's all of us born of our mothers she's flesh we're flesh that's just human nature apart from any Supernatural intervention at all that which is born of

the flesh is flesh that which is born of the spirit is Spirit In other words we're born not of any resources that are in this universe no natural resources nothing here can do this this is the work of the spirit Spirit God's spirit does it in us which is why our seeing Jesus as miracle worker or Son of God doesn't necessarily save us has the Spirit come has the spirit quickened has the spirit caused Life to Come has he done the miracle in us to change us so that we have spiritual life or it's said

again in verse 8 the wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes so it is with everyone who is born of the spirit so don't think that new birth is some kind of culturally induced religious Awakening like I got scared in the middle of the night I cried out to my crystals and total peace engulfed me I'm born again this is a concrete reality the Holy Spirit of the Living God moves in and awakens people brings them from Death

to life and gives them a new nature which is where we're going to go next time so here's what I want to do in the last few minutes what we've seen so far is that the what happens in the New Birth is first that it isn't getting a new religion it's getting a new life and now we've seen that that's a supernatural uh gift it's a miracle in us so that just seeing Jesus's Supernatural isn't isn't the key to the kingdom being wrought upon by the spirit so that this new spiritual life is in US

is the key to the kingdom and here's my closing question what's that got to do with Jesus what's that got to do with faith in Jesus as the Son of God and the one who dies for our sins and the one whose righteousness covers our sin that's what I want to close with we will talk a lot more about the relationship between the New Birth and faith when we get way down the line to the effects of the new birth but I think I would do the Lord a dishonor if I didn't close by asking

okay you've said that what has to happen in here for me to see the kingdom someday is for there to be new life worked supernaturally by the Holy Spirit that's what you said I said yep that's what I think Jesus is saying he says it again in John 663 just to make sure we don't isolate this text like doesn't belong in the big picture of John John 663 it is the spirit who gives life the flesh is of no avail that's John 663 it is the spirit who gives life the flesh is of no avail

but and you know this this is this is now first grade John theology you know that the Gospel of John Mak something else Crystal Clear namely that Jesus is the way the truth and the H so Jesus is the life Jesus is the vine and we are the branches into which life courses like living fruit bearing sap and you've just told us that the spirit gives life so oh I Love The Gospel of John I love the Bible Bible text you so far and then it says now do it do it think it figure it

put it together and then you start putting it together and you see confirmation here and there Jesus said John 14:6 I am the way the truth and the life Jesus said John 6:35 I am the bread of life John said 20:31 these things are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and believing have life in his name believing have life believing have life so everybody knows because of John 3:16 that the way you have life is believing there is no spiritual life there is no eternal life apart from

connection with Jesus that's crystal clear in John there is no eternal life there is no genuine saving spiritual life apart from con connection with Jesus or you could use the word Union with Jesus Christ is life Christ is the vine we are the branches what happens in the New Birth therefore I would say is uh the supernatural creation of new spiritual life by the spirits uniting us to Jesus that's what that's what he does he doesn't operate in some kind of sphere and Jesus way over there and he gives the life here and then Jesus

looks that well like that and I'll show up and be be part of that it's not the way you can't make sense out of the Gospel of John that way he is life Union with him is the source of life when it says the spirit does it it means he's the agent and the one who does the anointing just brings us into the L of Christ so that's the objective reality of what happens the holy spirit moves on you and unites you brings you into connection with the coursing life of Jesus Christ now from our

side we experience that as faith in Jesus awakened spiritual life and faith in Jesus come into being together spiritual life and faith in Jesus Come into being together the new life makes the faith possible if you're dead you can't believe but since spiritual life always awakens and expresses itself in faith there's no life without faith don't ever ever contemplate someone born again and unbelieving don't separate these two the work of the spirit uniting to Christ bringing life that's Eternal and the faith the receiving the embrace the treasuring the trusting of Jesus over here don't ever

separate those two bring those two always together from our side we experience Union with Christ through faith listen to how John puts it in his letter oh how the letter illumines the gospel 1 John 54 goes like this everyone who has been born of God so there it is New Birth everyone who's been born of God overcomes the world this is the victory that overcomes the world our faith the key to triumph over the world is New Birth the key to triumph over the world is Faith In Jesus because they're never separated one is God's

word work the other is our expression and experience of that work as it happens in our conscious being we believe him we trust him we Embrace him we enjoy him we know him because we're now in him and our life is Flowing from him here's another here's another word from 1 John 1 John 51 and 12 this is the testimony that God gave us eternal life and this life is in his son Whoever has the son has life whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life so if you take that whoever

has the son has life whoever does not have the sun does not have life and then you say it is the spirit who gives life John 663 you must be born again by the spirit into New Life you got to put these together who has a son has life to be born of the spirit you have life and I put them together by saying the spirit is the power and work and person of God bringing our hearts together with the living Christ so that we're United with him and there's this exploding Faith out of our

hearts that we Embrace him for who he is and all the fruits of Faith flow from that Jesus is our life don't separate the new birth don't SE separate the new birth from Jesus or closing statement never separate two sayings from John 3 saying number one verse three unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God verse 36 whoever believes in the son has eternal life never separate those two if you are born again you'll see the kingdom if you believe in Jesus you'll have eternal life because the new birth brings with

it and is expressed in faith those who genuinely believe are born again those who are born again genuinely believe let's pray Father in Heaven I ask that from our side Faith would be granted tonight and from God's side faith and the new birth would be granted I pray for those who are listening downtown Lord's Day morning and South Campus Lord's Day morning that there would be a power on these Services Lord and that the truth of Christ Our Savior our Lord who loved us and gave himself for us would be exalted by new New Birth

happening and Faith rising in people's hearts you are a god of free Sovereign Amazing Grace TW Grace that taught my heart to fear and Grace my fears relieved [Music]