New Birth for New Year - Bible Baptist Church

Subscribe: Spotify | TuneIn | RSS | More

Text: John 3:1-11

A high ranking religious leader named Nicodemus comes to the Lord Jesus Christ at night because he doesn’t want to be publicly associated with the Lord. Nicodemus reveals that it’s commonly reported among the religious leadership that people know the Lord Jesus Christ is come from God because of the miracles he’s done.

Seeing miracles and knowing Jesus Christ came from God wasn’t enough to see or enter the kingdom of God.

See the kingdom of God

First birth was physical and you need a spiritual birth
Physical in the sense that it was biological; flesh and blood.
- Physical in your five senses. Your first birth gave you the ability to experience the kingdoms of this world, but not the ability to experience the kingdom of God.
- You have eyes to see the world, but you don’t have eyes to see the kingdom of God. You have five senses to experience and to take in the sights and sounds and smells and tastes and sensations of this world. But you have no way to receive or to take in the peace, joy, and righteousness of God.
- Romans 14:17 For the kingdom of God is not meat and drink; but righteousness, and peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost.
- The natural man receiveth not the things of God.
Your affections are physical, not spiritual.
- So much of this world you are attracted to and drawn to. The sights, the sounds, the money. But spiritual things don’t hold that kind of attraction.
- How much time have you spent in the last week with your Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, in prayer; in reading his word and listening to him? Compare that to how much time you’ve spent with the things of this world.
- Your affections and my affections are natural affections, not spiritual.
- You may not think anymore about going to church on Sunday, Sunday night, or Wednesday than you think about watching cement dry.
Your impulses are physical, not spiritual.
- Let me illustrate. You never had to be taught how to lie. That came naturally. You never had to be taught how to look at things you shouldn’t, that came naturally. You never had to be taught to say things you shouldn’t, that came naturally. In your natural state, sin comes natural. It is a part of who you are.
- Do you know why children have to be taught to obey? Because obedience is not natural.
I’ve heard people say, “I was born a Christian.” The Lord Jesus Christ just told a religious leader no one is born a Christian. Moreover, no one is born into a relationship with God.
You need a new birth that is spiritual to have spiritual eyes to see spiritual things.

Enter a second time into his mother’s womb?

First birth is corruptible and you need an incorruptible birth
Jesus says I’m not talking about repeating the same process. Your first birth ends up in a grave. You were born in Beeville, TX, or Corpus Christi, TX, or Houston, TX or somewhere on this earth you were born. And that birth ends in a grave. Your first birth is corrupt.
1 Corinthians 15:50 Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.
You say, But I’ve turned over a new leaf. Great, but that doesn’t change the destination of this life.
Job 5:7 Yet man is born unto trouble, as the sparks fly upward.
Job 14:1 Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble.
First birth is mortal and you need immortality
1 Corinthians 15:53-54 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
2 Timothy 1:10 But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel:

Enter into the kingdom of God

First birth is an act of man and you need to be born of God
Jesus Christ defines born again – born once in the flesh born of water, born again by the Spirit of God. Then he explains it in verse 6. Everything produces after their kind.
- 1 Peter 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.
- 1 John 3:9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
- 1 John 5:4 For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith.
Nicodemus doesn’t need a religious reformation, or to turn over a new leaf, or to promise God he’s going to change his life, or to give his heart to God. You can change the behavior of your flesh, but you can’t change your nature. And you can’t change sin’s effect on your body. And you can’t change the limitations or your fleshly frame. It’s not in your power to do those things.
This is a kingdom you must be born into.

Marvel not

There is nothing shocking about things reproducing after their kind. The flesh produces flesh and the Spirit of God produces spiritual creatures.
- Flesh is corruption, spirit is life
- Flesh is mortal, spirit is eternal
- There is nothing controversial about what’s being said so the Lord Jesus Christ says, Marvel not.
Verse 7 describes the activities of the Spirit of God
- Can’t be harnessed – bloweth where it listeth
- It can be heard, but you can’t pin it down, box it up, assign a measurement to it.
Nicodemus’ response in verse 9 about how these things can be is countered by the Lord Jesus Christ with how can you be a teacher of in Israel and not know these things?
(vss 11-13) The the Lord laments the ignorance of the teachers in Israel, but also says he is a personal eye witness to these truths.

Conclusion

So you say, OK, I understand the difference between my first birth and I understand that I have to be born again. So how is it done? What is my responsibility in it?
John 1:10-13 He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. 11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 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: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
To be born again as a child of God, you must recognize that Jesus Christ, is the Son of God who died for you and your sin, then rose again with power over death. Then you must admit you are a sinner without a Savior, heading for a fiery hell where sinners go.