You Must Be Born Again

In recent years, doctors, pediatricians, obstetricians, and psychologists have been making a great deal over birth order, when you were born into the family. And apparently they are discovering that the firstborn and the second born have a certain kind of rivalry, and if you're the second born and the third born comes along there's a different kind of a setup. And if you should be the fourth born or the fifth born, or the tenth, it's a different situation altogether. In other words, no two children are in the same family.

Now I didn't know this when I was a child. I was the baby in our family. I was number four. Had an older sister and two older brothers. I wish I had known this. I needed every excuse I could find to get me out of the troubles I got into. Had I been able to say, "Well look, I'm number four. It's not my fault. Can't blame me for what's going on."

It's rather interesting that for centuries God has been trying to get us to change our birth order. From being firstborn to being born again. Now, you wouldn't know anything about your physical birth if someone hadn't told you. You wouldn't know your birthday, who your parents were, or how you got here. It amazes me how many of God's people understand nothing about their birth. Therefore, we are going to read together a familiar passage that may put some of you to sleep, and I'm sorry if it does. It says nothing about me or the passage, but a great deal about you.

John 3. Of course, when John wrote his gospel, there were no chapters and verses. And John 3 really ought to begin in John 2:23, so we'll start there. "Now when he," Jesus, "was in Jerusalem at the Passover during the feast, many believed in his name when they saw the signs which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself to them."

Let me pause to point out that the word "believed" in John 2:23 and the word "commit" in John 2:24 are the same word in the Greek language. They believed in him, but he did not believe in them. He knew they were not born again because they were believing only because they saw miracles.

I am slowly coming to the conviction that I cannot prove that half of the people in our evangelical churches are not born again. Now I say I cannot prove this, but the more I read my Bible and discover the characteristics of those who are truly born again and measure it by what we see, you begin to wonder. So here were many people, many people professing to believe in Jesus who were not truly born again.

"Jesus did not commit himself to them because he knew all men." Now notice the one word that is repeated now. "And had no need that anyone should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night."

Let me pause to tell you why he came by night. He was in the dark. He did not understand the most important subject in all the world: how to be born again. "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.'"

Now there are those signs again. They're mentioned back in John 2:23, and now they're mentioned in verse 2. There is a teaching abroad in America today that says there can be no evangelism, there is no working of God unless there are signs and wonders. Fact of the matter is, here are people who believed in signs and wonders, and they were not born again. Nicodemus believed in miracles. He was not born again.

"Jesus answered and said to him, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.'" Nicodemus, you're blind. "Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?'

Jesus answered, 'Most assuredly, I say to you, except one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, "You must be born again."

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus answered and said to him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel?'" Notice that title, not a teacher. "The teacher of Israel and do not know these things?"

How could Nicodemus have known these things? From the Old Testament. You say, "Where?" Well, almost wherever you look. Here, let's just look here. Have you ever noticed in the Old Testament that God rejects the first birth and accepts the second birth? God rejected Cain, the firstborn, chose Abel, the second-born. Abraham's firstborn was Ishmael. God rejected the first birth, chose the second-born, Isaac. Isaac had two sons, Esau and Jacob. Esau was the firstborn. Jacob was the second-born. God rejected the firstborn, chose the second-born.

Nicodemus should have known that. It's throughout Scripture. In fact, on Passover night, which is the great holiday of the Jews, holy day, on Passover, God made it clear, "If you're firstborn, you're dead." And the only way to be born again and not die is apply the blood. Nicodemus should have known this. He didn't. Some of you should know this.

"Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? Most assuredly, I say to you, we speak what we know, and testify what we have seen, and you do not receive our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things? No one has ascended to heaven, but he who came down from heaven, that is the Son of Man who is in heaven.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have eternal life." And here's the verse we've all known since babyhood. "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

Now, let me ask a very simple question, and try to give some practical answers to it. Why did Jesus use birth as a picture of salvation, especially when talking to Nicodemus? Now, Nicodemus was very well-born. He was born a Jew. He was a Pharisee. He was a religious leader. He was moral and upright. You would have been glad to have him as a neighbor. And yet, Jesus looked at him and said, "You've started wrong, and you're living wrong. I'm sorry. You've got to start all over again. You must be born again, born from above."

I would have said that to the woman in John 4. You see, if I had been in charge of this, which thank God I was not, I would have said to our Lord, "Now, you tell this Samaritan woman who was born all wrong, she's got to be born again." Didn't tell her that. There, he used the picture of water. Our Lord did not have a cut-and-dried formula for witnessing. We do.

We push people until they get into where we can push our system on them. Our Lord adapted himself to people. But he looked at Nicodemus, who was very well-born, very well-bred, and very well-trained, and said, "You've got to start all over again."

Now, why did Jesus use birth as a picture of salvation? Let me suggest, first of all, that birth is a universal experience. I know something about everybody in this auditorium. Every one of you, you've been born. Now if you got in some other way, I want to meet you. You were born. You have a birthday. A friend is someone who remembers your birthday, but not your age. You were born.

Now, there are pictures of salvation in the Bible that don't stir me as much as they stir other people. For example, our Lord talked about salvation being like a shepherd out finding a lost sheep. I never saw a sheep until I was eight years old. I was raised in the concrete jungles of the greater Chicago area, lived in northern Indiana, around the steel mills and the oil refineries. On a clear day, we could see our feet. I never saw a sheep. Till one day, our third-grade class, I think it was a third-grade class, went to a farm. And there was a sheep. I'd read about them, seen pictures, never seen one. Finding a lost sheep, that doesn't talk to me.

One day, our Lord talked about salvation like a runaway boy, a boy who got mad at his father, left home, went out, lived a riotous life, finally came back home. That doesn't say a great deal to me. I never ran away from home. I was not allowed to cross the street. And if I had tried, I would have been belted. So, there are some pictures of redemption in the Bible. A slave being purchased out of the slave market. What do I know about slavery? I've never met a slave.

But when you talk about birth, you're talking about something I've experienced. When our Lord talked about birth, he took a universal experience and therefore he said, one, everybody can understand it. Two, everybody needs it. Three, everybody can have it. For God so loved what? The world.

You start reading the Gospel of Matthew, the first time you find the word love, it's, "This is my beloved son." Start reading the Gospel of Mark, the first time you find the word love, "This is my beloved son." Turn to Luke, the first time you find the word love, "This is my beloved son." John, "God so loved the world." Birth is a universal experience. Nobody leaving this auditorium tonight can say, "I don't identify with that." If you do, you're deceiving yourself and lying to God.

May I suggest that he used birth as a picture of salvation because birth involves life. You manufacture chairs. You manufacture books. You don't manufacture children. They're a product of life. When a baby comes into the world, the baby comes with life. 36 times in the Gospel of John, you find that word: life. That's why he wrote the book. "These are written," said John, "that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name."

By the way, every illustration that John uses is universal. He— He talks about light. He talks about bread. People all over the world understand light. You can go anyplace in the world, they'll understand bread, water. He talks about water. He talks about the wind. Wherever you go, people know about the wind. Talks about birth. These are universals. Why? Because John is writing for a lost world. He's concerned about telling a whole world about salvation.

Now, what does it take to have life? It takes light. If the sun went out, we'd all die. Takes light. It takes breath. If we were to smother you, in just a few minutes, you'd be dead. It takes water. It takes food. You can go for weeks, if necessary, without food. You might be able to go days without water. You can just go minutes without air. If our sun went out and our planet cooled off, we'd be gone.

Now, how interesting that John picks up these four and says, "This is where life comes from." "In him," Jesus, "was life, and the life was the light of men." He's the light of life. He's the bread of life. He's the water of life. He said, "The water I give you will spring up in you a well of water, everlasting life." He's the breath of life. He talks about the air. "The wind blows where it wills."

After his resurrection, my Bible says, Jesus breathed on his disciples and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit." Now, do you want life? I don't mean religion, life. You need the water of life, the bread of life, the breath of life, the light of life, Jesus.

I trust I don't sound critical, because I don't want to be that kind of person. But I fear in many of our churches, we have a lot of corpses. There's no life. Christian wives wake up their unsaved husbands who have made a profession of faith, and they're members of the church, and they have to get them up to go to church to prop them up, or vice versa, or with the children. So many people profess, but there's no life. When you're born again, my friend, there's life. Our Lord used birth as a picture of salvation because birth involves life.

Thirdly, birth involves two parents. It's interesting to see Adam came into this world without a man or a woman. He was created from the dust. Eve came into this world having the man, but not the woman. She was made apart from a part of Adam. Cain and Abel and Seth, and everybody since, have come into the world having the man and the woman, father and mother. My Lord came into this world having the mother, but not the father, Father was in heaven. You and I came into this world because we have a father and a mother. It's the way God's made it.

Now, spiritual birth involves two parents: the Spirit of God and the word of God. In 1 Peter 1, Peter says this, "Being born again, not of corruptible seed," that means human seed that eventually dies, "but of incorruptible, even the word of God which lives and abides forever." James tells us in James 1:18, "By his own will, he begot us by the word of truth."

I can never forget the night in the Youth for Christ rally when I heard the word, and the Spirit of God took the word of God, and these two parents got together and generated within me the life of God. Up till that time, all I had was religion. Been raised in a good church, had good pastors, I was confirmed in the church, attended Sunday school, did my lessons, went to the youth group, and was considered by all to be an exemplary Christian young man, but I wasn't saved.

"Not everyone who says, 'Lord, Lord,' is going to enter into the kingdom of heaven." And then that night I heard the preaching of the word of God. I'd heard it before, but that night, the Spirit of God, parent number one, took the word of God, parent number two, and generated the life of God in me when I trusted Jesus Christ. It's a miracle that happened.

Now, at this point, somebody is probably thinking, "Wait a minute. You bypassed 'born of water' in John 3:5." Now, we don't want at an interdenominational conference to enter into theological controversy. But those of us who are on the radio, whenever we touch on this subject, often receive mail. I had a letter just a week ago from a man. Two pages of small type, really chastising me, because I did not preach you had to be baptized to be saved. He said, "What are you going to do with 'born of water'?"

Well, I'll do the same thing Jesus did with it. Notice Nicodemus says, "How can he," John 3:4, "can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?" Now, everybody here who knows anything about birth knows that human birth is a birth of water. So, Jesus picks that up, "Unless one is born of water," that's human birth, "and of the Spirit," that's spiritual birth. He picks it up again in verse 8, "That which is born of the flesh," born of water, born of his mother's womb, "is flesh."

Our Lord is not saying, "I have to be baptized to be saved." If that's the case, nobody in the Old Testament was ever saved. All the heroes in Hebrews 11 have gone to hell. They've never been baptized. You see, in the Bible, baptism is not connected with birth. It's connected with death. I don't know of a single reference in Scripture where water baptism is connected with birth. It's connected with death.

Why do I say this? Because every place I go, I meet people who say, "Oh, I don't have to be born again. I was baptized." My wife and I were in Scandinavia recently, and oh my, any place where you find a state church where you're automatically taken in and baptized, try to witness to some of those people. "No, I don't need to be born again. I've been baptized."

Again, we're not here to start controversy, but I don't want anyone to have a false assurance. Birth is a universal experience. Birth involves life, and birth involves two parents. And those parents are the Spirit of God and the Word of God.

Now, I want to make another suggestion to you. Our Lord used birth as a picture of salvation because birth determines your nature. One of the quiet delights of my life is to sit in the backyard and meditate or read, study. And right across the yard is a little pen in which there is an old hunting dog. Jack is an Irish setter, a lovely dog, very well-behaved. He's seeing his last days. On the one side is a Siamese cat. On the other side is I don't know what kind of a cat. One is male, one is female. If I'm quiet, I might see some rabbits hopping around. We can sit in the backyard and sort of have our own quiet little zoo.

Now, the cats show up and they chase birds. I don't like that. In fact, one day, I think it was at lunch, it may have been at breakfast, I looked out the window and saw that one of the cats had gotten ahold of a little rabbit. And I ran out, scared the cat away, picked up the rabbit, called the forest bureau or whatever it is in Lincoln that takes care, they gave me the name of a lady. I took the rabbit over to her house, and she took care of nursing it back to health.

Now, why would a cat catch a cute little thing like a rabbit or a bird? The blue jays now have their little ones out of the nests, and they'll fly 10 feet and land, and fly 10 feet and the cat is sitting there watching. And the parents see the cat and start dive-bombing the cat, scaring it away. Now, why would a cat do— It's a cat's nature. The dog is not out doing that. The cats are. You see, we're born with a nature.

Now, when you're born the first time, you're born with the nature of a sinner. When you're born the second time, you're born with God's nature. Now, if you don't have God's nature, you won't get into heaven, because God's nature means you're God's child.

We have four children, they have our nature. If they were here, you could look at them and say, "Yeah, those are Wiersbes, we can see that." When you're born again, you get God's nature, and nature is determined by birth. You're going to get into heaven only because you have God's nature. He takes his children home. If an unsaved person got into heaven, he'd be bored to death and want to get out. He wouldn't have a nature for it. Why, some of you can't stand 1 hour in a service, how would you stand eternity in heaven unless you have God's nature?

Now, we're not going to go into detail on this, except to drop this into your heart. Birth determines nature. Now, nature determines your appetite. Cats eat mice and birds. Birds don't eat cats. Rabbits don't eat birds, they come and nibble on our flowers. Why? That's their nature.

I once heard Dr. Vance Havner, whom we miss so much, say, "When I see a bird that waddles like a duck and quacks like a duck and swims like a duck, I assume it's a duck. And when I see a church member who talks like the world and acts like the world and wants to be with the world, I assume he's a worldling." And he's right.

We give a whole week to pickles. National Pickle Week. One day for mothers. Birth involves travail. Did you know that the Lord Jesus Christ, in order for us to have birth, travailed? Isaiah 53:11, it's been in your Bible for centuries. "He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied." On the cross, what a paradox, my Lord travailed in death that I might be born. Remarkable. The new birth is not cheap. The most costly thing that ever happened.

The price of birth keeps going up. Our number one daughter is an obstetrical nurse. She's had three children, and all three of them were born at home. Blue Cross didn't like it. I was born at home. I wanted to be near my mother, that was the first reason for it. Birth involves travail.

Is it not interesting that you and I remember the lives of our loved ones, we don't want to remember their deaths? I don't want to remember my father's death or my mother's death. I want to remember their lives. Jesus wants us to remember his death. And to make sure we do, he has an ordinance. We call the Lord's supper. To do what? Remember his death. Why? In his death, he travailed that we might be born.

Here's another suggestion. Birth involves a future. When a baby comes into the world, no past, all future. Peter got this idea and wrote, "Being born again unto a living hope."

You can't arrest a baby. No past. Imagine a policeman walking up and down the hall of the OB ward. "What are you doing here?" "A baby going to be born in there and I'm going to arrest him." "Huh, what did he do?" "That makes no difference, I'm going to arrest—" You can't arrest a baby, no past. When I was born again into the family of God, my sins, "Oh the bliss of this glorious thought, my sins not in part, but the whole were nailed to the cross, and I bear them no more."

Dr. Ironside, who is remembered at Moody Church perhaps more than any other pastor who was there, Dr. Ironside was preaching one day about the fact that when you're born again, God forgives all of your sins, past, present, future. Colossians, "Having forgiven you all your trespasses."

Now a listener stopped him afterward, as this often happens. People who disagree and this listener said, "Dr. Ironside, I think that when I was born again, God took care of all my past sins, but that's all." And in his sweet, precious, quiet way, Ironside looked at her and said, "Madam, how many of your sins were past when Jesus died?" "Well," she said, "they were all future." He said, "Doesn't that take care of it all?" When you're born again, all future, a living hope! Oh, we could spend another hour on that. We'll not, we'll not.

I have watched in pastoral ministry how young couples have gotten ready for their first baby. It's such a joy when you're pastoring. You see a fellow and girl start going together. They fall in love and then they come and say, "Pastor, we'd like to get married." And then you marry them. Then a couple of years later, they come and say, "Oh, we're going to have our first baby and we're just so thrilled." And they go out and they buy clothes and they set apart a room in the house and put crazy wallpaper on the wall, and they get furniture. They're preparing a place for the baby.

When I was born again, my Savior started preparing a place for me. And He's still working on it. When He was here on Earth, He was a carpenter. He was a very experienced carpenter. He had built the whole universe. Now He's gone back to heaven, and He's building a home for His children.

Birth involves a future. If you've never been born again, you haven't got any future. I just want you to know that. You're hopeless. Every hope you have is a dead hope, but if you're born again, you've got a living hope and the future is your friend when Jesus is your Savior. If He's not your Savior, the future is your enemy.

Birth is final. Now once again, we don't want to line up afterward and argue. I had a phone call recently from a lady— we can always tell when the program goes off. The phone starts ringing, you know. We are usually on. People actually think I'm sitting in their studio there. I'm not, it's taped. But in many, many, many places, we're on from 8:30 to 9:00 or from 10:30 to 11:00. So often about 9:00 or 10:00, depending on the time zone, the phone will ring, the secretary will say, "A lady wants to talk to you," or, "A man wants to talk to you."

The lady called me from New Jersey, a very lovely lady, very disturbed, about this matter of could she perhaps in some way sin and lose her salvation. I don't know why, she'd been reading Hebrews 6. I don't know why when people sit down in the Bible, they decide to sit down on a tack. Instead of finding a nice pillow someplace and sitting down on that, they pick out some desert, you know. But she was sure that perhaps she had done something, and I just simply asked her, "Ma'am, were you ever born again?" "Oh yes," she said. "I remember. Yes, I was born again." I said, "Can you be unborn?" A long, expensive pause. Well, she said, "I never thought of that."

See, we've had four children, and those children have our nature. They can change their name if they want to, they can't change their nature. Two of our children, our two girls have changed their names. They weren't always obedient, but they were always our children. Sometimes they had to be spanked, but they were always our children.

My Father has said to me, "This birth is final. When I begin something, I finish it. I'm going to give you my nature. Now you obey me. If you don't, I'll spank you," Hebrews 12. And he does. I don't know about other people, but if I just get one millimeter off base he get— and I'm glad he does. It shows he loves me, and it shows I belong to him. If you can sin repeatedly and get away with it, you aren't born again. I don't care what anybody says. If you can sin repeatedly and God never deals with you, you're not born again. You're an illegitimate child, according to Hebrews 12.

Birth is final. Now that encourages me. I suppose every child goes through this worrying of, "Are they going to give me away?" Oh it's true, many children worry about this. In fact, when my wife and I were married, 35 years ago in June, and my two nephews and my niece were there, the children of my big brother, who was my best man. And somehow my niece got it into her head that because her father was in this wedding party she was going to get a different mother. And she was crying, "I don't want a new mommy!" Well of course they reassured her that this was not going to happen.

My Father in heaven has said to me, "This is final. You're my child. When I make out the birth certificate your name's going to be written in heaven. The devil can't get there to erase it, you can't get there to erase it." In fact Jesus said, "Rejoice because your names are written down in heaven," and the tense of that verb is rejoice because your names have been written down in heaven, they stand written down in heaven, and they always will be written down in heaven. Birth is final.

One final thought, our Lord talked about birth as a picture of salvation because birth means coming out of darkness into light. If we could interview a baby before it's born the interview might go something like this. "You're going to be born." "I don't want to be." "You don't?" "No. What responsibilities do I have here? I'm being fed. I'm being protected." "Yeah, but it's dark in there and there's a whole world out here and you're supposed to grow, and you'll enjoy what—" "No, I'm going to stay here." And then the convulsions start. God says, "Time to be born." Psychologists tell us this is the first fear a baby perhaps ever experiences like an earthquake when the birth pangs begin. Out of darkness into light.

Now that's what Jesus talked about. John 3:19, "And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone practicing evil hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his deeds should be exposed. But he who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen, that they've been done in God, wrought in God."

When I was born again I came out of darkness into light. By the way, so did Nicodemus. Here in John 3 he's in the dark. When you get to the end of the Gospel of John, John 19, he's in the light. 3:00 in the afternoon, Jesus dies. Nicodemus comes, takes him off the cross, lets everybody know, "I've been born again. I've come out of darkness into light." And when that happens, you enter into a whole new world.

You see, when a baby is conceived, the genetic structure is set. When I was conceived, I can just imagine those genes and chromosomes meeting each other. "Hi, what's your name?" "Gene." "That's strange, that's my name. What kind of gene are you?" "Baldness." "Oh." "What kind of gene are you?" "Hard of hearing." "Oh." That was all set.

When you were born again, and came out of darkness into light, your genetic structure was all set. You are one day going to be like the Lord Jesus Christ. It's all been set. "Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed upon us that we should be called the children of God. Beloved, now are we the sons of God. It doesn't even yet appear what we shall be, but we know that when he shall appear," which could be today, "we shall be like him. For we shall see him as he is." The genetic structure has already been made, conformed to the image of his Son. That encourages me.

Have you been born again? I know you've been born the first time, or you wouldn't be here. Have you been born the second time? Not by some church ritual, not by some religious ceremony, but by the miracle of the Spirit of God taking the Word of God and revealing the Son of God, and imparting the life of God because you believe.

One of my favorite preachers is George Whitefield. I don't know where America would be if it hadn't been for George Whitefield. Came over here from England, and preached, and there was a great awakening. George Whitefield and Jonathan Edwards and Samuel Stoddard and Gilbert Tennent, and these great preachers who laid a spiritual foundation for America.

Well, Whitefield often preached from John 3, "You must be born again." One day, a listener stopped him and said, "Mr. Whitefield, why are you always preaching, 'You must be born again'?" And quietly Whitefield said to the gentleman, "I will tell you. It is because you must be born again."

And I'm saying that to you, because Jesus said it. The new birth is not a luxury, it is a necessity. Because if you've been born only once, you'll die twice. And the second death is the lake of fire called hell. But if you've been born twice, you can only die once. And that death will usher you into the home that God has prepared for you. You must be born again.

Gracious Father, only you know hearts. We just read in the Scripture that Jesus knows all people. "The Lord knows them that are his." And I pray for any here tonight who have never been born again, who may not be sure of their new birth, that your Spirit will so convict them that they will have no peace, no rest, until they have trusted Jesus Christ and they have the witness in their heart that God is their Father and they're in the family. This is not anything we can do, Father. It's only something you can do. And our prayer is that you will work in hearts even now. And we pray this in the name of the one who died for us, even our Lord Jesus Christ.

Now, as we are bowed together and before the meeting is closed, if you are not sure of your spiritual experience, make sure. "Whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved." Trust him. If we can be of any help, we'll be here at the front following the closing of the meeting. Do your work, oh God, in hearts as only you can do. Through Christ our Lord. Amen.