28. 1 John 4:7-8 "You Must Be Born Again"

We're going to look first at the Gospel of John and then get to our primary text in First John in a few minutes.

John chapter 3, here now the inspired word of God. 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 have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?

Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the

Spirit, he cannot enter into 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 be amazed that I say to you, You must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from, where it is going.

So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus said to him, How can these things be?

Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?

Let's pray. Father, once again, as we prepare to look into your word, we ask that you would prepare our hearts, that,

Father, that we would see, that we would hear, and most importantly, that we would understand what you have to say to us in your word.

We ask, Father, that very humbly, that as your word is preached and as it is proclaimed, that it would go and accomplish every purpose for which you send it, that it will not return void, just as you have promised us.

We pray this in Jesus' name, Amen. Please be seated. There was a very popular song written in 1962 by Bob Dylan, and in that song he asks a series of questions.

How many roads must a man walk down before you call him a man? How many seas must a white dove sail before she sleeps in the sand?

Yes, and how many times must the cannonballs fly before they're forever banned?

He doesn't leave us hanging. He gives us the answer. The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind.

The answer is blowing in the wind. One pundit commenting on that song said, it asks a series of questions whose answer is as intangible as the wind.

But it's not only that song that uses the wind as a reference to something, and I'll call it mysterious.

Kansas, another singing group, sang, dust in the wind, all we are is dust in the wind.

And of course, the classic novel made into a classic movie, Gone with the

Wind. Scarlett O 'Hara, the main character, pondering the devastation that was wrought by war, says it's all gone with the wind.

The point is, in literature, wind is considered a mysterious force.

And rightly so, for as much as we know about the weather and the advances that have been made in meteorology, the wind remains unpredictable and unharnessed.

Even computer models of hurricanes can only predict possibilities of paths to the hurricane.

In our secondary text for today, that's in John 3, what we just read, Jesus uses the analogy of the wind to describe how the spirit of God works, specifically in salvation.

Look at verse 8 again of John 3. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.

So is everyone who is born of the spirit. This is a crucial verse if we are to understand how mankind is to be saved.

Remember what we've seen so far in this encounter that Jesus has with Nicodemus.

We've seen that Nicodemus comes to Jesus and is, in a very real sense, a representative of all mankind.

He has some questions concerning the ministry of Jesus. Remember, Jesus has been performing signs in Jerusalem after he had cleansed the temple.

And some people are beginning to believe that there is something special about this man,

Jesus. Nicodemus says, we know that you are a teacher come from God.

To which Jesus replies, you must be born again to see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus shows his spiritual blindness by his response, how can this be?

A man cannot return to the womb and be born again, can he? This encounter is a classic example of the disparity between God and man.

Nicodemus representing mankind is standing before God incarnate, listening to him speak, and yet he does not understand.

Jesus is speaking in terms he should understand because he is merely explaining what has already been prophesied.

It has been reported in the Old Testament scriptures, and yet it's like falling on deaf ears.

And so Jesus rightly says, unless you are born again, you cannot see the kingdom.

You can't even see the kingdom of God. That is, you can't perceive what it means, you can't even understand it.

And when Nicodemus demonstrates that lack of understanding by trying to grasp the concept of a man returning to the womb,

Jesus continues in verse 5. But before we get to verse 5, here's the question.

How did we get from 1 John 4 to John 3? Let's read our primary text once again.

This is 1 John 4, verses 7 and 8. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows

God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love. Remember in his epistle,

John is writing to give full assurance of faith to those in the first century church. And we've been exploring the centrality of love in that context.

And then in verse 7, John says this, everyone who loves is born of God and knows

God. Now that phrase, born of God, that's what brought us right back to John's gospel, chapter 3, which is the classic work on what it means to be born again.

So let's look now at verse 5 of John 3. Jesus answered, truly, truly,

I say to you, unless one is born of water and spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

Now Jesus answers to clarify what he means. And notice that he begins with the same words as verse 3, truly, truly,

I say to you. Now I know we went over this last week, but it just bears repeating.

While every word that proceeds from the mouth of God is important, there are no trivialities that come from the mouth of God.

But sometimes even Jesus emphasizes certain principles by starting with truly, truly,

I say to you. And when he does, we must pay close attention, lest we find ourselves in an uncomfortable position of speaking incorrectly concerning the principles of God's kingdom.

Here's what I mean by that. We are those who place a high priority on the doctrines of grace, that is, the sovereignty of God over salvation, which is what

Jesus is teaching in the text in front of us. If you don't see that yet, you will before this encounter with Nicodemus is over.

God is sovereign over the salvation of mankind. Yet we have some of our brothers in the faith who criticize us for even mentioning the doctrines of grace.

You want to get some of your Christian buddies upset? You say, what do you think about Calvinism?

See what that will get you and how far. We're told, why don't you lighten up on these doctrines?

These doctrines are divisive. Why don't you just put your views on this aside for the sake of unity within the body?

Even we're told to be loving, which

I find very interesting since it's a study on love that brings us here. However, when

Jesus is preparing to teach on the very subject of the grace of God, the love of God, he begins with these strong words.

Truly, truly, I say to you, not once but twice does he begin with those words.

So to those who would teach that salvation is just the choice of man,

I say, listen to the words of Christ. Truly, truly, I say unto you, says

Jesus, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Regeneration, being born again is the only way one can enter the kingdom of God. But here's the question, what does he mean, water and spirit?

Unfortunately, this is one of those verses where there is not universal agreement upon its meaning.

In fact, some put the water and spirit in opposition to each other. They would say that being born of the water is physical birth and being born of the spirit is spiritual birth.

But there's no biblical warrant for water symbolizing physical birth anywhere in scripture. And they wind up forcing meaning into the text that simply, it's not there.

Plus, putting water and spirit in opposition to one another is not consistent with the text. Both are prerequisites for entrance into the kingdom of God.

So others say that water is referring to baptism. And while there may be an element of that in the text, that too doesn't explain the connection between water and spirit.

And in fact, some holding to this, you lapse into the era of baptismal regeneration. So what does

Jesus mean? Simply, water and spirit are allusions to what happens when a person is born again.

We read from Ezekiel 6 this morning, I'm sorry, Ezekiel 36 this morning. Let me read verses 24 to 27 one more time.

Listen carefully. For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to observe all my ordinances.

That is one of the clearest pictures of salvation in the Old Testament. And God says he will gather his people from the nations, bring them into a new land.

And that is his kingdom. And just as water cleanses the body, regeneration cleanses the soul.

So notice the analogy, cleanse from all idolatry. And that includes the new heart that we spoke of in some detail last week.

That radical heart surgery. And the spirit of God is placed within you and gives you the desire to obey his statutes and ordinances.

That's the essence of the new birth. It's one of the clearest illusions of what it means to be born again in all of scripture.

And here we find it in the Old Testament. Nicodemus, as the teacher of Israel, should have known these verses.

That's why later on we're going to see that Jesus gives him a stern rebuke.

Why do you not understand what born again means? It's right in Ezekiel 36. In regeneration,

God cleanses with water, gives the new heart, and puts his spirit within the new creation.

It's exactly what Jesus says to Nicodemus. You must be born of water and spirit. And this is also consistent with the rest of scripture.

The Holy Spirit is often symbolized by water. In fact, in the very next chapter of John's Gospel, he will relate the events of Jesus with the

Samaritan woman at the well. And remember what he says to her. Everyone who drinks this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him shall never thirst.

But to the water that I will give him will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.

And again, at the celebration of the Feast of Booths, Jesus taught this in John 7, verse 37.

On the last day of the great day of the feast,

Jesus stood and cried out, saying, if anyone is thirsty, let him come to me and drink.

He who believes in me, as the scripture said, from his innermost being will flow rivers of living water.

And again, this is consistent with the prophecies of the Old Testament, which Nicodemus should have been familiar with.

I always almost stumble when I go to quote Isaiah, because I want so much to call it the

Gospel of Isaiah, because the gospel is so clear in it. But in the prophetic book of Isaiah, verse 3 of chapter 44, this is what

God says. Speaking of the new birth, for I will pour out water on a thirsty land and streams on a dry ground, and I will pour out my spirit on your offering and my blessing on your descendants, and they will spring up among the grass like poplars by streams of water.

And then, of course, the symbol is used in that great chapter of Isaiah 58. Everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

And you who have no money, come, buy and eat. Come buy wine and milk without money and without cost.

So we can see the consistency of Jesus speaking to Nicodemus. Verse 5 is an elaboration of verse 3 using the biblical language from Ezekiel 36 on regeneration.

And then don't forget what follows Ezekiel 36, but Ezekiel 37, where Ezekiel is told to prophesy to the dry bones.

One of the clearest examples of what it means to be born again, we are all like dry bones.

We are dead in our trespasses and sin until the Holy Spirit breathes that life into us and gives us the ability to hear and to understand the gospel.

And we turn from our sin because of the new heart within us. So why is it necessary to be born again?

Because we're dry bones. And it takes the work of Almighty God to bring them to life.

And now Jesus makes a contrast and brings Nicodemus to the conclusion again.

Look at verses 6 and 7 of John chapter 3. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit.

Do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again. Now here is the contrast, not between water and spirit, but between flesh and spirit.

This is one of those occasions where our English language can be deceptive.

We tend to think of the flesh as the skin or even the body as a whole, as opposed to our soul, the mind, the will, the emotions.

But that's not how the Bible uses the term the flesh. Since the fall of man, the flesh is all of who you are.

Referring to the condition of the depravity of your being. The flesh not only refers to the lessful desires of fallen man, but every sinful desire that goes against God.

The flesh includes any philosophy that darkens the heart and leads a person away from God.

The flesh is the depraved self that wants what he wants when he wants it, and not what

God wants for us. So if you limit the meaning only to physical desires, you miss the impact of sin on fallen man.

And that can lead even to several heresies, the Gnostics being one of them. Now we've examined total depravity many times in previous messages.

But the flesh means all of the depravity of man's heart. And you know that I've often said, don't mess with total depravity.

It's my favorite of the points of Calvinism. It's the only one I can live up to. The way a person thinks, acts, his attitudes and motivations are all of the flesh of mankind.

Thus we have the analogy again of Ezekiel 37. We're dry bones.

The flesh is the old self that Paul tells that we must put off. But how do dry bones put all that stuff off?

He cannot put off the old self. All of his efforts are vain. James Montgomery Boyce once gave a great example of a man, the condition of man in one of his analogies.

He said he bought a tainted well. Imagine a well whose water is contaminated and in fact deadly.

And the pump that brings the water to the surface is rusty and pitted. So the owner of the well decides to paint the pump that sits on top of the well.

He cleans it up, sands it a little bit, puts several coats of new paint on it. And now it looks all nice and shiny and new.

But when it's pumped, the water that it brings forth is still contaminated. That pump is like all the efforts of man -made religion.

All the paint in the world cannot change the water in the well. All the rites and rituals in the world cannot change the heart of man.

Only the spirit of God can change the heart of man. Now that's in contrast to the spirit that Jesus makes.

It is the spirit of God that takes away the heart of stone and gives the new heart. It is only the spirit of God that causes one to be born again.

It is the spiritual deadness that must be overcome. And all the efforts that man puts forward cannot accomplish that.

It is only the one who is born of the spirit that can bring forth spiritual fruit. That's why

Jesus says once again, do not be amazed that I say to you, you must be born again.

Do not be amazed. In other words, at this point in his teaching,

Jesus says, Nicodemus, by now you should understand. You should understand the new birth.

Why are you standing there with your mouth hanging open? Why are you surprised at these things?

If you're following what I'm saying, you should be getting it by now. The new birth, being born from above, is the only way that you can see the kingdom of heaven.

It's the only way you can enter the kingdom of heaven. Let me say this.

Needs to be said. Anyone who claims to be a Christian teacher, pastor, elder, whatever title they may have, must understand this point.

Anyone who teaches differently is teaching a false gospel. This is significant since this is right at the beginning of the gospel of John.

Remember what's happened so far. Jesus has turned the water into wine. Symbolically, he has shown he's replacing the emptiness of the

Jewish system with his joy. He has cleansed the temple. He is going to restore true biblical worship to the apostate land.

And now in his first discourse, this is his first discourse in the gospel, he explains that the only way of entrance into the kingdom is by being born again.

And the words of the apostle Paul are appropriate at this point. Galatians 1 .8.

But if we, even if we, or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to what we have preached to you, let him be accursed.

As we've said before, so I say again. If any man is preaching to you a gospel contrary to what you have received, he is to be accursed.

The gospel message is simple and that clear. So Jesus says, don't be amazed.

And every teacher of the gospel must come to this realization that entrance into the kingdom is not something that man does.

He is spiritually dead and incapable. You must be born again.

That is crystal clear in the text before us. But that doesn't mean that there are no mysteries concerning the gospel.

For look, let's brings us back to verse 8. For how and to whom

God grants salvation is a mystery. And that's where verse 8 comes in.

The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going.

So is everyone who is born of the spirit. It's amazing how many

Christians who understand that you must be born again, still say you must do something to be born again.

Even if it's only exercising faith. When the clear teaching of Jesus in this discord is that the gift of salvation, that of being born again is a gift of God.

And here he says that how God saves is like the wind.

The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind. It's mysterious.

It's unpredictable. The spirit has a mind of its own. He does what he wishes. You know, no matter how hard we try and how hard meteorologists use computers to try to predict the wind, there's no exact science.

You know, we even know how wind currents are formed, but it's still powerless to change them or control them.

Now we understand that we live on Long Island. We're living on an island. And we're used to winds gusting to gale force.

We've even been pummeled by how many hurricanes and nor 'easters out here.

And the most we can do is tie things down, close our windows and doors, and pray to God for help.

The wind comes and goes as though it has a mind of its own. And you can hear it coming.

You can see the effects of it. Trees moving, debris blowing all over the place. But where it begins and where it goes are still mysteries.

That's why we have so many songs and poems about the wind. It's unpredictable, untamable source of power.

That is one good reason Jesus uses the wind as an example of the work and the power of the

Holy Spirit. The fact that John uses the same Greek word for wind and spirit is interesting.

The Spirit of God is the breath of God. We see this even in the very beginning of Scripture in Genesis 1 -2.

The earth was formless and void, and the darkness was over the surface of the deep. And the

Spirit of God was moving over the surface of the waters. The Hebrew word for spirit in that text is the same word for wind or breath, just like its

Greek counterpart. We also see this analogy in 2

Timothy 3 -16. The Bible is God breathed. It's that same word. So the metaphor is the perfect way to describe the work of the

Holy Spirit. And just like the wind, it is impossible for man to predict how or where the

Holy Spirit is going to work. This is a blessing for preachers.

It's not my words that are going to save anybody. I mean, I'm supposed to be faithful to preaching the word, but how the word is applied to the heart of non -believers,

I have no control over that. Why do two people sit and listen to the same evangelistic message?

One gets saved and one doesn't. It's the work of the Spirit, not ours.

That's where the mystery comes in. But we also need to keep in mind,

God saves those who do not deserve his grace and mercy. Do you realize that if we had a choice of who would be saved, we'd choose all the good people, quote, good people.

But God saved me, a wretch like me. And I can tell you from the bottom of my heart,

I didn't deserve it. And if you're honest, there's not one of us sitting in this place that deserves salvation.

That's why it's called amazing grace. We read from Isaiah 44 earlier concerning the water and the

Spirit. And the context of Isaiah 44 is exactly on this. Look at verse 1 of Isaiah 44.

But now listen, O Jacob, my servant, and Israel whom I have chosen.

Thus says the Lord who made you and formed you from the womb who will help you. And do not fear,

O Jacob, my servant, and you, Jeshurun, whom I have chosen. For I will pour out water on the thirsty land and the streams on the dry ground.

I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring and my blessing on your descendants. And they will spring up among the grass like poplars by the streams of water.

This one will say, I am the Lord's, and that one will call the name of Jacob. And another will write on his hand belonging to the

Lord and will name Israel's name with honor. My friends, the teaching of Jesus is consistent with the whole of Scripture.

God is sovereign over the salvation of his people. Look at one last phrase of verse 8.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from or where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the

Spirit. If you are here this morning and you are born again, you are a

Christian. You are a believer. It's not from anything you have done or anything that God saw in you, but the unpredictable and untamable power of the

Holy Spirit who regenerated your heart. Calvin actually paraphrases the last phrase this way.

Well, I'll read the whole verse as Calvin writes it. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know from where it comes and where it's going.

Such is the power and efficacy of the Holy Spirit in the renewed man. This is clear teaching, and yet many

Christians reject it. But they're not alone. Look at Nicodemus' response.

Again, verse 9. How can these things be? Nicodemus still does not understand what

Jesus is teaching. Why? Because Jesus is speaking of spiritual truth about the kingdom of God.

And Nicodemus is not comprehending him, because apart from being born again, he can't understand the things of God.

And so he says, how can these things be? And that brings the strongest rebuke we have seen from Jesus so far in history.

In scripture. Jesus says, are you the teacher of Israel and do not understand these things?

We spoke of this last week, but that's a stinging rebuke. We saw that Nicodemus was an educated man, a man with authority, a ruler of the council.

He was probably one of the foremost scholars of the law. And after Jesus explains to him the reality of salvation, he says, how can these things be?

And Jesus rebukes him for his lack of understanding as the teacher. That had to sting.

But it further highlights the condition of man. Doesn't it? Here is a man who is supposed to be teaching the people of God.

And he doesn't understand the most basic principle of how a man is saved. You must be born again.

Jesus has explained it in such a way. Nicodemus's memory should have been brought back to the numerous scriptures.

We only looked at a couple. But he doesn't see in them what Jesus said. We can argue from his perspective that he hadn't been taught well.

But that's no excuse. The fact that he should have known is clearly seen in what

Jesus says to him. To be a teacher brings with it great responsibility.

Which means greater rebuke when you fail. Do we not find the same situation in the church in our day?

We find teachers, preachers, pastors, and even seminary professors who do not understand the most basic principle concerning salvation.

You must be born again. How does this happen? It happens because instead of following the clear teaching of Jesus in the text, that the work of the spirit is mysterious like the wind, and that he does what he pleases and his work is beyond our reasoning.

They instead teach that man has the ability to choose. So now we hear man is the master of his own destiny, the captain of his own soul.

To them we must say, are you a teacher in the church and do not understand these things?

In your lineage, are you a relative of Nicodemus? Jesus told him, you must be born again.

So Bob Dylan means in his song that the answer to some questions are beyond our ability to understand.

Yeah, I'll agree with him as far as that goes. To try to figure out how the spirit of God works in salvation is beyond us and none of our business.

God is sovereign over salvation, period. The spirit of God comes and goes just like the wind.

And to try to figure out how and why some are saved and not others is an effort in futility and a dangerous undertaking.

He has told us he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy and compassion on whom he will have compassion.

So what should our response be to this teaching of Jesus? Well, first, give glory to him who would consent to save sinful people such as we are.

He wasn't obligated to save anyone, but because of his mercy and his love, he did.

If you're a Christian, just bow the knee to the savior who came and substituted himself in order that you would be saved and enter the kingdom of God.

And second, walk in a manner worthy of your great calling. You now have the ability, albeit not perfect, but you have the ability to walk according to his statutes and his ordinances, to be useful in advancing his kingdom.

Remember our primary text, what got us here, 1 John 4, 7, and 8. Beloved, let us love one another.

There is a calling. For love is from God, and everyone who loves is born of God and knows

God. The one who does not love does not know God, for God is love.

We'll pick up on that point next week. But if you're here this morning and you're not a believer, trying to straighten your life out doesn't grant you salvation.

Giving alms to the poor doesn't grant you salvation. Doing great humanitarian acts doesn't either.

Now, they're all good things to do, but none of them grant you salvation. What you can do is this, simply pray,

God, be merciful to me, the sinner. Repent of your sin.

Acknowledge your utter failure and inability to please him. And call upon him as Lord and Christ.