The New Birth: The Evidence of Regeneration

So, everything we've been looking at is speaking about the new birth, regeneration, in chapter 3.

The new birth. And today I'd like to bring application to what we've been looking at, and it definitely will not be the last time,

God willing, to hear what we've been going through from this chapter.

Scriptures say so much about regeneration. We can preach a thousand sermons on it and not even scratch the surface because the word of God is so flooded with this great miracle that God does.

There's another great miracle before this, and you can say it's a miracle, it's something that happens, and that has happened,

I should say, past eternity, that God has called the elect and has written their names in the

Lamb's Book of Life. That is in concrete. It's called the doctrine of election, and it speaks about those whom

God has elected. You can see this all through the Scriptures as well, especially the New Testament because it's revealed and speaks about, and the

Old Testament speaks about the books, the books in eternity, and there is the Book of Life, the

Book of Life. Scripture says a lot about that. We know that that's an act that God has already decreed, and it's incredible.

But that is actually before regeneration, then regeneration comes, and then, as we're going to look at today, the evidence of regeneration, the evidence, how does it look like?

How does the new birth look like? And I think this is so critical for each and every one of us, that we understand how this affects us and changes us.

It's critical because from regeneration, there's conversion, and then conversion, you have sanctification, and then that sanctification happens all the way through our lifetime as a born -again child of God through the

Holy Spirit as we submit to the Lordship of Christ and obedience to the faith.

And then, there's glorification, and then once you're glorified, it's, in a sense, you could say you're home free.

The warfare is over with, and you're forever with the Lord. But as of right now, we have not entered into the church triumphant, the church, the invisible church in heaven is the church triumphant.

Right now, we're the church militant, right? Well, how does the evidence of regeneration look like?

I think this is so critical for all of us. So today in this message, I would like to give that application to everything that we have looked at.

It's not exhaustive, but so far from John chapter 3 concerning the new birth, being born again, so we return what is the definite text in the

Gospels on the new birth. Let me give you a quote from Pastor John MacArthur on this.

He gives this statement concerning the new birth, and he says this, quote, the terminology being born again is part of evangelical lingo and has been for a long, long time, but in spite of the fact that it's familiar terminology and it's thrown around a lot and has been certainly all through my lifetime, he says, there seems to be a failure on the part of most

Christian people to understand what new birth, the new birth means, what it means.

It is not obscure, nor difficult to figure out. It's all bound up in an analogy itself, being born, being born.

And that's pretty much what he says on that in the start, and so in that, in the beginning with that quote,

I would like for us to now, let's turn to the Word of God, turn to the Bible as we continue our study through John, and right now we're at chapter 3, and there's much, much more the

Lord has to say to us as He speaks to Nicodemus concerning the new birth.

So let me read the passage for you, beginning with verse 1 to 15, 1 to 15.

Hear the word of the living 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? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

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 has been born of the flesh is flesh. That which has been 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 its sound, but do not know where it comes from and where it's going.

So is everyone who has been 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 and do not understand these things?

Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen and you do not accept our witness.

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

And no one has ascended into heaven, but he who has descended from heaven, the son of man.

And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the son of man be lifted up so that whoever believes will in him have eternal life.

May God bless the reading of his word from our ears to our hearts this morning.

Please bow with me for a moment. Prayers we seek our Lord's face as we look into his word.

Father, this is your word. You've honored it. Oh God, you have spoken through your son in these last days.

Give us ears to hear what the spirit is saying to the church. How critical this is and how important it is because it's a matter of eternal life or eternal death of the importance of being born again.

Father, we bless you and we bless your holy name. And Lord, you said in your word, but on this one will

I look and on him who is poor and of a contrite spirit and he who trembles at my word.

Oh Lord, you seek out a heart to dwell in, a heart that's broken, tender and spirit.

Not one that's so much concerned with external religion and facade.

But Lord, you seek out true worshipers to worship you in spirit and in truth.

For this is why we were born and this is why we were born again. The chief end of man is to glorify you and to enjoy you forever and to delight in you and to love you with all of our heart, soul and mind and strength.

And Lord, we cannot do that within ourselves. For your Holy Spirit must abide within us.

So Lord, lay hold of us today. And as it says in the book of James, Lord, may we draw near to you so that you draw near to us.

Bring us close to yourself through Jesus Christ, your son, for your honor and glory.

And in his name we do pray, amen and amen. Our Lord's message to Nicodemus and to everyone who hears his word is really very simple.

The kingdom of God is entered only through being born again of the spirit of God. And the kingdom of God is the spear of salvation as we looked at.

It's the people that is ruled and governed by God who have eternal life abiding within their breast.

They've been born from above. It is the gift of God and is nothing of them.

The only way to see, and Jesus said, not only to see but to enter into the kingdom of God is through regeneration.

The new birth. Being born from above. Born from above.

What an act of God. It's holy God's act and it's not ours.

It's the only way into heaven. Apart from that, no one sees or enters into the kingdom of God.

Now, the very point of our Lord's analogy to Nicodemus is simply this.

Because being born, as obvious as it is, is not something that you and I had anything to do with.

As a matter of fact, we can all testify we had nothing to do with it, did we?

You didn't have anything to do with your physical birth. And that is the point of our

Lord's analogy to Nicodemus, nor do you have anything to do with your spiritual birth.

In John chapter 3, Jesus answered Nicodemus and said to him, truly, truly, amen, amen,

I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. You and I didn't have any control of our physical birth, nor do we have any control of our spiritual birth.

In the spiritual sense, being born again is an act of God, it's holy of God, we contribute absolutely nothing to it.

And in regeneration, God recreates, not only creates, but He recreates and brings new life.

It is a new birth. It is life from God, life from God through His Holy Spirit.

It is a supernatural work. And that's really the point of the simple analogy that our

Lord gives to Nicodemus here. It's powerful. This is one of the messages years, years ago on a personal level here, when

I was about 17, I believe, and I went to an old camp meeting.

Actually it was literally, I had a shelter and it literally had dust, it did not have floor, it was outside.

And I had the wonderful privilege of hearing preachers preach, and one of the sermons was,

You must be born again. And it really intrigued me, hearing that for the first time, and I said, you know what a marvelous message that is, and down deep in my heart

I knew I was not born again. And I desired and craved that, and that was actually,

I didn't know it at the time, but that was actually the Holy Spirit doing a work within my own heart, not realizing it.

And I just decided I wanted to seek the Lord, and in that choosing,

God, I didn't know it, but God was already choosing me. In my seeking God has already sought me, because scripture actually says none seeks

God, right? No one seeks God, and a lot of people say, well they're seekers, but really these people are not really seeking

God, they are seeking after God in the sense of wanting and desiring the benefits of God, but they really do not seek

God to love God for himself. It is the Lord that takes the initiative, and that's my point here,

God takes the initiative in salvation, always, always. Regeneration is a work of God, and it's not any work of man, it is a work of God through His Spirit, and when

God recreates a new spiritual life, a new nature comes, a new disposition comes, a new character comes, a new mind comes, a new desires come, and that comes from God, and our desires of the world leaves us.

Now we're in the world, but not of the world, but our heart's desire is

Christ, and we have a love that has been shed abroad in our hearts by the

Holy Spirit, it is a work of God, and it becomes evident, and we begin to hate what we used to love, and then we begin to love what we used to hate, and that is namely the world, the flesh, and the devil.

So these new desires from God come, and that person makes no contribution to his or her salvation.

As I pointed out several times, this is a very important verse, 2 Corinthians 5 .17, The Apostle Paul says this through the

Spirit, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, I think that's the key right there, in Christ, Christ in you, the hope of glory, in Christ, he is a new creation, a new creation.

The old things passed away, and behold, new things have come, new things have come.

D .L. Moody says when he was born again, he literally, when he went out after God transformed this man, he said everything was new, everything, he saw the sun in a different light, he saw people in a different light, he saw everything that he saw physically, but also spiritually was all new, everything was new.

Well, a transformation takes place, and that's actually what happens. It's taken place, it's a supernatural miracle that has been wrought by the

Spirit of God. God and God alone. A .W. Pink, as many here know of very well, wrote that classic book on the sovereignty of God.

He said it like this, salvation is a supernatural thing that changes the heart, it renews the will, it transforms the life, so that it's evident that all around that a miracle of grace has been wrought, a miracle of grace, and that's what the grace of God does.

It's by grace, the scripture says, that you've been saved, that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God, lest any man should boast.

And actually, if you read the latter part of chapter 2 of Ephesians, we're saved for his workmanship, for good works.

Good works doesn't save us, but we're saved unto good works. So that follows, and that is sanctification.

I like what Luther said, God doesn't need our good works, but my neighbor does.

And that's exactly what the new birth produces. There's justification by faith, and then

James speaks about justification that actually works, that's what he's talking about.

And then he speaks about, it will prove out in my obedience, even though obedience doesn't save us, but when we are saved, obedience is the fruit of regeneration.

This is so important, because there's many people, especially the cults, they got this all backwards, that's why they're cults, right?

They actually believe that it's your good works, somehow you earn your way to heaven, and that's why you see the

Jehovah Witnesses going out there so fervently, because they really believe, the more they can go and make contact with people, and try to bring people into their little group and their little cult, they somehow think that they are earning their little brownie points with God.

The Roman Catholics believe the same thing, that somehow, that grace and justification and all that's infused within you, it's not imputed, it's infused.

It's something that somehow you do, but it's all of God in regeneration, it's not of man.

They got it all wrong. Actually if it's man, and if it's actually 0 .1

% of man, it's not of God. I like what Washer says, it's not 99 % of God and 1 % of man, it's 100 %

God. And that's what the new birth produces. Now, look at verse 4 to 8 very quickly, and we'll overview some things, and we're going to go right into the application.

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?

And 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. Now, so what

Jesus our Lord is doing here, he's answering Nicodemus' objection, which was by elaborating on the truth, and to introduce in verse 3, which

I already quoted, about being born again, and when Jesus first mentioned that about the new birth to Nicodemus, a very very religious man by the way, then in verse 5

Jesus answered, truly, truly, or amen, amen, he's correcting him.

He's correcting Nicodemus' false theology. He basically says, unless one is born of water and the

Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. Water and Spirit. Water and Spirit often refers symbolically to the

Old Testament, to spiritual renewal and cleansing, which we looked at in Ezekiel chapter 36.

And you see that in that chapter, Nicodemus should have been familiar with this since he was a teacher of the

Jews. No doubt, what Jesus had in mind when he was speaking to him shows that regeneration is to be an

Old Testament truth with which Nicodemus should have been acquainted with, but he wasn't.

So, Christ's point was unmistakable. Without spiritual washing, spiritual cleansing of the soul, a cleansing that is accomplished only by the

Spirit of God through the Word of God, no one can enter into God's kingdom. There must be a spiritual cleansing.

Now, a lot of people really believe that the water here that Jesus is speaking of is speaking about the physical

H2O, that when people are baptized, and like I said, we touched on this a little bit, baptism is a command of the

Lord, but baptism by no way, in any way I should say, brings us into the kingdom of God.

If that was the case then, we would say all physical water and baptism would save us, but that is far, far from the truth.

And actually, what needs to take place is a spiritual cleansing within the heart.

Now, only God can cleanse the dirty heart, right? Only God can.

And our hearts, you say, Pastor, you mean my heart is dirty? Oh, absolutely.

Scripture says our righteousness, your righteousness is filthy rags before God. Think of that, filthy rags.

See, people somehow compare their goodness to other people's goodness or badness or badness or whatever it may be, but never in light of Scripture.

You know, you open up the Scriptures, you're talking about the perfect law of liberty. You're talking about the perfect standard of holiness, and by the way, when everyone stands before the bar of God on judgment day, that perfect standard is going to judge each and every person.

There will be no curbs there. No one else will be there to stand alongside with you to help us on that day of judgment.

So this is why it's so critical that we make sure we get this right. I like, again, what Washer said, no, not

Washer, I'm sorry, I think I was listening to Steve Lawson on this. He said, you know, you could be wrong about many, many other doctrines in Scripture, but if you're wrong about the doctrine of who

Jesus is and His person and His works, he said everything else is going to be wrong.

I mean, we must get that right, who Jesus is. That is absolutely critical, and there is no bending of that.

I mean, we must get that right. So the spiritual washing of the soul, the cleansing is only accomplished by the

Spirit of the living God, through the Word of God. Jesus said, Thy Word is truth, and that's the truth that sanctifies and cleanses us, and that's why it's important that we come and meet on the

Lord's Day. Let me say this, not only on the Lord's Day, I pray as a child of God that you are into the

Word of God every single day, and preparation of worship, because the

Word of God needs to be cleansing us on a daily basis. Now we take care of our physical bodies pretty well, don't we?

We feed it well, we wash it well, we take care of it, we pamper it, but think about our souls.

Do you feed your soul well? Do you have a washing of the time of your soul before the

Word of God on a daily basis? And that's why the Scripture says that we are to daily have our minds renewed, because actually we're in warfare, and it's very serious, we're living in a very fallen world, and that's why

Scripture says we must choose our friends carefully, because why? Do not be deceived,

Paul says, for bad company corrupts good morals. It's always the corruption of that one, somebody gave an illustration one time of a potato bag, and you can actually do this, especially if you lived on a farm, it's very evident what happens in produce, and of course

I've worked in produce for many, many years, and it's such a natural effect, but you could take a whole bag of fresh potatoes, and put one potato in the center of that bag, and you will find in a matter of time that progresses, that whole, that entire bag will be touched and corrupted by a rotten potato growing, growing, and the next thing you know you have a whole bag that's completely rotten, rotten rotten to the core, and that's the way it is with whom we choose our friends, we need to be very careful, and when you are born again, we choose different friends, don't we?

I lost all the friends that I used to have years ago, and come to find out that really we're not friends at all, but I found out my true friends is with the people of God, God's people, those that love the

Lord, and love the Lord Jesus Christ, and the things of God, well, and that's what it says in marriage, that we're not to be unequally yoked, right?

Paul basically said what communion with light and darkness, they're incompatible, light and darkness,

God separated them, so light goes with light, and darkness, you have them with darkness, but it's important when we are born again, and naturally, you will seek out new friends, new friends, well, there is a spiritual cleansing that's wholly of the work of God, and not the result of human effort whatsoever.

Verse 6 says that which has been born of the flesh is flesh, Jesus said that which has been born of the spirit is spirit, naturally, that's what happens when you're born again, it's born of the spirit is spirit.

Verse 7, do not marvel, in other words, what he said, do not be surprised that I said to you, you must be born again, now here at Redeeming Grace Church, let me throw this in, since I've got this verse and it's out there on that sign, we've got to change it too, don't we,

Brother Ben? Because we've got the bills and we're going to welcome them with a welcome and the bills and tell people what's going on, but now and then we will put a wonderful saying out there, a quote, but what's the most effective thing that we can put on that sign?

The Word of God, because there's such power and life within the

Word of God, and when people read that, you just never know, I've seen it as I've driven hundreds of miles, and I can literally say down through the years as a bread man for 7 years, a milk man for over 10 years,

I have driven thousands and thousands of miles, and I read these signs, and sometimes these signs is a pet peeve of mine, folks, but I see some people during Valentine's Day, these churches, they put up Be Mine slash

God, you know, God never said that, or some kind of a cute saying, people say, yeah, but they're communicating truth, well, not really the truth, they try to be cute by saying something good to grab people's attention naturally, but what if you put the

Word of God out there? You see, people need to hear what God has to say, not this slash

God that would paraphrase what God said, no, He didn't say that, and actually, the

Bible says if we add anything to the Word of God, that's actually, that's on the verge of blasphemy, because if God didn't say it, and if you put it, you are being a false prophet, you're being a false church by saying something that God didn't say.

Well, we need to put what God says, that's what's effective. Well, Jesus said, 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, or where it's going, so is everyone who has been born of the

Spirit. Jesus' point in this analogy is taken from the elements of nature, God's creation, that just as the wind cannot be controlled or understood by human beings, but its effects can be witnessed, so is also it is with those that have been born of the

Spirit. Cannot be controlled, cannot be understood, but the proof, the evidence of His work is very apparent, very apparent.

So where the Holy Spirit of God works, there is undeniable and unmistakable evidence.

Now, very quickly, look at verse 9, Nicodemus answered and said to Him, how can these things be?

How can these things be? Although Nicodemus was a renowned, recognized, established teacher in Israel, he was a very poor learner.

His question, how can these things be, indicates to us that he made little progress of learning everything that Jesus was speaking to him.

Despite Jesus ' further clarification, Nicodemus still could not accept what he was actually hearing.

He could not let go of his legalistic religious system. And I see so many people, and you see it as well, they're bound up in religion.

They cannot let it go. You know why? I really believe this. It appeals to their flesh.

It somehow applauds them. It makes them feel like, hey, I have earned something great.

You know, it's kind of like as a child, you know, you obey mom and dad. You know, we're going to reward you.

They feel like somehow that they're being rewarded with eternal life by the more that they can do what they do in due and due.

But in Christianity and the new birth, it's opposite. It's opposite. It's what

God has done through Jesus Christ. That's the gospel. See, it's not rule keeping.

It's not trying to, how many people, folks, have you seen the stickers and you've heard people say this?

All you've got to do is keep the Ten Commandments. And I say right from the cuff, I said, impossible for you to keep these

Ten Commandments. By the way, I would challenge the people that say something like that to you, say, have you kept the

Ten Commandments? Actually if I go through them and read, which is a

Ten Commandments of the Jewish establishment economy of worship before God, I can assure you that we've all broke those commands somewhere or another or sometime or another.

No one has kept them perfectly, only Christ. And that's why He came.

He lived, He kept the law of God perfectly, so He lived for us.

He represented His people. He, and then He died for us. But see,

He lived for us. That's part of having the righteousness of Christ applied to our life because He lived a totally righteous life in which we could not.

Now, isn't that important? We can't earn heaven by rule keeping, by keeping the

Ten Commandments, but can I tell you this? If anybody earned heaven, it was Christ as a man or trying to do

His best. How many times have you heard that? By obeying the perfect law of God.

Impossible. And it's meant to be impossible. Nicodemus could not realize that salvation was a sovereign work of God's Holy Spirit.

He could not let go of his religion. Nicodemus serves as a clear example of the numbing effect, the numbing effect of that external legalistic religion that has a person's spiritual perception even to the point of obscuring the revelation of God.

You know, that's exactly why in Matthew 11, Jesus told the people, He gave an invitation, and He said this, come unto

Me all you that labor and heavy laden, I'll give you rest. You know what He's talking about? And then

He says, take My yoke upon you, learn of Me, for My yoke is easy and My burden is light.

You know what He's talking about? He's talking about the people at that time that was oppressed under the religious system of the

Sadducees, the Pharisees, and weighing them down with the law, their laws, adding more law to try to keep and earn their way to Heaven.

And Jesus says, no, you learn, you come to Me, you yoke up with Me, My burden is light,

My yoke is easy. He didn't say the way through the narrow path is easy, but what

He says is when you yoke up with Him, there's a supernatural change that takes place so much that we let go by submitting to the

Lord Jesus Christ, and there's a delight and a joy in God that this world cannot even touch.

And by the way, the world doesn't understand. Naturally so. Now, look at verse 10 through 12 very quickly.

Jesus answered and said to them, are you a teacher of Israel and do not understand these things? Truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness of what we have seen, and you do not accept our witness.

If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you, if I tell you heavenly things?

Wow. Now, a transition takes place here from beginning at verse 11 all the way to verse 21.

The focus begins to change, turns away from Nicodemus and centers on Jesus' discourse regarding the true meaning of salvation.

Now, what I'd like to do here in the remainder of our time is now we're going to look at some application and dig in a little bit of how this looks like.

And Jesus, as He speaks to this religious Pharisee, what salvation is and how it was accomplished, and the evidence of salvation and how it's applied,

Jesus our Lord gives clarity to this. And always He makes the way of salvation not necessarily easy, because it is really difficult and is meant to be impossible, but one thing

He does, He makes it plain, folks. Jesus always gave clarity to everything that He spoke.

Now, keep in mind, Nicodemus comes to Jesus by night. He needs help, doesn't he?

Isn't it interesting that He doesn't lead this Pharisee to Himself? Jesus doesn't walk away, but He, the

Lord wants to give Him His answer in how

He is to get into the Kingdom of God. He knows His heart, doesn't He? Because Jesus is the searcher of the heart.

He knows He's not in the Kingdom of God. Jesus has just told him that seeing and entering into the

Kingdom of God is virtually impossible with man, but with God it's possible.

Nicodemus has done everything He knows to do. Think of this, He's kept every biblical law according to Him.

He's kept every rabbinic tradition, law, traditional law that He knows that He's achieved.

Everything that has been achieved. Think about being in His shoes as an elderly teacher of the Jews. He's done everything.

He doesn't know where else to go. He has an empty hole in His heart and He's done it all.

In a sense, you could say that He's even more religious than the Pope itself and He's hit the very top of the pile when it comes to being religious.

And then Jesus basically tells him in a sense, you are at a flat zero with God.

You are at zero. You may be according to man and people look at you on the external, and by the way

He's the ultimate hypocrite, isn't He? He is playing religious externally, but inwardly

He has a hole in His heart, a cavity that needs only to be filled with God.

And Jesus knows how to do this. What more, in a sense, does He need to do?

Or what thing can I, that I need to delete out of my life? Or what am I doing that I need to stop doing?

Or do's and don'ts and what else can I do? And think of this, Jesus says to him, if you want to enter into the

Kingdom of God, you've got to be born again. In other words, you've got to start all over. You've got to start over.

So in order to get into the Kingdom of God, there's nothing you can do. And don't pay any attention to any books that you see about how to be born again, because they cannot tell you how to be born again.

Only God can do it. Only God. It is a work of God and you and I make no contribution to our salvation whatsoever.

MacArthur, actually, when I was studying this, he said, he puts it this way, all religious works, quote, all moral works are useless to provide anything by which a man can enter into the

Kingdom. This is the truth of regeneration and is predicted on the fact that the best that a man can do is wretched, that all our moral works and all of our religion is useless to satisfy or please

God, end quote. Scripture basically backs that up.

Ephesians 2, Ephesians, if you go to Ephesians 2, you see this, and we looked at that, but Ephesians 2 says, and you were dead in your transgressions and sins in which you were formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruling of power of the air and the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formerly conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, even as the rest.

And the transition is verse 4, but God. D. Barton Lloyd -Jones says that you can, in those two words, you can have the gospel right there.

But God, God intervened, God came into your life,

God made the difference, being rich in mercy, compassion, because of His great love with which

He loved us, and even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved.

By grace, God's grace, unmerited favor, not anything that we can earn, not anything we deserve, but God in His rich mercy,

His compassion through Jesus Christ has come to us and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ, for the purpose that so in the ages to come

He might show the surpassing riches of His grace and kindness toward us in Christ. Isn't it glorious?

It's all of God's grace, and grace alone.

It's amazing actually, and that's what John Newton sung about, the amazing grace of God.

Now, we look at this and we see that Jesus does not want to leave

Nicodemus in his predicament. Verse 12, if I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how will you believe if I tell you heavenly things?

Now I want you to notice this. That's the key word, is believe. Let me paraphrase that verse there for you.

Jesus is basically saying if you don't believe me when I tell you about the things that happen here on this earth, how can you possibly believe if I tell you what is going on in heaven?

How? Nicodemus is too caught up in minding earthly things and that's why

Paul says we set our mind on things of heaven because we've been born of heaven.

Heaven has become our home and then we see ourselves as passing through here in a short time, a very short time, and actually the book of James makes it clear that our life and your life is like a vapor, a vapor.

Now he needs help. Nicodemus needs help in how to believe. He's like the lost world.

He's not without hope. Jesus is his only hope actually in verse 13, and no one has ascended into heaven but he was descended from heaven, the

Son of Man. Think of this, only Jesus and no one else. Only Christ had his permanent abode in heaven prior to his incarnation and coming to earth in which he made the

Creator, the Word, the Logos, came to this earth. But where did he come from?

He came from the world of light. He came from heaven itself, the Creator.

This is what's so incredible and amazing that it staggers the imagination that God the

Creator, the second person of the Trinity, who made all worlds and upholds all the worlds by the

Word of His power, came to the earth in which He created, lived and died as a man, the

Son of Man, humbled Himself and humbled Himself even to the point as Paul says in Philippians 2, to the point of death, even to the death of a cross for salvation, for your salvation.

He has the true knowledge of God concerning of all heaven and all of heaven's riches are in Jesus Christ and Christ alone and that's why we must see that Christ in Christ alone all the way from Genesis to Revelation, it's actually about Him.

When we come to verse 14 and 15 which is the key to salvation, just remember how many times our

Lord mentions the word believe. Now, this, even though the new birth is all of God and we contribute nothing to salvation, now listen to me closely, the new birth must be appropriated by an act of faith.

So faith and repentance must take place. So in other words what

I am saying is, if the new birth is all of God, it doesn't mean we sit back and just automatically do nothing.

In the new birth there is nothing we can do but being saved, the scripture makes it evident there is something we must do.

And what is that? Paul told the jailer when he was about to commit suicide, and Paul stopped him and he told him, and I believe the jailer said this, what must

I do to be saved? Wasn't that the question? And what did Paul say? In an instance,

Paul said, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ. Believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ. Now we are not talking about just intellectual belief because the devils believe and tremble, right? James goes through that.

We are talking about a belief, and I like the way Moody put it, it means to lean with all of your weight on God.

You trust with everything you have on God. In the darkness, no matter how things are good or bad, whether there be storms in life or the sunshine or whether there be a mountain top or a valley, we trust in God.

And we trust in God for what He has purchased and what He has done at the cross, and then we trust

Him because He said it in His word. It is to be appropriated by faith.

So it is interesting, I looked up the word appropriate. This word comes from the late middle

English, from Latin, and you know what it means? To make one's own.

You make it your very own. You make this truth your very own.

Now we can't do that by ourselves, right? Because it takes the spirit of the living

God to even break us, and if you look, I don't have time to go through it today, but if you look at it, that faith is a gift of God, and repentance is a gift of God because the scripture says that God grants repentance, and faith is a gift of God.

That's conversion. Now keep in mind, don't get confused. Regeneration is always first and foremost before conversion.

Then conversion takes place. Now, this must happen through an act of faith and trust and believing.

Jesus gives Nicodemus this wonderful illustration in verse 14.

If you go back to verse 14, go back to John. He says this, and as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the

Son of Man be lifted up. He's referring to Numbers chapter 21, 5 -9.

Now let's go to Numbers, and I want you to see this very quickly. Chapter 21, this is the example that Jesus has given in Numbers.

Notice in verse 5, and the people spoke against God and against Moses, why have you brought us up out of Egypt to die in the wilderness?

For there is no food or no water, and we loathe this miserable food. Now, so the

Lord Yahweh sent fiery serpents among the people, and they bit the people so that many people of Israel died.

Then the people came to Moses and said, we have sinned because we have spoken against Yahweh and against you.

Pray to Yahweh that he may remove the serpents from us. And Moses prayed for the people like a prophet and a priest here.

And then Yahweh said to Moses, make a fiery serpent and set it on a standard, basically on a pole.

And it will be that everyone who is bitten and looks at it will live. And Moses made a bronze serpent, this is what

Jesus is referring to, set it on the standard, set it on the pole. And it happened that if the serpent bit any man, when he looked to the bronze serpent, he lived.

You know, we've all been bitten by the serpent, haven't we? That's our sin. And we must look to Christ by faith on the pole to be healed in our soul.

And that's what Jesus is referring to in this wonderful illustration in John 3.

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the

Son of Man be lifted up. Now, we can think of that lifted up, lifted up, would mean

Christ's exaltation, which he was exalted after his death and burial, and he was exalted on his resurrection, at his resurrection.

But here, Jesus in context is referring that he would be lifted up on Calvary's cross on a pole, on a tree.

And he became a curse for us as the Lamb of God, taking the sin of the world upon himself as our substitute.

So you see that what Jesus is referring to, basically in short, what

Jesus is telling Nicodemus, you must look to the crucified Savior. He says, the

Son of Man, Jesus said this later, he said the Son of Man came to seek and save the lost. That's his business.

That is his mission, is to come and to save, to save us from what?

Our sin! Our sin. Our sin.

You see, so as we look at our application here, basically we need to ask these questions.

Who do we believe? What do we believe? How do we believe? Well, Scripture gives all the answers.

I don't have enough time to unpack this, but very quickly in conversion, conversion has one coin and has two sides to it.

Those two sides is this, true belief and true repentance. True belief and true repentance.

This is very important. This is conversion. Conversion now. Now we're not talking about regeneration, we're talking about conversion.

Keep in mind that conversion always comes after regeneration. Regeneration precedes conversion.

Now, conversion is told, Jesus, when he began his earthly ministry, John the

Baptist did the same thing. But notice what our Lord, the King himself, what he says in chapter 1 of Mark, verse 14 and 15.

Now after John had been delivered up into custody, basically, John was in prison. Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel of God and saying, the time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is at hand.

Folks, this is what we should be preaching to people. The kingdom of God is at hand. Eternity is before your eyes.

Your life is a vapor and a speck compared to the eternity that awaits you.

But as soon as Jesus came into this world and entered into this world, eternity, the kingdom of God, the kingdom of God is at hand.

Repent, and he says, repent and believe the gospel. Acts chapter 20, verse 20 and 21, the apostle

Paul says, how I did not shrink from declaring to you anything that was profitable and teaching you publicly from house to house, solemnly, solemnly, testifying to both

Jews and the Greeks about repentance toward God and faith in our Lord Jesus Christ. Notice that, repentance toward God and faith in our

Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance toward God means turning from the sin and faith is turning toward God.

Repentance and faith are twin gifts from God, given for salvation. Now, if there is true repentance and true belief, you can make sure there is false repentance and false faith.

This is why the Bible, the word of God calls all of us to examine ourselves, to test ourselves, to make sure, to make our calling and election sure and to see that we are in the faith.

And we always do it by the word of God. Who are we to believe? We believe in the person and works of Christ.

Jesus Christ, Matthew 16, 15 and 16, Jesus has his disciples here. He, Jesus, said to them, to the disciples, who do you say that I am?

Verse 16, Simon Peter answered and said, you are the Christ, the anointed one, the son of the living

God. We must know, we must make sure who we know who Jesus is. But that is not, that is important, but that is not quite enough to enter into the kingdom of God.

You want me to tell you why? The demons know who Christ is. You see that?

Now, but they don't truly repent. Confession and repentance is paramount.

Now, Jesus, yes, it is important that we get the doctrine of Christology, the doctrine of Christ right.

Jesus says, I am the way, the truth and the life, no man comes to the Father but by me. Acts 4, 12, neither is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven whereby men can be saved, only in the name of Christ Jesus.

Believe in Christ alone, sola Christus, sola fide, faith alone, sola grata, by grace alone, to the glory of God alone.

I'm sorry. Repentance, by the way, is not a suggestion, it is a command from God.

Let's keep this in mind. God commands. Acts 17, 30, therefore heaven overlooked.

The times of ignorance, God is now commanding men that, listen to this, everyone everywhere should repent.

Why? I could tell you why. Verse 31, the scripture says, because he has fixed a day, he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness through a man whom he determined having furnished proof to all by raising him from the dead.

Because Christ is alive, he is risen from the dead, he is the judge of the entire earth.

He will judge every single person that has ever lived on this world according to their works.

Now, repentance is commanded by God Almighty, it's not a suggestion. Proverbs 28, 13, he who conceals his transgression will not prosper, but he who confesses and forsakes them will receive compassion.

J .C. Robb put it this way, sin forsaken is one of the best evidence of sin forgiven.

Amen? You hear that? Sin forsaken is one of the best evidence of sin forgiven.

That's important. You have a lot of people talking about confessing their sins and giving up things, but folks,

I'm telling you, we forsake our sins when we turn to the Lord Jesus Christ and we turn away from our sins and from the world.

What about false and true confessions? Well, false repentance, true repentance.

You see that in Peter and Judas, those two apostles, one was genuine, one wasn't. Perfect example of both of these apostles denied our

Lord Jesus Christ. Peter came to true repentance, Judas defected from the faith.

Judas hung himself. Peter was restored to the faith because Christ prayed for him that his faith would not fail.

Judas never came to true repentance, sadly to say he's spending an eternity in hell.

Well, there's much more I could say about that. Basically, godly sorrow leads to salvation, worldly sorrow leads to death.

That's what the Scripture says, right? Peter demonstrated godly sorrow by repenting.

Jesus restored him. Judas demonstrated worldly sorrow by leading him to eternal death and that's exactly what the

Scripture says. Well, what's important here is to believe.

Believe in the gospel. Believe in the gospel. Spurgeon said it like this, if your theology does not change your behavior, it will never change your destiny.

It's important. Let me give you a story about Paul Washer here. He gives a story concerning this change.

A visiting preacher showed up an hour late to church. When he got up to preach, he apologized for being late and he explained that he had a flat tire and when he got out of his car to change it, he was run over by a semi -truck.

Wow! Now, you must know that this man had a neatly pressed suit and well -combed hair and not a single scratch on his body.

What do you think? What do you think, children? Was he telling the truth?

Was he telling the truth? Do you believe that he was run over by a semi -truck? Well, you might say, no, that man is lying.

Well, I think you're right. That man's lying. But what if I told you that he was really sincere?

That he really believed he had been run over by a semi -truck and you might say that that man's absolutely crazy.

And you are right. He would be crazy. That man did not get run over by a semi -truck.

How do we know it? How do we know? Well, we know it because if he had, he would have been changed, right?

He most likely would not be alive. Some kind of change would have taken place and if he had survived, he would have been in the hospital for a very, very long time and he certainly would not be preaching at the church an hour later.

You see what he's saying, beloved? You know that it is just illogical for a person to say that he has had an encounter with the living

God and remained unchanged? A person who has been made right with God through faith in Jesus Christ will have a changed, transformed life.

That's the point. That's the point. That's what repentance does. That's what true repentance does.

It changes us. And by the way, Luther said it this way, it's not only a one -time act, it is a continual act once a person is converted because in sanctification, we have to repent every day.

You know why? As a child of God, you see your sin more in the light of how God sees it.

And you say, Lord, change me. Break me. Mold me. Make me. In the end, use me for your glory.

You see, that's becoming more like Christ and that's what sanctification is. It's becoming more and more like Jesus.

So therefore, the first evidence is true belief is that he's trusting in Christ's death on the cross.

He trusts Christ and Christ alone. And that's because Christ is all you have.

And by the way, Christ is all we need. Christ and Christ alone.

His death on the cross is sufficient. His life is sufficient for the forgiveness of our sins.

And Christ's righteousness is accepted with God. That when we stand before God one day and be judged by His perfect standard, if I am dressed in the robes of righteousness, of Christ's righteousness,

I have nothing to fear. Nothing. Because scripture says, therefore there's no condemnation to those that are in Jesus Christ.

Your life is hidden with Christ in God. He has renounced, the

Christian has renounced, he's repented of self -righteousness, not only of his bad works, but his good works.

Even the Christian, only the Christian sees that even his good works in a sense is dirty before God.

Because everything that he does must be in Jesus and Jesus alone. And Jesus said it in John 15, without me, apart from me, you can do nothing.

We repent of all self -righteousness, confessing that he has no righteousness within himself because all of his righteousness is

Jesus because Jesus is his sanctification. Jesus is his righteousness. Jesus is his all in all.

He agrees that God would be just to punish him for his sins, but yet by faith he clings to Christ.

He leans on Christ and by faith he clings to Christ for his salvation because Christ is his only hope.

Praise God. Well Pastor, you mentioned about the evidence of salvation.

Can I very quickly in conclusion here just give you a list of evidences that neither prove nor disprove one's faith?

I got this from Pastor John MacArthur. Listen to this. Number one, visible morality doesn't prove you're saved.

Intellectual knowledge about God doesn't prove you're saved. The demons do a good job at that. By the way, Tozer says the devil is a better theologian than any of us and still a devil.

And being just good morally isn't going to get people to heaven. Having all the intellectual knowledge of scripture and Judas heard all the sermons of Christ and he still defected from the faith.

Religious involvement. A person could be like, look at Nicodemus. He was at the top of the pile in a sense, but zero with God.

He thought he was ready to go into heaven, but he really wasn't. You could be active in ministry all your life and still be lost.

You know, you can even have conviction of sin as we talked about, but that conviction of sin can be a worldly sorrow and not a godly sorrow.

And there's many people I talk to, my goodness, that thinks they're going to heaven. Immediately you ask people today, hey, are you going to heaven?

Oh yeah, yeah, I'm going to heaven. They can have a false assurance, and many do.

Because one day Jesus said many will stand before him and say, Lord, Lord, we prophesied in your name, we cast out demons in your name, we did all these many wonders in your name, and Jesus will declare unto them,

I never knew you, depart from me you workers of iniquity. And one preacher put it this way, that is the most tragic words that anyone will ever hear.

We don't want to hear that. But Jesus welcomes his own by saying what?

Well done good and faithful servant, enter into the joy of the Lord. You see, it's just not us knowing

God, it's God knowing you. Does he know you? A time of decision, a person has come to an altar call to say the sinner's prayer, all that neither proves nor disproves one's faith.

But let me tell you some things that does prove that one is truly born again. Take note of this, top of the list, he loves

God, he loves Christ. He desires Christ above everything, he loves

God, he loves Christ and he obeys Christ. There's true repentance from sin because there's godly sorrow because he's broken over the sin, like David said,

I have sinned against you and you alone God. Genuinely humility, how about genuine humility to be genuinely humble before God.

How about devotion for God's glory and honor? Everything that we do, whether we eat or drink, we do to the glory of God, everything.

We give thanks in everything. How about thanksgiving, humility?

How about a continual prayer that we love to pray because we trust in the only one that we're dependent on.

We don't depend on our own strength and our own arm of flesh, we depend on God and God is everything.

Continual prayer, humility. How about selfless love? You know, this is reverse of what the world preaches folks.

People tell you love yourself, find yourself, no sir, that will lead you right to hell. Jesus said deny yourself and take up your cross and follow me.

What about separation from the world? Love not the world, all that is in the world is the lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh and the pride of life, is all of the world and the world passes away.

But he that does the will of God abides with forever. God's will, he loves the will of God.

How about this, he has spiritual growth because he loves holiness and he hates sin.

He's obedient and loving God's word and he has a hunger for God's word. I had a guy come up to me in the street here a few weeks back and we was going out to eat and I handed him the gospel of John and he told me, he said,

I can't eat that. He said, I need some money, I'm homeless. I said, man shall not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.

I said, you need to read that my friend. I said that, it's as if what I thought about John and I think it was

Peter, says silver and gold have I none, but have I such as you in the name of Christ I have the gospel, you see.

So he wanted something else because of his flesh. I gave him what he needed and you need to give what people need and that's the gospel.

They may be offended by it, fine. Tell them lovingly, repent or you're going to likewise perish.

That's not your word, that's God's word. What about a transformed life into the likeness of Christ?

Well, we need to always examine ourselves to see whether we're in the faith. Verse 36 of chapter 3,

John the Baptist actually recorded and John the apostle recorded this what

John the Baptist said, he who believes in the Son has eternal life and he who does not obey the

Son will not see life but the wrath of God abides on him. You know, that's black and white, isn't it?

That's the gospel. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved.

We need to understand true belief, true repentance, coming to Christ, what it means to truly be repentant, to truly believe and lean with all of our weight on Jesus Christ.

Amen? This is serious. Let's just all take this into account.

Praise His name. Let's pray. Our Father, how important it is that we understand heavenly things.

We ask now that Lord you would be pleased to commit to us the truth of Thy word to our hearts and that we might find a full assurance, a blessed assurance in your

Son, the Lord Jesus Christ alone and Him alone because mercy triumphs over judgment, all because of the great price that He paid, all because of the cross of the

Lord Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, our substitute, our Savior, our dear Lord that took your wrath on Him so that we can have eternal life.

He took the curse so we can have the blessing. All the riches of heaven is all in Him and how we thank you dear

Lord. We're not worthy but He is. You're worthy and His death becomes our death and His life becomes our life.

Lord, we thank you for this great eternal life that you've given to know

Thee, the only true God in Jesus Christ whom Thou hast sent. We praise you and we thank you and thank you

Father for this time together we had in your word to your glory and honor in Jesus' name.