Your Eternal Destiny

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Excuse me, I almost messed up.
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John 3 verses 1 through 12.
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Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
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This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
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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 the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
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Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sounds, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
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So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
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Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be? Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Truly, truly, I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we have seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
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If I have told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Amen.
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Would you pray with me? Father in heaven, I thank you for this opportunity to come around your word.
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I pray that you would first and foremost, Lord, keep me from error.
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For I am a fallible man, and I am capable of preaching error.
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So for the sake of my name, or for the sake of your name and my conscience in the heart of your people, I pray that you would keep me from that.
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And I pray Lord that you would open up the hearts of your people.
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For Lord, only by your Spirit going into the heart of man will there ever be any true instruction in the word.
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I pray Lord that this word would go not only to their ear, and not only to their mind, but down into their heart and into their very soul.
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And I pray Lord as we consider today the subject of regeneration, what it means to be born again.
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I pray God that those under the sound of my voice who have been born again would be encouraged.
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And those who have not been born again will be challenged today to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
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And it's in his name we pray.
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Amen.
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Yesterday a man walked into a Walmart in El Paso, Texas armed with a semi-automatic rifle and he began to open fire.
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Once his murderous rampage was ended, 20 lives had been taken and 26 were wounded.
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And that was at the last count that I saw.
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Not one of those people awoke yesterday with any idea of what was in store for them.
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They did not know that they would be stepping out of this world and into eternity.
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Today marks the final in a four-part series on our eternal destination.
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This series was given with the intention of reminding us of our eternal destinies and to remind us that when we come to this place, we are here to consider eternal things.
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We are not dealing with the mundane.
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We are not dealing with the inconsequential.
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We are dealing with the realities of eternity.
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A reality that we all must face and a reality that any of us could have to face at any moment.
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This life has an expiration date and after this life a new one will come.
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Are you prepared for the life to come? In our first message four weeks ago, we looked at the fact that there are only two destinations.
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The Bible describes the future for all people as one of only two places.
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There is no third option.
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There is no other place.
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The first is the path of the many and it is gained by what is called the broad road.
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The path is the one where people ignore the warnings of God regarding their sin and they find themselves in eternity in a place of eternal conscious torment.
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A place that we call hell.
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The second is the path of the few.
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This is what the Bible calls the narrow way.
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This way is the one which is prepared by God for those who trust in Christ.
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This person enjoys everlasting peace in the presence of God and this is referred to as heaven.
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Well today, we're going to finalize this series by asking the question what determines our destiny? What determines your eternal destiny? What is the difference between a man or a woman who is fit for hell and a man or a woman who is destined for heaven? We're going to see in this text that the difference is simple.
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Whether or not he is born again.
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Most of us are familiar with that language.
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We have heard the phrase born again.
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Some of us have maybe used the term.
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Some of us maybe have even used it in witnessing.
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Ask somebody have you been born again? Jimmy Carter was president and in 1976 he was the first president on record to be defined as a born-again Christian.
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That that term then became very popular especially for those who lived at or below the Bible Belt.
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But what does it mean? What does it mean to be born again? Why is it essential that a person must be born again? Moreover how can a person know that they have been born again? And even more importantly have you been born again? These are the questions that we are going to address in our message today.
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I appreciate Adam reading the text, but I do invite you to turn back there if you've closed your Bibles.
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We're going to walk through this text in John, and we're going to look at it verse by verse.
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I wish I had three hours to go through the whole chapter, but I don't so I've limited myself to the first 12 verses.
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And even if I get there, I'll be amazed because there's just so much to unpack in this short narrative.
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This is arguably though one of the most famous texts in all of the Bible.
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John 3 certainly is one of the most popular and it contains easily the most famous verse of the Bible which we read for our call to worship this morning.
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John 3 and verse 16.
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This is John the Apostle, the one who identifies himself as the one whom Jesus loved, and his gospel is written differently than the other three Gospels.
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Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the synoptic Gospels.
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They tell a very similar story, a narrative which runs concurrently, but then John comes later and he writes his gospel, and it fills much of the gaps of Jesus's earthly ministry, sharing much of his life that we would not have otherwise known, and several messages that we would not have otherwise heard.
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And one of the things that we know from the beginning of John's gospel is that his intention is to demonstrate the deity of Christ.
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He says that in his opening text.
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In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
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And that, of course, the Word is Jesus, because he later says, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory, the glory of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.
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So we know who the Word is, and John defines Jesus as the Word, and he describes him as one who has all authority.
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In fact, if you were looking at what is it that John is really driving at in his narrative, and really distinguishes his narrative, it's not just that Jesus is divine, but it's that Jesus is all-powerful, and that he is the one in charge.
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Now, I tell you that because when we come to this text, Jesus is visited by a man who himself is a man of authority.
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And so we will see very quickly that this man of learning has his mind turned upside down by he who is truth himself.
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So let's look at the initial interaction here in verse 1.
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It says, now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
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This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
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Well, we're going to look just at those two verses for just a moment.
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I want you to see first the person, then we're going to look at the occasion, and then we're going to look at the confession.
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That's all in these two verses.
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First the person.
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Nicodemus is a man who is only seen in John's Gospel.
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His name doesn't come up in any other book of the Bible.
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He is seen here as an inquirer.
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He comes to Jesus to talk to Jesus, to ask questions of Jesus.
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But later in this book, in chapter 7, and then even later in chapter 19, he seems to be a believer.
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He goes from an inquirer to a believer, which is an amazing reality because he is called a Pharisee.
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Pharisees were the religious elite, and they were the ones against whom Jesus often had the most problem.
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Remember Matthew 23, that famous chapter where Jesus goes on and on, Wall unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! And he says it over and over and over.
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So some of the greatest enemies of Jesus' day were these men called Pharisees.
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They were the religious rulers.
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They were the elite, and Nicodemus is called a ruler.
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Here, it's called a ruler of the Jews.
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Now that might just be a reference to his being a Pharisee, but it already says he was a Pharisee.
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So I think that the reason why it says that he was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews, is I think he was probably a member of what was known as the Sanhedrin.
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The Sanhedrin was a council of Jewish leaders who were officially the legal court of the Jewish nation.
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And so they were the ones who determined the law of the Jews and gave their rulings.
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And so he would have been defined as a ruler.
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So here is this man who has come to Jesus.
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He is one who is religiously taught, he is religiously educated, and he has social position.
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He is a ruler.
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He's a man in charge.
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He's a man with a following.
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He's a man who knew his stuff and people respected him for it.
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And we look at the occasion.
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It says he came to Jesus by night.
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Well, many have taken the opportunity to ascribe motivations for Nicodemus and why he came at night.
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Some people suggest that he came at night so that he wouldn't be seen under the cover of darkness, as it were, sort of hiding, so that the other Pharisees wouldn't know that he had come.
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Other people think that he came at night so as to have a private audience with Jesus.
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If you wanted to have an audience with Jesus during the day, that would be very difficult because so many people were around him seeking healing and everything else.
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So at night, Jesus would retire to a private place.
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And so the idea is that he came to him by night simply to have a private audience with Jesus.
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Another argument is that the word night here is meant to be taken metaphorically, and that is to say that Nicodemus, because of the darkness of his heart, was being exposed to the light of Christ.
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I don't dig metaphoric interpretations, especially in narratives, so I don't ascribe to that one.
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But I think either of the other two are reasonable.
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I like to think he came for a private audience, but it may have been that he came to hide.
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You know, I'll leave that to you to decide your ascribing of motivations to Nicodemus.
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But the point is this, he came.
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He came to Christ, and he came to Christ because Christ had the answers that he needed.
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And this is the confession that he makes.
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Rabbi, that was a sign of respect.
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Rabbi, even though Jesus was not a formally taught rabbi, that's an important thing.
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Jesus was one who was teaching at the age of 12.
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He was one who was a master because he was God in the flesh.
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But yet, though not a formally trained, he identifies him as teacher, rabbi.
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We know, and the we here could be the Pharisees, because of course he represents the Pharisees, but it could be the Jewish people.
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Because again, he's a ruler of the Jews, so it could be he's talking for the Jewish people.
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He says, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do the things that you do unless God be with him.
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So this is the confession.
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Nicodemus does believe, and he represents a people who at least recognize that Jesus is from God.
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Now, I want you to notice something.
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Nicodemus has not yet asked a question.
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Nicodemus has said nothing about the kingdom of God.
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And he has said nothing about conversion, or sin, or the need for salvation.
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All he has said is, we know that you are a teacher come from God, for no one can do the things that you do unless God be with him.
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I say notice that because of Jesus's response.
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Jesus responds in an odd way in this conversation.
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If you think about the natural flow of conversation.
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If I came to you and gave you a word of respect, and said that I know about you, and your history, and your abilities, and you turn to me and say, truly, truly, I say to you, unless a man be born again, he shall not see the kingdom of God.
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I might think that's a strange response.
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But here's the thing you have to remember.
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Jesus knew Nicodemus's heart.
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And I believe Jesus knew exactly what was on Nicodemus's mind.
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Nicodemus came seeking what he knew only Jesus had, and that was the truth.
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And Jesus knew the truth he needed.
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Unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God.
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And here we have that great phrase, born again.
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Jesus begins with the emphatic, amen, amen.
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That is the word, truly, truly, or in King James, verily, verily.
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Basically just means, this is the truth and listen to it.
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Anytime you see a word that is repeated, that means there's emphasis being added, and Jesus is saying, emphatically, unless one is born again.
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And what we have there is what I call a universal prohibition.
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Jesus is saying, unless one is this, then he will not receive that.
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Give you an example, this week, as many of you know, my family and I will be going away for a while, and we're going to first visit my son in San Antonio to see him graduate from, I know everybody's tired of hearing me talk about it, but I'm so excited to go see him graduate from boot camp.
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And we have been told that Cody had to turn in our names and our identification to be able to get on base.
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And this is what we were told, unless we have your name and identification, you cannot get on base.
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That's a universal prohibition.
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Unless you meet this qualification, you will not get to this location.
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That's what Jesus is saying.
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Unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God.
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Now I want to break down that, the idea of what it means to be born again for a moment, because again, like I said, I could preach on this for hours, but I want to keep my time together here.
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I want to focus on this idea of being born again.
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Most of us take the word born again to mean born a second time.
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And that's how Nicodemus takes it, because in a moment he's going to say, can I go back and be born of my mother again? But actually the word anothen is the Greek here.
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It actually means from above.
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I can prove that by going, even just John's gospel, we see this.
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Jesus said, he who comes from above is above all.
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That's the word anothen.
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John 19 11 You would have no authority over me unless it be given to you from above.
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That again is anothen.
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James uses the same term, and he says every gift, every good and perfect gift is from above.
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Even when it talked about the the temple where the veil was ripped from the top to the bottom, that phrase anothen is from top to bottom or from above to below.
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And so this term, born again, could be rightly translated born from above.
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In terms of theology, we call this act of rebirth, regeneration.
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We are born dead spiritually.
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We come into this world D.O.A.
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Spiritually dead on arrival, and we have to be born spiritually and Supernaturally Before we can ever receive the things of God.
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Without the rebirth we cannot see the kingdom of God.
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And I want to focus on the word see here for just a moment because the Bible compares the lost person to a blind man.
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2nd Corinthians 4 4 says the God of this world, that is Satan, has blinded the minds of unbelievers.
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You ever try to talk to an unbeliever about their sin and about God? It's like they're holding their hands over their eyes and say I don't want to see.
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I don't want to see.
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Or like the little five-year-old who sticks his fingers in his ear and goes la la la la la I don't want to see it.
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I don't want to hear it.
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I don't want anything to do with it.
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I don't want it.
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You see the thing is it's blindness, but it's willing blindness.
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It's willful blindness.
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As has been rightly said, no one is so blind as the person who does not want to see.
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The new birth opens the eyes so that you can see what you could not see before.
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It exposes the soul and gives birth to the spirit to where you can receive what you could not receive before.
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You were at enmity or war with God, and he made you alive with Christ.
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That's regeneration.
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The new birth comes with new eyes, and now I can see the kingdom that I couldn't see before.
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Therefore we are told unless you're born again, you can't see it.
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Well, then we have Nicodemus's response.
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Verse four.
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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? I use this when I'm teaching Bible study.
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The last eight weeks we've actually looked at this text at one point when I said here's an example of crass literalism.
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It's important that we read the Bible literally, but it is it's very important that we do not impose crass literalism to the text.
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And that happens here.
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Nicodemus hears Jesus say you must be born again, and his response is, what do you mean? I got to go back to my mom and and go back into her womb and and she's got to give birth to me again? That is the most wooden and frankly the most ridiculous interpretation of Jesus's words that anyone could give.
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Jesus is expressing a spiritual reality and Nicodemus is trying to find a way to fit that into the earthly world.
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And those two are not compatible in this sense.
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And this and by the way, this is one of the ways sin blinds us.
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Sin causes us to think and believe the most ridiculous things.
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We have something and this is just a note for your mind if you want to put this in your mind.
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We have something called the noetic effect of sin.
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Not Noah like the flood, but N-O-E-T-I-C, noetic.
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It means that our brain is actually affected by sin.
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And that we come up with some of the most ridiculous, some of the most asinine thoughts because of sin.
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You ever wonder why people come up with stuff they come up with? It's because of sin.
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And we're corrupted.
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Therefore, we don't often think logically or rationally about a subject.
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And Nicodemus is giving an irrational response.
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What do you want me to do? Go up in my mother's womb? Be born again? Is that what you're talking about? Of course, that's not what he's talking about.
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But Jesus is willing to expound and so in verse 5 he expounds.
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Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
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That which is born of flesh is flesh and that which is born of spirit is spirit.
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Do not marvel that I say to you, you must be born again.
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The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
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So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
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Now, I have to say this.
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There are a few verses that have caused so much contention and consternation as verse 5 in the history of the church.
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Because Jesus changes his language.
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The first time he says, unless a man is born again.
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This time he says, unless a man is born of water and the Spirit.
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And many have attributed the water here to the water of baptism.
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Therefore, they would conclude that baptism is how a person is born again.
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There are entire denominations that believe you are not born again until you are baptized or that baptism causes regeneration.
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I believe that would conflict with Scripture.
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Because Scripture would, because that would make salvation by works.
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I do not believe that a person must be baptized to be saved.
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However, I want to quickly address this.
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I do believe at the time of Christ and even now when a person believes they should be baptized.
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So don't take for a second that I'm decrying baptism.
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I'm simply saying that the act of baptism does not confer upon you new birth.
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That is a belief called sacerdotalism.
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The idea that you have these sacraments that have the capacity to confer upon someone the grace of God.
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And of course the grace of regeneration comes through baptism.
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That's what's taught in Roman Catholic theology.
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It's also similar to what's taught in some Lutheran theologies.
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But Lutherans sort of get around it by still requiring faith.
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They just believe regeneration comes at baptism, and it's sort of an odd view.
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They believe that you're regenerated and years later you come to faith, and I don't think that's true.
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I think regeneration causes faith immediately or at least a short time thereafter.
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So somebody says well, what is it then? If Jesus is saying less one's born of water, if he's not talking about baptism, what is he talking about? Well, some people have come up with some what I say, what I call creative ways of interpreting this.
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And I'm not big on creative interpretation, but I'll give you one.
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One way that some people try to interpret this is to say that the water is referring to physical birth because of water breaking in birth.
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And they go to verse 6 and they say well verse 6 says that which is born of flesh is flesh, that which is born of spirit of spirit.
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Therefore the water is the physical birth and the spirit is the spiritual birth.
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And while I don't say that's impossible, it's certainly not one that I would accept only because of this.
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It doesn't really fit with the use of that language.
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There's nowhere else in the Bible where physical birth is called being born of water.
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So using that as an interpretation, you don't really have a leg to stand.
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There's no extra biblical literature.
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There's no biblical literature.
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There's nothing.
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So if Jesus used the phrase, it's unique to him.
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And if that's what he meant, it's really odd because it just doesn't seem to fit.
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However, I would like to propose another way of understanding this text, the way that I understand it.
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And I look at the context of Jesus speaking to an Old Testament scholar.
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The Old Testament scholar is Nicodemus.
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Nicodemus would have been very familiar with the language of the prophets.
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And when the prophets spoke of regeneration or the new birth, they used the language of being washed with water from heaven.
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And so there is a spiritual cleansing which comes along with the act of regeneration.
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And later in Titus, we see this because he talks about the washing of regeneration.
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He's not talking about water.
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He's talking about spiritual cleansing.
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But I'll let you look at one verse.
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If you'll turn with me to Ezekiel 36, and this is an important verse just to remember anyway, because this is the passage that reminds us that God takes out the heart of stone and gives us a heart of flesh.
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But turn over to Ezekiel 36.
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We're going to look at verses 25 and 26.
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This is Ezekiel prophesying and speaking of the new birth.
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He says in verse 25, I will sprinkle, this is God speaking, through the prophet, I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean from all your uncleanliness, and from all your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you, and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh, and will give you a heart of flesh.
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The water in that verse is a spiritual cleansing.
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This is not talking about rain or any type of ceremonial washing.
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This is God promising to wash with water and cleanse the soul and remove the heart of stone and replace it with the heart of flesh.
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This is the prophetic word about regeneration.
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This is prophetic language for being born again.
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Therefore, Jesus, several hundred years later, speaking to an Old Testament scholar, He says, unless you're born of water in the spirit.
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Why would he use that term? Because he's pointing back to Ezekiel's prophecy.
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He's pointing back to the promise of Ezekiel here that you're going to be washed, and you're going to be reborn.
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Therefore, the water and the spirit here are both spiritual realities, not physical realities.
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Baptism does coincide with this in a demonstrative way.
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When you are baptized, it's the demonstration of what has happened internally.
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Therefore, baptism does play a part, but not in the instrumental cause, but in the demonstrative purpose.
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You guys with me? Okay, so there is that.
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Now, I want to just go back to John 3, if we can.
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He says, unless one is born of water in the spirit.
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And then, by the way, the word and there, I don't want to get too much into this language thing.
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That word and can even be a word of equation rather than a word of addition.
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We usually say and is an additional word, but the word chi and the Greek can also mean equivalency.
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So it could be that water and the spirit are being equated there.
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The water and the spirit are the same thing that's doing the work, but I don't want to get too far in the weeds with that.
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But basically, if it was taken that way, Jesus would be saying, unless one is born of water, even the spirit.
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Equating the work of the spiritual washing with the work of the spirit, but that's a conversation for another time.
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Let's move on to the next part.
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He repeats the necessity of the new birth in verse 7 and then in verse 8, he makes a statement about the work of the spirit.
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He compares the spirit to the wind and he says we cannot know where it comes from or where it goes, but what we can do is we can see its effects.
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You ever been out standing in the wind? You can't see where it's coming from.
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You can't see where it's going, but you can see the leaves blow away.
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You can see the trees shake back and forth.
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You can see wind blow, but you're not seeing the wind.
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You're seeing the effect.
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Well, how's that compared to the Spirit's work? Well, here's why Jesus said that.
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We cannot see someone be born again.
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We cannot cause someone to be born again, but we can recognize when someone has been born again.
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We can't make it happen.
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By the way, I can't make you be born again, and you can't give birth to yourself.
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You didn't give birth to yourself the first time.
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Neither do you give birth to yourself the second time.
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God gives birth to you, and then we recognize it because it's followed by a response of faith.
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And here's a theological insight that every one of you need to get.
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And by the way, this is one of the unique things about reformed theology.
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If you're not reformed, you don't even know what that means.
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We'll talk about it later.
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But if you are reformed, and you're here, and you're part of this church, one of the things you need to understand theologically is this.
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Faith is the result of regeneration, not the cause.
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We believe because we've been born again.
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We don't believe to get born again.
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Because we can't believe unless God changes our heart.
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He said, where do you get that? John 6 65.
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Jesus is speaking.
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He says, no one can come to me unless the Father in heaven grants it to him.
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No one can come unless God does something.
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What does God have to do? God has to take out your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh.
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Ephesians 2 4.
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God being rich in mercy because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, made us alive.
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God takes the dead person, makes them alive, and then they believe.
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Regeneration is a sovereign work of God.
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Faith is the result, not the cause.
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In fact, I'll have one other verse to show you, if you'll hold your place in John.
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Turn over to James.
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I love this passage.
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I just got finished preaching through James at set three, and I spent a lot of time on this verse.
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James 1 in verse 17 and 18.
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He says, every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
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Now verse 18.
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Of His own will, that's God, of God's own will, He brought us forth.
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That's another word for regeneration or being born again.
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He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
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Notice that it was God's will that gave us new birth.
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It was God's will, of His own will, He brought us forth.
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Of His own will, He birthed you.
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Not your will.
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In fact, John 1 says that.
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Who were born not of the flesh, not of the will of man, but of God.
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The new birth is a work of God.
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And notice, it's God's will, not our will.
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People often get caught up in the idea of free will.
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I believe in free will.
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I believe in God's free will.
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I believe God has the freedom to choose.
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And God can and does.
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God has the freedom to choose.
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Well, I don't like that.
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I want my own freedom.
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Who are you, old man, to answer back to God? We do not cooperate with God to become born again.
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We are the recipients of God's grace.
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But notice though, I want to show you this.
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It's very important here in James.
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God doesn't give us new birth without the use of means.
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Because notice He says this, of His own will, God's will, He brought us forth, new birth, by the Word of Truth.
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You see, that's how someone is born again.
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They hear the Word of God, the Spirit comes into them, gives them life, and they believe it.
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It's not independent of the Word.
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It's in conjunction with the Word.
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This is why we go preach.
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This is why we go evangelize.
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This is why we hand out tracts.
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Because we believe God uses the Word, in conjunction with the Spirit, to bring about the new birth.
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By the Word of Truth.
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Think about Romans 10, how then will they call on Him whom they have not believed, and how are they to believe in Him whom they have never heard, and how are they to hear without someone preaching to them? Preaching the gospel is necessary.
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God doesn't just go up and say, you and not you, you and not you, and you and not you.
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God puts you in a position to hear the Word.
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You're here this morning because God brought you here.
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I came by my own free will.
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Yes, but so many things could have kept you, but yet you're here.
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God's will has brought you here, and His Word is being proclaimed to you.
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And when that Word is proclaimed, if God sees fit to open up your dead heart, give you a heart of flesh, you will respond just like Nicodemus, not Nicodemus, just like Lazarus in the tomb.
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When Lazarus was in the tomb, he was dead, y'all.
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He was dead.
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He was D-E-D.
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He was very dead.
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Four days dead.
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By now he stinketh.
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That was what his sister said.
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Remove the stone from away from the tomb.
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Lazarus, come forth.
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Dead men can't respond.
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God gives resurrection, and a dead man can respond.
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The dead spiritually cannot respond.
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God gives resurrection to the soul, new birth, and the dead can live.
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And the life that is lived is lived in Christ, responding in faith.
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Nicodemus asked, how can these things be? That's a great question.
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Because it really is.
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I mean, we end, how can these things be? But I like Jesus' answer even better than Nicodemus' question.
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Jesus said, are you the teacher of Israel, and yet you do not understand these things? Basically, he just said, you have ignorance that is inexcusable.
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You are the teacher of Israel, which I'm not quite sure why he used the definite article there, except that he was a Pharisee, but he may have had a special teaching position, and why he said, you're the teacher of Israel.
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And he said, you don't know this, which means he should have.
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And he said, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and bear witness to what we've seen, but you do not receive our testimony.
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If I told you earthly things and you do not believe, how can you believe if I tell you heavenly things? How can someone believe if they're told heavenly things? They can't, unless they be born again.
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That's the answer to the question.
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How can you believe if you've been told heavenly things? You can't, unless you're born again.
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You can't see the kingdom, unless you're born again.
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You can't enter the kingdom, unless you're born again.
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You can't receive and believe the heavenly things, unless you be born again.
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So my question to you today, have you been born again? We began with the question, what determines our destiny? The answer, are you born again? Unless you be born again, you will not see the kingdom of heaven.
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Unless you were born again, you will not enter the kingdom of heaven.
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People often lament, oh, the Bible's too hard to understand.
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Not this part.
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And always remember this, it's not the parts of the Bible that are hard to understand, it's the parts that are easy to understand, that really get us.
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And this is one of them.
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This is not hard to understand.
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It's just hard to accept.
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There are only two destinations.
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There are only two humanities.
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Those who have been born once, and those who have been born twice.
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And a man born once will die twice.
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He'll die in the flesh, and then he will go to hell, to live an eternal death.
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But the man born twice will only die once.
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And he will live forever with the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
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The ultimate question anyone should ever know the answer to, have I been born again? How can you know? Can you know? I believe you can.
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A few questions to ask yourself.
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Do you love Jesus? Do you hate sin? Do you desire repentance daily? And has Christ changed your life? Those are all questions that a regenerate person should be able to answer in the affirmative, and be able to explain how and why he's changed my life.
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But some of you may be asking this, and I'm going to draw to a close with this question.
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How can I? If I haven't been born again, how could, how can I be? And here's the thing.
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We can't manipulate your new birth.
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We can't lower the lights, and pump fog, and bring the music up, and give birth.
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To your soul.
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And thankfully, we're not called to do so.
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We are called to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and to command you to repent, and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.
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So I'll say this to you, what the Bible says.
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If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus Christ, and you believe in your heart God has raised him from the dead, you will be saved.
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You will be saved.
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Because the only way you're going to do that, is if you be born again.
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Let's pray.
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Father, I thank you for your word.
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I thank you for this opportunity to preach it.
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May God, God, may you let this word sink down into our hearts, and may it change our lives.
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Lord, for the believer that we understand even more what it means to be regenerated, and for those who are not yet regenerated, Lord, that today might be the day that you give them the gift of life, and they come to you in faith.
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Lord, we know that this is a miracle work that only you can do.
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We ask you to do it in Jesus' name.