Sunday English Service – 27 JUN 21

Transcript

The greatest blessing that you have is your salvation. It the greatest treasure that you have, as a believer. And we have been looking at the blessings of salvation. Salvation is like one big package within which, there are several individual blessings. And we have been unwrapping that package, and looking at each blessing within salvation, or what we get as part of salvation. For example, we’ve seen what a great blessing, simply being forgiven is — the fact that we are forgiven, and we are cleansed. What an amazing blessing that is.

Last week, we saw what a great blessing it is to be justified, to be counted righteous, declared righteous, to be made righteous in the sight of God. And similarly, this week also we’re going to look at another blessing. Before I tell you about it, let me just say a quick word as to why I’m talking about this, in a time like this. I think in times like these, it is very important to keep our focus on the blessings that we have. Because naturally our focus will tend to go to what we don’t have, what we may have lost, what has been affected, what has changed. That is what the whole world is thinking about. At times like these, as Christians, as believers, we have to guard our thinking. One of the ways to do that is to focus on what we have, all the blessings we have received from God, and the greatest of it is this amazing thing called “salvation”, within which there are several blessings. That’s why I’m asking you to focus on this. I’m asking you to listen to this; I’m asking you to look into this with me because I believe that as you focus on what you do have, you will get a certain confidence in your heart, that the God who has given you this great salvation will continue to give you and meet your other needs in your life. I believe that as you focus on things like this that you will get a greater hope. In this hopeless world, you will have a source of hope, you will have something to look to and be encouraged by. And thanksgiving, that’s another important thing that we get, I think, as a result of focusing on what we do have and that’s why I’m focusing on this, and that’s why I’m specifically focusing on these very foundational and basic spiritual blessings that we get in salvation, right.

We have, so far, looked at how we’re forgiven, we’re cleansed, and we’re justified and what an amazing thing that is. See, these things, no matter what has happened in the world the last year, no matter what may happen, nothing can touch these things, right. That’s why we are looking at rock solid blessings like this, and today, let’s look at one more. Let’s look at another specific blessing of salvation, spiritual blessing of salvation, and that is that we’re born again, to use the simple expression: “born again”, right. We’re used to using that expression. Let me use another word to describe it: “regeneration”. Now, that’s a little more technical, but it is a connected word – regeneration. To begin again, born again, born a new, the new birth. Several terms like this, we use. And today, I want you to look at this, and consider what this means. And what a great blessing this is.

Now, let me just say a word of clarification before we move forward. Sometimes we use the word “born again” to summarize the entire salvation experience, right. We kind of use that term as an all-inclusive word that talks about salvation as a whole. Now, I understand that, and we can use it like that but today, we’re going to look at it, not as a summary of salvation in its entirety, we’re looking at this term “born again”, or regeneration, born anew, new birth, as a specific blessing, within the broader salvation, right. We’re looking at it as one specific blessing among the broader salvation package. See, sometimes we use terms in a certain way but when you come to the Bible, you find that it has a certain specific emphasis. And that’s what this term is like, “born again”, which has become a catch phrase – we use it left and right. Born again, born again; you know as Christians, we’re used to that phrase, that term. But in the Bible, we fail to realize that it has a specific meaning, a specific emphasis, and that’s what I want to point out today. We’re not talking about the general, all-inclusive meaning we attach to it but the specific emphasis that the Bible lays to it. Let’s begin.

How important, how crucial is this? I want to begin there. How crucial is this topic because I imagine some of you may go, “Born again”, you know, “Yeah, we’re born again; so, what? Is this necessary? Is this important?” Well, let me show you how important it is – John, chapter 3. And these are the words of Jesus that tell us how important, how crucial this matter is. The context here is Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, we’re told a Pharisee, one of the leaders among the Pharisees, comes to Jesus by night, and he’s trying to start a conversation. And let’s pick up from Nicodemus, trying to start a conversation, in verse 2. John 3, verse 2: 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 things, that You do unless God is with him”. Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. You read the Bible, and you’ve got to stop and think. It’s a little strange, this conversation here, because Nicodemus comes and he starts out by praising Jesus, really, you know, complimenting Jesus, really praising Him. And he’s saying, “No one can do this, the signs that you do, the miracles you do, you must be a teacher from God”. Nicodemus might have expected Jesus to say, “Well, I appreciate your acknowledgement, thank you very much”, but instead, Jesus completely disregards the compliment, and says, “Forget about that. I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God”. How’s that for a reply? 

Nicodemus didn’t come asking for the importance of born again or the meaning of born again or the meaning of the new birth or nothing. Jesus just throws the topic onto him. And so, if I’m throwing the topic on to you, I don’t feel bad about it because this is very important. Jesus says, “Unless one is born again you cannot see the kingdom of God; you cannot see it. In verse 5, He says, “Most assuredly”, Jesus says, “Most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”. In verse 3, He says, “Unless one is born again you cannot see the kingdom”; in verse 5, He says, “Unless one is born of the Spirit” — basically the same explanation — “You cannot enter the kingdom of God”. You can’t see, you can’t enter, you can’t have the kingdom of God, God’s kingdom. That’s intimately connected to salvation.

What happens in salvation? We enter God’s kingdom. Or you may say it like this, the kingdom of God comes within us. Right. The kingdom of God is within the saved person. God becomes our king when we get saved, right. Our Lord, we enter His rule, His reign. At least, He begins to rule and reign in our life, and we have the hope that one day, not only within us, but all around us and all outside us, the entire world, the heavens, and the earth, will be ruled by only One King. And God is that King – kingdom of God.

So, this is very closely connected to salvation, and Jesus is saying, if you don’t have this, “born again” thing, you can’t even enter it, you can’t even see it. Which means we can say without being born again, there is no salvation; without being born again, the person is not saved. If there is no regeneration or this “born again” thing happening in a person, they have nothing, no salvation, no nothing, no kingdom, no hope of heaven, no nothing. How important is this? This is extremely important; this is crucial. So, I don’t mind teaching this, preaching on this. Even though some people may not view it as very practical. What do you mean by practical? I think this is heavily practical because without it, you get nothing. This is foundational, right. Yeah, it may not be, you know, practical, the way we think about it, but it is foundational. And if you get the foundation right, you can get the practical right; if you get the foundation wrong, you get everything wrong. We’re talking about a foundational truth. Without this, you can’t see or enter God’s kingdom. Are you born again? Every true believer of the Lord Jesus Christ is born again. Are you born again? If you don’t know what that means, listen, we’re going to tell you what it means. We’re going to tell you how to even know how to ascertain for sure whether you’re born again. Those of you who say, “Yeah, I know what it means, and I know I’m born again”, well, you listen because this is something amazing. And as you’re reminded about this great truth, your heart will rejoice. So, let’s begin. This is vital, crucial, so let’s begin to see what this means. What does “born again” mean? We throw it left hand right, we use it, but what does it mean? What does “new birth” mean?

Now, let me begin by clarifying what it does not mean, because sometimes there are misconceptions about this. It does not mean a few things and let me say that and then I’ll say what it means, right. Being born again, or reborn, or however, the new birth, or regeneration, it does not mean that you belong to a certain group of Christians. Sometimes, in parts of the world where Christianity is the main religion, or there are many Christians, you know, this term “born again” gets attached to some group, you know. You think, here’s one group of Christians, here’s another group, another denomination, and here’s this “born again” bunch. This group. So, everybody in that group, they think is born again. No, that’s not the meaning. People use it in that way and attach that kind of meaning to it and use it like that, but in the Bible, it does not mean that, you see.

Another thing “born again” does not mean is, it does not talk about some kind of externals – a certain dress or jargon, language, methods, practices that are associated with some group. People see that and they say again, “This is born again”. Another thing it does not mean, and this is significant; listen to this. Born again does not simply mean that you have undergone a moral reformation. New birth is not just a moral reformation. What’s a moral reformation? Before, you know, morally, you’re not so good but slowly you changed over time and got rid of some of the bad habits and became better, and, you know, you have reformed, or somebody has reformed. Just because somebody is reformed, doesn’t mean they’re born again. In any case, yeah, there is a connection between being born again, and reforming or transforming. There is a connection. A truly born-again person will undergo transformation, reformation, improvement; all that is true. So, this leads to that. The born-again experience leads to moral transformation, reformation. You may say moral transformation is a fruit of being born again. But it’s different. Here’s the fruit — moral transformation — but here’s the root: the born again experience. So, it’s different, is what I’m trying to say. It’s not the same and furthermore, just because somebody seems to be morally reformed, does not mean they’re born again. There are people in the world who have gotten some, you know, through worldly methods, worldly wisdom, they’ve gotten rid of some of their bad habits, things that have been holding them back, and they are morally reformed and transformed to a certain extent, their lives have gotten better. It doesn’t mean all of them are born again. No, this is different; that is different. So, being born again is not just having a moral reformation.

Another thing born again is not, it’s not just living a religious life. It’s not just being very religious. The classic example for this is Nicodemus. Nicodemus was all these things. I mean, he belonged to the elite group, the Pharisees, and he was a leader in that group. And he followed all kinds of rules and regulations. When I talk about being religious, Nicodemus was extremely religious. He was one of the most religious people of his day. He probably read the Old Testament, again and again, probably memorized vast portions of it. He probably prayed, many, many times, fasted regularly. He did all the things that you associate with religious people, right. He was one of the best religious people there was, that day. But Jesus looked at him and said, “You must be born again; your religion is not enough”. All your religiosity, your devotion, not enough. Born again is something else, it’s different. Being born again will lead you into the right kind of devotion or religion, even, you may say. Today, people think religion is a bad word, but it used to be a good word, you know; the right kind of religion. Being born again will lead you to the right kind of devotion. Yes, but it’s not the same. And just because somebody seems to be very religious, very devoted to God, doesn’t mean they’re born again; it’s different.

Let me tell you another thing born again is not. Born again is not what we do to get born again. Let me put it like this. Born again is not us doing something, in order to receive salvation. Now, the reason I say this is, sometimes if you ask people, “Are you born again?” They’ll just say, “Yeah, I received Jesus in my heart. I believed in Jesus, I confess Jesus as Lord, I started following Jesus”. If you notice their answer, everything in their answer, will be about what they did. Yeah, I did this, I received Jesus, I confess Jesus, I asked Him into my heart, I am following, I’m doing this. You see, they’re attaching born again to what they did, to receive the salvation experience, to receive salvation. But that’s not what being born again is about. I’ll show you, born again, that term, “new birth”, “born again”, regenerated, has to do with what God has done for us, not what we did. Right, that’s enough on what it’s not. Now let’s go to what it is.

What is salvation? I mean, what is the new birth, not what is salvation. Salvation is this humongous thing within which there are several specific blessings. One of them being born again or new birth; this experience. What is this? What is this? What does this mean? Now, to explain what it is, what it means, let me give you three very important pictures, that the Bible uses to teach this truth. You see, the Bible teaches this truth of being regenerated, born again, using three very important pictures. Bible often uses pictures to teach truth. I’ll tell you the pictures and then we’ll read at least one passage on each.

One picture is birth. It comes right in that term, “born again”, right, being born. The picture of birth, being born. That’s a picture. You’ve got to picture it. You’ve got to visualize it. Don’t just listen to that word, “born again”. We are so used to listening to the word that it just loses its meaning almost, but I want you to picture that because it’s a picture: born, being born, right. Birth is a picture, and the Bible teaches that every true believer is born of God, experiences a rebirth, is born again.

Another picture is the picture of creation. Creation. Just take a moment, visualize that: creation. Something is being created. Think about Genesis 1, God creates the heavens of the earth, and the Bible teaches that God creates or recreates or newly creates, every believer. It’s a picture; you’ve got to think, you’ve got to visualize it.

Thirdly, third picture, is resurrection. Resurrection. Now, here the picture is different. It’s not being born, it’s not being created, it’s a dead person being raised to life, dead person being raised to life, like somebody like Lazarus, right. So, with these three pictures in mind, you know, the Bible teaches again, that every true believer is raised to life, is raised from the dead. These three pictures that the Bible teaches about every believer. The Bible says is true of every believer, every believer has experienced a birth, a creation, a resurrection. I’ll show you that. And looking at these pictures and thinking about these pictures, we’ll come up with three truths about what being born again means; what is new birth, right. So, let’s look at these pictures; let me read one passage on each picture.

Let’s look at the picture of birth; being born again. That’s right here in John 3, right. The important passage, Jesus talking to Nicodemus. Let’s pick it up from Jesus’ words in verse 3; let’s read from verse 3 until verse 8. And when I read, I want you to listen for that word: born. Born. And every time you hear it, I want you to picture it. Let’s read, John 3, verse 3. Jesus answered and said to him, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Nicodemus 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?” 

We look at Nicodemus’ answer and say, you know, this guy doesn’t know anything. I know better than him. We may know better than him, but one thing we don’t do as good as him, is visualize being born. See, like I said, we hear this term “born again”, born again, born again, so much, it has lost its basic meaning also. We don’t even think about its basic meaning, being born. Nicodemus, on the other hand, he may not know what it meant at the time, but for one thing is sure, he is visualizing the birth process. He is actually visualizing that being born. That’s why it’s such a shock to him when Jesus’s answer is Man is born again. He says, “How can a man be born a second time? How can I enter a mother’s womb a second time? What are you talking about? He’s taking Jesus’s words, literally, and that you may say is wrong, is a mistake but at least he’s taking Jesus’s Word seriously.

Problem with us is, we claim understanding, but we don’t take it seriously. Born again, has lost its shock value to us. Born again, has lost its extreme value to us. It had that value to Nicodemus, when Jesus said, “You must be born again”, Nicodemus couldn’t believe it. How can you be born again? What are you talking about because he’s actually thinking about being born? That picture. I want you to think about that picture. Let’s continue reading. Jesus begins to clarify. Let’s see how He clarifies: “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God”. So, He explains a little bit. Before this, He just said, “Born again”. Now, He says, “Unless one is born of water and the Spirit”. The important thing is the Spirit there. The Spirit was the Holy Spirit – unless you’re born of the Holy Spirit, you can’t enter the kingdom of God. So, He explains, clarifies, but it doesn’t leave this picture of being born, does He? Jesus doesn’t let go of that; He keeps using that. Look at verse 6: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” He clarifies some more. He’s saying, you know, if you’re born of flesh that is flesh, but I’m talking about, born of the Spirit, the Holy Spirit. If the Holy Spirit gives birth to you, then that’s a spiritual birth. So, He clarifies that it’s spiritual, but still He doesn’t give up that “born”, that word, born, does He? He says, “born of the flesh, born of the Spirit”.

Verse 7: “Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again’”. I would; I might have said to Jesus, “Jesus, would You stop using that term? It’s confusing me”. Born, born, born, He keeps using it, even though He explains and clarifies, He insists on this term, born, born, born, born again, born again, born again. “You must be born again”. Verse 8: “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit.” He never lets go of that even though it is confusing to Nicodemus, He doesn’t let go of that picture, that metaphor of being born, reborn again. Let that picture be in your mind.

Now, let’s go to the other picture: creation; creation. 2nd Corinthians 5:17, Paul says, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation”, right. Paul basically says, whatever Jesus says in the negative, he says in the positive. Jesus says, “Unless you’re born again, you can’t enter”. Paul says, “If anyone is in Christ, they are a new creation”; a new creation. Now, I want you to think about creation; think about Genesis 1, think about God creating the heavens and the earth. He created something that was not there. And then, think about the end of the Bible where God is going to create a new creation, a new heaven, and the new earth; He’s going to do away with the old and make a brand-new heaven and new earth. And in the middle, Paul says, “If you’re in Christ, right now, you are already a new creation”. Even before the new heavens and the new earth are coming, you are already new creation. “The old has passed away; behold, the new has come”.

Galatians 6:15, For neither circumcision counts for anything nor uncircumcision, but a new creation. You know, Paul is saying, circumcision is not a big deal. Circumcision was this thing, very important to the Jews, people from the Jewish background. And, you know, they thought that was everything. Only if you had circumcision, you had God’s approval, and God’s acceptance; without it, you have nothing; with it, you have everything. Paul says, “Circumcision is not such a big deal, guys; are you a new creation?” That’s the big deal. Are you new creation? Are you a true believer? Do you have this new creation experience? Have you been made a new creation? I can read more verses, such as Ephesians 2:10, where Paul says, we’re created, created in Christ Jesus. 

Let me move on to the third picture: resurrection; resurrection. Now, picture somebody raised from the dead. Specifically, let’s picture, the resurrection of Jesus, the greatest resurrection. Ephesians 2, verse 4; let’s picture the resurrection of Jesus as we read these words here. Ephesians 2:4, But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ. Christ was raised, but Paul is saying, “God made us alive”. Not only Christ was dead in the grave, but we were also dead in our trespasses. And not only did Jesus rise again, but God also made us alive, together with Christ. It may be confusing. What’s the explanation? Well, the explanation is obviously what Jesus experienced physically, we experienced spiritually in salvation. Just as He was raised, physically, we were raised, spiritually. The explanation is nice but I don’t want you to lose the force of the picture. The force of the picture is, we were dead just as He was dead in the grave. And now, just as He was raised and is alive today, we were raised and we are alive together with Christ Jesus, seated in heavenly places. What a picture.

This has happened to every believer, is what Paul says, every true believer. Those are the three pictures. Every true believer, was born anew, born again. Every true believer was created newly. Every true believer was raised from the dead. Now, based on those three pictures, let me give you three affirmations or points on what this new birth is, what born again is, what regeneration is. Based on those three pictures, I’m going to give three affirmations, right, about what regeneration is or being born again is. You will find all three in those in all three pictures. It’s not like one picture corresponds to one of my points now. All the three points I’m about to give you, correspond to all three pictures, they’re found in all three pictures, right.

These three pictures reveal to us that regeneration is number one, a divine act. It is an act of God. It is what God does, not what we do. That’s the first thing you should notice. It is what God does, not what we do. When you think of the three pictures, think of the birth picture, right. Think of a baby being born. What did the baby do to be born? Did the baby do anything to be born? No, of course not. Did creation do anything to create itself? Did creation do anything to come into existence? Did a dead body do anything to raise itself? I think of a person like Lazarus, who was raised by Jesus. No, in all the three pictures, you will see that the baby didn’t do anything, creation didn’t do anything, the dead body didn’t do anything, but something happened to it. Let me put it like this: the baby can’t take credit for being born; creation can’t take credit for its existence; and Lazarus can’t take credit for being raised from the dead because they didn’t do it! The parents can take maybe credit for the baby being born; God created; and Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, right.

This is a basic point, but we miss it. I’m pointing this out because this is very important. The Bible is purposely using these kinds of pictures to emphasize and to stress that new birth, being born again, is not about what we do, what we have done, but it’s about what God does in salvation. It’s about what only God can do. You know, we tend to focus on, you know, we believed, and we confess Jesus and we asked Him into our heart but that is not what the new birth is about. Yeah, that’s involved, that’s what we do but it’s hardly anything. What God does is, He makes us to be born again. What God does is He creates us anew. What God does is He raises us back to life. What God does, counts. What we do, we shouldn’t even talk about it that much. The new birth is not mainly about what we do, it’s about what God does. He gives birth to us; only He can do that! He creates us; only He can do that! He raises us from the dead; only He can do that!

Look at John 1:12. John 1:12, But to all who did receive Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. It’s a wonderful verse because you see, what we do but you also see, what God does, in this verse. Look at what we do: To all who did receive Him — receive Jesus — who believed in His name. So, what did we do? We received Him, we believed in His name. And then, what does God do? Well, what does Jesus do, specifically? He gave the right to become children of God. Jesus gives us the right to become children of God; only He can give us the right to become children because He’s the only begotten Son, because He died for us and rose again, right. And what does the Father do? Jesus gives us the right to become children of God. Verse 13, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God. Born of God means, God gives birth to us. The Father births us, brings us forth. We were born, not of blood means, not like human birth, not like the relationship between a human child and the human parent – a blood relationship. Nor of the will of the flesh – not because of a fleshly union, not of the will of man, or the husband. It’s not the will of the couple or the husband or the man. No, no, no, this is the will of God, the will of God. You became a child of God, you were born of God, you were born again, not by any human activity, but God willed, God purposed it, God planned it, God sent His Son. And then finally, through all of it, God birthed you, gave birth to you. You were born of God. Yeah, we did something. We received Him, we believed in Him, but that’s not such a big deal. We can’t take much credit for receiving. If somebody gives you a gift and you stretch out your hand and receive it, you don’t go around saying, you know, “Wow! I just stretched my hand out and I got it”, and you know, “I really pulled it to myself”. No, that’s not a big deal. Stretching out your hand, receiving it, you can’t take credit for that. He gave it. You’d talk about the gift; you’d talk about how amazing the gift is. That’s God’s role and our role in this whole salvation thing. What did we do? We stretched out our hands and received this glorious gift. We receive, we believe. It’s nothing compared to what God does. He willed out rebirth and He fulfilled it. And He made sure that we were reborn, got born again.

Now, you may have questions about this, like how did God do this, you know, how does this happen? So, let me just say a few things by way of clarification quickly but the main point is, if you get lost in the details, remember this: God does it; it’s about what God does. It’s not about what you do. This “born again” thing is about what God does. So, when we say, “born again”, don’t say, “Yeah, I received Jesus”. No, no, no, again, don’t just go and talk about what you did. No, it’s about what you did know for what God does, or what God does. But let me just quickly say some things about how God does this. Specifically, we are told that the Holy Spirit has a specific role to play in the conversation with Nicodemus. Jesus, again and again, points out the role of the Holy Spirit: “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, that it is born of the Spirit — Holy Spirit — is spirit”. So Holy Spirit is the one who actually does it. And how does this happen? How does God do it? Well, the Holy Spirit does it, how? The Bible gives us more answers for that: through the Word, through the Word. God does everything through His Word. And He does this birthing of us, creating of us, and this raising of the believer through the Word.

1 Peter 1:23: Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed but of imperishable, through the living and abiding Word of God. James 1:18: Of His own will He brought us forth — again, the idea that, bringing forth, birthing — Of His own will He brought us forth by the Word of truth. So, the Holy Spirit is doing, the Holy Spirit is using the Word, that basically means the Gospel being preached. Another detail about how God does it, the Holy Spirit makes us to be born again through the Word. And what He does is He unites us with Christ. He unites us with Christ.

The passage we read in Ephesians; you remember that? It talked about how God made us alive together with Christ and raises us up with Him. How many times that “with Christ” comes and seats us in the heavenly places “in Christ”, right. Again, and again, the New Testament, emphasizes that what happens in salvation is, something happens with Christ, in Christ, union with Christ, you’re joined to Christ, and in that union, all of this becomes possible. What? The regeneration, this “born again” thing. Being reborn and raised. He was raised from the dead; we are raised with him. I know this is not easy to understand, in fact, Jesus Himself said, you can understand all of it. It’s like the wind, it blows where it wishes. You can’t know where it came from, where it goes; you just know it happened.

So, what I’m trying to say is the Holy Spirit is involved, the Word of God is involved and what happens is union with Christ. And in this union, He’s the wine, we are the branches. This whole thing happens. All this happens in a moment when you’re saved. Point is, forget about the details for a minute, God does it. God does it. Everybody say: “God does it”. It’s what God does, right. That’s number one. The second thing about being born again, is God does a miraculous — let me put it like this — God does a very great miracle. This “being born again” thing is a very great miracle. It’s an astounding miracle. First thing is God, it’s what God does. Second thing is, it’s a huge miracle. Do you think of your salvation as a miracle, as a great miracle? Do we have that sense that it’s a great miracle? You know, even a normal, just a birth of a child, is a miracle. Have you thought about that? The birth of a child is a miracle. You ask any parent, they’ll tell you. They felt that when their first child was born. Probably they have felt, you know, what a miracle this is. What an amazing thing this is. I felt that when my son was born. I felt amazed, you know, the fact that he was born and looking at him, seeing him. That experience is quite amazing. You can’t just sit there with a neutral face. It does something to you, it amazes you. It amazed me so much and it just, you know, gave me so much joy. I would say that I took my phone and sent a message to all the people in my contact list. You know, if you know me, you know my phone is very far away from me. I’m not very close with my phone. Fortunately, or unfortunately, but this moment, that moment when my son was born, it caused such joy that it led me to do that.

What I’m trying to say is that we are fascinated just by the birth of a child. It amazes us. But guess who’s not amazed? The child itself; the child is not amazed. The child is crying and even after the child grows up a little, it’s not amazed by it’s own birth. He doesn’t realize its very existence is a miracle. He’s very beginning was a miracle. He doesn’t realize it. I feel like sometimes believers don’t realize that their being born again, their new birth, their salvation is a miracle, and they don’t realize it. They don’t realize what an amazing thing it is but my friend, you’ve got to grow up. As a believer, at some point, you’ve got to come to the point where you realize this. How did this happen? I mean, this is amazing that this happened. Have you ever thought about your salvation like that? Has it amazed you? Has it fascinated you? If it never has done that to you, if it has never had that effect on you, my friend, then first, maybe you’ve never understood what an amazing thing it is. You’ve never understood, truly, salvation and the new birth. That’s not good. That’s why we’re preaching. If you’ve never been fascinated and amazed by thinking about your salvation, that means, you’ve never understood it. Or it means something worse. Another option is you’ve never been born again. Can only be one of those two; both are not good. It’s an amazing miracle. You may say what’s so amazing about it, that leads me to my third point.

What’s so amazing about this miracle? What happens in this miracle? God does it, and it’s an amazing miracle, I said, but what is amazing about it? Well, what’s amazing about it is, God brings forth life, that you never had up to that point. You get life that you never had before, that’s what’s amazing! What’s amazing is you go from no life to life, that’s amazing! Again, you can see this in the three pictures, talking about birth, creation, resurrection. Think about that baby. Before that baby is born, that life was not there in the world but once that baby is born, a new life enters into the world. Creation, you know, before God created light or whatever it is, it wasn’t there, but now it has come into existence. Before Lazarus was raised from the dead, he was dead, no life. But then, Jesus raised him, and he was up and walking and talking, life. Life, salvation, what’s so great about this new birth, is it’s going from no life to life! It’s such a huge and drastic change. It’s going from death to life. It’s not some, you know, as people sometimes tend to think of things – a new chapter in your life, a turning over a new leaf or, you know, a new beginning in my life. People talk about how they have these epiphanies, or how they have these turning points in their life and this is a new chapter and that is a new this and that. Salvation is not like that. It’s bigger than that. It’s going from no life to life, it’s going from death to life. That’s what happened in the new birth. What happens in a baby? You get life that was never there before. God breathed life into you for the first time. Sometimes we don’t think of salvation as so drastic, but it is. It’s presented, taught in the Bible like that. Based on the solution, you can understand how severe the problem is. The solution is what? A birthing experience – solution is being born. That tells you how severe the problem is. Let me give you an example. Say somebody goes to the doctor’s office with pain in their leg, right. With a pain in their leg, they go to the doctor’s office. This is an example. The doctor looks at it, does whatever and then he seriously looks at the patient and says, “I’m sorry to say that unless we cut off your leg, you’re not going to survive”. Imagine the guy hears that, he just went with pain in his leg. He thought it’s nothing, and the doctor says, “Unless we cut off that leg, you’re not going to survive”. I mean, just based on hearing the solution, he realizes, oh my goodness I’m terrible, what’s the problem, is it so bad?

Nicodemus goes to Jesus, I mean, he thought he was fine, and he just probably needed a few pointers and he probably just wanted to see what the secret of Jesus was, you know. He’s doing some miracles that were never done before. I don’t know what he thought about Jesus at that point or what he had in his mind or not, but the thing is he goes to Jesus, he would have never expected what Jesus was going to do to him. He would have expected a little bit of pointers here and there, some ideas, some teachings on this and that. That’s what the Pharisees were used to. He goes to Jesus, and he praises him, and he says, “Oh, Jesus, nobody does miracles like You and You’re truly from God”, and Jesus says — He doesn’t take any time to break the ice — He says, “You’re talking about some miracles I did. A greater miracle needs to happen to you first. You need to be born again”. Now, you need to understand what a shock. I mean, once Nicodemus started to realize what Jesus meant, it would have shocked him even more, I think. Because here is this man, Nicodemus, who was born and he’s lived a considerable time and he has achieved much in his life, he has risen up the ranks of the Pharisees, he has become a leader in his own right, society looks up to him, the Pharisee elite to look up to him. And Jesus and looking at him and saying, “All that you have lived and done and accomplished in your life so far means nothing. We’ve got to get rid of it all. You must be born again, you must begin from the top, from the start, brand new. Everything you did doesn’t count. It’s meaningless. It’s like you’re never born; it’s as though you never existed. It’s like you never really lived. You don’ have life, Nicodemus”. I don’t know what you think. We think Nicodemus was shocked in the beginning only. I believe, the more and more Nicodemus started to realize what Jesus meant, it would have shocked him more. You must start from the beginning. Nicodemus, your whole life amounts to nothing. You must be born again. What a shock it must have been because He told Nicodemus, “Your problem is severe, you can’ just change it with a little bit of teaching, with a little bit of reformation, with a little bit of pointers here and there”. See, the world thinks we can, you know, change society by just giving man a little bit of education, a little bit of this, a little bit of that, just to improve him here, do something here, there, you know, make these little adjustments, we can improve as a society. We have a very optimistic look, perspective.

Jesus says, we must do away, it’s all useless. “You must be born again”. You want real change, you want deep change, you must be born again. It’s a shocking assessment of the human problem. And it’s an amazing solution, born again. From no life to life, from death to life. What kind of life? The Bible describes as “eternal life”. It describes it as “God’s life” because “you’re born of God”. And it describes it as “Christ’s life”, “the life of Christ”. 1 John 5:11, And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. Where’s the life? It’s in the Son. And whoever has the Son, has life; whoever does not have the Son of God, does not have life. “Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life”. How harsh is that? There are people alive, moving, living, walking, thinking, feeling, playing. The Bible says, “Whoever does not have the Son of God, does not have life”.

You know, Jesus was more harsh. You remember, Jesus, when He invited a guy to follow him, He said, “Come follow Me”, and the guy said, “Let me bury my father who died, and then I’ll come follow you”. Basically, he was saying, “I’ve got to finish these burial rites and then I’ll come follow you”. Jesus looked at him and said, “Let the dead bury the dead”. How harsh is that? “Let the dead bury the dead”. He doesn’t even explain it. What is the explanation? The explanation is, le the spiritually dead, bury the physically dead; you come and follow Me. What Jesus was saying is, here are these people burying this person, who died physically, and mourning this person, without even realizing they themselves are dead, even though they’re walking and talking and living and breathing and moving and think they’re alive but they’re not. Whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life. What a harsh assessment and diagnosis of the human problem, my friend. The Bible is harsh, but the Bible is true. The Bible is deep. It does not seek to satisfy us with superficial answers. It gives us the real deal. It may be painful, but it leads the way to the solution. The solution is you need life. You need life. If you don’t have life, you need life. You’re dead; you need life. You need to be raised from the dead. And that’s what the new birth is about. This new life comes into you. You can’t get it; you can do it by yourself, but God gives it to you. The God who made the heavens and the earth now puts life within you. You have the life of Christ; you have the life of the risen Christ. We share in the resurrection life of Christ. Well, I could keep going but let’s go on.

So far, what we have done is, based on those three pictures I’ve given you three truths about what this regeneration or new birth is. Firstly, it’s a work of God, it’s an act of God. Secondly, it’s an astounding miracle. What’s so special about it is, it takes you from life to life, from death to life. It’s a huge change, right. Now, I want to give three more truths about regeneration, and these three more are not really based on these pictures, but they’re true about this new birth. Now, I want to give these because this really gets down to the nitty gritty. What does it mean? What’s so great about this life, you may say? What’s so special about this that you’re saying we’re going from no life to life, from death to life. What is so special? I’ll tell you what’s so special. It is — number four — it’s a new birth brings a deep change. A deep change. Say this with me: a deep change. I want you to memorize that – deep change. In fact, in the deepest part, you are changed.

The change that happens in the new birth, is not a superficial, outward change, right. Nothing changes in our physical form or appearance when we receive Jesus, when we trust Jesus, and if we’re really born again. Nothing actually changes on the outside. We look the same; we don’t look any more beautiful or more ugly. We don’t change. Our physical form doesn’t change; we look the same. The weight doesn’t change, height doesn’t change, nothing changes. What changes is on the inside, where you can’t see. It changes over there, and it’s not a superficial change, even on the inside, if you see it’s a very deep change. It’s deeper than just thoughts, or imaginations or things like that. The change really doesn’t occur in that realm, in the realm of thoughts. That’s why, even believers continue thinking wrong. The change is actually deeper than that. It’s in the deepest part of the person, what the Bible calls “the heart”. The heart, or the spirit, the heart.

Let’s look at Ezekiel 36, verse 25. The change that happens in the new birth occurs in the deepest part of the person, which is the heart. Ezekiel 36, verse 25. Most likely, this passage was in the mind of Jesus while He was talking to Nicodemus because He tells Nicodemus, how can you, you know I don’t have time, you can go read this Jesus’s conversation because, you know, if you read it, further down than where we read, you’ll see Jesus says, “Nicodemus, how can you be a teacher of Israel and not know these things?” It’s as though he was saying, “It’s in your Old Testament; how did you miss it?” A lot of scholars say, Jesus was probably thinking of a passage like this. This is the most likely passage, they say, we’re going to read this. Let’s look at Ezekiel 36:25: I will sprinkle clean water on you, you shall be clean from all your uncleanesses, and from all your idols I will cleanse you — and this is the important verse, these next two verses —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 give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and be careful to obey my rules. Verse 27 says, “I will put my Spirit, the Holy Spirit, within you. Jesus, in John 3, was talking about the Holy Spirit birthing us. For various reasons, they connect this passage with John 3, but I just want you to see, mainly, verse 26: I will give you a new heart, and a new spirit I will put within you. A new heart. Everybody say: “A new heart”. A new spirit. That’s what I mean. That’s the deepest part of the human, a heart, the spirit.

Don’t forget the biblical meaning of heart. Heart is not just where you have feelings. Today, heart is minimized. People dropping hearts, but they’ve lost the deep meaning of heart. In the Bible, heart is the place from which everything comes. Everything in your life originates from the heart. Right. That’s why Proverbs 4 says, “Guard your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the springs of life”. Everything in your life comes from your heart. Jesus said, “A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good things”. Everything comes from the heart – the thoughts, the feelings, the decisions. See, this is how the Bible uses that word, “heart”. We separate it, we say, you know, feeling is in the heart; the thoughts are in the mind. No. The Bible says, “Heart is the source of everything in your life; thoughts, feelings, decisions, priorities, your spiritual life, your moral life, your everything”. I mean, put it like this: your heart is the control centre for everything in your life. Control Centre – the H.Q. Headquarters – the Head Office – the Control Centre – I like that – Control Centre, right.

What God does in the new birth is, He brings a change in the deepest part of you, which is your heart, it’s your control centre, it controls everything in your life. And He brings the change there. He doesn’t bring the change, everywhere, all at once. No, He doesn’t do that. He will, one day, it’ll happen. The change will be all-pervasive, not leaving out even one inch; new Heaven, new Earth, new You, Spirit, you know, not just spirit but already spirit is new but one day, even your body will be new and shining like the sun and so on. So, one day, this change will be every inch of creation. But, for the believer, who’s already a new creation, where has the change happened? In the deepest part of you, in the heart, in the control centre. You see, this is God’s way; it’s how He likes to do things. If you change the control centre, you can change everything. You don’t have to change everything, to change everything. If you just change the control centre, you can change everything. An illustration would be, if you change the man at the top, you can change other things as well. You don’t have to change everything, everywhere. If you change the one in control, it’s possible to have very wide-reaching change. So, God does the best thing really, He goes down to the deepest part of our nature, our heart, our control centre, changes it. And that leads me to my next point. Right.

It’s not only a deep change but it’s a radical change in our heart. It’s a radical change, not everywhere in life; it’s a radical change in the deepest part of you. You’ve got to be clear, what happens in the new birth. It’s a radical change in the deepest part of you, which is the heart, right. Radical. Why do I say, “radical”? It’s total, not total everywhere; total in your heart. Why do we say radical and total and absolute in your heart? Because that passage Ezekiel 36 says what? That God will remove the heart of stone. That’s radical, that’s total, removing the heart of stone, and putting a heart of flesh. God doesn’t keep the old heart. Why? Because it’s a heart of stone, it’s not pliable. You can’t mould it; it’s just like a rock, hard. It’s just set in its old ways. So, what God does is, completely does away with it, brings a new heart. A heart of flesh, like clay, it can be moulded, it can be pressed into the shape God wants it to be pressed. God does away with the old heart entirely, brings and puts a new heart, a new spirit within us. That’s radical, that’s absolute, that’s total. Not everywhere, but in the deepest point in the heart.

Let me give you one more point about what this new birth is. It’s deep change, it’s radical in the deepest part, total. Now, what does this mean? I want to be more specific and clearer now. Because you may say, you’re just being very, it’s all like a cloud. I can’t see clearly. What is the change? Let me tell you the change; here’s the change: basically, God turns your heart towards Him. He gives you a new heart and this heart is turned, inclined, drawn in the right direction. God inclines your heart towards Him. This new heart that God puts within you is inclined; it’s turned toward Him. If you’re driving, don’t try this, but if you’re driving and you suddenly take off your hands from the steering wheel, you will find that many times, most times, most cars, they’ll go in one direction. They’ll be pulled in one direction; they’ll be drawn in one direction. They’re supposed to go straight, actually. If it’s perfect, it’ll keep going straight for at least a little while, but many times, not perfect. Let it go, not controlling it, it’s being pulled in one direction. That’s wrong. It’s not meant to be that way. Our hearts are like that. Even if nothing else is pulling it, it wants to go, it is bent toward a certain wrong direction. It is bent away from God. 

We sometimes think, the devil is pulling me, the world is pulling me, sin is pulling me. Yeah, they’re all pulling. But even if they are not pulling, our heart itself wants to go in the wrong direction, away from God, towards sin, towards pleasing ourselves. That’s the wrong direction the old heart is set in. You can’t change that, that’s why God changes the heart, puts the new heart. This new heart, He has permanently set it in a certain way, where now, you let it go, it is naturally pulling towards God, bent towards God, bent away from sin, bent, not towards pleasing yourself, but pleasing God, living for God, loving others. If I want to use another word, I can use the word “desire”. He changes the desires of our heart. The heart that desired and loved things that were contrary to God, now, desires and loves God and the things of God. A heart that had no desire for God, now has a desire for God and the things of God and it’s pulled in that direction.

Jeremiah 32:40; Jeremiah 32: 40 – you see, we go in the direction we are pulled, right. We go, we do, what we desire, at the time. And the deepest problem of man is his desire. It’s the direction his heart is pulled towards; it’s pulled towards wrong, evil, sin. Even though he knows it’s sin, at the time, he somehow comes to the terribly foolish decision that it’s good for him. It brings him some kind of satisfaction, or gain, or whatever. It’s pulled like that. What the world says is, you know, if you just set right these outward things, we can improve, we can progress. The Bible says, “No you can’t. No matter what you set right outside, there is this fundamental deep flaw in the heart of man, where the heart itself, is bent wrong, pulled wrong, drawing in the wrong direction. And only God can reach down as deep as that and set it right. That’s what happens in the new birth. Jeremiah 32:40: “I will make with them an everlasting covenant, that I will not turn away from doing good to them”. “I will not turn away from doing good to them”. Now, watch this: “And I will put the fear of Me in their hearts that they may not turn away from Me”. “I will put the fear of Me in their hearts”. I will do it, He says. Put what? The fear of Me in their hearts. One translation says, “I will cause them to fear Me”. Another translation — NIV — says it like this: “I will inspire them to fear Me”. What a thought. “I will inspire them to fear Me”. I’ll inspire them, I’ll draw them, in such a way, inspire them in such a way that they fear Me. I will do this.

What happens to the new birth is very deep – change, total change, in the depth of your heart. What specifically is the change? It’s a change in disposition, it’s a change in the direction that your heart is pulled in, it’s a change in your desires, it’s a change in what satisfies you more, it’s a change in what gives you greater joy. He goes in and changes that. Are you following me? Previously, the unbelievers heart gets joy from satisfying himself, and only himself. But the believers heart becomes different. Have you noticed, as a believer, that sometimes even when you sin, for your own satisfaction, after that, you’re miserable? Why? You thought it will satisfy you, maybe did for a moment, but then makes you miserable. Why? Because God has set the heart differently, so that sin doesn’t satisfy you like before. It doesn’t give you joy like before. Going away from God doesn’t give you joy like before. Only going towards Him, pleasing Him, living for Him, living for His glory, living for the good of others; this is what starts giving you joy! It’s not that we don’t live for ourselves anymore. We don’t live for our own happiness or satisfaction anymore; we’ve given up our happiness and satisfaction. No! The change is deeper. What God does is brilliant. He goes in there to the depths of our heart, and He changes our heart in such a way, that we get our highest joys now, not when we satisfy ourselves and live for ourselves and our glory. We get our highest joys when we satisfy and please Him and live for Him, and His glory and the benefit of others. It’s a brilliant change in the depth of your heart. This is the new birth. “I’ll inspire them to fear Me. I will write the law in their hearts”. What does that mean? Their hearts itself will be drawn to do My law. That’s what it means. It’s a deep change. The last three points I said, it’s a deep change, it’s radical in the deepest part. And what’s so radical about it? It’s a resetting of the inclination of your heart, the way it’s drawn, the direction to which it’s pulled, what gives it the greatest joy. Your heart gets pulled towards God, the things of God, pleasing Him, living for His glory, loving others, loving God, loving others. This is the new birth, my friend.

Has God done this amazing miracle of giving new life to you and doing this kind of radical change? How do you know whether you have this? The thing is the new birth is something so deep and so hidden that nobody can go and see whether you actually have it. Only God knows. Not even you can see in your heart. I can’t see in your heart or my heart. Only God knows. And that’s why it is, to a certain extent, the new birth is a mystery; being born again is a mystery. That’s why Jesus told Nicodemus in that verse, in the last verse we read, verse 8: The wind blows where it wishes, and you don’t know where it came from or where it’s going. You can’t figure out everything about this new birth. It’s like the wind. You don’t know when it’s coming, where it’s going, where it’s coming from, where it’s going. But you do know it came because of the sound of it; it caused an effect. The leaves shook, there was some sound, and you know the wind came. That’s how you know for sure that the new birth happened, that you’re born again.

How do you get that certainty? One of the ways you get the certainty is the born again experience leads to certain effects. It has certain effects; by looking at the effects, you can see, oh this is the thing that caused it. What are its effects? Let me give you a few effects quickly. Faith in Christ itself is an effect of the new birth, being born again. Faith in Christ, 1 John 5, Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Believes is in the present tense: “Everyone who believes” – if you’re believing in Jesus as your everything today; Jesus is the Christ means, Jesus is the Messiah, Jesus is the answer, Jesus is your everything – everyone who believes now, and continues to believe that Jesus is their everything, has been born of God. The proof can be seen in the belief. Faith is an effect of this being born again, this changes it in the heart.

Another effect, 1 John 3:9. 1 John 3:9, No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God’s word abides in Him; that he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. What’s this effect? It’s an effect, where you are living, overcoming sin on the whole in your life. “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning”. The older King James translation says, “No one born of God commits sin” or something that. That can’t be right because in the same epistle, John says, in the first chapter, “If any man says he has no sin in him, he’s a liar”. Right. 1 John 1, read that. John says, “If anybody says they have no sin in them” — believers — “they’re a liar”. “Don’t believe them”, he says. That means there is sin in every believer, meaning, nobody’s perfect. That’s what it means. Nobody can claim to be perfect on this side of heaven. But what this verse is saying, “No one born of God makes a practice of sinning”. Yeah, we can’t be perfect, but we don’t make a practice of sinning. You don’t go on. Committing sin is different; making a practice of sinning is different. He cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. Committing a sin is different but keeping on sinning is different because he has been born of God. For God’s seed abides in him – look at how he talks about God’s seed abides in him. In this re generation, this new birth, God went into the deepest part of you and planted His seed. That seed will grow; it won’t allow you to keep on sinning. That’s what John is saying. One effect of this is how do you know you’re born of God? If you’re not able to keep on sinning if you’re being stopped from sinning continuously. And if you’re getting miserable, sinning, and you’re forced to change something within you is drawing you to change. You repent and you go back to God and all that is evidence that you’re born of God. The unbeliever relishes in his sin. The unbeliever delights in his sin. The believer becomes miserable in his sin because he’s born of God. He has a power over sin. Sin is not his master; sin is not his Lord. Yes, sin is like an enemy, which now and then, breaks the border, gets in and does something and goes. But it’s not ruling and reigning over the believer’s life because he’s been born of God. One effect of being born of God is that you overcome sin. You have power over sin.

Another effect of being born of God: practicing righteousness. One is faith, one is overcoming sin, one is practicing righteousness. Look at 1 John 2, verse 29: If you know that he is righteous, you may be sure that everyone who practices righteousness has been born of Him. There he said, “One was born of God cannot keep on sinning”. Here he says, “Not only just avoiding sin, or getting away from sin, everyone who practices righteousness has been born of God”. Everyone who practices, not just enough to avoid sin, stop sinning, but everyone who practices righteousness has been born of God. How do you know if you’re born of God? Here is an effect. Are you practicing righteousness? You may say, what kind of righteousness? What righteousness? Well, all righteousness leads to the highest righteousness, which is, I’m talking about the righteousness we practice, not like imputed righteousness like last week. We’re not talking about the righteousness of Christ here; we’re talking about the righteous we practice, everyone who practices, right. The highest righteousness you can practice is what? Love.

1 John 4:7, and that is also another effect and proof. 1 John 4:7. How do you know whether you’re born again; how can you get that added certainty? This is not the only way to get certainty, but this is an important way, right. 1 John 4:7: Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God, and whoever loves has been born of God and knows God. “Whoever loves has been born of God”. Notice, again and again, he does this. He says, “Whoever does this has been born of God, whoever does that has been born of God, whoever believes in Jesus has been born of God, whoever cannot keep on sinning has been born of God, whoever practices righteousness has been born of God”. Now, he says, “Whoever loves has been born of God”. “Love fulfills the whole law”, the New Testament says. Love is the greatest commandment; loving God, loving neighbour. Love is the exact opposite of what sin is all about. Sin is all about the self. Sin is living for myself, my happiness, my pleasure, my gain, my profit, my life, my glory. Love is living for God, His pleasure, His satisfaction, His glory, the benefit of others. That’s what love is.

Final effect and proof of being born again, 1 John 5:4. There are more, but I’m just giving you some very clear verses, very clear. 1 John 5:4, Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. “Everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world”. Here’s an effect: you overcome the world. No matter what the world throws at you, no matter what the world brings at you, you can’t be defeated. Finally, you never give up. Finally, you always have hope. Why? Because you’re born of God; God’s seed abides in you. There’s no way you can lose because you’re born of God. The proof that you’re born of God is, you end up overcoming the world. That shows you were born of God.

How does your life look? When you see your life, and can you see some of these changes? A truly born again person will, at some point or time, show, display these changes, experience these changes. If you can see your life today and say, “Yeah, I can see these changes; I can look at it and I’ve experienced these big changes. And praise God and rejoice. You can get additional certainty, that you are born again. What if you look at your life and you say, “Well, oh boy, after this, I’m beginning to doubt whether I’m born again”. Let me just say some words for those kinds of people as well because, again, let me remind you that just because you don’t see the fruit doesn’t mean you’re not actually born again. The fruit is important because it gives you the added certainty, but if you don’t seem to have the fruit, that does not automatically mean, the root is not there. In a tree, if you can’t see the fruit, automatically, it doesn’t mean the tree is gone. No. Maybe the fruit may take some more time. Maybe it’s coming later. Sometimes, in the believers life, change takes a long time, certain changes take a long time. So don’t equate not having the fruit with not having this. Remember, they’re different. This is the cause, here’s the effect. We just looked at the effects. Having the effects is good and great and necessary because it gives you the added certainty, but not having it doesn’t automatically mean you don’t have this. It could mean, but it does not have to mean that.

So, what’s your solution? I’d say, go back and look at these kinds of truths. You know, this is why I even taught a series on assurance of salvation. These kinds of effects are only one kind of source of assurance. In that series, I spoke about other sources and what you do, when you’re not sure that you’re saved. Let me give you the simple solution, go back and see what God has done for you on the inside. Meditate on this truth of new birth, regeneration, how God has changed you on the inside. Go back and consider your justification, how God has pronounced you righteous. Meditate on these things and I believe, when you do that, you can bring — or not you can — the Holy Spirit will bring forth the fruit in your life. Don’t focus too much on the fruit, especially if it’s absent. You can’t produce fruit by just thinking, oh, no fruit, no fruit. You can’t produce fruit by hanging on the fruit, focusing on the fruit; you focus on the root. You take care of the root, and the fruit may come. It will surely come. If there is a born again experience, at some point or the other, it will come, it has to come, because God’s seed abides in you.

Let me just close with a couple of points of application. One is, these truths that we’ve been teaching the last three weeks, you should take them together, keep them together, not isolate them and consider them isolated. See, we are considering them in isolation. We’re talking about forgiven and cleansed one week, justified one week, born again another week, but you need to keep them together, because if you don’t keep them together, you’re liable to go in error, right. For example, if you only hold onto forgiven, cleansed, and justified, then you may not expect a big change in your life. You may just be glad that you’re forgiven, cleansed, and justified, righteous in God’s sight. But you may not dream for big changes in your life. On the other hand, if you only hold on to this truth of being born again, new birth, being changed deep inside and you can, you know, have all these effects, right. If you only focus on that, my friend, that will lead you to despair sometimes because you’ll see your life and you will see yourself failing, and not meeting your own standards and your own expectations and you will expect great changes and sometimes you fall short and you get discouraged. Does God accept me now? Will God take me now? Will God forgive me now? That’s why you hold all these truths together. Forgiven, cleansed, justified, you’re born again, newly birthed.

So, for those who are feeling miserable over their sin, let me say this: let justification and forgiveness and cleansing be your refuge. Run to that fortress. What fortress? The truth we preached, last week and the week before. I’m forgiven, cleansed by the blood of Jesus and I’m justified, counted righteous. Let that be your refuge. If you are sitting there, miserable over your sin and despairing over your sin, let that be the refuge. Run to that!

On the other hand, let me say to those who are feeling overconfident. “I’m doing quite well, you know, I’m living like Nicodemus”; feeling, “Yeah, I can live any way, I’m doing quite well.” I’d like to say to the overconfident people, “Pay attention to this truth”. What truth? Regeneration, new birth. Has there been a big change in you? One professor of mine, he said, “You’ve got to afflict the comforted and comfort the afflicted”. Basically, what he’s saying is, the one who’s really down and out and despairing, crying; you’ve got to lift him up. And the one was overconfident; you’ve got to kind of knock him down a little bit. That’s what Jesus seems to have done here. He never looked at anybody else and said, “You must be born again”. I mean, sinners came to Him, tax collectors, all these people came to Him in great deep sin, in the eyes of the world, terrible sinners, and He took a different approach with them. Not a shocking approach, not a kind of confrontational approach. He kind of welcomed them in and gave them His forgiveness. But Nicodemus walks in, just trying to start a conversation and bang! “You must be born again”. So, I think, when we apply these truths, we have to apply it like that, with care.

Another point of obligation, then I’m done. Secondly, this truth that we saw today, specifically this new birth, gives us a great hope that we can change in a very great way in our lives. This truth of the new birth that I just gave you today, must give you a great hope, a real and a great hope, that you can change in every way in your life – all kinds of change is possible. Like I said, in the new birth, God didn’t change everything completely, He changed the deepest part of you, completely. So that now, with that, you can change many things. Great change is possible. It’s like how God puts all the talents and the abilities that a baby will ever need, into the baby and causes the baby to be born into this world. In the same way, He put His seed in us. He put this new heart, this new spirit, the thing that we would really need to live our Christian life successfully, He put it in at our new birth, caused us to be born again. This gives me great hope, that great change is possible. No matter what our situation is today.

What is the hope, my friend? What is the hope for the world? They say, you know, if we just adopt some new techniques, some new methods, some new ways, we can change. No, no. Christian hope is deep. Christian hope says, because God has gone down to the depths of my heart, changed the setting which affects everything else, I can change in every way because of this deep change that has already taken place inside of me. The most important change, the deepest change, has already been taken place. It’s already taken place in your life if you are a believer. Think about that. That gives you great hope for change. What to change mainly today, my friend, is ourselves, not the world around us. I know the world around us pretty bad and God does promise to one day, completely change it. For now, He says, “Change yourself first”. No matter what you’re going through, no matter what the world is around you, my friend, if you will change yourself, by the power of God, by the wisdom of God, based on truths like this, you will live a different quality of life. Make God effect His change in you more and more.

Let’s pray.