Hello! I’m Mack Lyon and our program is a Bible study In Search of the Lord’s Way to become and to be a Christian. The third chapter of the gospel of John begins with the story of a visit that Jesus had with a fellow by the name of Nicodemus. He tells Nicodemus, “Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Oh, that puzzled Nicodemus. Does it you? Stay tuned. Phil Sanders wants to help you. And he will.
Hello, I’m Phil Sanders and this is In Search of the Lord’s Way, where we search the Scriptures as Mack Lyon says to find the Lord’s way to be saved and to live the Christian life. Thanks so very much for letting us into your busy life. We really appreciate hearing from you that you are watching or listening; and we want to be a regular part of your life each week.
Now, today we’re asking: what does it mean to be “born again” or “born from above?” Is it some kind of “better felt than told” experience? Is it some feeling that one gets at a “mourners’ bench?” Some people speak of “born again” Christians as if they were a special kind; but, the fact is, one must be “born again” to be a Christian at all. And since there is a lot of ideas and a lot of confusion about what it means to be “born again,” I thought it might be worth our while to go back to the Bible and see what the Bible says about being “born again.”
Born again…Within the heart of most people is the desire to start over. We see our sin and regret our past. We wish we could start over and do things differently. Some people even despise the person they have become and wish they could be someone else. The Lord gives us the opportunity, an opportunity to put away the old sinful person and to put on the new man in Christ, to change our lives, our attitudes, and our behavior. Today we’re going to explore also what this means and how it happens.
This program is now in its thirtieth year, and Mack Lyon has been preaching the truth in love to all of us. For thirty years Mack has offered the information in this program free; and if you would like a printed copy, a CD or a tape of it, mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way; P.O. Box 371; Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail at searchtv@searchtv.org. Or, if you like, you can call our toll-free telephone number. Now, we’ll pay for the call; and that number is 1-800-321-8633. We also stream this program on our website at www.searchtv.org. Ken Helterbrand is going to lead us now, as we sing. And then we’ll read from John chapter 3, verses 1 to 7.
The word of God says in the gospel of John chapter 3, verses 1 to 7: “There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs 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.’ Nicodemus said to Him, ‘How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’ Jesus answered, ‘Most assuredly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” This is from the New King James Version. Let’s pray together. O Lord, we pray that Your love and Your mercy will always help us to do Your will. And, Father, we are thankful that You have instructed us in exactly how we are to come to You and how we can be born again. Help us to do Your will always. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, said, “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.” Well, the Lord Jesus is indeed the Son of God, but what He told Nicodemus was unexpected. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.” The words “truly, truly,” show that He is serious. The word “truly” in Greek is the word “Amen.”
Now, Nicodemus questions, “Well, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born” (John 3, verse 4)? Well, Nicodemus, as a ruler of the Jews, should have understood what Jesus was talking about. Gentiles who became proselytes in those days were thought to be “born again” when they were baptized. Well, Nicodemus was not a proselyte. He couldn’t imagine being compared to one of them.
But, Jesus makes it clear, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, ‘You must be born again.’” That’s verses 5 to 7. Now even a ruler of the Jews needed what Jesus required for eternal life.
Jesus said, “You must be born again.” That little word “must” means it is necessary. If you want to please God, you must do it. Now, “must” refers to a “moral necessity.” Let me illustrate this. Jesus later said that he “must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day” (Matthew 16 and verse 21). Jesus saw the cross as morally necessary. And if you or I enter the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God, we must first be born again of water and the Spirit. And no matter who we are—even Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, had to be born again in baptism to go to heaven.
The baptism of Jesus was a birth of water and the Spirit. Now, both water and Spirit were involved in this birth. Water is involved, of course, in that baptism is a dipping in water, an immersion. The Holy Spirit is involved through the Word. The apostle Peter explains this in 1 Peter 1, verses 22 and 3: “Since you have in obedience to the truth,” the Bible says, “purified your souls for sincere love of the brethren, fervently love one another from the heart, for you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, through the living and abiding word of God.”
Without the preaching of the gospel, we would not believe or know what we must do to obey the truth. But it is in obeying the truth, the Bible says, that we purify our souls and are born again, and it’s of the Word, that imperishable seed. And that word is for all generations. You know, as a seed, what it produced in the first century; it’s able to produce today. And that’s how we know that we are Christians today like they were in the first century; we have obeyed the same Word, the same gospel that they did.
Now, the gospel produces faith in us. The Bible says in Romans 10 and verse 17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ.” You see, the more we listen to God’s Word, the greater our faith will become. One who listens, then, because of faith wants to obey that gospel, that Word. It is when that word works in our hearts that it brings about change in the life and we become a new person—truly born of the Spirit by His seed, the Word.
Now, the Bible explains this new birth, where we came from, and how God has blessed us in the book of Titus chapter 3, verses 3 to 7. There it says, “For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, (now here’s how) by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that being justified by His grace we would be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.” We needed God’s grace; we needed saving!
And so God’s grace and His mercy did save us. We didn’t earn our salvation; God gave us His grace through “the washing of regeneration” and the “renewing by the Holy Spirit.” The phrase “washing of regeneration” refers to a washing that causes one to be regenerated, “born again.” This “washing” is a very clear reference to baptism as the time when God cleanses us from sin and when we are born from above. Now, let me emphasize that it is God who washes us and the Spirit who renews us. We are washed in the blood of Jesus, who died for us. Some people think baptism is a work of men; but in baptism God does the work of cleansing, regenerating, and renewing.
Well, how do we get this new life? Well, the Bible says in Romans 6, verses 3 to 7, “Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have become united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection, knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; for he who has died is freed from sin.”
Now, to be reborn, one must first die to self and to sin. You see, you are either a servant of sin or a servant of the Lord. It’s only when you are crucified with Christ in baptism that you die to that old man of sin and then you are raised to walk in newness of life—you are reborn!
This is the real meaning of bearing a cross. Jesus, you remember, said in Luke 9, verses 23 and 4, that “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it.”
This new life starts at baptism but it lasts our whole life through. When you are baptized, you are born into the family of God. Jesus said in John 1, verses 11 to 13 that “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” You see, by faith in God’s word, the Bible and His teaching, we obey Christ when we do what it says. We purify our souls by our obedience to the truth. That is 1 Peter 1, verse 22. And this is why we don’t question if we should be baptized; we do it out of love to obey Him and to be pure. It is the word, the seed that causes us to be born again.
And when you are born again in baptism, you become a new creature. The Bible says in 1-- 2 Corinthians rather chapter 5, verse 17, “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.” In Christ the old man of sin has been put away, and a new man in Christ has come to be.
Ephesians 4, verses 17 to 24 describes this change. It says, “So this I say, and affirm together with the Lord, that you walk no longer just as the Gentiles also walk, in the futility of their mind, being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their heart; and they, having become callous, have given themselves over to sensuality for the practice of every kind of impurity with greediness. But you did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and you have been taught in Him, just as the truth is in Jesus, that, in reference to your former manner of life, that you lay aside the old self, which is corrupted in accordance with the lusts of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God and it has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” The new birth changes hearts, attitudes, desires and purposes. The new person wants to be like the Lord in all holiness.
Here is the kind of life a Christian should live when he is born again. Ephesians 4, verses 25 to 32 says, “Therefore, laying aside falsehood, speak truth each one of you with his neighbor, for we are members of one another. Be angry, and yet do not sin; do not let sin go down on your anger, and do not give the devil an opportunity. He who steals must steal no longer; but rather he must labor, performing with his own hands what is good, so that he will have something to share with the one who has need. Let no unwholesome word proceed from your mouth, but only such a word as is good for edification according to the need of the moment, so that it will give grace to those who hear. Do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, by whom you were sealed for the day of redemption. Let all bitterness and wrath and anger and clamor and slander be put away from you, along with all malice. Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you.”
I tell you Christians leave the ugly and they turn to the beautiful of character, because they become like Christ. Paul said in Galatians 5, verses 22 and 3, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law.” I tell you a person who is born of the Spirit shows these things in his life.
When a person is born into the family of God, he has God as his Father. And as a Father God protects, provides, guides, instructs, and corrects. God gives His children the privilege of prayer, listening to every request and concern. He not only listens; He answers. In Christ, oh we are so deeply blessed. The Bible says in Ephesians 1, verse 3, “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ.” Being born into the family of God gives us all the privileges of God’s favor and an inheritance. We are fellow-heirs with Christ.
When a person is born into the family of God, the Lord adds him to the church and He writes his name in the Lamb’s book of life. God says in Ephesians 2, verses 19 to 22, “So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints, and are of God’s household, having been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus Himself being the corner stone, in whom the whole building, being fitted together, is growing into a holy temple of the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling of God in the Spirit.” My friend, you can do nothing more important today than to be born again!
God wants you to be born again and come into His family. Put your trust in Him, turn away from sin. And when you out of love obey Him in baptism, He will crucify the old man of sin with Christ and cause you to be born again. Oh, what a blessing! Let’s pray together. O Lord, may our hearts set upon serving You and obeying You in every way. We know that it’s Your word that causes us to be born again. And, Father, help us to give our hearts to doing just what You have taught us. In Jesus’ name, Amen!
Being born again changes our lives entirely. Peter said of Christians in 1 Peter 2, verses 9 and 10, “But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God’s own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; for you were once not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”
Ah, we turn from being a “nobody” to being a “somebody” with God. We turn from shame to being a saint, from darkness to light. That’s what it means to be born again, God’s great blessing!
Some people ask the question, “Can God really make me over?” They feel so ashamed of their past; they don’t believe they can live the Christian life. There’s good news for you. If you want to change—really want to become a child of God—there’s room in the heart of God for you. The apostle Paul wasn’t always an apostle. He was once Saul of Tarsus, a man who blasphemed Christ and persecuted Christians. He described himself as the chief of sinners, since he had violently persecuted the church. Paul said in 1 Timothy 1, verses 15 and 16 that “It is a trustworthy statement, deserving full acceptance, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, among whom I am the foremost of all.” The Lord loves every person on this earth, and the people He died for were every one of them sinners.
Paul continues, “Yet for this reason I found mercy, so that in me as the foremost, Jesus Christ might demonstrate His perfect patience as an example for those who would believe in Him for eternal life.” The Lord will also show you patience. You can go to heaven. You can be saved from all your sins and live eternally. How? Well, you must be born again, by believing with all your heart that Jesus is the Christ, repenting of your sins, confessing the name of Jesus, and by being baptized (that is immersed in water for the forgiveness of your sins). That opportunity is yours if you will take it. Don’t just believe, act on your faith—you must!
If you want a free printed copy, a CD, or a tape of this message, “Born of God,” mail your request to In Search of the Lord's Way; P.O. Box 371; Edmond, OK 73083 or by e-mail at searchtv, to searchtv@searchtv.org.
Or, you can call the Search office toll-free at 1-800-321-8633. Now all of our programs also appear on our website; that’s www.searchtv.org. You can access it or download it in a printed, audio, or video format. We also now offer a free study sheet to go along with our programs. You can download them free at our website or call and request them. They will help you study God’s Word with us.
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