The New Birth - The Requirement, The Remedy, The Results

We'll go ahead and turn back to John chapter 3. We'll read again, starting in verse 1, through verse 10, John chapter 3, starting in verse 1, and I'm in the LSB as usual. Verse 1, "Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night, and said to him, 'Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him.' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.' Nicodemus said to him, 'How can a man be born when he's old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?' Jesus answered, 'Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.' The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear it sound, but do not know where it comes from or where it's going.

So is everyone who has been born of the Spirit.' Nicodemus answered and said to him, 'How can these things be?' Jesus answered and said to him, 'Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?' This morning, I want us to take up one of the most familiar phrases in all of Christianity, the phrase 'born again,' 'born again.' Most folks in America, especially in the South, have heard those two words. They may not understand them. They may not like them. They may associate them with something strange, something political, emotional, old-fashioned, something overly religious, maybe even hypocritical.

For a lot of people, including me, the first time we ever heard that phrase out loud, out in the open, in the news, on the television, was back in 1976, fifty years ago. In fact, that was the first time I'd ever heard it in any context. That was the year a peanut farmer from Plains, Georgia, a Sunday school teacher named Jimmy Carter, ran for president of the United States. And when the reporters asked him about his faith, he told them straight out that he was a 'born again' Christian. You'd have thought the man had spoken in tongues or something. And just like that, it was everywhere. The phrase went mainstream.

It became a religious category, a voting block, a line on a survey, a political headline. But the phrase 'born again' didn't come from politicians or pollsters. It didn't come from an evangelical subculture. It came from the mouth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And when Jesus used it, he wasn't using it as a political category or a denominational distinction. He wasn't using it to describe one kind of Christian in contrast to another kind of Christian. He was describing an absolutely necessary condition, a condition that must be met to avoid eternal damnation.

He says, "Unless this happens to you, you cannot see the kingdom of God." Unless this happens to you, you cannot even see the kingdom of God, much less enter it. Not unless you become Baptist, not unless you become more conservative, or unless you clean up your life or become more serious. Not unless you become more religious, start coming to church more, read your Bible through this year, or become more consistent in your obedience. No, he said, "Unless you are born again." So, I'm titling this morning's message, "The New Birth." The requirement, the remedy, and the results. Or, if you prefer, the necessity, the cause, and the effects.

Once again, the new birth, the requirement, the remedy, and the results, or the necessity, the cause, and the effects. And we're going to ask and attempt to answer three questions. First, why is the new birth necessary? That's the requirement, or the necessity. Second, how is the new birth accomplished? That's the remedy, or the cause. And third, what does the new birth produce? That's the results, or the effects. Got it? So, number one, the requirement, or the necessity, of the new birth. The requirement, or the necessity, of the new birth. I want you to notice something right at the front of John 3. Don't miss this.

Jesus does not first say, "You must be born again to the woman at the well." He doesn't say it first to a tax collector, or to a Roman centurion, or to a demon-possessed man among the tombs. He doesn't say it first to a prostitute weeping at his feet, and neither does he say it first to some openly immoral pagan who has no concern for God at all. Rather, he says it to Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews, a Pharisee, a religious man, a moral man, educated man, respected. A man who knew the Scriptures, knew doctrine, a man who lived a disciplined life.

A man other people would have looked at and said, "Now, there is a serious man of God." And Jesus looked at that man and says, "You must be born again." That should stun us, and really get our attention. Why? Because if Nicodemus must be born again, then religion is not enough. If Nicodemus must be born again, morality is not enough. Bible knowledge is not enough. Outward discipline is not enough. Living among and around the people of God is not enough.

If Nicodemus must be born again, then no man or woman enters the kingdom of God merely because he or she is respectable, a church member or leader, baptized, highly educated, conservative, decent, religious. No, every man and woman must be born again. But why? Why is that so? Why can't a moral man just become a little more moral and slip into the kingdom? Why can't a religious woman just become a little more religious? Why can't a sincere person just try a little harder? Well, the answer is in the Scriptures, and it's both clear and brutal.

And it cuts the legs out from under every notion that a man or woman could ever climb his or her way to God. Turn with me to Ephesians 2. We're going to read several passages this morning that lay the foundation. Don't tune this out. This is foundational. Ephesians 2, starting in verse 1, Paul says, "And you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the ruler of the power of the air, the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all also formally conducted ourselves in the lust of our flesh, doing the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath even as the rest.

But God, being rich in mercy because of his great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, by grace you have been saved." Hear the key word in verse 1, church. Dead. Not sick, not weak, not confused, not disadvantaged, not running through a rough patch, not a victim of circumstance. Dead! And it's repeated in verse 5, "We were dead as a hammer." What can a dead man do? Nothing. Except lay there and rot, I guess. Now hear what else Paul says, Romans chapter 8, verses 7 and 8. Listen close.

"Because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh are not able to please God." Do you hear that? Not just not willing, the text says not able. It is not even able to do so. Those who are in the flesh are not able to please God, hostile toward God, not subject to the law of God, not even able to be subject to it. Now stay with me, Romans chapter 3. Paul is going to put it as black and white as any text in the Bible. Romans 3, verses 10 through 12.

"As it is written, there is none righteous, not even one." There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. All have turned aside. Together they have become worthless. There is none who does good. There's not even one. Folks, hear those words from that passage. None, not even one. None, none, none, not even one. There's none righteous. There's none who understands. There's none who seeks for God. Now y'all, that flies in the face of everything we hear in modern Christianity, doesn't it? We're told all the time that people are out there seeking. They just need somebody to come along and point them to Jesus.

They need a little Jesus in their life. They just need to be nudged a little. Just need a kind word, an attractive program, a relevant message. But the Bible says, left to themselves, no one is seeking God, not one, not even one. Now I'll grant you, there are people seeking relief, people seeking purpose, people seeking happiness, people seeking peace, to ease their conscience, seeking to make their lives better, seeking comfort perhaps, but seeking the holy God of Scripture on His terms, in His way, for His glory. Nope, there are none, not even one.

Jesus Himself said in John 6 verse 44, listen to this, "No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws Him, and I will raise Him up on that last day." No one can come. Not just will not, cannot, unless the Father draws Him or her. And Paul says it again in 1 Corinthians chapter 2 verse 14, "The natural man," that is the unregenerate man, well, listen to Paul here, "but a natural man does not accept the depths of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to Him, and he cannot understand them because they are spiritually examined." Does not and cannot, cannot understand they are foolishness to Him.

And then this from Jeremiah 700 years before Christ, Jeremiah 17 verse 9, "The diagnosis God Himself gives of the human heart," Jeremiah 17, 9 says, "The heart is more deceitful than all else, and is desperately sick, who can know it?" Deceitful, desperately sick, so dark that the heart even lies to itself. Now put all that together, stack those six passages on top of each other, and what do you have?

You have a sinner who is dead in trespasses and sins, hostile toward God, unable to submit to God's law, unable to please God, not seeking God, not understanding the things of God, unable to do so, unable to come to Christ apart from the divine drawing, and carrying around inside himself or herself a heart so deceitful and desperately sick that he or she cannot even diagnose himself or herself accurately. That, ladies and gentlemen, is the human condition apart from or prior to the new birth. That was your condition, and it was mine. And for some of you, it remains your condition right this very minute.

Now hear me carefully, church, because this is where some folks can get tangled up a little. They hear all this and they say, "Well, are you saying we don't have a will? Are you saying we don't make choices?" No, I'm not saying that. We do have a will. We do make choices. The problem is not that we can't choose what we want. The problem is what we want. Jonathan Edwards saw this clearer than just about anybody. In his Great Work, Freedom of the Will, published way back in 1754, Edwards said this, and I quote, "The will is always determined by the strongest motive." See with that for a second.

The will is always determined by the strongest motive. In other words, you and I, we always choose what we want most in the moment of decision. When you sat in that pew this morning, it's because that's what you wanted most in that moment. Every single choice we make, no matter how small or great, is made based on what we want most at that very moment. We always follow our strongest desire both before we're born again and after. We're always free to choose what we want. Absolutely free. Nobody's forcing us. There's no gun to our heads. But here's the catch, and this is where it gets uncomfortable. Prior to the new birth, our wanter is broken.

The wanter is broken. The thing within us that generates our wants and desires is corrupted. It's corrupted by sin, and it can't be repaired. It needs to be replaced. So what we want, apart from grace, is darkness, not light, sin, not righteousness, self, not God, idols, not Christ. Prior to the new birth, we don't want and can't want Christ. And it gets worse. Worse. We're not just unable. We're also unwilling. We're not just weak. We're hostile. We're not just confused. We're running away. We're not just in the dark. We love the dark. That's what the Bible teaches about your heart, in my heart, apart from the new birth. R.C.

Sproul put it as vividly as anybody ever has. Listen to this, where Sproul was pushing back against the popular analogy of a lost person being overboard in the ocean and Christ throwing him or her a life preserver. Quote, Sproul says, "The metaphor of Scripture is that the man has already drowned. He's at the bottom of the ocean. The New Testament teaches that God the Holy Spirit is like a rescuer who dives to the bottom of the sea, pulls the dead man out and breathes life into him." Close quote. That's the picture the Bible paints. The lost sinner is not a drowning person waving his arms, hoping someone will throw him a life preserver.

No, the lost sinner is a corpse, bloated at the bottom of the ocean, lifeless, already drowned, long past the point of grabbing anything, completely unable to do a single thing to help himself or herself. If you're here this morning and you haven't been born again, I'm sorry to say, that's you. And if salvation depended on that corpse, your corpse, reaching up to grab a life preserver, there would be no salvation at all. There will be no salvation at all, no hope at all. That is why Jesus does not call Nicodemus to try harder. That's why Jesus doesn't call Nicodemus to reform himself.

That's why he doesn't call Nicodemus to add some sincerity to his religion. That is why Jesus says, "You must be born again." Because the issue is not reformation, the issue is resurrection. A dead man doesn't need a moral pep talk. A dead man doesn't need a self-help book. A dead man doesn't need a better environment or a new strategy. A dead man needs life from outside himself. A dead man needs life from outside himself. And he or she needs a righteousness from outside himself or herself. What Sproul called an alien righteousness, an alien righteousness. And that brings us to the remedy.

Point number two, the remedy or the cause of the new birth. The remedy or the cause of the new birth. Here's the good news. The Bible doesn't leave us in the cemetery or bloated at the bottom of the sea. The Bible doesn't say, "You are dead." Good luck with that. Rather, the Bible says God acts. God has acted. God himself has acted to do for the dead what the dead could never do for themselves. Look back at John 3 verse 3. Jesus says, "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." See the kingdom of God. Is born, passive voice.

That's not something the sinner does to himself any more than a little baby creates itself in its mommy's tummy. That's something done to him or to her. Look at verse 5. "Unless one is born of water in the spirit." Is born, passive again. Something done to him or her. Look at verse 6, "That which has been born of the flesh is flesh, and that which has been born of the spirit is spirit." Passive, passive, passive. The word translated born is genao. The ordinary Greek word for a father begetting a child. And folks, no child ever begot himself. Look closely at verse 6 again.

"That which has been born of the spirit." The grammar there speaks of a completed act with results that stand. "You were physically born one time on a day you did not choose, and you have never needed to be physically born over again since." So it is with the birth from above. Once God gives it, it stands. Hallelujah. Now look at verse 7, "Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again." The little word translated again is the Greek word anothin. It can mean again, it can mean anew, but it can also mean, and this is critical, from above. And how do we know which way to lean here? Well, how does John himself use that word elsewhere?

In John 3.31, the one who comes from above is above all. In John 19.11, Jesus tells Pilate that his authority has been given to him from above. Every time John uses anothin in his gospel, it points up from above. Not from within, from above. And this is why Nicodemus stumbles in verse 4. "He hears Jesus and his brain go straight to the natural realm." How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? Nicodemus heard again. He thought Jesus meant do it twice. But even if he was right, he was ignoring that he had nothing to do with his first birth, his physical birth.

In fact, listen close, when Nicodemus answers in verse 4, he doesn't even use Jesus' word. He swaps it out for a different one. Deuteron, a second time, Jesus spoke of source. Nicodemus heard sequence. Now, fair is fair. Both ideas are in play here. It is a new birth. It is a birth from above. But the accent, the weight falls on from above. Not a do over from earth, a new birth from heaven. And folks, Nicodemus, as a teacher of Israel, should have known this. Because the Old Testament had been promising it for hundreds of years. Turn to Ezekiel chapter 36. Ezekiel 36.

When Jesus speaks of being born of water in the Spirit in John 3.5, he's not introducing a brand new concept. He's pointing Nicodemus back to a prophecy Nicodemus probably had memorized. Ezekiel 36, beginning in verse 25. "Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your uncleanness and from all your idols. Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and you will be careful to do my judgments." Count the "I wills" in that passage. I will sprinkle. I will cleanse. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will remove the heart of stone and give you a new heart of flesh. I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. Five "I wills" in three verses. And seven things the Lord said He would do. Or eight, depending on how you group the phrases. God speaks. God acts. God does the work. Not if you will, then I will. Not if you reach out, I will meet you halfway.

Not if you decide, I will respond. He says, "I will, I will, I will." That's the remedy, church. God Himself promised through the prophet seven centuries before Christ that He would do what dead Israel could not do. And in John 3, Jesus is saying Nicodemus. Remember that promise in Ezekiel? That's what I'm talking about. That's the new birth. And until that happens to you, Nicodemus, you do not see the kingdom because you can't see it. You still have your finger in Ephesians 2 where we read earlier about our deadness. Verses 1 to 3 tell us how dead we are before Christ and how utterly incapable of doing anything about it we are.

Then comes verse 4. And the first two words of verse 4 have sometimes been referred to as the shortest gospel presentation ever. Because those first two words, but God. But God, we couldn't do a thing and we didn't want to even if we could. But God could do something. But God wanted to do something. But God did do something. John MacArthur said it plainly in his sermon, "You must be born again." Heaven comes down and God makes sinners new. It's a divine miracle. We contribute nothing, close quote. Heaven comes down and we contribute nothing. William Temple said in the early 1930s, "All is of God.

The only thing of my very own which I can contribute to my own redemption is the sin from which I need to be redeemed." The corpse at the bottom of the ocean does not swim up to the surface. The Holy Spirit dives down. A dead man does not raise himself. God raises him. The blind eye does not heal itself. God opens it. The stone heart does not soften itself. God replaces it. The new birth, folks, is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit by which God gives spiritual life to a dead sinner. The new birth is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit by which God gives spiritual life to a dead sinner.

Jesus illustrates this beautifully in John 3, verse 8. Look at it. Back in John 3, verse 8, Christ says, "The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound but you don't know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who's been born of the Spirit." And there's a nifty little play on words in that verse that English really can't carry. The Greek word for "wind" is numa. And it's the very same word translated "spirit" in the same sentence. One word, actually, for "wind," "breath," and "spirit." Same as the Hebrew, ruach, in the Old Testament.

So Jesus is literally saying, "The numa blows where it wishes and so is everyone who's been born of the numa." The picture and the reality are the same word. And Nicodemus didn't need a footnote. He knew that. He heard it instantly. "The wind blows where it wishes. You hear the sound of it. You see the effects of it, but you don't control it. You can't manufacture it. Can't schedule it. Can't talk it into anything." When that tornado came through Lincoln County some weeks ago, you didn't have to see the wind itself to know it was there wreaking havoc. You could see pine trees laying across power lines.

You could see your neighbor's roof shingles in your yard. Your trampoline might be down the street somewhere. You might see the sheet metal off a barn and wrapped around a pin oak or a mobile home park off of Highway 51 that looked like a war zone. You don't see the wind, but you see what the wind has done. And folks, this picture isn't new with Jesus. Solomon used it a long time before Christ. Listen to what he wrote in Ecclesiastes 11, verse 5.

"Just as you do not know the path of the wind and how bones are formed in the womb of the pregnant woman, so you do not know the work of God who works all things." Solomon, looking back over a long life, said, "You cannot trace the path of the wind and you cannot trace the work of God. They're hidden. They're sovereign. They're beyond our reach. They're beyond our understanding." Spurgeon, the old prince of preachers, made the same point in his lectures on soul winning. Now, he was speaking about revival in particular, but the principle applies just as well to the moment a sinner is born again. Listen to what he said.

Quote, "Revivals, if they are genuine, do not always come the moment we whistle for them. Try and whistle for the wind and see if it comes. Try and whistle for the wind and see if it will come. You can't whistle up the wind of God. You can't schedule the new birth. You can't manufacture conversion. You can't whistle the spirit into a baptistry or onto an altar call or into a sinner's prayer prayed just right. He blows where he wishes to blow. He acts, but God, the scripture says." There's another beautiful word in the New Testament. The New Testament uses for this idea of being born again.

Paul writing to Titus in Titus 3.5 says, listen to this, "He saved us not by works which we did in righteousness, but according to his mercy, through the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit." The word translated regeneration is polyganosia. And it means new birth, new life, renewal, recreation, new start, new origin, new beginning. And notice what Paul says. He saved us not according to works or deeds we have done, but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration. By the renewing of the Holy Spirit. Not by our works, by his mercy. Not by our washing, by his. Not by our renewing, by the Spirit's.

That's exactly why Paul writes in 2 Corinthians 5, 17, "If anyone is in Christ, he is a what? New creation." Not an improved creation. Not a patched up creation. Not a religious version of the old creation. A new creation. So church, listen to me. When God gives the new birth, he's not putting new shingles on an old house. He's not caulking and painting over the rock. He isn't adding a coat of religion to a rebellious heart. Rather, he's raising the dead. He's opening the eyes of the blind. He's replacing the stone heart with a heart of flesh. He is doing what only he can do. And now, look back at John 3.

Christ doesn't stop with the new birth. He moves on. He moves on to the remedies, center of gravity, so to speak, to the focal point. Look at verses 14 and 15. We didn't read those this morning. Let's look at them now. 14 and 15. "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, so that whoever believes in him will have eternal life." Nicodemus knew what Christ was referencing from Numbers 21 there. Israel was in the wilderness. The people grumbled against God and against Moses, and the Lord sent fiery snakes into the camp.

People were dying left and right, bitten, swelling, falling where they stood. People cried out, and God told Moses, "Make a bronze serpent. Put it on a pole, lift it up, and anyone who looks at it will live." They didn't have to climb the pole. They didn't have to bring an offering. They didn't have to be more righteous. Just look and live. But those folks didn't cast a casual glance toward that bronze pole. You may have heard me talk about this before. I've done it more than once, but it bears repeating yet again. Those people were dying, and they were told to look at the bronze serpent, and they would not die.

Imagine how you would look at that serpent. Would you glance over your shoulder in a passing sort of way? Or would you turn all your attention to that pole, burn your eyes into it with all of your might? I think I might have held my eyelids open with my fingers to be sure all corners of my eyes were plastered onto what the Lord said would be my salvation from death, you know? And Jesus says that is a picture of Himself. That's the heart of the remedy. Because the Spirit gives life, and the life He gives looks to Christ. The new birth is not the end of the story.

The new birth opens the eyes of a dead sinner made alive so that he or she can finally see the Christ who was lifted up for him or her. The Spirit is the agent of the new birth. And Christ crucified is the ground of our salvation. The Spirit gives life. Christ is our life. The Spirit applies the work. Christ accomplished the work. We don't separate them. We never separate them. The Father planned redemption from before the foundation of the world. The Son accomplished redemption at Calvary. The Spirit applies redemption to the soul through the new birth. And the soul, made alive, looks to the lifted up Christ and lives. That's the remedy.

That's the remedy. And when God causes the new birth, something always follows. Which brings us to point number three, the results or the effects of the new birth. The results or the effects of the new birth. Here's where the rubber meets the road. Because if God has done what only God can do, if the Spirit has given life, then something will follow. If the Spirit has given life, something will follow. Friends, this is so important. Please don't miss it. A person who's been born again will not, cannot remain the same as he or she was before the new birth. Rather, growth happens. It may be slow. It may be inconsistent. It may be uneven.

It may include setbacks, but growth happens. And not only does it happen, it must happen, sir. It cannot not happen, ma'am. It cannot not happen. Why? Because the same Spirit who gives life also produces holiness. The same God who began the good work pledges Himself to complete it. Philippians 1, 6 says, "He who began a good work in you will perfect it until the day of Christ Jesus." You don't get a new birth from God without getting growth from God. You don't get the new creation without a new life. You don't get regeneration without fruit. What does that fruit look like? What are the results?

What does a born again person actually look like in real life? Let me give you a portrait. Not really a checklist, a portrait. 10 characteristics or marks or evidences of a new life. First, there is new and sharpening or growing sight. New and sharpening or growing sight. Jesus said in John 3, verse 3, "Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God." The born again person sees what he could not see before. He sees the kingdom. He sees Christ. He sees sin. He sees grace. He sees eternity. He sees himself or herself for the first time in the mirror of God's law and recognizes who he really is.

Before, Christ was a religious or historical figure. Now, he is a savior. Before, sin was inconsequential. Now, it's sickening. Before, the Bible was just another book. Now, it's the voice of God. Before, eternity was abstract. Now, it's real. There is a new sight. Second, there is new and growing faith. New and growing faith. The newborn soul believes, not vaguely, not in general, not in Christian values, in Christ. 1 John 5, 1 says, "Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God." And hear this carefully. Faith is not the cause of the new birth. Faith is a fruit of the new birth. Faith is a fruit of the new birth.

Paul says in Ephesians 2, verses 8 and 9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this not of yourselves." It is the gift of God, not of works, so that no one may boast. The very faith we exercise to believe in Christ is a gift. We don't produce it. We can't produce it. Listen, without saving grace, saving faith would not exist. For saving faith is a gift of saving grace. Let me say that again. Without saving grace, saving faith would not exist. For saving faith is a gift of saving grace. We believe because God has made us alive and given us faith. The first cry of a newborn soul is faith in Christ.

Just as a baby cries because it has life, even so the Regenerate Sinner cries out to Christ because God has given life and faith. Third, there is a new and growing repentance. A new and growing repentance. The Regenerate Person sees sin differently. Before, sin may have been inconvenient. It may have been embarrassing. It may have had consequences. Or more likely, it wasn't even something thought about very much. But now, sin is seen as a crime against God. It grieves the soul. It offends the new nature. It interrupts fellowship. It makes the believer uncomfortable.

I'll tell you, folks, in my law enforcement days, I lost count of how many people I dealt with who were absolutely torn up. Tears, apologies, promises. But you talk to them six months later and they're sitting in the same chair telling the same story. They never hated the sin. They hated the consequence. And there's a difference. The born-again man or woman begins to hate sin, not just the consequences, because it's against God. He or she begins to say with David in Psalm 51, "Against you and you only have I sinned, O God." Fourth, there's a new and growing love for Christ. A new and growing love for Christ.

The new birth makes Christ precious to a person. It makes Christ precious. The regenerate person doesn't merely want heaven. He wants Christ. He or she doesn't merely want to escape from hell but reconciliation with God. He does not merely want the peace that comes with a clean conscience. He wants the Savior. Fifth, there's a new and growing hunger for the Word. A new and growing hunger for the Word. Peter says in 1 Peter 1 that we are born again through the living and abiding Word of God.

Then he turns right around in chapter 2 and says, "Like newborn babies, long for the pure milk of the Word." The Word that God used as the instrument of life becomes the food by which that life is nourished. Let me say that again. The Word that God used as the instrument of life becomes the food by which that life is nourished. The Bible is no longer merely a religious book. It's the very voice of God to the soul. There's a new appetite, a new teachability, a new submission, a new eagerness to be taught, corrected, and sanctified. Sixth, there's a new and growing love for the brethren. A new and growing love for the brethren.

1 John 3, 14 says we know that we have passed out of death into life. Why? Because we love the brothers. The one who does not love abides in death. If you've been born again, you love the church. Period. Not perfectly, not without conflict, but truly. There is a new and growing affection for the people of God. A new concern, a new unity, a new desire to worship with them, serve them, forgive them, protect them, bear with them, and belong with them. Seventh, there's a new and escalating or growing war against sin. A new and escalating or growing war against sin. Listen carefully.

1 John 3 speaks of the one born of God as not, quote, "practicing sin." Now, to be sure, John is not teaching sinless perfection. He's already said in chapter 1 that if we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves. What John is saying is that a true Christian cannot continue in sin as the settled, unbroken pattern of his or her life. The new birth does not make sin impossible in a believer's life, but it does make peace with sin impossible. Folks, where the Spirit gives life, he also creates war. There's now a conflict in the soul. Paul describes it in Romans, chapter 7.

The believer hates the sin he or she sometimes does, fights the sin that tries to master him or her, grieves when he or she falls, repents when he or she sins, and runs back to the cross. A person who has no war against sin is a person who has no life from God. Do you hear that? A person who has no war against sin is a person who has no life from God. 8. There is a new and growing obedience. A new and growing obedience. Not obedience as the root of life, obedience as the fruit of life. We do not obey in order to be born again. We obey because we've been born again.

We're not saved by obedience, folks, but the salvation that gives life produces obedience. Ephesians 2.10 says we were created in Christ to obediently walk in the good works he laid out for us before the universe was made. 9. There is ever increasing or growing overcoming of the world. There is ever increasing or growing overcoming of the world. 1 John 5.4. For everything that has been born of God overcomes the world. The born again person is no longer finally governed by the world's values, the world's approval, the world's fears, the world's pleasures, or the world's definition.

He or she may feel the pull, may be tempted, may stumble, but he or she is no longer at home there. The world is no longer his or her native country. He or she has been born from above. And 10. There is growing perseverance unto glory. There is growing perseverance unto glory. The life God gives us is not temporary life. It is eternal life.

Christ said in John chapter 10, "My sheep hear my voice and I know them, and they follow me, and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish ever." Paul says in 1 Thessalonians chapter 5 verses 23 and 24, "Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." Listen, "Faithful is He who calls you, who also will do it." God will do it. God does not regenerate a soul and then lose it. He does not make a child alive and then abandon that child to death. The same grace that gives life keeps life.

The same spirit who awakens also seals. The same shepherd who calls his sheep also holds onto his sheep in his almighty grasp. And the new birth is the beginning of a new life that will one day be perfected. 1 Peter 1 verses 3 through 5 says, "Blessed be the God and the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to obtain an inheritance incorruptible and undefiled, unfading, having been kept in heaven for you who are, listen, protected by the power of God through faith for a salvation ready to be revealed in the last time." And notice, Peter has his own word for this.

Anaganato, to beget again. He's the only New Testament writer who uses it. And notice who does the begetting. God has caused us to be born again. Caused. There's the sovereignty of God. The remedy we discuss one more time in a single word. The new mirth is not merely about what happened behind you. It's also about what lies ahead of you. It's the beginning of eternal life. It's the first fruits of glory. It is God starting a work that He promises He will finish.

Now, church, having said all that, I want to do something with you that the Apostle Paul commanded the Corinthian church to do in 2 Corinthians 13.5, where he said, "Test yourselves to see if you're in the faith. Examine yourselves. Or do you not recognize about yourselves that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed you fail the test?" Examine yourselves, friends. This is both a challenge and a possible encouragement. It's a challenge because some of you in this room have never honestly examined yourselves. Maybe you've walked an aisle. Perhaps you've signed a card.

You may have been baptized, raised in a church, served in various roles, taught a class or two. You could quote the Romans Road, but you've never stopped, looked at the marks of a new birth and asked, "Are these evidences true of me?" And it could be an encouragement because some of you in this room have lived under a cloud of doubt for years wondering if you're really saved. And I want you to know when you find the evidence of new birth in your life, however weak, however imperfect, however inconsistent, those evidences become ground for assurance. Do you see that? I can't give you assurance. I don't want to try. It's not my job or my place.

But the Holy Spirit can do that, and I pray that where appropriate, He will. The same examination that warns the false professor comforts the true believer. I said the same examination that warns the false professor comforts the true believer. So here are some questions. Do you have new sight? Do you see Christ more and more clearly as you study His Word? Do you see sin as more and more as enmity against God? Do you have new and growing faith? Not faith in faith, not faith in a decision you made, faith in the biblical Christ, Son of God, crucified, risen, sufficient, and faith in His completed work? Do you have a new and growing repentance?

Do you increasingly grieve over your sin against God, not just against the painful or inconvenient consequences of that sin? Do you have a new and growing love for Christ? Is He more and more precious to you? More precious than heaven itself? Do you have a new and growing hunger for the Word? Is the Bible necessary food to you? Or is it just furniture? Or even just something you put on top of furniture? Do you have a new and growing love for the brethren? Do you genuinely love God's people more and more, even when they're inconvenient? Are you quick to forgive others? Or are you offended by the slightest thing and hold on to grudges?

Do you have new and growing war against sin? Or do you make peace with it, defend it, excuse it, or only notice it in other people and never in yourself? Do you have a new and growing obedience? Not perfect obedience, but real sincere obedience. Do you desire more and more to obey? Not to earn anything, but because you are grateful to Christ? Do you overcome the world more and more? Or does the world still own you? And finally, are you persevering? Still walking? Still trusting? Still hoping? Because you're persevering is based on God's work of preserving you and keeping you. So consider these questions carefully, friends.

Really consider them carefully and prayerfully before God. Now listen, some sincere believers in this room hear those questions and immediately begin to fear a little bit. You may say, "But my faith is weak." Yes, but is it in Christ? It's not the strength of your faith that matters most, but Christ's strength, not your hold on Him, but His hold on you. You may say, "But my repentance is imperfect." Okay, but do you hate the sin you once loved? You might say, "But my love for Christ is not what it should be." Of course it's not. No one's is. But do you grieve that it's not what it should be?

You might say, "But my obedience is inconsistent." Probably so. But do you desire to obey your Lord? You may say, "But I still struggle." Sure you do. But folks, hear me now. Dead men do not struggle against sin. Dead men do not struggle against sin. MacArthur describes that struggle as, quote, "a raging conflict that never existed before we came to Christ and never ceased since." So the struggle that discourages you just might be the very evidence of life. Church, listen. Don't confuse immaturity with the absence of life. A newborn baby is immature, but he's alive.

And at the same time, and on the other hand, just as dangerously, do not confuse religious activity with life. Because, and this is sobering, a corpse can be dressed up for church. A spiritually dead man can read a Bible. A spiritually dead woman can sing hymns. A dead person can know doctrine. A dead man can be orthodox in his vocabulary and unregenerate in his soul. That's exactly why Jesus says to Nicodemus, "You must be born again." Because if anyone could have been tempted to trust in religion, it was Nicodemus. And if anyone could have been tempted to assume he was already safe, it was him.

But Jesus loved him enough to cut through every false refuge. You must be born again, Nicodemus. So as we conclude this morning, we've looked at the requirement of the new birth, the remedy of the new birth, and the results of the new birth, or the necessity, the cause, and the effects of the new birth. The requirement is that you and I, apart from grace, are dead in trespasses and sins, hostile toward God, unable to please him, unable to seek him, carrying around hearts so deceitful, we can't even diagnose ourselves. Free to choose what we want, but with a broken, corrupted wanter.

And we do not and cannot want righteousness apart from the new birth. The remedy is that God himself has acted from above, by his Spirit, we cannot whistle for him and make him come, when he comes when he wills, to whom he wills, through the work of Christ, lifted up like a serpent in the wilderness, that whoever believes in him would have eternal life. The corpse at the bottom of the ocean doesn't rescue himself, God dives down, God breathes life, God raises the dead. And the results are that wherever God gives this new life, growth follows. It cannot not follow.

New sight, new faith, new repentance, new love for Christ, new hunger for the Word, new love for the brethren, new war against sin, new obedience, new victory, new perseverance unto glory. So the question I asked you this morning is not whether born again is your label. The question is whether God has given you life. The question is not whether you're part of a religious demographic. The question is whether you've been born from above. It's not whether you can explain the new birth. The question is whether the Spirit has done what only the Spirit can do.

And folks, to the sinner in this room who knows he or she has not been made alive in Christ, hear me and hear me carefully. You cannot make yourself born again. You're right about that. The corpse can't swim or even breathe or even move or do a thing. You cannot whistle for the Spirit any more than you can whistle for the wind and make it come to you. But you are being commanded right now to look to Christ and live. Look to the Son of Man, lift it up for sinners. He's not a life preserver to grab. He's a crucified Savior to behold. Look to Him, believe on Him, cry out to Him, cast yourself upon Him.

Do not try to climb into heaven by your own works. Do not try to produce spiritual life by religious effort. Do not try to clean yourself enough to be accepted. Rather, look to Christ and do it now. Because everyone, everyone who truly looks to Christ will discover that the wind of God has already been blowing. Because the new birth is not man making himself better, it's God making the dead alive. And when God gives life, He gives it in Christ. Only in Christ, always in Christ, forever in Christ. Let's pray.