John 3:1-8
“The True Gospel: We Must Be Born Again”
Good morning.
Pray with me?
I’m going to preach the gospel today. Some of you might be thinking…the gospel? Why the gospel? I have several reasons:
1) I think we miss the gospel as just a four-step program; a prayer we pray after we cry; or a walk down an aisle we took when we were six. The gospel is, as the Apostle Paul says, the POWER of GOD for salvation. As a result, I preach the gospel because I’m a dying man, preaching a living word to dying men. We stand at the brink of eternity, and I don’t care about how you feel or your self-esteem…I care whether you will go to heaven or hell when you die.
2) We live like people who aren’t justified by faith alone. There’s still too much fear here of man—“what will my friends think” comes before the pecking order, over “what does God think?”
Turn with me to John 3:1-15
John 3:1-15 ESV Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. (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 signs that you do unless God is with him." (3) Jesus answered him, "Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot see the
Imagine we’re in a doctor’s office because you were in science class and some chemical spilled and got all over your arm, but you wiped it up and told nobody. Then, a rash broke out on your arm. Two situations: Situation 1: After the doctor sees you and does tests, he walks into the room and states, “All you need is a band aid and some ointment.” What would we say about the problem? Situation 2: The doctor does tests and walks into the room and states, “We need to cut your arm off.” The remedy shows the magnitude of the problem.
Or, if the
We’re going to look first at the remedy Jesus points us to, and then use that to see our desperate problem.
Born Again
Now, what is the remedy that Jesus points to? We must be born again, and we see this twice—in verse 3 and verse 7.
In verse 7, we see Jesus telling Nicodemus (and all of us), “You must be born again.”
If we were to take the phrase literally, it means “regenerated from above.”
What does regeneration mean? According to Webster’s first Dictionary in 1828, it means “to renew the heart by a change of affections; to change the heart and affections from natural hatred to the love of God; to implant holy affections in the heart.”
The Apostle Paul hits this beautifully in 2 Corinthians 5:17: Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.
Ok, now hear this. Jesus is not talking about adding a little bit of Jesus into your life. He’s not talking about cleaning up a little bit of your life. He’s talking about a new life.
What is key is that we are born from above. This is not a work that we do, otherwise we would not need the power of God to do it.
So, the remedy that Jesus Christ demands is that we be born again. In short, get a new life.
If the remedy is that we must be made new, then we have a big problem.
Our Problem
Let me give you a reality check. We have a HUGE problem. And let me change the word problem to problems. We have huge problems. I see at least ten in Scripture:
1) We are dead. (Ephesians 2:1-2—And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked.)
· Dead people don’t raise themselves from the dead…unless they are God.
· Lazarus did not participate in his resurrection. Jesus did it.
2) We are, by nature, children of wrath. It’s natural for us to sin! (Ephesians 2:3—we were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind)
· It’s my nature. I don’t just do bad things. In the words of Piper, John Piper is bad. I’m bad. I am bad.
· Some of you know my story—what God pulled me out of.
· I don’t need that story any more. I just need to look at myself and think about where I’d be right now if God hadn’t changed my life.
3) We love darkness and hate the light (John 3:19—And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil.)
4) We have a heart of stone. (Ezekiel 36:26—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.)
· Bring a 10 foot statue in here and I could punch it and throw things at it and it will never feel anything. Why? It’s stone!
· But you bring me in a man and I could grab him in such a way that he would be crying to his mommy. Why? Flesh. Flesh feels. It hurts. It experiences things.
· The Bible tells us that apart from GOD doing this, we will always have a heart of stone. Unfeeling, uncaring, unable to go to God.
· If Time Permits (Emphasize “I”): Ezekiel 36:21-29 ESV But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of
5) We hate God and will not submit to God (Romans 8:7—For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot.)
6) We are unable to accept anything that comes from God, which includes the gospel (1 Corinthians
7) We are slaves to sin (Romans 6:17—you who were once slaves of sin; John 8:34-- Jesus answered them, "Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is a slave to sin.)
· What that means is that you have no choice. You are completely and totally enslaved to sin. You cannot free yourself.
8) Slaves of Satan (Eph 2: 2—following the prince of the power of the air)
9) Children of the devil. (John 8:44You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father's desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.)
· It is one thing to be a slave to Satan; it is a whole other thing to be a child of Satan.
10) No good thing dwells in me (Romans
Our Problem, Distilled
Here is our natural condition:
We’re dead, children of wrath, who love darkness and hate the light, filled with a heart of stone, God-hating, unwilling to submit to God, unable to accept the things of God, slaves of sin, slaves of Satan, children of Satan, and frankly, not good at all.
In telling you this, I’m actually loving you. I’m not about your self-esteem. I could care less about how you feel right now. I care entirely too much about where you stand before the God of the universe.
Think about this: God told galaxies to go where they were supposed to go and they obeyed and stay there today. God told the Sun to be exactly where it’s supposed to be and it went there and obeyed. All the planets orbit the sun according to the will and work of God. But he tells you to obey him and what do you do—NO!
And for our total disobedience, God has all the right to send us to hell and to the wrath of God. But some think God won’t show wrath. Why? Because God is love? Yes, God is love, but God must also be just.
Imagine you go home to your house tonight and somebody’s there. He’s broken into your house, and he kills your entire family in front of your eyes. You tackle the person to the ground and take him to the police. The judge sees the evidence and says, “He’s guilty, I see it. But, to show how much I love, I’m going to let him go.” How would you feel? I’d be furious! I’d write to the president—I’d demand justice! Get this judge off the bench! We would feel the same with God if he were unjust.
God cannot be unjust. It goes against his nature.
And if God cannot be unjust, he must punish sin. And if you don’t buy the 10 problems I pointed to in Scipture, let me just ask you this—if I were to film your life, with your thoughts as the director’s cut commentary, and show the DVD in front of all the people in this room, how would you react?
I’ll tell you—you would react with such rage. You’d come up here, rip the DVD out of my hands, and rip it up into a million pieces. You’d do this because you know in your heart that you are evil. However, if you’d laugh and buy the popcorn for us all to watch your life, I’d say this about you—you’re even worse. Your conscience has been seared. You don’t have even the remorse of your wickedness.
Oh teenager, you must be born again.
In response to Jesus’ words, Nicodemus asked, in John 3:9, “"How can these things be?"
Jesus answers in verses 14-15, “(14) And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, (15) that whoever believes in him may have eternal life.”
Christ was pointing forward to that day when he would be lifted up—and lifted upon a cross. Christ bore the weight of your sin on the cross. If I had time, we’d go through it all, but instead, I’ll just read it:
Rom 3:23-26 ESV For all have sinned [The DVD of your life] and fall short of the glory of God, (24) and are justified [declared righteous—or in the courtroom, not guilty!] by his grace [God is love!] as a gift, through the redemption [you were bought with a price] that is in Christ Jesus, (25) whom God put forward as a propitiation [Satisfied the wrath of God] by his blood, to be received by faith. This was to show God's righteousness, because in his divine forbearance [patience] he had passed over former sins. (26) It was to show his righteousness at the present time, so that he might be just [and God is JUST!—your salvation is not unjust; it might not be fair, and it certainly isn’t what you deserve, but GOD IS JUST in saving you—because CHRIST BORE YOUR SIN ON THE CROSS!] and the justifier of the one who has faith in Jesus.
See, on the cross, when Jesus died, the wrath of God was satisfied for YOUR SIN, if only you would have it!
(2 Corinthians 5:21) For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
Oh, see the gospel. See how evil you really are. See how God’s wrath is coming. And see how God made a way, in love, through Christ. See Christ’s blood as the forgiveness of your sin. See Christ rising triumphant! See God saving you from His wrath. See Christ’s righteousness becoming your righteousness! Oh, see it. May it be your life!
And if, as you’ve heard the gospel, your heart has jumped within you, here’s what I want you to do. Don’t stand, so that you can put on a show. Don’t repeat a little prayer after me. Don’t walk down the aisle. Don’t pray a two-second prayer.
Here’s what I want you to do. Do what the Bible demands:
1) Repent. Confess your sin. Hate your sin. Turn away from your sin.
2) And run to Christ. He’s not merely all you need. He’s all you have.
Let’s pray
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