Except Ye Are Born Anew

[00:00:00] Speaking this morning about the coming again of the Lord Jesus. [00:00:06] And I'm not going to go on from what we were saying this morning now, although the Lord will in the after time, we are going to answer quite a number of questions that have been asked, discuss them together about the coming again of the Lord Jesus Christ and particularly how it relates to us in our day. That will be in the after time. [00:00:34] But now I want you to note in the gospel of John, I'll read it to you if you don't want to turn to it. A very well known little scripture in John chapter three, and in verse three, the Lord Jesus said unto him, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except one, be born again or born anew, he cannot seek the kingdom of God. [00:01:19] We were saying this morning, we were pointing out this morning, that whilst we do not wish in any way to add to the general panic and fear that exists in so many quarters, we must at the same time take into account the very simple fact that in the last hundred years the whole face of the world and of humanity has changed. [00:01:56] And whilst for thousands of years, in principle, human life had existed the same along the same lines, suddenly all within less than a century, everything has been discovered, has been invented, that has turned human life inside out for thousands of years. The horse was the method of transport, the carriage was something. Oh, there was advance in design and some other major discoveries that were made about wheels and axles and so on. But on the whole it was still the same. [00:02:41] Even today. If you go, as I have lived in the Middle east, you will see the age old methods that have been in use for thousands and thousands and thousands of years. Oh, just a little bit of advance here and there, perhaps another notch out of the plow in another place. But in principle, the thing is still the same. [00:03:01] It's been the same for thousands of years. And then within one century, everything has happened which has changed the whole face of the world and has brought the whole inhabited earth together within a few hours distance from one another. [00:03:21] So that no longer can some little civil war on the other side of the earth be isolated. But if there is something like that, it could lead almost immediately to a world war. [00:03:37] And there are many other things that we could point out, all kinds of signs and evidences that the human race, whatever there are, whatever is said by some optimists amongst us, the human race cannot last for very much longer. [00:03:58] All points to the need of some divine intervention which will wind up the state of things as we know them today and will bring in that state for which men and women have yearned and longed for for thousands of years, will bring in that which we can only describe as absolute peace and absolute satisfaction. [00:04:31] If you were to look today at the world situation, I think you would have to agree with me that whatever excuse we can make in one way or another, generally speaking, we have got to admit that there is something uncanny about the way in which everything has been discovered. And the great leaps forward that there have been in the last few years. [00:05:03] You know as well as I do that we have now in the possession of human beings weapons that can destroy the whole world within a few seconds. We have bombs that can destroy over a quarter of the surface of the world within a matter of a second from their explosion. [00:05:27] And all those things in the scriptures, about a third of the trees of the earth being burnt up, a third of the green grass being withered, a third of the sea being poisoned, and water becoming contaminated so that it destroys human beings. You can't see what is contaminating it, but it gets into the very water itself. And destroys many people and many other things. Strange plagues and pestilence and all the rest of it. Heavens. The heavens being on fire, being dissolved with fervent heat. I'm not very old, but, you know, a few years ago, when I was. When I first came to the Lord, we looked upon these things as absolute, miraculous things. [00:06:19] When we heard of that, one day they're going to be the end of the world. And everything was going to go up in smoke and fire we tended at school. I remember to think it all rather funny, something that somehow or other Washington belong to the middle ages. [00:06:37] Until we found out that man had then had discovered something which could do exactly that, set the heavens themselves on fire. [00:06:50] And cause the very elements to melt with a fervent heat. It speaks of things with great noise and so much else. [00:07:00] All those things are a background. [00:07:04] They are a background to just what I want to say this evening. I believe that we have got to understand more clearly than ever before what God's answer is to this world. [00:07:22] We must never make the mistake of thinking that in all the quests of man for peace, all his activities to somehow create peace, God has not spoken. [00:07:35] God has spoken again and again and again and again through the course of world history. He has broken in again and again to seek to warn men and women of that which is coming upon them. [00:07:53] And the result has always been the same. Man has always refused to listen. He has always turned aside and away from the voice of God. When our Lord Jesus came into this world, you know the story so well, the only thing they could do with him was to crucify him. [00:08:16] It is not as if God has not thought in one way or another to break into this world and to make known his answer. He has an answer. He has a complete answer, a wonderful answer, a practical answer. [00:08:36] It's the most amazing fact in history that God has an answer which is absolutely workable, an answer which can be applied to every single race and every single nation and every single individual, whatever they are, whatever their background, whatever their education, whatever their social standing, he has an answer which can be applied to the most cultured man and to the most ignorant man. He has an answer which can be applied to every state and stage of mandev in civilization and education. [00:09:17] And yet that answer has never, ever been truly accepted, ever. [00:09:28] And so this evening I want to speak to anyone who really, in these days, is reflecting. There are people who are reflecting, strangely enough, in the busy life that we lead. There are people who are really reflecting, and they are thinking, and they are concerned about what is happening on every side. And I want, with that background behind us and around every one of us, to just simply this evening, define something of God's own. What is God's answer to this world? Here it is, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. [00:10:22] That is the answer of God. He has never deviated from it. He has never changed it, and he has never compromised upon his answer. His answer is an age old answer, and it is the only answer that God has for this world. [00:10:44] Well, what do we really, what can we discover about the answer of God? Let me say first of this, God says very simply, you cannot change this world until you change the men that are in it. [00:11:02] You cannot change the world without changing the individuals that make up the world. [00:11:08] All this talk, this hypocritical nonsense about trying to get nations together and thought, unless you can get the individuals that make up the nation together, unless you can change them, you can't do anything else. [00:11:25] God has an answer which comes right down to the root of the problem. [00:11:30] He doesn't begin with the races. [00:11:32] He doesn't begin with the nations. He doesn't even begin with collections or groups of people. He starts with the individual. For the individual is the most elementary and basic unit of human society. [00:11:49] When you boil it right down to the last and ultimate analysis, the whole of human society is made up of units of human beings, of individuals, God says the only way that we can do anything about the world is first change human beings all very well for people to talk about racial riots, racial discrimination, it's all very well for people to talk about international tension and the rest of it. But it comes right down to this. How can you live with people? How do I live with people? How do I get on with the people that I live with? Can a husband and wife be together? [00:12:41] Can they live together harmoniously? Can they get through together? Can you get through with your employer? Can your employer get through with you? [00:12:50] It all comes down in the end to the most elementary principles. [00:12:56] You see, all that we call international tension, all that we call racial tension and difficulty is but the magnifying of something that can exist between two individuals. [00:13:14] When someone comes in and says to me, I don't like so and so, I say, why don't you like so and so? I just don't like so so. I don't like her manners, I don't like her character, I don't like her looks, I don't. I just don't like her. I can't get on with her. So I say, well, what do you do? How do you, how are you going to face the situation if you can't really get on with them? What are you going to do about it? How are you going to, what answer have you got? Or they say, we're just going to leave it. And I can see the least of her as possible. [00:13:53] And that ink principle is exactly the same as something far, far greater on a far higher level. When one nation decides it's not going to have anything to do with another nation, or one race doesn't like another race, doesn't like the habits of the other race, doesn't like the color of the other race, doesn't like the attitude of the others. And so it goes on. The Lord Jesus has an answer. His answer is absolutely elementary, but it is revolutionary. His answer is, change the individual. Change the individual. There is something inside the individual that has produced human history as we know it. [00:14:35] Perhaps some might think, oh, dear, isn't this all a little bit political and so on? Is it really? But the whole point is this. What is that which we call political and human life? [00:14:50] Only it happens to be on a higher level and scale than personal life. And we like to all talk about why can't statesmen get together and why can't nations get together when we won't come to face the issues of personally getting together with other people. [00:15:08] The real answer is inside of us. [00:15:12] And the answer that God would give us is to do something inside of us that somehow or other changes us, transforms us and gives us an answer. [00:15:28] I want to say that that is why the answer of God has been so thoroughly rejected. [00:15:35] People are prepared for a little bit of religion. They are prepared for a little bit of help or comfort that religion might give them. But they are not prepared to have the answer of God, which means the revolutionizing of their life inwardly. [00:15:55] You see, the Lord puts his finger upon that which has destroyed the human race and will destroy it in the end. That thing he calls sin, that's all sin, and that alone is the root of everything. From the beginning of human history, which has caused all the misery and all the sorrow, on the smallest level, the most personal level, right up to the greatest and most collective level. [00:16:27] It doesn't matter where you look. [00:16:31] That's the answer. [00:16:34] You see, when you really look into the word of God, that Lord Jesus has an answer alone to this whole question of sin. [00:16:51] If we are not prepared to have that in us dealt with, then we are not prepared for God's answer. And we must bear the judgment of God upon this race. [00:17:07] The scripture is very, very clear about sin and where it leads to. It tells us that it bears it has upon it already the wrath of God. [00:17:18] It will lead in the end to death and destruction, devastation. [00:17:24] The whole thing is reserved for some terrible, terrible end, unless we have this thing that we call sin dealt with. Now, the Lord says, the way he would answer everything, the way he is answering everything, is by getting down to the thing inside of each one of us and dealing with it, why we are what we are. God doesn't condemn us for it. He has an answer for it. He condemns us for not accepting the answer. [00:18:03] No man is condemned for being a sinner, but we are condemned for not accepting God's answer, so clear in the word of God, that Christ is God's answer to sin, the only answer that God has. [00:18:23] So you will see. First of all, I trust that when the Lord Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. [00:18:33] He was simply pointing out this one thing. Unless a man is born again, unless he's changed, unless he's transformed, there is no answer whatsoever to this world. [00:18:45] All the activities toward trying to unify people, all the activities of well, motivated to somehow alleviate the lot of the human race, must end, must end in failure. Sure as I stand here, there will not be peace in our time. Of course, how you will take me up on this, but I'm telling you the truth. You will discover that there will not be peace in our time. Every single human attempt toward peace is doomed to end in failure unless it finds as its basis the absolute change and transformation of the individual by Jesus Christ. [00:19:28] That is God's only answer. He calls the Lord Jesus the prince of peace. [00:19:34] Get man's civil war with God at an end. Bring man into peace with God, and then when you've done that, you'll have peace. [00:19:50] Well, God would start with changing. He changed the world by changing us. [00:19:56] And there's no good just looking at each other and trusting that each other would be changed. God says, I want to change you to change each one of you. Are you prepared for that answer? Because that's the gospel. That is the good news. There's no other answer but to be born of God's spirit. [00:20:16] The second thing you find about this is the Lord Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man and be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. [00:20:27] He is the only one able to change human beings. [00:20:34] We all have a wonderful influence on one another. [00:20:37] We can have a very great influence on one another, but none of us can inwardly change each other completely. [00:20:47] We have to, in the end, adjust to each other. We can't really change each other. But the Lord Jesus Christ is able to absolutely change human beings from the inside. Inwardly. [00:21:01] He is the only one. It is the most interesting fact that everyone who came to the Lord Jesus in the New Testament was a changed person as soon as they touched them, and as soon as he touched them, they were changed. [00:21:13] Some remarkable cases came to him and he changed them. And, you know, all down human history, it doesn't matter where you look, you will find the evidence is the same. You take John Newton. Who was John Newton? John Newton was a slave master. He spent his life going out to the West Africa and hounding to death men doomed for the life slavery. He took them over to the West Indies and sold them. If they died, it didn't matter at all. He couldn't care less. He was a hardened man. And then one day, God laid hold of John Newton and suddenly his sinfulness overcame him and he saw himself as a hardened, sinful criminal. In the sight of Goddesse, he pled with God. And God did something in John Newton which made him one of those names in the church that last to this day and were lost to all eternity. [00:22:24] What did God do with John Newton? He changed him from the inside so that the man who drove people to the death or into slavery became the great proclaimer of the liberty to all again and again and again. We could give you examples of men, women, some more dramatic, some more sensational, others quieter, but all who had been changed alone by the Lord Jesus Christ. [00:22:57] That's what the Lord Jesus does. [00:22:59] John Wesley, you know, was a minister. [00:23:03] He'd been trained as a minister. [00:23:07] He was in holy orders. [00:23:10] He went out as a missionary to Georgia. [00:23:13] He used to get up early every morning, very, very early, earlier than anyone in this room I think. [00:23:19] And along with the others who were called the Holy Club, they used to meet together for 2 hours every morning or so for prayer. [00:23:28] They fasted and they prayed. They had a passion for God and they did everything in their power to change themselves. [00:23:40] Very few of us would get up at the crack of dawn or before and spend an hour or two in fasting and prayer every day, year in and year out to seek to change ourselves and purify ourselves and make ourselves or what we could consider to be acceptable christians. [00:24:02] John Wesley went out to Georgia. [00:24:05] He preached to the Indians, he preached to the settlers and his experience broke him and he came back a failure to this country, a missionary who had failed. [00:24:21] And when he came back to London he somehow found his way into a little tiny meeting place in the city. [00:24:30] And he heard a young man, a German, a Moravian, reading Martin Luther's preface to his commentary on Galicia. [00:24:44] And he said as he sat there and listened to what it meant to be justified by the grace of God through faith in the Lord Jesus, he said a kindling came into my heart and John Wesley was saved on the inside. [00:25:03] He was a minister, he was a missionary, he preached to others, but he wasn't a child of God. [00:25:08] And from that moment I was born in this country. The great, great move of the Holy Spirit swept so many thousands into the kingdom of God. Something happened inside. The Lord Jesus got on the inside. It was no longer just him, it was no longer John Wesley trying to change himself and make himself a Christian. The Lord Jesus got on the inside and did something on the inside. [00:25:31] And Lord Jesus is the only one who is able to change people. [00:25:36] How is he able to change you and me? For two very simple reasons. [00:25:42] One, because he died. [00:25:45] That's all. [00:25:46] You think it's a strange thing how anyone could change us because he died. [00:25:51] The Lord Jesus is able to change us because he died. How is he able to change us? He is able to change us because he became the sin that has destroyed humanity. [00:26:02] When he died, he became the very thing that destroyed humanity. [00:26:09] He died in our place. He bore in his own body our sin on the tree. [00:26:16] No wonder John could say of him, behold the lamb of God who beareth away the sin of the world. [00:26:22] How can the Lord Jesus change us by his death? Once you and I believe in the death of the Lord Jesus for us in our place, once we open our hearts to it, to take it to us, God is able to do something in us. [00:26:38] And also, I might say, he is able to change us because he is alive. [00:26:43] It is not only that he died in our place, but he is alive forevermore. And because he is alive, he is able to come into us by the Holy Spirit and live a new life inside of us. [00:26:57] How can the Lord Jesus change us? Because he himself can transmit to us a nature. He can bring to birth a nature in us. He can plant the seed of his own nature within us and cause it to grow up into his own likeness. What is a Christian? A Christian is not someone who's religious. A Christian is not someone who's born in this country. A Christian is not someone who even believes the creed. The scriptures themselves say the devils believe the creed they believe doesn't hate them. Christian. What is a Christian? A Christian is someone who's been saved by the grace of God alone. [00:27:41] The Lord Jesus has got onto the inside because they have abandoned themselves to him. [00:27:51] That's a question. [00:27:53] The only answer you and I have got in this world, with all its terrible future in front of it, is to be joined to God. That's the only answer. If you and I, by God's grace, can be joined to him and become his children by birth. God will take care of us. God will save us. God will deliver us. [00:28:20] Some people do not believe that the world should be judged. But I beg to differ. [00:28:28] Some of you want to. You've only got to go to any library and take out a few books upon the last 20 years and you will discover that the crimes of the last 20 years are unbelievable. [00:28:47] Unbelievable. [00:28:49] Forget what is happening today in the earth. 20 million innocent men, women and children were put to death in concentration camps in Europe alone. [00:29:02] And since 1950 to 1956, 20 million innocent men, women and children were liquidated on the mainland of China. [00:29:12] 20 million people this century has seen the biggest bloodbaths of history. [00:29:25] And you tell me that this world is not heading for the most terrible judgment? [00:29:30] Do you think the world with so much blood on its hands can get away? [00:29:36] No. The long suffering of God not willing that any should perish. That every one of us should come to repentance, should find the answer. Before that deluge of God's judgment falls upon this human race, he would have every single one who would be saved. Come out from. Come out. Come out. [00:29:59] Why do you think the prophet's cry would flee? We laugh at it. I used to laugh at it as a child. Flee from the wrath to come until I understood what it meant. Prepare to meet thy God. What does it mean? The prophet had seen something. Had seen something. He saw that God can hold his hand. God can bide his time. God can afford to wait. Sometimes it seems as if injustice and wickedness and evil are triumphant and on top and get away with it pays biggest dividends. But in the end, God's judgment will come. [00:30:43] No, you and I have no hope. If we belong to this race, we have only one hope to get out of it. [00:30:50] We must live in the world, said John. But we must not be part of it. We must get out. [00:30:55] We must flee from it somehow or other. We've got to find God. We've got to become united to him. We've got to be born of him. We've got to become his children. And once that happens, God will take care of us. Don't worry. Don't worry. God is going to make the most wonderful provision. Some people smile at the story of Noah. It's a wonderful story. [00:31:18] God warned the whole world and the whole race for 100 years that something's going to happen at the end of it, and the whole thing was going to be judged in water. And no one listened. They went on, says the Lord Jesus himself, when he referred to it, eating and drinking and giving in marriage, saying, ho do bisilvere. But Noah and his family, they prepared for that day. And when the judgment came, Noah and his family were saved. [00:31:49] When the judgment of God at last falls upon this earth, everyone who's taken refuge in the Lord Jesus Christ will be saved. Everyone. [00:32:00] You need not fear. [00:32:02] God is not a harsh, severe God who delights in judgment. God would save every single one who would even make a half gesture toward coming to him. [00:32:17] He does not willingly judge. But God is holy and God is righteous. [00:32:24] And so I want you to see that if you and I have got the Lord Jesus living within us, then we become part of God himself. We become the family of God. And in becoming the family of God, we have a future. [00:32:41] Peter wrote to them and said, we don't look. Oh, this is going to be dissolved in fire. It's going to melt with fervent heat. But he said, that's all right. [00:32:50] We look for a new heaven and a new earth wherein dwelleth righteously. [00:32:57] Well, there you are. Those are two things I've said to you this evening. I trust that they will help. I would like to add just one last. [00:33:06] I have said that the way the Lord Jesus would change this world is to change each one of us. First, that's the way he begins with us. Are we prepared for it? And secondly, the Lord Jesus himself is the only one who is able to change. Only one. No human being can do it. He can do it. How can he do it? Because he died for us. [00:33:28] A divine exchange has taken place. He took our sin on himself and he can give us his righteousness. He took our nature into himself and he can give us his nature. [00:33:41] Our nature is all I selfishness. [00:33:46] His nature of all God. [00:33:49] When he gives us his nature, we find we've got God at the heart of our lives. [00:33:56] Self has got to be dealt with all the time. But it's out. [00:34:01] God has come in. [00:34:04] But how does it happen? [00:34:07] How can you and I become a child of God? [00:34:10] We become children of God by faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Paul said, by grace, have you been saved through grace and that not of yourselves? Through faith that is not of your and that not of yourself? It is the gift of God. [00:34:26] Gift of God. [00:34:27] What is faith? [00:34:32] Faith is when I see something, I believe it and I commit myself to it. [00:34:48] What is faith? [00:34:51] Faith is not only believing with the mind, but it's believing with the heart. [00:35:01] You believe the Lord Jesus died for you. You say, yes. [00:35:05] Do you believe that the Lord Jesus died in your personal place for you? By name? [00:35:13] You say, I can hardly believe it, but I do believe it. I said, do you believe the Lord Jesus is able to save you now? Willing to save you now? I believe that he is able, and I believe that he's willing. If he wanted to. [00:35:29] Then I say to you, faith is when you open your heart and your life and surrender yourself to the Lord Jesus. [00:35:43] It's not just believing something that happened 2000 years ago. It is surrendering yourself to a living Christ. [00:35:50] Can you surrender yourself to a living Christ? [00:35:57] If you can surrender yourself to a living Christ then I might say he will save you. [00:36:10] The Lord Jesus said, verily, verily, I say unto you, except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God. [00:36:25] We must ask ourselves a question. [00:36:28] Am I born anew? [00:36:32] Am I born of God? [00:36:37] Do I really, am I really child in God's family. [00:36:46] May the Lord just help us very definitely to be able to answer simply and sincerely that question in our own hearts.