In the sermon titled 'You Must Be Born Again,' Pastor James Lundquist expounds on John 3:1-10, focusing on the interaction between Jesus and Nicodemus. The sermon underscores the necessity of being born again to enter the kingdom of God, emphasizing that this spiritual rebirth is not within human control but is a work of God's grace and Spirit. Nicodemus, a Pharisee and a teacher of Israel, approaches Jesus by night, acknowledging Jesus' divine authority due to the signs He performed. Jesus tells Nicodemus that unless one is born again, they cannot see the kingdom of God, which leaves Nicodemus puzzled. The sermon explores the concept of being 'born of water and the Spirit,' explaining that it is a complete transformation that only God can initiate. Pastor Lundquist highlights that this new birth is not about external moralism or religious status but a profound inner change wrought by the Holy Spirit. The sermon also warns against the misuse of the term 'born again' and encourages the congregation to embrace its biblical significance. Throughout the sermon, there's an emphasis on the helplessness of human effort to achieve salvation without divine intervention and the necessity of God's grace to transform a sinful heart into a new creation.

Turn to John chapter 3, please. I'll be reading verses 1 through 10 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 say to you, you must be born again. The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it that cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who is 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 know these things? Let's pray. Father, we read these things but have no ability to do anything about it without the power of your Spirit. Holy Spirit, we ask that you would demonstrate your power today by causing people to be born again.

Lord we don't want to just read about this and think this is a nice idea. We want to see this in action. God We want to see souls saved. We want to see your power on display. Lord, we love watching parades and seeing splendor on display.

We want to see Christ full center today that we might fall down and worship you, that we might see your power to take a dead heart and make it something new and beautiful. Holy Spirit, we give full yield to you. Lord, would you bless the preaching of your word. God, you say that the Gospel is the means of salvation. God, would You demonstrate that today by saving souls.

Give us ears to hear Your Word. In Jesus' name, Amen. I believe that this morning we saw or seen one of the effects of church life together from men's study through Wednesday night, through people discipling their families. You listen to the prayers this morning, it's just hitting me. The church has taken this text seriously.

Not that you take any other text, not seriously, but you hear the prayers of pleading for people to be born again. And one, it just encourages me so much, and I'm sure Jason, to hear those kind of prayers. Because you may god have been preparing people's hearts they'd be born again or you'd be encouraged if you are born again already looking at john three one through eight I had verses nine and ten rex all I'll bring those in as well although that's part of the focus of next week. This title, You Must Be Born Again. It shouldn't be a surprise.

Any of you probably could have given that title a long time ago. But it's true, you must be born again. The hard thing is you can't make that happen. We'll see that. But John 3, 1-21 especially, is one of the most important passages in all of Scripture, this discourse that Jesus has with Nicodemus.

George Whitefield preached on verse 3, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of heaven. He preached on that over 300 times. George Whitefield did. Yes, he was asked why so many times. He said, for the simple reason that you must be born again.

Not too profound, But that's it. You must be born again. John 3 deals with the new birth, regeneration, new life, salvation, and it's such an important doctrine. Since it's such an important doctrine, you shouldn't be surprised that it is a hated doctrine. When you say hated doctrine, you might think, yeah, of those that aren't born again, of those outside the church, but also of some inside the church.

We'll see. Because, You Must Be Born Again says that there's only one way. There's no alternatives, no exceptions. Also what we're going to see is you can't make it happen. There are no steps, no control.

You are only at God's complete grace and mercy to be born again. So the world and people with still sin in us, we just kind of push back at not having control of anything. It's a phrase that is often misused. Being born again. It's often misused by evangelists.

We know it's been misused by evangelists or in books that saying, here are the steps, here's how to be born again, this is what you must do. It's in altar calls, come be born again. So it's misused and because of its misuse, we often even avoid it. You don't hear that language. I confess we've probably said it more this morning and maybe Wednesday night we started and last Monday morning, then maybe in all the years we've been together, we've used this phrase.

People say, born again Christian, right? We hear that phrase. No, no. A Christian is born again. If you're born again, you are a Christian.

May we use this phrase more. May this text cause us to use it more. Be born again. You must be born again. And unless you're born again, you will not see the Kingdom of God.

May that inform and help us in all of our evangelist opportunities, and all of our teaching of our children. Let's bring that back. Let's use it. It's not bringing it back. Let's use it.

It's in Scripture. Born again. Regenerate. Are you regenerate? Are you born again?

Verses, are you saved? That is part of it. Are you born again? We'll get into what all that encompasses. Now, I trust you know I love you and want to care for you.

And this is a text that can come across hard. And it needs to be hard. To some people especially. But to those that are my brethren, you are born again. Please, my desire is not to cause any doubting you.

Not a bit. Not a bit. I want to care for you and I want you to be encouraged and if anything I want you to just be more amazed that God would love you that He would be gracious to you when we go through this. To those that are not born again, though, those that are not born again, and as we go through this message, you might be someone that's saying, I'm born again now, but by the end, may God be gracious to you, and If you're not born again, show you that you're really not. But if you're not born again, my prayer has been that you would come to the end of yourself, that you would lose all hope in yourself, that you would come to the end completely hopeless and to the point where God has been drawing you and would make you born again.

When I preached on John 1, 1 and 2, the end, I had an application. Know the exceeding sinfulness of sin. And I quoted Ryle. He said, let us mark what kind of being the Redeemer of mankind must need be in order to provide eternal redemption for sinners. If no one less than the Eternal God, the Creator and Preserver of all things could take away the sin of the world.

Sin must be far more an abominable thing in the sight of God than most men suppose. If Christ is so great, then sin must indeed be sinful." We're going to see in this passage, we're going to talk about one that you must be born again. It's going to come, I pray, I pray it comes clear, just how abominable you were and how much grace it took, how great a sacrifice it took to get you from what you were to being born again. It took a mighty miracle of God, the power of God for that to happen. May you see more just how abominable sin was and how great, exceedingly, the riches of God's grace is.

I need to pray. Oh God, we beg you to care for us now. I beg you to care for those that are your sheep, that they would see you being cared for. Oh take my words God, and transform them into words that would be heard by the power of your Spirit. That truth is heard and encouragement is heard to your sheep.

To those that aren't born again God, I pray that those that you have elected from eternity past. We pray that you are calling them now and that they'll be born again and that we will see the effects of that by them crying out in faith. Oh God, please Help us all to see your truth be encouraged and to know your grace. In Jesus' name, amen. You can see in your outline how we're going to go through this.

We're going to talk about first Nicodemus coming to Jesus. Talk about you must be born again. And then we will end with how is one born again. So let's start in verses 1 and 2. Nicodemus comes to Jesus.

It says, 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. So who is Nicodemus? We only see Nicodemus here in John in the Gospels. We only see him here in John. And we're not going to see him again until chapter 7 and chapter 19.

And I'll leave those interactions for later of what happens there. But in Israel there are three primary religious groups that we see in Scripture. You still have the Levites and priests, and those were given by God to be rulers and teachers in Israel. But outside of scripture, Israel has really set up three different types of rulers. You have the Sadducees, who are the elite.

They're the wealthy elite. These are religious leaders. The wealthy elite, they tend to decide with Rome. They didn't believe in the resurrection, they don't believe in demons, they don't believe in angels. You have the Sadducees.

You have the Herodians, another group of religious leaders. They're mostly political. They heavily weigh towards the Herod's, the kings, hence they're called the Herodians. They heavily submit to the political authority for political gain. They're pragmatists.

Really are pragmatists. Then you have the Pharisees. This is Nicodemus. This is also who Paul, when he was Saul, he belonged to this group. You have the Pharisees.

They tended to be middle class. There was about 6, 000 of them in any one time. Businessmen, they're held in higher esteem than the Sadducees or the Herodians. They tend to be listened to a lot more, held in higher esteem. There's a lot more of them.

They're very moral. That did not equate being very moral to obeying God. Equate that to external moralism that anybody in the world you might see out there. They believed in heaven, hell, angels, the resurrection. And it says here that Nicodemus was a ruler of the Jews.

So you have Rome, though, that's ruling all their empire. So he's not a ruler such as the civil magistrate. He's a ruler from a religious standpoint, a teacher. And because he's a ruler, because of the way it says here, most people take that to mean that he was probably part of the Sanhedrin. So you have 6, 000 Pharisees, according to Joseph, it's about 6, 000 Pharisees going there all the time.

And of these, there are 70 set apart called the Sanhedrin. These are the elite of the elite. They're saying Nicodemus was probably one of those. So put that in perspective. They knew the Old Testament better than anyone.

They're teachers. They prided themselves on what they knew, what they thought they knew, on their law keeping. They're authors and the teachers of the 6200 page Talmud, which is their teaching on the law and their exposition on the law. 6200 pages of that. We have lots of commentaries, I'll give them that, but still that is what they went by so much.

They opposed Jesus. We'll see as we walk through John and Jesus opposes them a lot and rebukes them. In Matthew 23 Jesus describes the Pharisees and there are eight woes in Matthew 23. Think of these woes as judgments, condemnation, these are exclamations against these teachers. These aren't just quiet warnings of, of, of, hey, you, you need to rethink this.

No, these are loud woes, proclamations against the Pharisees, completely. If they're, whatever you think is the complete opposite of a blessing, That's what these woes are. These woes are a curse in many ways. Many of them. He says, here's one in verse 33.

It says, serpents, brood of vipers, how can you escape the condemnation of hell? Why would Jesus say that? Because this is how he describes them. They are hypocrites. They are devouring widows.

They have showy, pretentious prayers. They are blind guides, fools, whitewashed tombs, outwardly in order but full of dead men's bones, leading people to hell. That is the group Nicodemus belongs to. Nicodemus is probably one of the better ones of them, but that's the group he belongs to. Now it says that Nicodemus comes to Jesus at night.

Why night? Well, our favorite thing to say is text doesn't say. But we can try to read into this. Maybe there's a fear of man. Maybe there's a fear of man.

Nicodemus has been talking to people, seeing things, and maybe he wants to find out, like the disciples we've already studied, maybe he wants to come and find out, okay, what's really going on here? See, He's got signs from God, he's doing good things. Maybe there is something in his heart that's saying, maybe this is the Messiah. I don't know, but there's at least somebody from God that I need to pay attention to, but I don't want these other Pharisees or the other Sanhedrin to see me doing this. Maybe there's a fear of God in him, fear of man in him, sorry, fear of man in him and not wanting to be seen.

It could be just that it's the easiest time, part of his busy schedule. Jesus has a lot going on during the day. It says that he comes at night. When you think of Nicodemus coming at night, though, don't necessarily have to think of him slinking around in the shadows at midnight. Night could be 7, it could be 8, it could be 9.

You don't have to think of him slinking around necessarily. He could have just come to him, just cover of darkness. But whatever it is, in John 7, Nicodemus is still identified as the one coming to him, coming to Jesus at night. So whatever it is, he's still identified that way. I Don't know exactly what it is, but it was significant enough for God to call it out twice, of identifying him this way.

So Nicodemus comes to him and he says, 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. So he comes with Rabbi. Rabbi. So his intention here, it's not mean-spirited, there's no sarcasm here. His intention is to honor Jesus.

It is coming with an honoring title. When he calls him a rabbi, he really is honoring him. And you have a rabbi, Nicodemus, calling Jesus a rabbi. So one of them is saying, hey, we're equal. But in the back of his mind, he probably knows he's from Galilee.

What good can come from Galilee? What's his background? I haven't seen him in any of my teaching classes. Seen him in the synagogue. He's here every year for Passover.

I know some things about him. I'm going to call him Rabbi primarily because I see the works coming from him. And I've heard, maybe heard some of his teaching. Maybe know something about him. But he realizes, but there's something else going on here.

Although I call him Rabbi, he's doing these signs and miracles that I can't do and I haven't seen done in Israel. Nobody's seen anything like this. It's been a long time since anybody's seen anything like this. He's seen signs. We saw in verse 23 of chapter 2 that many believed in His name when they saw the signs that He did.

He's seen these signs. He knows about these signs. He's seen these signs. We don't know what signs they are. Those aren't written down for us.

But whatever the signs are, we know that they testify as Jesus, as God. We know that. He attributes it to that God is with you. God has to be with you. We don't know what these signs are, but we know what the signs are in Scripture that Jesus might have been doing.

He might have been healing the lame, making the blind sea, making the deaf hear. Maybe He turned more water to wine. Maybe He walked on water. Somebody else walked on water. Maybe somebody rose from the dead.

I don't know. But whatever it was, these were signs that he was attributing must come from God. And so in his mind, he's got to be thinking, who is this guy? Nobody else is doing anything like this. Not for hundreds and hundreds of years.

Have we seen anything like this? Now he has an interesting two words after Rabbi. He says, we know. We know whether he's been talking to other people, such as in chapter 2, he's a rabbi, he's a teacher, he's heard about Jesus, he's gathering information, He's hearing these things, so maybe it's we know, or it might be the other Pharisees. Maybe he's come at the behest of some of the other Pharisees.

Hey, you go find out. He's maybe drawn the short straw, and he gets to go see, I don't know. But he says, We know. Here's the problem that we start getting into in this passage. We know.

What we're going to find out is no, you don't know. Nicodemus, you do not know. You think you know who God is, but you don't know that God in the flesh, Jesus, is standing right in front of you, dialoguing with you, talking with you. And get this out of your head, Jesus is caring for him. He's not pronouncing a woe.

There is a rebuke later, but he's not pronouncing a woe on Nicodemus. This is much different than how he treats the Pharisees in general. Jesus is not just another prophet or miracle worker with divinely given abilities. Jesus is God, the prophet, the creator, the messiah, the source of all the miracles, the source of all grace and mercy that endures forever. See, compare this with verse 10.

Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? He doesn't know this. There's no idea. The reason why he doesn't is because he's not born again. At this point, commentators can argue about what happens in what we see in John 19, but at this point he is not born again.

So that's Nicodemus. The next point, the main point of all this, you must be born again. You must be born again. Let me read verses 3 and 4. Jesus answered and said to him, said to Nicodemus, 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? Start off with Jesus is God. And from chapter 2, we know that Jesus knows all men and knows what's in them. We saw that in chapter 2, verses 24 and 25.

And Jesus responds to Nicodemus, doesn't even, his response, he doesn't even acknowledge this nice greeting. You know that. He responds to what we pray was in Nicodemus' heart. We don't know if in Nicodemus' heart he really was questioning, I wonder if this is the Messiah. Or what this passage gets at, was he really questioning, is All this that I've done really worthless.

Does this really save me? I've given my life to this. I made it to the pinnacle. I'm up here as a Sanhedrin. I made it to the pinnacle of my career.

And it's not just any career. It's a religious teacher career. Maybe in his heart it's, does this gain me eternal life? Is this it? Whether it is or not, Jesus attacks, blatantly attacks his heart.

And he starts off by saying most assuredly, most assuredly or very verily you will have seen it translated, or truly, truly, and it's not often do you see those words come out of Jesus' mouth and the Gospel is very rare. But when he says this, this is an emphatic, authoritative warning to the hearers that a great truth is about to be said to you. And you need to Consider this. And you need to know if you believe this or not. And if you don't believe this, there are consequences to not believing this.

When you see very, very, verily, verily, most assuredly, truly, truly, think of it that way. Pay attention. Jesus is about to tell you a great truth, and there are consequences if you don't believe these truths. Jesus is responding to Nicodemus about what he thinks he knows. He said, no, you don't know.

This is what you need to know. Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. There's only one way, no exceptions. He says, unless one. It's a necessary condition.

To Nicodemus, He says, I say to you, so he says to Nicodemus, I say to you, unless once. He says, Nicodemus, I'm talking to you. And he does this again later on. I say to you, so I'm talking to you, but I'm also including everybody else. Nicodemus must be at this point starting to be shocked.

Wait a second, I'm a Sanhedrin, I'm up here and you're saying everybody else, we're all in the same boat together, really? Think about that. I say to you, unless one, very general, that's everyone, no matter who you are, no matter your knowledge, no matter what you've done, no matter if you're the best of the best Pharisees, no matter whether you're a mass murderer or the best, most gracious doctor in the world, No matter whether you're a harlot or what looks like the most faithful spouse in the world, unless you are born again, you will not see the kingdom of God. And Jesus is putting all those people together. No matter who you think of, there are no exceptions for your good behavior or being a great religious teacher.

None. Nicodemus' follow-up to Jesus' statement makes it very obvious that Nicodemus understood what Jesus was saying. This is not Nicodemus being mean-spirited back, being sarcastic back. I take this as a very serious answer back, as he is reeling. He may be reeling at this point.

I kind of picture Nicodemus saying this, and while he's saying this, he's just thinking through his mind, what was I just told? What I was just told is impossible and I was lumped in with everybody else and he's getting it. We know he gets it by the analogy that's used here. Jesus starts with born again and Jesus and Nick and demons comes right behind with this analogy saying, I understand what you're saying. You're saying that just like I couldn't control any part of my physical birth.

Alright children, you couldn't control any part of your physical birth. You didn't decide if you were going to be a boy or a girl. You didn't decide when you would be born, what time of day, morning, evening, night. When would be the most convenient for your mom. You didn't control any of that.

You didn't control the place. You didn't control your race. You didn't control what time period in history you came in to the world. And just like that, you couldn't control any of that. You can't control whether you are born again or not.

Nicodemus gets that and this is the plain reading of the text, you should get that too. You should get that too. And he gets that this includes him. And in verse 7 we see that he's marveling. He's amazed that he is told by Jesus, now that you must be born again, but what he gets from this is, according to you Jesus, I'm not born again either.

He's marveling. At this point if I were him, I can picture him being fearful that all of his works have mattered nothing towards seeing the kingdom of God. He has just been told he will not see the kingdom of God. There is no heaven. Two sub-points here.

One, the consequence, we see the consequence of not being born again, and then we see why you must be born again. Let's talk about the consequence of not being born again. In verse 3 and in verse 5 it says you will not see the kingdom of God and you will not enter the kingdom of God. That's really the main point is you are not born again, there is no heaven, no eternal life. That's the consequence of not being born.

That is the overall push of this future. When you die, when Christ comes again, you will not see the Kingdom of God. When you die, that is it. There is no purgatory, there is nobody that can pray you into heaven, there is no second chance. When you die or Christ returns, if you are not born again, there will be no heaven, no eternal life, only hell.

That is the overall push of what's said here. Without being born again, there's no faith. You understand the order of salvation a little bit. There are big discussions on it. But basic from our doctrine of grace, reform, theology, of God, a different scripture, and I'll show you here in a little bit.

God electing people from all time. I'm skipping over a few things. It's a long argument. But God elects people from all time, then he calls you, draws you, then you're born again, and because you're born again, then you have faith, Then you show faith. You cannot have faith in Jesus for salvation.

You cannot repent of your sins. You cannot, unless you are born again first. That happens first. Then you see the faith. Then you see repentance.

He's saying you're not born again. Your faith is a false faith Nicodemus. Your repentance is really a false repentance Nicodemus. You've never been born again. Another aspect of this is that Jesus, he says, we know who you are.

Jesus is a teacher come from God and his signs are only because God is with him. But Nicodemus does not see the kingdom of God that's standing right in front of him. It's not the push of the text, but Jesus is the physical image of God. The kingdom of God has come. Nicodemus doesn't even see that it's come.

So without being born again, you can claim that there's Jesus, you can claim Jesus is a good man, You can claim he's come from God. You can claim that he's a prophet. But without being born again, as we'll see, you being completely remade, you will never see that Jesus is the Messiah, he is God, and that there is only salvation through him. You won't see it. You can see all kinds of nice things about Jesus that you want.

Nicodemus did. That does not mean you're born again unless you see Jesus as God, as the Creator, as the infinite God, as the only way, the only truth, and the only life. If you don't see him like that, you have a false idol. It's a false god. You can call him whatever you want.

You can blaspheme his name left and right. That is not Jesus if you do not believe that. Nicodemus, your religious status, your knowledge, your money, your moral behavior, your lineage does not get your name written in heaven. You are not born again. Unless you are born again, you will not, you will never with no exception, enter the kingdom of God.

There is no heaven for you. That is the consequence of not being born again. The second sub point here is why you must be born again. Why is this a requirement even? That's going to make up a bulk of the rest of this message.

Why must you even be born again? Okay, I get that you need to be born again. Get it? He says that. But why?

Why do I need even born again? Why isn't there an exception for one like Nicodemus that is so knowledgeable that doesn't seem to be anything like his colleagues who equate the works of Jesus to Satan in Matthew 12. He's not doing that. At least he's equating them to Jesus being from God. The one that follows the law very well, he attends the feast, he follows all the purification processes.

Why not an exception for him? Why not an exception for you? You homeschooled, obedient child, you can't remember the last time you were chastened even. You Can't remember the last time your parents even had a cross look at you. Why not an exception for you that picks up people from nursing homes, goes to nursing homes, goes to abortion clinics, is going to help cook food for the Thanksgiving outreach, may even be preaching at the Thanksgiving outreach.

Why not an exception for you? Because Verse 6 tells us why. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Nicodemus is told not to marvel, not to be amazed at this. And in verse 10, rebuked for not knowing.

So whatever this is, whatever this is, Nicodemus is supposed to know. What does Nicodemus have? He has the Old Testament. Let's look at the Old Testament for what this means on requirement to be born again. When Jesus says that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

I'm going to start in Genesis 2. I'm going to walk through all the Old Testament. I'm going to start in Genesis 2. In Genesis 2, verse 16 and 17, Adam and Eve are in the garden. This is before sin.

And God says, And the LORD commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden you may freely eat. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die." In chapter 3, sure enough, they eat of it, and now the penalty is eternal death. Penalty is not only eternal death, but from now on, sinful parents can only bear sinful children. Flesh can only birth flesh. We have no faith when we are born.

There's no faith. There's no love of God. There's no desire for God. And you would not even do this on your own. We are all enemies of God deserving eternal wrath of God in hell.

Let me help prove that to you what I just said. Move on to Genesis 6. Genesis 6 before the flood, verse 3, and the Lord said, my spirit shall not strive with man forever, for he is indeed flesh. Talking about flesh, well, what does this flesh mean? In verse 5, then the Lord saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every intent of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually." So the intents of men who are flesh have continuous evil hearts.

Well, then there's a flood. Millions of people die. Maybe hundreds of millions of people die maybe. All these evil, wicked people die. They're left with Noah and his family, ate all together, the flood's gone, and here's what happens in chapter 8 of Genesis.

Starting in verse 20, then Noah built an altar to the Lord and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird and offered burnt offerings on the altar. Why? Because they're still sinful and atonement still needs made and sacrifices are still needed. Now listen to the rest of this. 21.

And the Lord smelled the soothing aroma. Then the Lord said in his heart, remember this is after the flood, eight people left, all the wicked people are gone, right? I will never again curse the ground for man's sake, although the imagination of man's heart is evil from his youth, nor will I again destroy every living thing as I have done." What has changed with the flood? The only thing that's changed is God's not going to do this again with a flood. Man's heart is still wicked and evil.

Flesh is still going to birth flesh. To birth flesh. In Job 25, it says in verse 4, How then can a man be righteous before God? How can he be pure who is born of woman? You can't.

You are not born pure. Even if the moon does not shine and the stars are not pure in his sight, how much less man who is a maggot and a son of man who is a worm. The Hebrew includes a sense, and when it says here how much less a man who is a maggot and a son of man who is a worm, it's the sense here that you are being bred a maggot and a worm. Not just that you're a maggot or a worm, no, you were birthed this way. You were conceived that you are a maggot, you are a worm.

That born of a maggot is maggots. That born of a worm is worm. That born of the flesh is flesh. Jeremiah 17, 9, the heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked who can know it. Turn to Romans 3.

Let's shortcut the Old Testament using Paul who quotes in Romans 3 a lot of the Old Testament. These are all things that Nicodemus should know about who man is. Romans 3, starting in verse 9 through 18. What then? Are we better than they?

Not at all. For we have previously charged both Jews and Greeks that they are all under sin. Look at how much as we go through this, the words all, none, everyone is used. These are words that Nicodemus should know and you've been told. You're responsible for them as well.

As it is written, there is none righteous, no not one. There is none who understands. There is none who seeks after God. They have all turned aside. They have together become unprofitable.

There is none who does good, no not one. Their throat is an open tomb. With their tongues they have practiced deceit. The poison of asps is under their lips, whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness. Their feet are swift to shed blood, destruction and misery are in their ways and they have the way of peace and the way of peace they have not known.

There is no fear of God before their eyes." This is you. If you are not born again, this is you. And you can't change this. No exceptions. There's no room in here for any exceptions.

Even Paul prefaced it by both Jews and Greeks. So we can't just say, even you can't even get out of this, but say, well it's just the Gentiles. Oh no, it's the Jews. Oh, it's the wicked religious leaders. Or it's the cults.

No, it's everybody. This is your state. No exceptions. Romans 8, 8 says, those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Those born of flesh, flesh.

Okay. Well maybe there's somebody here that's just so hard and saying, all right, I get that, but that's really not me. That's really not me. You really don't understand how good I am. You don't really understand that I don't have to say I'm born again, because look at my life.

My life demonstrates that. My life demonstrates one that's going to get into the kingdom. I can be good enough. I can get there. Well, it's actually way worse than what I've just said.

Actually, you're born in the flesh is way worse. Actually, you are dead. You're dead. You can say all you want. I can make myself better.

I won't be as bad as a liar. I'll obey more. I won't steal as much. I'll love my wife, my husband more. But you're dead.

What can you do now? Ephesians 2, you are dead in trespasses and sin. Colossians 2, you are dead in trespasses. Nicodemus should know that he needs to be born again. And you know that.

You've been told that. You need to know that you need to be born again. You can't make yourself better. This is so against the world, isn't it? The world says, look how good they are.

Ladies, you've heard it. You're in the store. Yeah, there are times when your children aren't that great in the store. But you've heard it. Oh, look how good they are.

We give participation trophies for people trying their best. This is not a rail against participation trophies. This is just the thought process that people have. And what the world needs to hear is your best deserves hell. You're not born again.

Your best does not Determine that you will see the kingdom of God. You're best. You maggot, you worm, you dead person, deserves hell. Be thankful when your children obey. Be very thankful when people are kind to you.

Yeah, still express your thankfulness, express your joy for how God would use others or even stir your children to be obedient if they're not born again. But don't let that fool you. Jesus is telling Nicodemus that this is Him. And that He's even more wicked because He's not teaching the truth. No, He doesn't believe the truth.

He's not teaching the truth. And you're headed to hell in your current state and you've been teaching others how to go to hell. They're not going to see the kingdom of heaven if they're not born again either. Nicodemus, you are born sinful. You're upbringing with all your benefits with more knowledge than most, very intense scripture knowledge.

You're at the temple for sacrifices. You're regularly at the synagogue teaching people. You are still sinful because you are flesh, and that's the best you can do. No matter what we do, we can do no better than being a goat or darkness. You know what I mean when I'm talking about being a goat?

Jesus talks about the sheep and the goats. He puts the sheep on His right hand. His sheep hear his voice. The sheep are the Christians. The sheep are the ones that have been born again.

Talking about the judgment. And the sheep enter into your reward. The goats are headed to hell because they have not believed. They have not been born again. They have not been given faith to believe in Christ alone.

And many of those goats, here's the dangerous. This is where Nicodemus is. If Nicodemus were to die right then, he'd be saying, wait, I'm a sheep, aren't I? And Jesus, no, you're not. You're a goat.

Get back over there. How many of you think that you're a sheep when you're really a goat? Can a goat birth itself into a sheep? No. That's what we're talking about, we're talking about being born again, a complete transformation.

Can darkness make itself light? No. Can the harlot make herself a virgin? No. As we're talking about, this impossibility that you have any part of this.

You can't do this because you are just so wretched, so evil, you're a maggot, you're a worm, you're dead. A dead person cannot make themselves alive. You must be born again. You must be remade, you must be recreated, You must be regenerated. Oh, God, please.

Please save people. How was one born again? Last point. How was one born again? Back in John 3, verse 5.

Jesus answered, most assuredly I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Same as verse 3, we have another unless one is born, talking about everybody, this includes everyone. And this is right here, how to be born again. So for those wanting the steps, here they are. You must be born of the water and the Spirit.

Okay, what does that mean? These are only steps. This is how you're born again. By water and the Spirit. First, it's not baptism.

Definitely not baptism. Baptism gets you into some dangerous, dangerous places of baptismal regeneration. Baptism saves you. It's not baptism. It's not just about being born either.

In general, this kind of language is not used. Like we use it today of how you're born. You're born of water, the water breaks. It generally wasn't used then, all that. We have to remember, it's verse 10.

Are you the teacher of Israel and do not know these things? This is what informs us of what do we need to look at to see what Jesus means here. Whatever we need is what Nicodemus had. We have Scripture. Well, Scripture I think we really need to turn to, turn to it please, is Ezekiel 36.

The Scriptures that are dear to us, that we go to often, You should be thinking that for the last 2000 years or more now since Ezekiel was written are probably scriptures they went to also. This is probably top of Nicodemus' mind. He knows his Bible far better. His knowledge of scripture, knowledge of scripture, far surpassed mine. If he's in heaven now, it's perfected.

I can't even touch his knowledge. But at this point, even that, his knowledge far surpassed mine. But How much did he really know? Ezekiel 36, 25 through 27, we're specifically talking about, you must be born by water and the spirit. Verse 25.

Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. I will take the heart of stone out of 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 keep My judgments and do them.

Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers, you shall be My people, I will be your God, I will deliver you from all your uncleanness." This is God's doing. You are born again. It says by water and the Spirit. It is by God and it is a shadow. It is what Ty is pointing back.

All of the purification, all of what Jesus said, all pointed to Him needing to wash you in His Spirit. I will sprinkle you clean. I will cleanse you. I will give you a new heart. I will take the heart of stone.

I will put My Spirit within you. I will deliver you. This is God's doing. There's no exceptions here. This is describing a new person, one that has been born again, a person that's a new creation, with a new heart, a new spirit, a new desires, new nature, new habits, new affections, new firsts, new judgments, new opinions, new hopes, new fears.

You get the picture? Brand new. Born again. Completely transformed. Looks nothing like what they were before.

This can't be done by turning over a new leaf, by your resolutions. You are a wicked criminal against God and you cannot be rehabilitated. You need born again. Think of this way. It's not a remodeling job of a house.

It's not coming in. We've gone into remodeled houses around here. Oh, it looks great. This is not shining it up and rearranging things and I'll do better here and I'll do better there. Notice this, tearing the whole thing down.

Getting rid of your false, evil, magnet-infested foundation and starting again building on the foundation of God and Jesus Christ. That's what's going on here. And he washes you and purges you. Being born of water and spirit is being made clean from all the filthiness by God. Nicodemus, what he's telling Nicodemus is you're looking to all your purification rituals.

We saw a couple weeks ago at the Water to Wine, they have six water pots, 120 to 180 gallons of water. Why was it set there? For purification. They get this. But what Jesus is telling them is, no, That doesn't save you.

All that did is point to the cleansing and the washing that Jesus would do to you, that God would do to you by His Spirit. Numbers 19 is a whole chapter on purifications And there's more on that as well. And he knows that. I started off this morning by reading Isaiah 51 in verse 1. Oh, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters.

Jeremiah 2, they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters. In a few weeks we'll be in John 4. We'll go back to John 4. In John 4 we have Jesus talking with the woman, the Samaritan woman, at the well. In John 4, 13-14, Jesus answered and said to her, whoever drinks of this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst, but the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." You're born of water.

You're born of the everlasting, pure water of Jesus Christ and His Spirit. The word here is incapitalized. I'm not saying that water here is Jesus, but it points to Jesus. All the purification, everything that happened should be going through Nicodemus' mind right now, should be going through yours. All of that pointed to Jesus who would give you living water, everlasting water, and you'll never thirst again.

Come, drink, be filled. May your soul be delighted back in Isaiah 55. In Psalm 51, you have David's great prayer after his sin. It says, Purge me with hyssop and I shall be clean. Wash me and I shall be whiter than snow.

Make me hear joy and gladness at the bones you have broken may rejoice. Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me." I'm not saying that David wasn't regenerate, wasn't born again. We know what his actions look like, but by no means Am I going to fall on that side of the fence on this at this point? But what is clear, who is he crying out to do this?

Purge me, wash me, make me hear joy and gladness, blot out, create in me a clean heart, renew. This is all language pointing to being born again, born of water and the spirit. See, you see why Nicodemus would be amazed, be marveling at this, this elite teacher, maybe he's considering himself one of the purest people in the world, is told, you have a wicked heart. You are wicked. And You need clean.

You need born again, or you will not enter the kingdom. So then we're born by water and the Spirit. Verse 6, we already talked about that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and the rest of it is that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit. You were born again by the water and the Spirit. When born again, you are regenerated by the Spirit.

1 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation, the old things have passed away. Behold, All things have become new. All things. That leaves nothing behind. Now, when I say that, we know you're born again.

I believe God in His scripture. You're given a new heart. I see my different desires. I have different desires, different affections, different loves, different hates, different opinions. Being born again affects all of me.

I see that, I see the outworkings of that in me and my brethren, but I'm still the same shape. I'm still me. Nobody can look at me, by looking at me, see, okay, he's born again now. Necessarily. We know that we are being sanctified, and it's the process, and it will be completed in that day.

There's a day to come when it will be completely, but we are still new. I'm not saying that everything has been perfected yet. There is a process here. But that process starts with you being born again, given a new life, new desires, new heart, and a new spirit within you. The Holy Spirit.

You're born again, you have the Holy Spirit within you. 1 Peter chapter 3, or 1 Peter 1, sorry, 1 Peter 1, 3 says this. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His abundant mercy has begotten us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Now the begotten us again, that is a good translation. That's the right translation.

But this has more depth to this. This word begotten also means to produce again and it actually means to be born again. So if you read it with those meanings that this means, according to His abundant mercy has produced us again, has born us again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Go back to Ezekiel. God puts his word together And he had Ezekiel 36 written in the way and where he wanted written.

And then he had Ezekiel 37 written after that. This is God's order. It's a wonderful order. When you look at the order of scripture, there's Nothing here haphazardly. It is all in perfect order.

God has protected the order throughout the millennia. Ezekiel 37. So we've talked about in 36 that God will sprinkle clean water. I will give you a new heart. I will put my spirit in you.

I will take the heart out. I will deliver you. Remember I said we were dead. That's how bad it is. Ezekiel 37, verses 1 through 6.

The hand of the Lord came upon me. Ezekiel is written when Judah is in exile to the Babylonians. Babylonians have taken over Judah, and that's when this is written. This just gives them great hope. The hand of the Lord came upon me and brought me out in the spirit of the Lord and set me down in the midst of the valley, and it was full of bones." This is you.

If you're not born again, this is you. Then he caused me to pass by them all around, and behold, there were very many in the open valley, And indeed, they were very dry. They're dead. And he said to me, son of man, can these bones live? So I answered, oh Lord, you know.

Again he said to me, prophesy to these bones and say to them, oh dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. Thus says the Lord God to these bones, Surely I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will put sinews on you and bring flesh upon you, cover you with skin and put breath in you and you shall live. Then you shall know that I am the Lord. We were as dead as dead can be, only bones." So even the most hardened person against you must be born again can't even say, I was just in a coma, or I wasn't completely dead.

No, you're just bones. And not just fresh bones, you are dry bones. You've been there, you've been dead forever. Dead means dead. You're not in a coma, just not fully aware, you are Dead.

And he brings us to life. Brings us to Nicodemus. Nicodemus has to have this going through his mind. This is how you're brought to life. You are dead, dead as bones.

Your homeschooling will not bring you to life. May it draw you, may it tell you about the gospel, may God use it to tell you about the gospel, may God use it as His means of preaching to you that He would draw you to you, that you would be born again. But you don't come to life with your homeschooling, or coming to church, or your obedience, or your choir singing. None of that means you're alive. Being a deacon doesn't mean you're alive.

Being an elder doesn't mean you're born again. Being at the abortion mill, their nursing home, hospitality, Thanksgiving, outreach, none of that means you're born again. That just may be putting your best. And your best means that you're dead. You must be born again.

There's no heaven, no heaven, no eternal life. We saw this already back in John 1, didn't we? John 1, 12, and 13, but as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God. To those who believe in his name, how? You were born not of blood, your heritage, nor the will of man, your own works, nor of the will of man, not because somebody just wants you born again as much as your parents want you born again?

We can't make that. But of God. Can't be more clear. It can only be done by God. How are we born again?

By water and the Spirit, by the Spirit regenerating us. In verse 8 we see it's by His will. It's by His will. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but cannot tell where it comes from and where it goes. So is everyone who was born of the Spirit.

James 1, 18 says, of his own will, He brought us forth by the word of truth, by His own will. We're brought forth not by the will of man. Either your own will or my own will. You can't control the wind. You can't control the wind.

You can't determine whether it's a warm wind. In January, would you love to have that 75 degree wind? Yep, you can't make that happen. You're going to get a cold wind. You can't make it a cold wind in the middle of July.

You can't make it a soft wind when you just want a gentle breeze. You can't make it a hard wind if you're a sailor and really want that to get you across. You can't control the wind. Can't make it stop. You can't make it start.

It's invisible, uncontrollable. You can't contain it. God controls the wind. God controls the wind. It's God's will is what's being said here.

This is done by God's will. His will will be done on His timetable. Yeah, He has His elect that he has chosen from eternity past. He will call them when he decides it is the right perfect time to call them. He will make them born again when he determines that or not.

It's at God's will. Just like God determined your birth, your physical birth, when, where, how, all the conditions around it, God determines this birth. You can't control either. Where the spirit moves is according to his will. And what he says is perfect and right.

And who he decides will be the worshippers for him for all of eternity. But, But you can see the effects of the wind. You can see the effects of the wind. A hurricane comes through, we see the effects of the wind. A gentle breeze comes through, we see the effects of the refreshing that that can be.

We see the effects of the wind, just like we should see the effects of one that is born again. I can't make you born again. I can't make you have the effects. But if you are born again, there should be proof you've been completely remade. If I was to completely tear down my house and completely remake it so it looked nothing like anything else, you would say, that's a new house!

That's not what it was before! That maggot worm infested thing is not that now. There are effects. When a hurricane comes through, when you saw, if you saw any of the pictures like when the hurricane came through the Dominican Republic or Puerto Rico, you see the before and afters. I remember this one picture where it showed before and after.

Beautiful lush trees and afterwards it was like a desert. You see the effects of the wind. You say, yeah, the wind came through here. Look what happened. The wind of the spirit comes through and makes people born again.

And you see the effects of that. You have new life. You're born again. Walk quickly here through 1 John. 1 John talks a lot about the effects of being born again.

1 John 2, 29. This is all the born language that John continues in this letter. If you know that he is righteous, you know that everyone who practices righteous is born of him. An effect of the wind is righteousness. We love righteousness.

3, 9, I'm skipping a bunch of areas here. Whoever has been born of God does not sin for his seed remains in him and he cannot sin because he has been born of God. It doesn't mean you're perfect. It's talking about your affections. You hate repetitive sin.

If you're born again and you come to God for repentance and forgiveness for that sin again, you feel just so low, don't you? I do. God, you're really going to forgive me again? Yes, he is. But if you're born again, you hate that.

And you're reading more and more. You should be able to look back in the past and see more and more of habitual sin being removed. 314. We know that we have passed from death to life. Why?

Being born again because we love the brethren. He who does not love his brother abides in death. You love the brethren. It's not just saying I love you and giving hugs. Read scriptures a lot more to that.

I'm so thankful for this church. You love the brethren. Don't stop increasing your love for the brethren. Your hospitality is off the charts. Your care for one another, your prayers for one another are fantastic.

Grow in your love for the brethren even more. Four, seven. Beloved, let us love one another, for love is of God. And everyone who loves is born of God and knows God. Five, four.

For whatever is born of God overcomes the world, and This is the victory that has overcome the world, our faith. If you're born of God, back to the order of salvation, if you're born of God, a proof of being born of God is faith, it says here. It's not. Don't let anybody tell you just have faith and be born again. No, that can't happen.

You have to be born again first with a new heart, new desires, new loves. That gives you faith. You can't have faith without being born again. Just come, receive Jesus. They take the taste and see so out of context.

It's not taste and see and then maybe you'll have faith. No, you must be born again before you can see that living water is so sweet. Being born again produces faith. It is all God. Can't be you.

You are flesh, we've seen, continually evil, an enemy of God, dead, headed to hell, to be under the full wrath of God for all of eternity. This is the best Nicodemus or anybody could do. Listen to this carefully. There is only one way to have any hope in this world. You must be born again.

You saw how horrible you are without being born again. There's only one way that that's even possible that God can remake people. He can't just, God's not, there's a, we talked at the beginning, there's a penalty to be paid for that sin. You are an enemy, wicked enemy of God and that deserves death in his full wrath. He has given you all this beauty of creation.

You say you take credit for everything you do and look at it and don't worship God. You're not born again. See any of that? There's only one penalty that's death, and that penalty has to be paid. Now, in order to be born again, that's still there.

It has to be paid. So what did Jesus do who is God? Jesus came and lived the life in your place. He came and became flesh, not like you or I. He doesn't have the same parents that you and I have.

Jesus wasn't born of the flesh to be flesh like us. Jesus is God incarnate. The Word became flesh but not like us. He is perfectly God. Because He is perfectly God, He was able to live that perfect life in your place.

He died the death on the cross and He took that full wrath of God that we deserve for our sin. We can't just be born again without the penalty being paid first. He paid that penalty and he died. Remember you're dead in your trespasses and sins. He died your death, your complete death for you, because He is God.

He rose from the dead. He brings life. And because of that penalty being paid, now you can be born again. If that penalty had not been paid, you could not be born again. And for all those that abandon their own efforts, stop looking at your own good works.

Confess that you are wretched flesh that needs to be born again. Repent of your sins. Faith that Jesus has done the work to pay your price, you will be saved. Not just you will be saved, that's proof, that's evidence that you've been saved as I was saying. Your faith, Take heart, be encouraged.

If you have faith, that shows that you've been born again. Faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation. He is the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father but through Him. Your faith.

You don't say, well, I'll have faith and then be born. No, pray that God gives you faith because you're born again. You're born again, you will have faith. That's the outworking. And you're only saved by being born again, and that is shown through you have faith in Jesus Christ alone for salvation you repent of your sins you believe the gospel of Jesus Christ let me in before a couple applications the Titus 3 really sums up this this whole what is said here listen to this Titus 3 4 through 7.

But when the kindness and the love of God our Savior toward man appeared. Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that having been justified by His grace, we should become heirs according to the hope of eternal life." Look to that, oh Christian, those that are born again, you need encouragement, look to that. Those that are not born again, look to that. Applications three. Number one, are you Nicodemus?

Are you born again? You could have written this application easily. Are you born again? Can answer it two ways. I am not born again, and I will not enter the kingdom of heaven.

Or I am born again and will enter the kingdom of heaven. Are you born again? If you said, I am not born again and will not enter the kingdom of heaven, If you said that, I am so thankful. I say this carefully, I am so thankful that God would let you know that. But that doesn't mean you are saved.

It means you are still not born again. The demons have way more knowledge than you have about who Jesus is. Had more knowledge than the academics had at that point. And they're not saved. And They won't be saved.

They'll never be born again. They will not be regenerated. They will not be regenerate. It's not enough. Just the knowledge that you're not born again is not enough to make you born again.

May it be a start. May God renew you, regenerate you, and give you faith to believe in Christ alone and die to yourself, abandon all your own hopes. If you said, yes, that I am born again, why do you say that you're born again? Why? Think about it.

All of you to think about. If you said that you're born again, why do you say that you're born again? Have that in your mind. If the first thing that comes to your mind when I ask that question is anything besides the grace and mercy of God to make me repent and by faith believe in Jesus as Lord and Jesus work to take away my wrath and that I deserve for my flesh-born life. If it's anything other than that, you might not be saved.

At best, if it's not even that, at best you need to get a better grasp of the gospel. You do work on it. I'm not rebuking you. If you are born again And you didn't talk about the work and grace and mercy of Jesus Christ. That didn't come to your mind first about why you believe you're born again.

I want to care for you, help you come talk to me. Let's talk about it. And let's help you hone in. There's a lot of younger ones that have been baptized recently. And we really had to work with that sometimes, just to help you hone in what it was.

Not because we were making you sound like you were born again. You had the right words. You just want to make sure that what came to your mind first. So at best, you need help with the gospel and just understanding that and how to explain it and think about it in your mind. Not that we're going to put you out in front of the abortion clinic or here at Griffin's, but you really want to have that.

At worst though, you're not born again. If being baptized, taking a Lord's Supper, being in church, reading your Bible, being in choir, being a deacon or an elder, having children, obeying your parents, if any of that comes to mind first, the best need help of the gospel, At worst, you're not born again. Number two. Number two is one reason why I'm so thankful for Monday mornings, because this was not my original thought by any means. I'm not saying All this is my original thought.

But number two, parents, are you molding little Nicodemuses? Are you molding little Nicodemuses? Parents, husbands, wives, mothers, fathers, you really need to sit down together and think about this. Discuss it. Search this one out together.

For an ordered home And society, let's do it carefully, to have a well-run home and a well-run society, we want children, we want to train people to be obedient, to be honorable, to be law keepers, right? Don't misunderstand that. You need that. That's good. And maybe from that they'll see the goodness of God, to give them parents that would direct them that way.

We need that. But, but always be on the lookout for molding and Nicodemus. We're not perfect yet, right parents? Since we're not perfect we have sin in us so we should have a little fear in us, at least a little fear, probably more than that, that I have enough sin in me that I'm gonna mold in Nicodemus. In other words, I'm going to be happy with their obedience and make them think that they're okay, that that is fruit of them being born again when it's really not.

We have lots of people here. I know who all has been baptized at least. Of those that haven't, why haven't you professed faith? The only thing I can say is you're not born again. If you don't profess faith publicly, what am I to think of you?

I don't want you born again because James says, the pastor says, you don't want him to think of me poorly. No, that's not it. But I am. You know who you are. You know who the Lord's Supper passes by every week, I know that and I'm praying for you as it passes by.

Why? Because if it's passing by you, what am I to think other than you're not born again, you're not regenerate. Our parents, how much are we attributing to our children maybe thinking that they're born again? Like, why is that passing by me? Look how good I am.

I'm better than the person next to me. I'm better than my brother or sister right next to me. And they've been baptized. And they take the Lord's Supper. Who knows what's being said?

Parents, are you molding little Nicodemuses? They're looking to their works. Number three, faith without works is dead. Faith without works is dead. Is the work of the Spirit the effects of the wind visible in your life?

What do you point to as evidence of God's grace of regeneration of being born again in your life? That we just talked about. What are you pointing to? We talked about what it means, what should come to your mind first, the grace and the mercy and the work of Jesus Christ, to give me faith to believe in Him alone for salvation in His complete work. But Where's the evidence of that?

Faith without works is dead. Where's the evidence of that? Your continued repentance, continued repentance. I think I said it last week. That was at the center, at the top of the 95 Thesis.

Several of them were talking about repentance. Because the Catholic Church was not teaching repentance. They were teaching works that would lead you to repentance. But it was all about continual repentance. We need to continue.

We can't just go and do this and now we're done. But can you see continual repentance, prayer, a love of God's word demonstrated in how you read and study and memorize, fellowship, your love of your husband, your love for your wife, Your love for your children, your love for your parents, love of the local church, the evangelism, sanctification. You see an increase in love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Do you see that as evidence? Do you see an increased hatred of sin?

Do you see an increased love of holiness, humility, and of preferring others way more than yourself? Let's pray. God, how kind of you to give us Jesus to give us these words. That we would know we must be born again, that we would know who we were. Oh God, I am amazed by Your grace.

Amazed by how powerful You are to take wicked hearts, wicked dead bones and make them alive for your glory. And then you fill us Holy Spirit and you sanctify us and you will complete us. Amazed that you would even save anybody as wretched as we are. Your Word makes it so clear how wretched we were and how wretched some still are. Amazing that you would even make a way.

So thank you, God, for making a way. Encourage your people. Bring your elect. Draw them. Make them regenerate them, God.

Give them new life, new joys. And let us celebrate the new life that you would give anybody. This is to your glory. Amen.