Deeper Truths About the New Birth

Message by Darrell Pickle

John 3:1 There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2 The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. 3 Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ 4 Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? 5 Jesus answered, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. 6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. 7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again. 8 The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit.’ 9 Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? 10 Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? 11 Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. 12 If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? 13 And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. 14 And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: 15 That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life.’

Our flesh cannot be born again?  Jesus said “that which is born of flesh is flesh.” He went on to say “that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Notice this is capital “S” and lower case “s.” When the Holy Spirit comes into our hearts to live, He does something to our spirit.

We have to be born again to go to heaven. How much do we know about this?  There are some deeper truths. The new birth happens when the Holy Spirit comes into our heart at our regeneration. He brings our spirit alive. It was out of connection with God until then. There is no installment plan with the Holy Spirit. We receive Him in whole at the new birth when the change comes to our life.

We should have a hunger and thirst for God’s word. We should never stifle to quench it God made us. He knows when we’re out of time like a watchmaker knows his clocks. God knows how to fix us. People go everywhere and to others to get themselves fixed, but those people didn’t make us. Jesus said flesh is flesh. The problem is inside. It takes new life, a new spirit, to fix the inside. This in turn works to fix the outside.  Being a member of church won’t fix us any more than sleeping in a garage will make us a car. Our physical birth was of water. We are in our mother’s womb protected by water. We live off her strength. We’re born when that water breaks. We must exist to be born again of the Spirit.

There are three things all of us have.

1. We have a motivational force. We desire to survive. This is what pushes us to do things. As children our parents motivated us. As adults we motivate ourselves.
2. We have a moral factor. People know right from wrong. We have a conscience. It warns us and makes us sorry. The Bible warns us not to harden our conscience. If we ignore it, it will get harder and harder.
3. We have the mechanism for choice. We have a free will to choose. Our life is a result of our choices, good or bad. God gave the same to Adam and Eve. He told them what they could and could not do. They made a choice to eat what God said not to, and we’ve been dying since that time. No doubt all of us have made stupid choices.

From these three each of us has three more things by our very nature.

1. Self preservation will make us kill someone to save our life or the one of someone we love. We go to the doctor to take care of and preserve ourselves.
2. Self gratification will make a baby cry until he gets what he wants. We want to look good andwear the right kind of clothes. We feed ourselves. We get our sleep.  All of this is for our gratification.
3. Self glorification is what makes us say “Lord, here I am in need of glory” not “Lord here I stand in need of prayer.” We want our way. We want to be famous. We want to be respected.

These lead us in the wrong way when they are out of control. Everything God has given us is out of control. We’ll wind up in hell. These are problems we must face. We don’t have the power to control them. We need that power. Then they can be controlled.

1. Being born again gives us the ability to control them. Being filled with the Holy Spirit is the only way to do it. When we try to do it on our own we become religious just as Nicodemus was.
2. Being born again gives us the power to change our behavior. We are not as bad as we would be without the Spirit. Right now the Holy Spirit could be telling us we need to stop this or start this. The power of God gives us the ability to change what we do.  Peter denied the Lord; he cursed him. After the Holy Spirit came into his life he was never the same. Thomas doubted. He said he’d never believe Jesus was alive if he didn’t see him with his own eyes. He was like this because he was absent several times when the disciples were together with the Lord. Later we find him in India spending his life working for the Lord. Eventually he was martyred for his belief in the Lord. We miss a lot by not coming to Sunday school and church. It strengthens us when we do.

In Romans 8:5-6 we see something that goes along with this. “For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit. For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.” A carnal mind is undisciplined and worldly. It is against God.  It is not subject to the law of God. It must be brought under subjection.

When the Holy Spirit lives within us we are not controlled by the flesh.  No wonder Jesus said we MUST be born again. Being born again is to be alive. We have the power to control factors. We have the power to control how we act. It’s in us.  Paul said “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” We can too.