The question, therefore, confronts each one of you, Have you been born
again? There is no more important question that you could possibly
face. Face it in these pages and don't dodge it. And that brings us to
the immediately practical question, How are men born again, or what
must any one here to-day, who is not born again, do in order to be born
again right here this morning? This question also is plainly answered
in the Word of God; and I can give you the answer in a very few
minutes and give it so that any one here can understand it. There are
three parts to the answer.
1. The first part of the answer you will find in Titus 3:4, +"Not
by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according
to his mercy, he+ (i.e., God) +saved us through the washing of
regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost."+ These words tell
us very plainly that _it is God who regenerates and that He does it
through the power of His Holy Spirit_. The same thought is found in
our text, John 3:5, 6: +"Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto
thee, except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into
the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that
which is born of the Spirit is Spirit."+ _Regeneration is God's
work; wrought by Him by the power of His Holy Spirit working in the
mind, feelings and will of the one born again_, in your heart and mine.
2. Some one might infer from the fact that regeneration is God's work,
which He works in our hearts by His Holy Spirit, that all we have to do
is to wait until God sees fit to work; but we see plainly from other
passages in the Word that this is not true. We are taught the second
thing about how regeneration is wrought in James 1:18, +"Of His own
will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a
kind of first fruits of His creatures."+ _Here we are taught that
the Word of Truth, the Word of God, is the instrument that God uses
in regeneration._ The same thought is found in 1 Pet. 1:23, +"Having
been begotten again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible,
through the word of God, which liveth and abideth."+ And Paul gives
voice to the same great thought in 1 Cor. 4:15, where he says: +"For
though ye should have ten thousand tutors in Christ, yet have ye not
many fathers: for in Christ Jesus I begat you through the gospel."+
From these passages it is evident that _the New Birth is wrought by
God through the instrumentality of His Word_. It is God who works it
through the power of His Holy Spirit, but the Holy Spirit works through
the Word, and thus God begets men anew by "The Word of Truth," or the
"Word of God," i.e., the Word which is preached by "the Gospel." So
then, if you or I wish to be born again we should get in contact with
the Word of God by studying the Bible and asking God that the Holy
Spirit may make that Word which we are studying a living thing in our
own hearts. We should get in contact especially with that part of God's
Word which is found in the Gospel of John, for John tells us in John
20:31 that +"These+ (i.e., these things in the Gospel of John)
+are written, that ye may believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of
God; and that believing ye may have life in his name."+ If we wish
to see others born again we should bring the Word of God to bear upon
their minds and hearts either by preaching the Word, or by teaching
it, or in personal work; and we should look to the Holy Spirit to
quicken that Word in the hearts of men as we sow it in their hearts,
and in this way the New Birth will result.
3. The third and last and decisive truth as to how we are born again
is found in Gal. 3:26 and John 1:12, 13. In Gal. 3:26 we read, +"For
ye are all sons of God, through faith, in Christ Jesus."+ This
tells us plainly that _we become born again through putting our faith
in Christ Jesus_. This is even more explicitly stated in John 1:12,
13: +"But as many as received him+ (i.e. the Lord Jesus), +to
them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that
believe on His name: which were born not of blood, nor of the will
of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God."+ Here we are
told that _the decisive thing in our becoming children of God is that
we believe in, or receive, Jesus Christ_. Any one who receives Jesus
Christ as his personal Saviour and trusts God to forgive him because
Jesus Christ died in his place and receives him as his Lord and King,
and surrenders his thoughts to His absolute control as his Lord and his
life to His absolute control as his King and confesses Jesus Christ
as Lord before the world, such a one immediately becomes a child of
God, is immediately born again, is immediately made a partaker of the
Divine nature. The same thought is illustrated by Jesus Himself in John
3:14, 15, where our Lord Jesus is recorded as saying, +"And as Moses
lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be
lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him may have eternal life."+
The reference is to the story of the Israelites in the Old Testament
when they were bitten by fiery serpents. As the dying Israelite with
the poison of the fiery serpent coursing through his veins, was saved
by simply looking at the brazen serpent on the pole, a serpent made
in the likeness of the one that had bitten him, and had new life
coursing through his veins as soon as he looked, so we dying men, with
the poison of sin coursing through our veins, are saved by looking at
Jesus Christ "Made in the likeness of sinful flesh," lifted up on the
cross, and have new life coursing through our veins the moment we look.
All we have to do with our regeneration is to receive Christ as He is
presented to us in the Word, by which we are born again. Therefore,
+"If any man be in Christ he is a new creature (creation). The old
things are passed away, behold all things are become new."+
In the New Birth the Word of God is the seed; the human heart is the
soil; the preacher of the Word is the sower, and drops the seed of the
Word of God into the soil of the human heart; God by His Spirit opens
the heart to receive the seed (Acts 16:14); the hearer believes; the
Spirit quickens the seed into life in the receptive heart; the heart
closes around the seed by faith; the new nature, the Divine Nature
springs up out of the Divine Word; the believer is "born again,"
"created anew," "made alive," "passed out of death into life."
Conclusion.
Have you been born again? I put this question to every man and woman
here. I do not ask you whether you are a church member. I do not ask
if you have been baptised. I do not ask, have you gone regularly to
the communion. I do not ask, have you turned over a new leaf. I do
not ask, are you an amiable, cultured, intelligent, moral, socially
delightful gentleman or lady. I _ask you, have you been born again_?
If not, you are outside of the Kingdom of God and you are bound for an
everlasting hell unless you are born again. But if you are not already
born again you may be born again to-day, you may be born again before
you leave this building, you may be born again right now; for the Word
of God says, +"As many as received him, to them gave he the right to
become children of God, even to them that believe on his name: which
were born, not of blood, nor of flesh, nor of the will of man, but of
God."+ And it says again in Rom. 10:9, 10, +"If thou shalt confess
with thy mouth Jesus as Lord and shalt believe in thy heart that God
raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved: for with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation."+ These verses make it plain as day just what you
must do right here and now to become a child of God. It is up to you to
say whether or not you will do it.