Only this afternoon, as I was in the inquiry-room, a person came in,
and I said, "Are you a Christian?" "Why," she says, "of course I am."
"Well," I said, "how long have you been one?" "Oh, sir, I was born
one!" "Oh! indeed, then I am very glad to take you by the hand; I
congratulate you; you are the first woman I ever met who was born a
Christian; you are more fortunate than others; they are born children
of Adam." She hesitated a little, and then tried to make out that,
because she was born in England, she was a Christian. There are many
who have the idea, that because they are born in a Christian country,
they have been born of the Spirit. Now, in this third chapter of John,
the new birth is brought out so plain, that if any one will read it
carefully and prayerfully, I think his eyes will soon be opened. That
which is born of the flesh is flesh; it remains flesh; and that which
is born of the Spirit is spirit, and remains spirit. So, when a man is
born of God, he has God's nature. When a man is born of his parents,
he receives their nature, and they received the nature of their
parents, and you can trace it back to Adam. But when a man is born of
God, or born from above, or born of the Spirit--that is the way the
Holy Ghost puts it in that third verse--he receives God's nature, and
then it is he leaves the life of the flesh for the life of the spirit.
Before I go on I want to say one thing, and that is, what this new
birth, or being born of the Spirit, is not. A great many think they
have been born again because they go to church. A great many say, "Oh,
yes, I am a Christian; I go to church every Sabbath!" Let me say here
that there is no one that goes to church so regularly in all London as
Satan. He is always there before the minister, and he is the last one
out of the church. There is not a church in London, or a chapel, but
that he is a regular attendant of it. The idea that he is only down in
the slums and lanes and alleys of London is a false idea. He is
wherever the Word is preached; it is his business to be there, and
catch away the seed. He is here to-night. Some of you may go to sleep,
but he won't. Some of you may not listen to the sermon, but he will.
He will be watching, and when the seed is just entering into some
heart he will go and catch it away.