_THE GATEWAY INTO THE KINGDOM_.
"Except a man be born again he cannot enter the kingdom of God."
(John iii. 3.)
There is no portion of the Word of God, perhaps, with which we are
more familiar than this passage. I suppose if I were to ask those in
any audience if they believed that Jesus Christ taught the doctrine
of the New Birth, nine tenths of them would say: "Yes, I believe He
did."
Now if the words of this text are true they embody one of the most
solemn questions that can come before us. We can afford to be
deceived about many things rather than about this one thing. Christ
makes it very plain. He says, "Except a man be born again, he cannot
_see_ the Kingdom of God"--much less inherit it. This doctrine of the
New Birth is therefore the foundation of all our hopes for the world
to come. It is really the A B C of the Christian religion. My
experience has been this--that if a man is unsound on this doctrine
he will be unsound on almost every other fundamental doctrine in the
Bible. A true understanding of this subject will help a man to solve
a thousand difficulties that he may meet with in the Word of God.
Things that before seemed very dark and mysterious will become very
plain.
The doctrine of the New Birth upsets all false religion--all false
views about the Bible and about God. A friend of mine once told me
that in one of his after-meetings, a man came to him with a long list
of questions written out for him to answer. He said: "If you can
answer these questions satisfactorily, I have made up my mind to be a
Christian." "Do you not think," said my friend, "that you had better
come to Christ first? Then you can look into these questions." The
man thought that perhaps he had better do so. After he had received
Christ, he looked again at his list of questions; but then it seemed
to him as if they had all been answered. Nicodemus came with his
troubled mind, and Christ said to him, "Ye must be born again." He
was treated altogether differently from what he expected; but I
venture to say that was the most blessed night in all his life. To be
"born again" is the greatest blessing that will ever come to us in
this world.
Notice how the Scripture puts it. "Except a man be born again," "born
from above,"[Note: John iii. 3. _Marginal reading_] "born of the
Spirit." From amongst a number of other passages where we find this
word "except," I would just name three. "Except ye repent, ye shall
all likewise perish." (Luke xiii. 3, 5.) "Except ye be converted, and
become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of
heaven." (Matt. xviii. 3.) "Except your righteousness shall exceed
the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case
enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matt. v. 20.) They all really
mean the same thing.
I am so thankful that our Lord spoke of the New Birth to this ruler
of the Jews, this doctor of the law, rather than to the woman at the
well of Samaria, or to Matthew the publican, or to Zaccheus. If He
had reserved his teaching on this great matter for these three, or
such as these, people would have said: "Oh yes, these publicans and
harlots need to be converted: but I am an upright man; I do not need
to be converted." I suppose Nicodemus was one of the best specimens
of the people of Jerusalem: there was nothing on record against him.
I think it is scarcely necessary for me to prove that we need to be
born again before we are meet for heaven. I venture to say that there
is no candid man but would say he is not fit for the kingdom of God,
until he is born of another Spirit. The Bible teaches us that man by
nature is lost and guilty, and our experience confirms this. We know
also that the best and holiest man, if he turn away from God, will
very soon fall into sin.
Now, let me say what Regeneration is not. It is not going to church.
Very often I see people, and ask them if they are Christians. "Yes,
of course I am; at least, I think I am: I go to church every Sunday."
Ah, but this is not Regeneration. Others say, "I am trying to do what
is right--am I not a Christian? Is not that a new birth?" No. What
has that to do with being born again? There is yet another
class--those who have "turned over a new leaf," and think they are
regenerated. No; forming a new resolution is not being born again.
Nor will being baptized do you any good. Yet you hear people say,
"Why, I have been baptized; and I was born again when I was
baptized." They believe that because they were baptized into the
church, they were baptized into the Kingdom of God. I tell you that
it is utterly impossible. You may be baptized into the church, and
yet not be baptized into the Son of God. Baptism is all right in its
place. God forbid that I should say anything against it. But if you
put that in the place of Regeneration--in the place of the New Birth--it
is a terrible mistake. You cannot be baptized into the Kingdom of
God. "Except a man be born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God."
If any one reading this rests his hopes on anything else--on any
other foundation--I pray that God may sweep it away.
Another class say, "I go to the Lord's Supper; I partake uniformly of
the Sacrament." Blessed ordinance! Jesus hath said that as often as
ye do it ye commemorate His death. Yet, that is not being "born
again;" that is not passing from death unto life. Jesus says plainly--and
so plainly that there need not be any mistake about it--"Except
a man be born of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the Kingdom of
God." What has a sacrament to do with that? What has going to church
to do with being born again?
Another man comes up and says, "I say my prayers regularly." Still I
say that is not being born of the Spirit. It is a very solemn
question, then, that comes up before us; and oh! that every reader
would ask himself earnestly and faithfully: "Have I been born again?
Have I been born of the Spirit? Have I passed from death unto life?"
There is a class of men who say that special religious meetings are
very good for a certain class of people. They would be very good if
you could get the drunkard there, or get the gambler there, or get
other vicious people there--that would do a great deal of good. But
"we do not need to be converted." To whom did Christ utter these
words of wisdom? To Nicodemus. Who was Nicodemus? Was he a drunkard,
a gambler, or a thief? No! No doubt he was one of the very best men
in Jerusalem. He was an honorable Councillor; he belonged to the
Sanhedrim; he held a very high position; he was an orthodox man; he
was one of the very soundest men. And yet what did Christ say to him?
"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
But I can imagine some one saying, "What am I to do? I cannot create
life. I certainly cannot save myself." You certainly cannot; and we
do not claim that you can. We tell you it is utterly impossible to
make a man better without Christ; but that is what men are trying to
do. They are trying to patch up this "old Adam" nature. There must be
a new creation. Regeneration is a new creation; and if it is a new
creation it must be the work of God. In the first chapter of Genesis
man does not appear. There is no one there but God. Man is not there
to take part. When God created the earth He was alone. When Christ
redeemed the world He was alone.
"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit." (John iii. 6.) The Ethiopian cannot change his
skin, and the leopard cannot change his spots. You might as well try
to make yourselves pure and holy without the help of God. It would be
just as easy for you to do that as for the black man to wash himself
white. A man might just as well try to leap over the moon as to serve
God in the flesh. Therefore, "that which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."
Now God tells us in this chapter how we are to get into His kingdom.
We are not to work our way in--not but that salvation is worth
working for. We admit all that. If there were rivers and mountains in
the way, it would be well worth while to swim those rivers, and climb
those mountains. There is no doubt that salvation is worth all that
effort; but we do not obtain it by our works. It is "to him that
worketh not, but believeth" (Rom. iv. 5). We work because we are
saved; we do not work to be saved. We work from the cross; but not
towards it. It is written, "Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling" (Phil. ii. 12). Why, you must have your salvation before
you can work it out. Suppose I say to my little boy, "I want you to
spend that hundred dollars carefully." "Well," he says, "let me have
the hundred dollars; and I will be careful how I spend it." I
remember when I first left home and went to Boston; I had spent all
my money, and I went to the post-office three times a day. I knew
there was only one mail a day from home; but I thought by some
possibility there might be a letter for me. At last I received a
letter from my little sister; and oh, how glad I was to get it. She
had heard that there were a great many pick-pockets in Boston, and a
large part of that letter was to urge me to be very careful not to
let anybody pick my pocket. Now I required to have something in my
pocket before I could have it picked. So you must have salvation
before you can work it out.
When Christ cried out on Calvary, "It is finished!" He meant what He
said. All that men have to do now is just to accept of the work of
Jesus Christ. There is no hope for man or woman so long as they are
trying to work out salvation for themselves. I can imagine there are
some people who will say, as Nicodemus possibly did, "This is a very
mysterious thing." I see the scowl on that Pharisee's brow as he
says, "How can these things be?" It sounds very strange to his ear.
"Born again; born of the Spirit! How can these things be?" A great
many people say, "You must reason it out; but if you do not reason it
out, do not ask us to believe it." I can imagine a great many people
saying that. When you ask me to reason it out, I tell you frankly I
cannot do it. "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." (John 8.) I do
not understand everything about the wind. You ask me to reason it
out. I cannot. It may blow due north here, and a hundred miles away
due south. I may go up a few hundred feet, and find it blowing in an
entirely opposite direction from what it is down here. You ask me to
explain these currents of wind; but suppose that, because I cannot
explain them, and do not understand them, I were to take my stand and
assert, "Oh, there is no such thing as wind." I can imagine some
little girl saying, "I know more about it than that man does; often
have I heard the wind, and felt it blowing against my face;" and she
might say, "Did not the wind blow my umbrella out of my hands the
other day? and did I not see it blow a man's hat off in the street?
Have I not seen it blow the trees in the forest, and the growing corn
in the country?"
You might just as well tell me that there is no such thing as wind,
as tell me there is no such thing as a man being born of the Spirit.
I have felt the spirit of God working in my heart, just as really and
as truly as I have felt the wind blowing in my face. I cannot reason
it out. There are a great many things I cannot reason out, but which
I believe. I never could reason out the creation. I can see the
world, but I cannot tell how God made it out of nothing. But almost
every man will admit there was a creative power.
There are a great many things that I cannot explain and cannot reason
out, and yet that I believe. I heard a commercial traveler say that
he had heard that the ministry and religion of Jesus Christ were
matters of revelation and not of investigation. "When it pleased God
to reveal His Son in Me," says Paul (Gal. i, 15, 16). There was a
party of young men together, going up the country; and on their
journey they made up their minds not to believe anything they could
not reason out. An old man heard them; and presently he said, "I
heard you say you would not believe anything you could not reason
out." "Yes," they said, "that is so." "Well," he said, "coming down
on the train to-day, I noticed some geese, some sheep, some swine,
and some cattle all eating grass. Can you tell me by what process
that same grass was turned into hair, feathers, bristles and wool? Do
you believe it is a fact?" "Oh yes," they said, "we cannot help
believing that, though we fail to understand it." "Well," said the
old man, "I cannot help believing in Jesus Christ." And I cannot help
believing in the regeneration of man, when I see men who have been
reclaimed, when I see men who have been reformed. Have not some of
the very worst men been regenerated--been picked up out of the pit,
and had their feet set upon the Rock, and a new song put in their
mouths? Their tongues were cursing and blaspheming; and now are
occupied in praising God. Old things have passed away, and all things
have become new. They are not reformed only, but regenerated--new men
in Christ Jesus.
Down there in the dark alleys of one of our great cities is a poor
drunkard. I think if you want to get near hell, you should go to a
poor drunkard's home. Go to the house of that poor miserable
drunkard. Is there anything more like hell on earth? See the want and
distress that reign there. But hark! A footstep is heard at the door,
and the children run and hide themselves. The patient wife waits to
meet the man. He has been her torment. Many a time she has borne
about the marks of his blows for weeks. Many a time that strong right
hand has been brought down on her defenseless head. And now she waits
expecting to hear his oaths and suffer his brutal treatment. He comes
in and says to her: "I have been to the meeting; and I heard there
that if I will I can be converted. I believe that God is able to save
me." Go down to that house again in a few weeks: and what a change!
As you approach you hear some one singing. It is not the song of a
reveller, but the strains of that good old hymn, "Rock of Ages." The
children are no longer afraid of the man, but cluster around his
knee. His wife is near him, her face lit up with a happy glow. Is not
that a picture of Regeneration? I can take you to many such homes,
made happy by the regenerating power of the religion of Christ. What
men want is the power to overcome temptation, the power to lead a
right life.
The only way to get into the kingdom of God is to be "born" into it.
The law of this country requires that the President should be born in
the country. When foreigners come to our shores they have no right to
complain against such a law, which forbids them from ever becoming
Presidents. Now, has not God a right to make a law that all those who
become heirs of eternal life must be "born" into His kingdom?
An unregenerated man would rather be in hell than in heaven. Take a
man whose heart is full of corruption and wickedness, and place him
in heaven among the pure, the holy and the redeemed; and he would not
want to stay there. Certainly, if we are to be happy in heaven we
must begin to make a heaven here on earth. Heaven is a prepared place
for a prepared people. If a gambler or a blasphemer were taken out of
the streets of New York and placed on the crystal pavement of heaven
and under the shadow of the tree of life, he would say, "I do not
want to stay here." If men were taken to heaven just as they are by
nature, without having their hearts regenerated, there would be
another rebellion in heaven. Heaven is filled with a company of those
who have been twice born.
In the 14th and 15th verses of this chapter we read "As Moses lifted
up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be
lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but
have eternal life." "WHOSOEVER." Mark that! Let me tell you who are
unsaved what God has done for you. He has done everything that He
could do toward your salvation. You need not wait for God to do
anything more. In one place he asks the question, what more could he
have done (Isaiah v. 4). He sent His prophets, and they killed them;
then He sent His beloved Son, and they murdered Him. Now He has sent
the Holy Spirit to convince us of sin, and to show how we are to be
saved.
In this chapter we are told how men are to be saved, namely, by Him
who was lifted up on the cross. Just as Moses lifted up the brazen
serpent in the wilderness, so must the Son of Man be lifted up, "that
whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life."
Some men complain and say that it is very unreasonable that they
should be held responsible for the sin of a man six thousand years
ago. It was not long ago that a man was talking to me about this
injustice, as he called it. If a man thinks he is going to answer God
in that way, I tell you it will not do him any good. If you are lost,
it will not be on account of Adam's sin.
Let me illustrate this; and perhaps you will be better able to
understand it. Suppose I am dying of consumption, which I inherited
from my father or mother. I did not get the disease by any fault of
my own, by any neglect of my health; I inherited it, let us suppose.
A friend happens to come along: he looks at me, and says: "Moody, you
are in a consumption." I reply, "I know it very well; I do not want
any one to tell me that." "But," he says, "there is a remedy." "But,
sir, I do not believe it. I have tried the leading physicians in this
country and in Europe; and they tell me there is no hope." "But you
know me, Moody; you have known me for years." "Yes, sir." "Do you
think, then, I would tell you a falsehood?" "No." "Well, ten years
ago I was as far gone. I was given up by the physicians to die; but I
took this medicine and it cured me. I am perfectly well: look at me."
I say that it is "a very strange case." "Yes, it may be strange; but
it is a fact. This medicine cured me: take this medicine, and it will
cure you. Although it has cost me a great deal, it shall not cost you
anything. Do not make light of it, I beg of you." "Well," I say, "I
should like to believe you; but this is contrary to my reason."
Hearing this, my friend goes away and returns with another friend,
and that one testifies to the same thing. I am still disbelieving; so
he goes away, and brings in another friend, and another, and another,
and another; and they all testify to the same thing. They say they
were as bad as myself; that they took the same medicine that has been
offered to me; and that it has cured them. My friend then hands me
the medicine. I dash it to the ground; I do not believe in its saving
power; I die. The reason is then that I spurned the remedy. So, if
you perish, it will not be because Adam fell; but because you spurned
the remedy offered to save you. You will choose darkness rather than
light. "How then shall ye escape, if ye neglect so great salvation?"
There is no hope for you if you neglect the remedy. It does no good
to look at the wound. If we had been in the Israelitish camp and had
been bitten by one of the fiery serpents, it would have done us no
good to look at the wound. Looking at the wound will never save any
one. What you must do is to look at the Remedy--look away to Him who
hath power to save you from your sin.
Behold the camp of the Israelites; look at the scene that is pictured
to your eyes! Many are dying because they neglect the remedy that is
offered. In that arid desert is many a short and tiny grave; many a
child has been bitten by the fiery serpents. Fathers and mothers are
bearing away their children. Over yonder they are just burying a
mother; a loved mother is about to be laid in the earth. All the
family, weeping, gather around the beloved form. You hear the
mournful cries; you see the bitter tears. The father is being borne
away to his last resting place. There is wailing going up all over
the camp. Tears are pouring down for thousands who have passed away;
thousands more are dying; and the plague is raging from one end of
the camp to the other.
I see in one tent an Israelitish mother bending over the form of a
beloved boy just coming into the bloom of life, just budding into
manhood. She is wiping away the sweat of death that is gathering upon
his brow. Yet a little while, and his eyes are fixed and glassy, for
life is ebbing fast away. The mother's heart-strings are torn and
bleeding. All at once she hears a noise in the camp. A great shout
goes up. What does it mean? She goes to the door of the tent. "What
is the noise in the camp?" she asks those passing by. And some one
says: "Why, my good woman, have you not heard the good news that has
come into the camp?" "No," says the woman, "Good news! What is it?"
"Why, have you not heard about it? God has provided a remedy." "What!
for the bitten Israelites? Oh, tell me what the remedy is!" "Why, God
has instructed Moses to make a brazen serpent, and to put it on a
pole in the middle of the camp; and He has declared that whosoever
looks upon it shall live. The shout that you hear is the shout of the
people when they see the serpent lifted up." The mother goes back
into the tent, and she says: "My boy, I have good news to tell you.
You need not die! My boy, my boy, I have come with good tidings; you
can live!" He is already getting stupefied; he is so weak he cannot
walk to the door of the tent. She puts her strong arms under him and
lifts him up. "Look yonder; look right there under the hill!" But the
boy does not see anything; he says--"I do not see anything; what is
it, mother?" And she says: "Keep looking, and you will see it." At
last he catches a glimpse of the glistening serpent; and lo, he is
well! And thus it is with many a young convert. Some men say, "Oh, we
do not believe in sudden conversions." How long did it take to cure
that boy? How long did it take to cure those serpent-bitten
Israelites? It was just a look; and they were well.
That Hebrew boy is a young convert. I can fancy that I see him now
calling on all those who were with him to praise God. He sees another
young man bitten as he was; and he runs up to him and tells him,
"You, need not die." "Oh," the young man replies, "I cannot live; it
is not possible. There is not a physician in Israel who can cure me."
He does not know that he need not die. "Why, have you not heard the
news? God has provided a remedy." "What remedy?" "Why, God has told
Moses to lift up a brazen serpent, and has said that none of those
who look upon that serpent shall die." I can just imagine the young
man. He may be what you call an intellectual young man. He says to
the young convert "You do not think I am going to believe anything
like that? If the physicians in Israel cannot cure me, how do you
think that an old brass serpent on a pole is going to cure me?" "Why,
sir, I was as bad as yourself!" "You do not say so!" "Yes, I do."
"That is the most astonishing thing I ever heard," says the young
man: "I wish you would explain the philosophy of it." "I cannot. I
only know that I looked at that serpent, and I was cured: that did
it. I just looked; that is all. My mother told me the reports that
were being heard through the camp; and I just believed what my mother
said, and I am perfectly well." "Well, I do not believe you were
bitten as badly as I have been." The young man pulls up his sleeve.
"Look there! That mark shows where I was bitten; and I tell you I was
worse than you are." "Well, if I understood the philosophy of it I
would look and get well." "Let your philosophy go: _look and live_."
"But, sir, you ask me to do an unreasonable thing. If God had said,
Take the brass and rub it into the wound, there might be something in
the brass that would cure the bite. Young man, explain the philosophy
of it." I have often seen people before me who have talked in that
way. But the young man calls in another, and takes him into the tent,
and says: "Just tell him how the Lord saved you;" and he tells just
the same story; and he calls in others, and they all say the same
thing.
The young man says it is a very strange thing. "If the Lord had told
Moses to go and get some herbs, or roots, and stew them, and take the
decoction as a medicine, there would be something in that. But it is
so contrary to nature to do such a thing as look at the serpent, that
I cannot do it." At length his mother, who has been out in the camp,
comes in, and she says, "My boy, I have just the best news in the
world for you. I was in the camp, and I saw hundreds who were very
far gone, and they are all perfectly well now." The young man says:
"I should like to get well; it is a very painful thought to die; I
want to go into the promised land, and it is terrible to die here in
this wilderness; but the fact is--I do not understand the remedy. It
does not appeal to my reason. I cannot believe that I can get well in
a moment." And the young man dies in consequence of his own unbelief.
God provided a remedy for this bitten Israelite--"Look and live!" And
there is eternal life for every poor sinner. Look, and you can be
saved, my reader, this very hour. God has provided a remedy; and it
is offered to all. The trouble is, a great many people are looking at
the pole. Do not look at the pole; that is the church. You need not
look at the church; the church is all right, but the church cannot
save you. Look beyond the pole. Look at the Crucified One. Look to
Calvary. Bear in mind, sinner, that Jesus died for all. You need not
look at ministers; they are just God's chosen instruments to hold up
the Remedy, to hold up Christ. And so, my friends, take your eyes off
from men; take your eyes off from the church. Lift them up to Jesus;
who took away the sin of the world, and there will be life for you
from this hour.
Thank God, we do not require an education to teach us how to look.
That little girl, that little boy, only four years old, who cannot
read, can look. When the father is coming home, the mother says to
her little boy, "Look! look! look!" and the little child learns to
look long before he is a year old. And that is the way to be saved.
It is to look at the Lamb of God "who taketh away the sin of the
world;" and there is life this moment for every one who is willing to
look.
Some men say, "I wish I knew how to be saved." Just take God at His
word and trust His Son this very day--this very hour--this very
moment. He will save you, if you will trust Him. I imagine I hear
some one saying, "I do not feel the bite as much as I wish I did. I
know I am a sinner, and all that; but I do not feel the bite enough."
How much does God want you to feel it?
When I was in Belfast I knew a doctor who had a friend, a leading
surgeon there; and he told me that the surgeon's custom was, before
performing any operation, to say to the patient, "Take a good look at
the wound, and then fix your eyes on me; and do not take them off
till I get through." I thought at the time that was a good
illustration. Sinner, take a good look at your wound; and then fix
your eyes on Christ, and do not take them off. It is better to look
at the Remedy than at the wound. See what a poor wretched sinner you
are; and then look at the Lamb of God who "taketh away the sin of the
world." He died for the ungodly and the sinner. Say "I will take
Him!" And may God help you to lift your eye to the Man on Calvary.
And as the Israelites looked upon the serpent and were healed, so may
you look and live.
After the battle of Pittsburgh Landing I was in a hospital at
Murfreesbro. In the middle of the night I was aroused and told that a
man in one of the wards wanted to see me. I went to him and he called
me "chaplain"--I was not the chaplain--and said he wanted me to help
him die. And I said, "I would take you right up in my arms and carry
you into the kingdom of God if I could; but I cannot do it: I cannot
help you die!" And he said, "Who can?" I said, "The Lord Jesus Christ
can--He came for that purpose." He shook his head, and said, "He
cannot save me; I have sinned all my life." And I said, "But He came
to save sinners." I thought of his mother in the north, and I was
sure that she was anxious that he should die in peace; so I resolved
I would stay with him. I prayed two or three times, and repeated all
the promises I could; for it was evident that in a few hours he would
be gone. I said I wanted to read him a conversation that Christ had
with a man who was anxious about his soul. I turned to the third
chapter of John. His eyes were riveted on me; and when I came to the
14th and 15th verses--the passage before us--he caught up the words,
"As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the
Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life." He stopped me and said, "Is that
there?" I said "Yes." He asked me to read it again; and I did so. He
leant his elbows on the cot and clasping his hands together, said,
"That's good; won't you read it again?" I read it the third time; and
then went on with the rest of the chapter. When I had finished, his
eyes were closed, his hands were folded, and there was a smile on his
face. Oh, how it was lit up! What change had come over it! I saw his
lips quivering, and leaning over him I heard in a faint whisper, "As
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son
of Man be lifted up; that whosoever believeth in Him should not
perish, but have eternal life." He opened his eyes and said, "That's
enough; don't read any more." He lingered a few hours, pillowing his
head on those two verses; and then went up in one of Christ's
chariots, to take his seat in the kingdom of God.
Christ said to Nicodemus: "Except a man be born again, he cannot see
the kingdom of God." You may see many countries; but there is one
country--the land of Beulah, which John Bunyan saw in vision--you
shall never behold, unless you are born again--regenerated by Christ.
You can look abroad and see many beautiful trees; but the tree of
life, you shall never behold, unless your eyes are made clear by
faith in the Saviour. You may see the beautiful rivers of the earth--you
may ride upon their bosoms; but bear in mind that your eye will
never rest upon the river which bursts out from the Throne of God and
flows through the upper Kingdom, unless you are born again. God has
said it; and not man. You will never see the kingdom of God except
you are born again. You may see the kings and lords of the earth; but
the King of kings and Lord of lords you will never see except you are
born again. When you are in London you may go to the Tower and see
the crown of England, which is worth thousands of dollars, and is
guarded there by soldiers; but bear in mind that your eye will never
rest upon the crown of life except you are born again.
You may hear the songs of Zion which are sung here; but one song--that
of Moses and the Lamb--the uncircumcised ear shall never hear;
its melody will only gladden the ear of those who have been born
again. You may look upon the beautiful mansions of earth, but bear in
mind the mansions which Christ has gone to prepare you shall never
see unless you are born again. It is God who says it. You may see ten
thousand beautiful things in this world; but the city that Abraham
caught a glimpse of--and from that time became a pilgrim and
sojourner--you shall never see unless you are born again (Heb. xi. 8,
10-16). You may often be invited to marriage feasts here; but you
will never attend the marriage supper of the Lamb except you are born
again. It is God who says it, dear friend. You may be looking on the
face of your sainted mother to-night, and feel that she is praying
for you; but the time will come when you shall never see her more
unless you are born again.
The reader may be a young man or a young lady who has recently stood
by the bedside of a dying mother; and she may have said, "Be sure and
meet me in heaven," and you made the promise. Ah! you shall never see
her more, except you are born again. I believe Jesus of Nazareth,
sooner than those infidels who say you do not need to be born again.
Parents, if you hope to see your children who have gone before, you
must be born of the Spirit. Possibly you are a father or a mother who
has recently borne a loved one to the grave; and how dark your home
seems! Never more will you see your child, unless you are born again.
If you wish to be re-united to your loved one, you must be born
again. I may be addressing a father or a mother who has a loved one
up yonder. If you could hear that loved one's voice, it would say,
"Come this way." Have you a sainted friend up yonder? Young man or
young lady, have you not a mother in the world of light? If you could
hear her speak, would not she say, "Come this way, my son,"--"Come
this way, my daughter?" If you would ever see her more you must be
born again.
We all have an Elder Brother there. Nearly nineteen hundred years ago
He crossed over, and from the heavenly shores He is calling you to
heaven. Let us turn our backs upon the world. Let us give a deaf ear
to the world. Let us look to Jesus on the Cross and be saved. Then we
shall one day see the King in His beauty, and we shall go no more
out.