WHAT IS THE NEW BIRTH? NO II.
By George W. Sinquefield
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By George W. Sinquefield
John 3:3 (KJV)
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.
John 3:7 (KJV)
7 Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.
Many, like Nicodemus, do not have the faintest idea of what we mean by the new birth. I hope these sermons will be of help to many in understanding and also experiencing this birth.
I. The New Birth Is The Work Of God.
The Revised Standard Version of the New Testament puts it this way, "Verily, verily, I say to you, unless one is born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God." Whether we say "born again," "born anew," or "born from above," they all mean the same thing.
The new birth is the work of God. It is super natural. It is not of human achievement. The new birth is not something a man can work out for himself, nor is it something that other people, organizations, or the church can work out for him.
It is the work of God. Jesus said one must be born "from above, born of the Holy Spirit." Let me again share with you these two good definitions of the new birth.
"The new birth is a change wrought by the Holy Spirit, whereby the child of satan becomes the child of God."
"The new birth is an act of God's sovereign grace whereby eternal life, is imparted to the soul of a sinner: It is the impartation of the very life and nature of God to the soul of the repentant, believing sinner. It is the operation of the Spirit of God upon the heart and soul of the sinner when he sees himself lost and helpless, when he looks to Jesus Christ and receives Him for salvation."
Of all God's miracles and wonders, this is the greatest. Were all the graves of our city to burst asunder and the dead walk the streets, it would be no greater miracle than the regeneration of a lost, condemned soul.
Regeneration is completely the work of God. Man has learned how to do many wonderful things: He can take a block of marble from the hillside and carve it into a noble statue. He can break up a waste wilderness and turn it into a garden of flowers. He can take a lump of iron ore and forge it into watch springs, but man cannot perform the miracle of regeneration. This is God's work and only God can regenerate a lost soul.
The new birth is referred to in the Bible as:
Jesus said one must experience a new birth. Now birth implies life -- the giving of life and only God in Christ can do that.
John 1:4 (KJV)
John 3:36 (KJV)
John 5:40 (KJV)
John 6:33 (KJV)
John 6:35 (KJV)
John 6:53 (KJV)
John 6:54 (KJV)
John 11:25 (KJV)
John 14:6 (KJV)
John 20:31 (KJV)
Colossians 3:4 (KJV)
1 John 5:12 (KJV)
Salvation is all of God. It is humbling to discover this, but don't make the mistake of rejecting this truth just because it is humbling. Consider the alternatives. What if you had to depend upon yourself in order to be born again? What would have happened when you were born the first time, if your birth had been dependent upon you? Why, you never would have been born at all. And that is exactly the way it is with our second birth. If rebirth depends upon us, there is no use expecting it to occur in anyone's life. If a person is going to be born again, God must make it happen and the Bible tells us that He does make it happen, and that is the reason joy and gladness can be a part of our experience.
The Bible speaks of a Christian as one who has been born:
1 Peter 2:2 (KJV)
John 1:12 through John 1:13 (KJV)
1 John 2:29 (KJV)
1 John 3:9 (KJV)
A writer has told of a curious little invention found in Japan "by which small dry wisps of woods or straw, by some magic, when dropped into a bowl of water, spread into flowers, and graceful shapes. One moment they seem dead and dry; the next, as by a miracle, they expand, blossom, change into strange beauty." Even so does the coming of Christ into the heart make dead souls live and barren lives fruitful.
2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV)
To "create" means to make something out of nothing. It means to bring into existence something that never existed before. Only God can create, only God can make something out of nothing. Man never has and never will create anything.
To "make" means to take that which has been created and form other things. Man can "make" but only God can "create." Now notice this verse of scripture from different translations.
King James -- "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creation, old things are passed away; behold all things are become new."
Good News For Modern Man -- "When anyone is joined to Christ he is a new being; the old is gone, the new has come."
Revised Standard Version -- "Therefore if any one is in Christ, he is a new creation: the old has passed away, behold, the new has come."
Living Letters -- "When someone becomes a Christian he becomes a brand new person inside, He is not the same anymore. A new life has begun."
Ephesians 4:21 through Ephesians 4:24 (KJV)
The new birth is a creation of God. It never existed before in the life of a lost sinner. God ignores the old nature and creates a new man instead, which is the divine nature of God. It is sinless, perfect and deathless.
2 Peter 1:4 (KJV)
This divine nature, the nature of God, is dealt with in I John 3:9. "Whatsoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God,"
Good News for Modern Man -- "Whosoever is a child of God does not continue to sin,because God's very nature is in him; and because God is his Father, he is not able to continue in sin."
Living Letters -- "The person who has been born into God's family does not make a practice of sinning because now God's life is in him, and so he can't keep on sinning, for this new life has been born into him and controls him -- he has been born again."
So you see that the new birth is not the dressing up of the old sinful nature with education, morality, culture, religion, etc. Man's need is for a new nature and God gives him this, through the experience of the new birth.
This again implies the giving of life to the dead.
John 5:24 (KJV)
Living Letters -- "I say emphatically that anyone who listens to my message and believes in God who sent me has eternal life, and will never be damned for his sins, but has already passed out of death into life."
Ephesians 2:1 (KJV)
Revised Standard -- "And you he made alive, when you were dead through the trespasses and sins."
II. The New Birth Is An Instantaneous Act Of God.
The new birth cannot be received on the installment plan like so many things we get today. The new birth is not a process as many people think. The Christian life is a process of growing and developing but not the new birth. Many believe that you have to do something here and that helps save you a little, then you do something else and that helps a little more. They believe that if you go through from first to last, you'll be saved.
One has said, "Nowhere in the Scripture is entrance into God's kingdom tied to a momentary or even temporary faith experience of the past. Salvation is a dynamic, growing relationship with the only One who has eternal life to bestow. It requires continuing contact in order to receive it."
This I find is not in keeping with the teachings of the Scripture. It is plain that entrance into the kingdom of God is tied to a momentary experience. Notice the word "saved" found in Ephesians 2:8, "For by grace are ye saved through faith." The N.I.V. study Bible says, "It includes salvation from God's wrath. The tense of the verb saved suggests a completed work with emphasis on its present effect."
The truth made very clear in God's Word is this. The very moment a lost soul sees himself lost by the help of the Holy Spirit, (John 16:7-11) cut off from the life of God and on his way to hell and he sees Christ as the only One who can save, he repents of sin and looks to the finished work of the crucified and risen Lord. He believes in Jesus, accepts Him as Lord and Savior and the moment he does the Holy Spirit touches his dead soul -- quickens it and makes him a new creature in Christ.
In the seventh chapter of Luke we have the story of a woman who was a "sinner" coming to Jesus and washed His feet with her tears and wiped them with the hair of her head. And in verses 48-50 Jesus said to her. "Thy sins are forgiven. And they that sat at meat with Him began to say within themselves, who is this that forgiveth sins also? And He (Jesus) said to the woman,"Thy faith hath saved thee; go in peace." She was saved the moment she put her faith in Jesus. Nothing is said about her having to be obedient, etc. She was saved, born into God's family then and there.
Again in Luke chapter 18 we have a blind man being given his sight and was also given salvation.
Luke 18:35 through Luke 18:43 (KJV)
Notice again Jesus said, "Thy faith hath saved thee." He too was born into the family of God, saved and given eternal life, the very moment he put his faith in Jesus. Many teach and preach that salvation is a kind of evolution, a slow growth, a cultural process. It was not this with Paul. He was instantly changed from a ravenous persecutor into a humble Christian. From a blood-thirsty Christ-hating, zealous Pharisee, he suddenly became a flaming evangel of the cross. His life was instantly made over. This was true of Zaccheus, of the jailer, of the women at the well, of the Gadarene, and of Mary Magdalene.
One preacher has this to say: "Suppose it were a process, suppose you started right and then you went a little farther and you were all right thus far, but before you completed the whole thing you died, what would happen? Would you be saved or would you be lost? Don't be a fool, my friend, you do not receive the new birth in installments. It is an instantaneous act of God. How long did it take in creation's morning for God, as He looked out over a universe that was wrapped in chaos and in darkness to say, "Let there be light?" Immediately, in the twinkling of an eye, it was so.
How long did it take God to create this earth? God said, "Let the waters be divided, let the dry land appear" and immediately, in the twinkling of an eye, it was so. "By faith we understand the worlds were framed by the Word of God." God had but to speak and mother earth was carpeted with the beautiful grass and flowers and trees and all manner of vegetation. God had but to speak and the air was peopled with birds of a thousand plumage. How long did it take God to create man as the crowning act of His creative genius? Not through periods of time, not by evolutionary change of species from lower to higher forms of life as our evolutionist friends would have us believe. Not so. That is not scriptural. No sir, God had but to speak to the inanimate dust and the form of man came forth made in the image of and after the likeness of the Creator Himself and God breathed into that man the breath of life and he became a living soul. In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Why my friends, that is exactly how long it will take God to operate when He closes this present dispensation. When the cup of iniquity is full to the brim, when God's patience is exhausted, when patience will cease to be a virtue, God will have but to speak and dispatch the Son from heaven's glory and He will split yonder blue of heaven and He will come back, and when Jesus does come back the Word of God says that in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the trumpet will sound and the dead shall be raised and we shall be changed. I say that is how long it takes God to do a thing. How long does it take God to make a soul that is dead in trespasses and in sins, alive forever more in Christ Jesus? My friends, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye."
III. The New Birth Is Personal.
John 1:11 through John 1:13 (KJV)
John 3:36 (KJV)
Each person must "receive" Jesus and "believe" on Him for himself. No one else can do it for him. People lose themselves in the crowd, they are swept along sometimes by mob psychology. They are caught up in an emotional atmosphere and the danger is that they'll join the church and not really experience the new birth.
The experience of some of God's great servants:
Charles G. Finney was out in the woods alone praying when he was converted. There may be a service in which 500 people came to Christ but they don't come as a group but each one of them must come as an individual -- repenting of sin and trusting Jesus as Lord and Saviour.
Dr. O. A. Geiseman, in "Redeeming Love" says, "Men have made so much fun in modern times about Christianity and about God's way of always working with the individual. They have said, "Why, the ways of the church will never meet the problems of the world. What we need is social Christianity. We cannot be bothering with the conversion of individuals." "My friends, you cannot have social education. Everybody must be educated as an individual. Nobody can study for anybody else.
You cannot have social eating, drinking and sleeping. Everybody must eat and drink and sleep for himself. You cannot have social Christianity except you have a society that is composed of individual believing children of God and disciples of Jesus Christ
How does one experience the new birth?
John 3:14 through John 3:18 (KJV)
The new birth is experienced when one believes in Jesus -- when one accepts Him as Lord and Savior. Believing on Jesus is trusting Him. It is turning from everything else that one might believe will save him and yielding completely to Jesus who said, "I am the Way and no one comes to the Father but by Me."
John 3:16 (KJV)
4 In him was life; and the life was the light of men.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
40 And ye will not come to me, that ye might have life.
33 For the bread of God is he which cometh down from heaven, and giveth life unto the world.
35 And Jesus said unto them, I am the bread of life: he that cometh to me shall never hunger; and he that believeth on me shall never thirst.
53 Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you.
54 Whoso eateth my flesh, and drinketh my blood, hath eternal life; and I will raise him up at the last day.
25 Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live:
6 Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.
31 But these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.
4 When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.
12 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life.
2 As newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby:
12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
29 If ye know that he is righteous, ye know that every one that doeth righteousness is born of him.
9 Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin; for his seed remaineth in him: and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.
17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature (new creation): old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.
21 If so be that ye have heard him, and have been taught by him, as the truth is in Jesus: 22 That ye put off concerning the former conversation the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; 23 And be renewed in the spirit of your mind; 24 And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness.
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust.
24 Verify, verily, I say unto you, He that heareth my word, and believeth on him that sent me, hath everlasting life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed from death unto life.
1 And you hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins;
35 And it came to pass, that as he was come nigh unto Jericho, a certain blind man sat by the way side begging: 36 And hearing the multitude pass by, he asked what it meant. 37 And they told him, that Jesus of Nazareth passeth by. 38 And he cried, saying, Jesus, thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 39 And they which went before rebuked him, that he should hold his peace: but he cried so much the more, Thou Son of David, have mercy on me. 40 And Jesus stood, and commanded him to be brought unto him: and when he was come near, he asked him, 41 Saying, What wilt thou that I shall do unto thee? And he said, Lord, that I may receive my sight. 42 And Jesus said unto him, Receive thy sight: thy faith hath saved thee. 43 And immediately he received his sight, and followed him, glorifying God: and all the people, when they saw it, gave praise unto God.
11 He came unto his own, and his own received him not. 12 But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name: 13 Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
36 He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.
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. 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. 17 For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. 18 He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.
16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.
