Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus,
a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by
night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you
are a teacher come from God, for no one can do
these signs that you do unless God is with him.
Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you,
unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom
of God. Nicodemus said to him, How can a man
be born when he is old? Can he enter a second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus
answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless
one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot
enter the kingdom of God. That which is born
in the flesh is flesh. that which is born of
the Spirit is Spirit. Do not marvel that I said
to you, you must be born again. The wind blows
where it wishes and you hear its sound, but you
do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Nicodemus said to him, how can these things be?
Jesus answered him, are you the teacher of Israel
and yet you do not understand these things? Truly,
truly I say to you, we speak of what we know
and bear witness to what we have seen, but you
do not receive our testimony. If I have told
you earthly things and you do not believe, how
can you believe if I tell you heavenly things?
No one has ascended into heaven except He who
descended from heaven, the Son of Man. And as
Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness,
so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever
believes in Him may have eternal life. For God
so loved the world that He gave His only Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish
but have eternal life. For God did not send his
Son into the world to condemn the world, but
in order that the world might be saved through
him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned,
but whoever does not believe is condemned already,
because he has not believed in the name of the
only Son of God. And this is the judgment. The
light has come into the world, and people loved
the darkness rather than the light, because their
works were evil. For everyone who does wicked
things hates the light and does not come to the
light, lest his work should be exposed. But whoever
does what is true comes to the light so that
it may be clearly seen that his works have been
carried out in God. Let's pray. Father, I thank
you for this church. I thank you for this opportunity
to preach your word here in this church. Lord,
I pray that you would give us your spirit. I
pray that by your spirit we would be born again
and that we would see the kingdom of God. that
we would see who Christ is, that we would understand
what he has done, what he has come to do for
us. Lord, I pray that this would drive us to
deeper faith, to deeper repentance, and that
we would no longer do wickedness, but that we
would be people who live in the light and do
what is good and right and true. Lord, give us
faith, help us to believe, help us to not ignore
what the word is saying to us, what the spirit
is saying to us in the scriptures. And Lord,
may everyone hear. be born again. We pray these
things in Jesus' name. Amen. As Pastor Kenny
said earlier, I'm a pastor of a little church
in Sofia, Bulgaria. Our church's name is New
Life. And this morning we will be talking about
how to have new life in Christ through the spirits.
And I bring you greetings from the church in
Bulgaria. As Pastor Kenny said earlier this morning
when we read the Apostle's Creed, That's the
same creed that the church has been reciting
together for thousands of years, and it's a creed
that we recite together in Sofia, Bulgaria, because
there is only one church and one faith and one
spirit. And it's a pleasure to be with you here
this morning to learn about our one Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. But there is something
wrong with us. There's something wrong in our
hearts. There's something wrong. with every human
being close to the core of who they are as people,
of what it means to be a person. There's been
something wrong with humanity almost since the
beginning of humanity. And we feel it. We see
it in the news. We see it through tales of war,
famine, plague. We see it in our daily lives,
in our families. It shouldn't be the case. that
mothers tear down their daughters. It shouldn't
be the case that fathers are cruel to their sons.
It shouldn't be the case that children disown
their parents. It shouldn't be the case that
people lie to each other, cheat each other, steal
each other. It shouldn't be the case that neighbors
would fight and feud for years over two inches
of property. But that's the case. We sin. We
are sinners. We were made in the image of God,
but our first parents, Adam and Eve, rebelled
against their Lord, chose to do sin instead of
following the Lord. And we, every human being,
has since followed suit. We participate in that
rebellion, so much so that we cannot imagine
a different reality. We were made in the image
of God, and we don't act like it. Instead, We
act like monsters, tearing each other apart and
blaspheming the Lord, his holy name. And we pretend
like everything is normal. We might even go to
church on Sunday morning after screaming at our
kids. And we open our Bibles and we pray and
we open our hymnals and sing praises to the Lord,
even though we... hate people made in his image.
Brothers and sisters, this should not be the
case. Is there any hope to this story? Is there
any way that we monsters could be made into living
beings again, living humans again? Is there any
chance for our story to have a happy ending?
There is a chance, but it would take a miracle.
But that's exactly the thing that our heavenly
father sent his son Jesus Christ to do, to bring
us his Holy Spirit. He came to do more than just
be a good counselor. He came to do more than
just be a good teacher. He even came to do more
than just forgive us for our sins. All these
things are good and necessary, and we needed
those things, but we need more than that. We
need new life. We need new birth. We need the
Holy Spirit to change us from the inside, to
make us into new people. And the Son promises
that for us today. Brothers and sisters, we must.
be born again. We need to be born again. And
so this morning from this passage from John 3
verses 21, 1 through 21, I will be talking about
three aspects of what it means to be born again.
Yes, even in Bulgaria, that's another thing that
unites the church. I preach in three points.
We must be born again of the Spirit. We must
be born again to faith. and we must be born again
to good works. What does it mean to be born again
of the spirits? John chapter three is one of
the most famous chapters in the book of John,
and one of its verses, John chapter three verse
16, is one of the most famous verses in all of
scripture. But John chapter three verse 16 is
in the context of a story of Nicodemus. coming
to see Jesus in the middle of the night. Nicodemus
was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. Now,
for those of you who have been in church, who
read the Gospels, we know a little bit about
the Pharisees. They are always the bad guys.
They're the ones who are constantly fought and
bickered with Jesus throughout his ministry.
They're the ones who conspired with the Sadducees
to have Jesus crucified. But at this point in
the story, they don't yet hate Jesus. This is
still early on in Jesus' ministry. And so, Nicodemus,
a Pharisee, could be coming to Jesus in the middle
of the night trying to figure out just who is
this Jesus fellow, this Jesus of Nazareth. In
the chapter before, Jesus had gone to the temple.
And he had cleansed the temple from the tradesmen
selling things there. And the Pharisees would
have thought that that would be a pretty good
thing to do. They had been wanting to do that
themselves. And so maybe this new teacher, this
popular teacher, is someone that they can play
ball with. And so Nicodemus, the Pharisee, flattered
Jesus. And he says, Rabbi, we know that you are
a teacher come from God, for no one can do these
things that you do unless God is with him. He
was paying Jesus a big compliment. He was coming
to this young teacher and saying, hey, we'd like
you to join our team, maybe even to become a
Pharisee. Do you want Jesus to be on your team?
Do you want Jesus to be a part of your life?
Would you be willing to give Jesus a five -star
review on Google? I remember a few years ago,
scrolling on Facebook, and you would see these
pictures of a very sad -looking Jesus. And he
would say, please like my photo, or please like
this post. It only takes a second. Why wouldn't
you just like this post of Jesus? The thing is,
brothers, Jesus does not need our likes on Facebook.
Jesus does not need our Google reviews. Jesus
does not need our approval. Jesus does not care
about an invitation to join his team or to our
invitation for him to join our team. Because
Jesus is Lord and not us. Jesus is the one who
invites us to be a part of his family, to enter
into his kingdom. And he will not accept anything
less than our whole hearts. And so that's why
when Nicodemus flattered Jesus, Jesus rejected
his invitation, didn't even answer it, and said,
You think you've seen, you think you see me?
You think you know who I am and what I'm about?
You can see nothing unless you have been born
again. We have no chance to understand who Jesus
is and what his ministry is unless we have been
born again by water and the Spirit. What does
that mean? How can we be born again by water
and the Spirit? Nicodemus didn't understand what
Jesus was talking about either, and Jesus said,
you should. Don't you know the scriptures? Don't
you know the promises from Ezekiel, chapter 36,
verses 25 through 28? I'll read them for us.
I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall
be clean from all your uncleannesses. From all
your idols I will cleanse you, and I will give
you a new heart. and a new spirit I will put
within you. And I will remove the heart of stone
from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.
And I will put my spirit within you and cause
you to walk in my statutes and be careful to
obey my rules. You shall dwell in the land that
I give to your fathers and you shall be my people
and I will be your God." Jesus said to Nicodemus,
that has to happen to you before you can understand
who I am and what's going on. or what I'm doing.
Being baptized with the Holy Spirit is another
way of saying you must be born again. Jesus said
to Nicodemus, you, even you, the Pharisee, the
greatest theologian of your day, the best church
people of your day, you must be born again. This
would have been shocking to Nicodemus. Being
born again, being baptized with the Holy Spirit
is something that needs to happen to other people.
I already know the law. I already know the scriptures.
I already know what the Lord wants from me, and
I can do it. And Jesus says, no, even you need
to be cleansed from your idolatry. Even you need
to be cleansed from your sin. Even you are hard
-hearted, and even you need to be saved. Being
born again, being baptized with the Spirit is
not something that we can do by ourselves. It's
not something that we can make God do for us.
It's even not something that we want to happen
often. As it's written in John chapter 1, verses
1 through 13, becoming a child of God is not
something that can be done by the will of flesh
or by the will of man. It is only done by the
will of God. It's a miracle. And it's our only
hope for our salvation. And brothers and sisters,
in our flesh, we hate this doctrine. We hate
it. Because we, like the Pharisees, feel like
we need to contribute to our salvation. That
we have to participate in order for it to be
real. And why do we feel like we need to participate
in order for it to be real? So we can compare
ourselves. with others, so we can compare ourselves,
and especially to compare ourselves favorably,
so that we can claim that we were the wise ones
who really got it, whereas those who didn't get
it, they're the fools. We want our good works,
our theology, our churchiness. We want to use
these to commend ourselves to the Lord and somehow
earn our salvation. But the doctrine of new birth
ought to humble us. Because we, like Nicodemus,
like the Pharisees, like every Christian throughout
all of history, throughout all the world, are
only saved by the grace of God. and there are
no other options. All Christians are baptized
by the same spirit into the same church. All
Christians have only one Lord, one faith, one
water baptism, and one future hope. All Christians,
by definition, are baptized by the Holy Spirit.
All Christians, by definition, have been born
again. If we have not been born again, we are
not Christians. We are not saved. There are not
two levels of Christianity. There is no such
thing as a carnal Christian who does not have
the spirit. There are two types of people in
the world. There are those who have been born
again and those who have not. And if we aren't
born again, we aren't saved. There is no two
levels of Christianity, a normal level where
most Christians reside, and a future higher level
that we can reach through being serious, through
praying hard enough, through constant study.
It's not that we can access some sort of Christian
superpowers, that we can somehow through our
deeper faith have access to miracles, to reach
a point where we will never be tempted again,
or to understand the full counsel of the Lord,
to have these hidden things revealed to us. There's
only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, and one
Holy Spirit, and he is common for all Christians.
And we cannot, therefore, Lord, our faith and
our spirituality over other believers. We must
be born again. So, how do we know if we're born
again? How can we be born again? This can be
a difficult question to answer. Jesus says in
John chapter three, verses eight, that the wind
blows where it wishes and you hear it sound,
but you do not know where it comes from or where
it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of
the spirit. The spirit's invisible. And his work
of the inward heart is often invisible. How can
we see and know that we are born again if we
cannot see the spirit? We can know from seeing
the effects of the spirit. I cannot see the wind,
but I can see the branches of the trees rustling.
So it is with the Holy Spirit. I'll share my
personal testimony. I was raised in a Christian
home. I made a confession of faith when I was
seven. I was in a Baptist church, so I was baptized
when I was seven. But I was still doubting whether
or not I was really saved. I wasn't certain.
I knew cognitively that the Lord saved sinners,
those who believe in him. But I wasn't sure that
I was one of those sinners that the Lord would
save. And so I was afraid. I was afraid of the
Lord and His judgment. I was afraid that I would
die and I would go to hell for all eternity.
And so at night I would sleep with a baseball
bat next to my bed so I can ward off any intruders
that might want to break into my house and kill
me. It sounds funny, but I was a little kid.
I was eight years old, and I was terrified of
death, and I was wondering what prayer can I
pray to get God to love me? It was a mystery,
and I didn't know how to get it. And so I would
constantly go up whenever they had altar calls
and pray, Lord, if I am not saved, please save
me. And I never felt. Different. Something was
wrong. What was it? It was when I was 13. And
I realized that the Lord doesn't just love sinners
generally. The Lord loves me. The Lord sent his
son to live, to die. to rise again to save me.
And I believe in him. And so now, no matter what,
I am safe. And after that night, I did not need
a baseball bat next to my bed, because I knew
that no matter what, I was safe. So when was
I born again? It is impossible to answer that
question. Was I born again after I made my first
confession of faith? After I was baptized the
first time? After I made my 10th confession of
faith? After I finally got it when I was 13,
when I was baptized again later on? When was
I born again? It does not matter. What matters
from my perspective is that I heard the call
that I was loved by the Lord and that I have
responded with faith. And so no matter what,
those who are born again will hear the Lord's
call and they will respond in faith. And so brothers
and sisters, if you want to be born again, believe.
Because you are born again to believe. You are
born again to have faith. Now, what must we believe?
John 3 16 is one of the most wonderful verses
in all of the Bible. It's almost a cliche, but
it doesn't mean it's any less true and any less
magnificent. It's a wonderful summary of the
gospel. And if you know only this verse, you
have a good start. For God so loved the world
that he gave his only son that whoever believes
in him should not perish, but have eternal life.
I want to point something out in this passage,
in this verse. When did God the Father start
to love us? When did he start to love his church?
He didn't start to love us when we believed.
He didn't even start to love us in our lifetime.
He didn't send his Son into the world so that
He could love us. He didn't send His Holy Spirit
into the world so that He could love us. The
Father loved His people from all eternity, and
that's why He sent His Son into the world to
save us. How beautiful and how terrible is the
love of God. that he would send his innocent,
his beautiful, his gorgeous, his magnificent
son into the world to save monsters like us?
People who tear each other apart? Sinners like
us? People who blaspheme his holy name? How dare
he send his beautiful son to save people like
us? How could he send his wonderful son into
the lion's den to save the people who would consume
him? That's the love of the Holy Father for his
church, that he would be willing to send his
son to die for us. How amazing is that grace.
Don't ever Take that grace for granted. Believe
it, church. This is the love of the Father that
He sent His Son to die for us because He loves
us. There is no gift that we could ever give
that could repay the Father for this kind of
love. Even to try would be offensive. What He
wants us to do In response to that love is only
believe. To believe in the Lord Jesus Christ.
And he will save us and he will draw us to himself.
He will make us his children so we can live with
him and be blessed with him forever. And so Christian,
do you believe in the son? That's the point of
the book of John. The point of the book of John
according to John chapter 20, is that we would
believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and
that we would have life in His name. So do you
believe? The struggle is that sometimes we mix
up the fruit of faith with faith. When asking
do you believe, what we often do is point to
our good works. Of course I believe. I go to
church every Sunday. But I'm not asking you,
do you go to church every Sunday? I'm asking
you, do you believe? I'm not asking you if you're
a good father. Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
I'm not asking you if you're a good businessman.
Do you believe? I'm not asking you if you're
moral. Do you believe in Jesus Christ? I'm not
asking you if you're reformed. Do you believe
in Jesus Christ? I'm not asking you if you tithe.
Do you believe in Jesus Christ? I'm not asking
you if you're a good pastor, a good elder, a
good deacon, a good missionary. If you can't
answer yes to the question, do you believe in
Jesus Christ, none of those things matter and
you're on the road to hell. Do you believe? If
you don't believe, none of those things have
any meaning. But if you do, they carry eternal
meaning. Don't mix up the fruits of faith with
faith. But that doesn't mean the fruits of faith
are useless. Because on the basis of the faith,
we ought to live in the light. In fact, that's
the purpose of our being born again. We were
born again to do good works. We are born again
to be in the light John chapter 3 verse 17 Continues
the thought from John chapter 3 16 for God did
not send his world and son into the world to
condemn the world But in order that the world
might be saved through him Why didn't God need
to send his son into the world to condemn the
world John continues and answers that question
Because whoever does not believe is condemned
already. Whoever does not believe is in the darkness
because their work is evil and they are condemned
already. A little while ago, my son Frank, if
you get our prayer cards, he's the boy, he's
the one making the silly face. It was 3 a .m.
in the morning. I was asleep in one room, in
our room, he was asleep in the next room, and
I heard a scream in the middle of the night,
three o 'clock, and I ran into the room, and
I said, Frank, Frank, what's wrong? And he said,
there's something scary in my room, on my bed.
I was thinking, what is it? Is it an intruder?
Is it a bear? Is it a curtain? Is it this stuffed
bee from Ikea? And he saw it. And he laughed
and he said, oh, I thought it was something scary.
And he fell right to sleep. And my heart was
still beating. Kids naturally are afraid of the
darkness. They're afraid of what might be hidden
there. But as we grow older, we lose our fear
of the darkness. And in fact, darkness seems
a little bit appealing. Because in the darkness
we can hide. In the darkness we can play. you
start to think that the darkness is a fun place
to be. Now, as I said earlier, we have no business
being afraid of the darkness because our Lord
is the great protector. But there are monsters
in the darkness. And if we play in the darkness,
away from the light of God, away from the light
of truth, we will become the monsters and the
darkness. Christian do not play in the dark.
We are called to be people of the light to live
in the light and those who live in the light
do what is true so that it may be clearly seen
that his works have been carried out in God.
How do we get out of the darkness and into light?
It happens through repentance. Kenny very conveniently
defined repentance earlier, but I will read from
the Westminster Shorter Catechism, question 87,
that defines what is repentance unto life. Repentance
unto life is a saving grace whereby a sinner
out of a true sense of his sin and apprehension
of the mercy of God in Christ does with grief
and hatred of his sin turn from it unto God with
full purpose of and endeavor after new obedience.
Repentance is more than just saying, I'm sorry.
Repentance is also more than just confessing
your sin. I know plenty of people that confess
their sin and then shamelessly confess their
sin and continue to do the same thing. They're
even proud of it. It's more than just a desire
to change. Repentance means hating our sin. Loving.
the grace of God offered in Christ, and deciding
to turn after it in new obedience. To illustrate
this, for those of you who are parents, it is
Father's Day after all, you might offer your
kid a wonderful handmade meal full of delicious
vegetables, delicious meats, homemade bread,
And they will say, yucky, I don't want it. But
give your kid a candy. And they are walking down
the streets, and they drop the candy in the mud.
And they think, that's not a problem. And they'll
bend down and put it right back into their mouth.
And you think, ugh, that's terrible. Why is it
that your child thinks that Nasty floor candy
is appetizing, whereas the thought of us putting
that in our mouth is the most disgusting thing
we can think of. I can see the horror on your
faces. It's because you have repented. When we
repent, we see that that floor candy is no longer
delicious. It is something disgusting. And that
delicious homemade meal is no longer yucky. but
something delicious. That's what happens when
we repent of our sin. We decide when we realize
that something that's yucky, disgusting, lying,
cheating, stealing, lust, those things which
used to seem good to us are now abhorrent. And
those things that used to seem too difficult
and even foolish to us, being honest, sharing
the gospel, being faithful, even to our hurt,
and being generous. Those are the things that
are beautiful. And as we grow in our repentance,
sin will seem more and more disgusting to us,
like floricandy. and righteousness will seem
more and more beautiful. Now it isn't always,
it doesn't always happen in an instant, though
sometimes it does. It doesn't always like turning
a light on the switch, sometimes it's something
that we have to fight for. Repentance is a process
that will take our whole lives and it's not something
that will be perfected in this life. But brothers
and sisters, we can't use that as an excuse not
to try. If we truly believe that righteousness
is beautiful and that sin is disgusting, then
that ought to characterize our life and bring
about real and honest change. If we truly repent,
we no longer think of ourselves as victims. of
our personal wants and desires, that they'd be
impossible to fight. We can no longer justify
ourselves saying that I had to sin, that I had
no options. We no longer think of ourselves as
victims, but we realize what's true. When I sin,
I'm the criminal. And there might be explanations
for my actions, but there isn't any justification.
We take responsibility for what we have done.
And we realize how we have hurt the people around
us. How we have hurt those we've said we love.
How we have hurt our brothers and sisters in
the church and how we have hurt our neighbors.
And how we have dishonored the name of our God.
But it's not all bad news. Because in repentance,
we realize that we remember the grace of God.
That because of Jesus, we are truly forgiven.
That fills us with love. That fills us with joy.
And that brings us to new, and that causes us
to live in the light and bear fruits of repentance.
The Holy Spirit who has given you new birth is
more powerful than any of our twisted fleshly
desires. And when we repent and when we actually
desire to change, we can be changed. There is
hope for real change. But if we continue to justify
ourselves, if we continue to harbor bitterness,
harbor selfish thoughts, if we continue to hide
our sins, if we continue to think that the Bible
has no right to tell us how to live our lives
or the pastor or someone has no right to tell
us how to live our lives, if we think we have
reached a certain point of holiness and that's
it, I don't want anymore. This is fine, I'm fine
the way I am and I don't really want to change
anymore. We're not acting like the living, like
living beings anymore. We're acting like we're
returning right back to the darkness that we
thought that we should have escaped from. So
don't let that happen to you. The Christian life
is one of repentance. That's why this church
and our church in Bulgaria practice repentance
every Sunday. so that it be a constant reminder
that sin is disgusting and righteousness and
the grace of God is beautiful. And so let us
be changed by the Holy Spirit. Let us believe
in the Son of God. Let us rest in the Father's
love for us. By these things, know that we are
born again. That being born again has a look.
I'm going to read from 2 Corinthians, close out
with reading from 2 Corinthians 3, verse 16 through
18. But when one turns to the Lord, the veil
is removed. Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where
the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
And we all, with unveiled faces, beholding the
glory of the Lord, are being transformed into
the same image, from one degree of glory to another.
For this comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.
We will be continuing this battle throughout
our whole lives. The Lord will be changing us
throughout our whole lives. He will be transforming
us throughout our whole lives. But one day, by
the Spirit's power, we will see the Lord, and
we will be perfected, and we will be glorified,
and we will shine with a radiance brighter than
the sun. Keep going, church. We're gonna make
it. Let's pray.