Good morning everyone from Hawaii, to all points of the world, welcome to The Church Ministries 54th church service. Most of you all know my heart and my love for all of you. I pray daily that this church will grow to be able to help many others which I do want to stress today. You all know we do have to go through great amounts of suffering while we are here on this earth. There have been many who have died faithfully for the Lord Jesus. In this world we will have tribulation (John 16:33) As Christians we should expect continuing trials and sorrows when we exist in this world or should I say this cold world. (Matt. 24:10-14) “At that time many will turn away from the faith and will betray and hate each other, and many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. Because of the increase of wickedness, the love of most will grow cold, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come.” Many are still living lives being unbelievers, and I am so sorry to say without Christ, and there are many others there guidance system is not of the Holy Spirit, and of course they are not fruitful. I pray and wonder there are so many effects that all point to Christ and still people don’t pick up on it, it baffles me especially around the Christmas season and it is probably the most important holiday and people don’t even ask questions about the Lord Jesus, and we are celebrating His birth. I had all these notes already written, and I am not even going to even talk about them. The hours I spent writing, it is just so heartbreaking to explain how Jesus was so hurt by His own people, condemned to be tortured and crucified by the same people he helped, healed, and ministered to. Then on top of it all they let a murderer go free in His place, it brings tears to my eyes. The object is nothing has changed the ones that are truly faithful continue to go through great amounts of suffering. You take even Paul 20 years after he became a noted Apostle he still was suffering, plus what he went through during those 20 years. “To this very hour we go hungry and thirsty, we are in rags, we are brutally treated, we are homeless. We work hard with our own hands. When we are cursed, we bless; when we are persecuted, we endure it; when we are slandered, we answer kindly. Up to this moment we have become the scum of the earth, the refuse of the world.” (1Cor.4:11-13) That is how many of us feel, but our reward will not be here on this earth or this world, it will be in heaven and that is where all of us will be having that real smile, pure love and pure happiness. What an event, like I said I do pray for the unsaved, I feel sorry for them, why can’t this Christmas season bring great blessings and have all people come to our Lord. As you all know I to have gone through so much that at times I wish and pray and hope for just one day of peace. I must need to go through more trials, and tests and more tribulations, the more suffering we go through it seems the more sensitive we become, and the warmer to others we develop into. We gain an understanding, and we gain a special closeness to the Lord, we defiantly have to pray a lot more than usual , and we have to have a close relationship with our Lord, if we didn’t we all would go completely mad. We know we are all targets by the evil one, we would have to be, and the devil doesn’t want us preaching to the lost to get them saved. He doesn’t want us sitting up at night praying for people and sending scripture and words of wisdom to all the needy and suffering, and the ones that are loosing hope and faith and some are on the brink of disaster, it is our job to minister to all of these people and send them the strength and love of our Lord.
Dear Loving Father, we all thank You for the privilege of speaking to You in prayer. We thank You for another gathering, to worship You. You Lord are the Creator of all things, in the heavens and in earth and sea, we do thank You that You have made us all apart of Your church. As the Christmas season does approach us, we ask that none of us fall into the world. We know many of us in the U.S. are all rushing around trying to buy and purchase gifts for all our friends and family. We are at this time rushing all around trying to gather all those perfect gifts for everyone. Father, please have the Holy Spirit guide us this week as the traffic in the streets and in the stores builds up all around us. Please Lord, keep us all safe, and let us all do things in a slower pace, because while we are all rushing around in a hurry that is when accidents happen. Let us all remember the poor and helpless, there are many that can’t even go out to buy any gifts for anyone. We pray a special prayer for all the parents during this time when they can’t even afford a present for there own children. We also pray for all those who are alone in any given place in this large planet, who don’t have anyone to give presents to, and that is something many of us don’t think about. And then we also have the ones that will not be receiving anything from anyone this season, we all pray for a blessing for any people in this situation. Our Father can you please comfort these people this year, Father we all ask that You can comfort them with any type of miracle to bring joy to each and every heart. A lot of us do over look this people, Father this church prays with a full heart for the poor and the lonely, that they obtain some sort of love and care and some joy and peace during this Christmas. Lord please have your Holy Spirit bless this house of worship that we all may be anointed and refreshed from the toils, burdens, the sins and failures of this past week as we are trying to stay out of the world. Please Holy Spirit fill us all with divine peace and joy during this day of worship. Father please use this congregation for the building of Your kingdom of the eternal future. Please guide this congregation that is scattered here and there all over the world to be wonderful examples of the Love of Christ, and share what we have, the wisdom that we know and the divine learning You have given to us all. We again are so thankful that we are able to worship here on this day in spirit and in truth. In Jesus Name, Amen
Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.” John 3:1-2NIV
In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.” John 3:3 NIV
“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb to be born!” John 3:4 NIV
Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit. You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You must be born again.’ The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:5-9 NIV
“How can this be?” Nicodemus asked. John 3:9 NIV
“You are Israel's teacher,” said Jesus, “and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven–the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. John 3:10-15
Why must we be born again? What is the foundation of this principle of the new birth? How must we be born again? What is the nature of the new birth? And, where must we be born again? To what end is it necessary? These questions, by the assistance of God, we shall briefly and plainly answer.
Why must we be born again? What is the foundation of this principle? The foundation of it lies near as deep as the creation of the world; in the scriptural account where we read,
”And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen. 1:26-27 KJV
Not barely in his natural image, a picture of his own immortality; a spiritual being, endued with understanding, freedom of will, and various affections, nor merely in his political image, the governor of this lower world, having “dominion over the fishes of the sea, and over all the earth;” but chiefly in his moral image; which, according to the Apostle,
And that ye put on the new man, which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness. Eph. 4:24 KJV
In this image of God was man made. “God is love:” Accordingly, man at his creation was full of love, which was the sole principle of all his angers, thoughts, words, and actions. God is full of justice, mercy, and truth; so was man as he came from the hands of his Creator. God is spotless purity; and so man was in the beginning pure from every sinful blot, otherwise God could not have pronounced him, as well as all the other work of his hands, “very good”
And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day. Gen. 1:31 KJV
This he could not have been, had he not been pure from sin, and filled with righteousness and true holiness. For there is no mid- point, If we suppose and intelligent creature not to love God, not to be righteous and holy, we necessarily suppose him not to be good at all, much less to be “very good.”
But, although man was made in the image of God, yet he was not made unchangeable. This would have been inconsistent with the state of existence in which God was pleased to place him. He was therefore created able to stand, and yet liable to fall. And this God himself appreciated him, and gave him a solemn warning against it. Nevertheless, man did not abide in honor; he fell from his high estate. He “ate of the tree where the Lord had commanded him, Thou shall not eat of it.” By this willful act of disobedience to his Creator, this flat rebellion against his Sovereignty, he openly declared that he would no longer have God to rule over him, that he would be governed by his own will, and not the will of Him that created him, and that he would not seek his happiness in God, but in the world, in the works of his hands. Now, God had told him before, “In the day that you eat” of that fruit, “thou shall surely die.” And the word of the Lord cannot be broken. Accordingly, in that day he did die: He died to God, the most dreadful of all deaths. He lost the life of God; he was separated from Him, in union with whom his spiritual life consisted. The body dies when it is separated from the soul; the soul, when it is separated from God. But this separation from God, Adam sustained in the day, the hour, he ate of the forbidden fruit. And of this he gave immediate proof; presently showing by his behavior, that the love of God was extinguished in his soul, which was now “alienated from the life of God.” Instead of this, he was now under the power of submissive fear, so that he fled from the presence of the Lord. Yea, so little did he retain even of the knowledge of Him who filled the heaven and earth, that he endeavored to “hide himself from the Lord God among the trees of the garden.”
And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden. Gen. 3:8 KJV
So had he lost both the knowledge and the love of God, without which the image of God could not exist? Of this, therefore, he was deprived at the same time, and became unholy as well as unhappy. At this point, he had sunk into pride and self-will, the very image of the devil; and into sensual appetites and desires, the image of the beasts that perish.
But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. Gen 2:17 KJV
This refers to temporal death, and that alone, to the death of the body only,” the answer is plain: To affirm this is flatly and deliberately to make God a liar, to claim that the God of truth positively affirmed a thing contrary to truth. For it is evident, Adam did not die in this sense, “in the day that he ate thereof.” He lived, in the sense opposite to this death, above nine hundred years after. So this cannot possibly be understood of the death of the body, without accusing the genuineness of God. It must therefore be understood of spiritual death, the loss of the life and image of God.
In Adam all died, all human kind, all the children of men who were then in Adam’s loins. The natural consequence of this is, that every one descended from him comes into the world spiritually dead, dead to God, wholly dead in sin; entirely void of the life of God; void of the image of God, of all that righteousness and holiness wherein Adam was created. Instead of this, every man born into the world now bears the image of the devil in pride and self-will; the image of the beast, in sensual appetites and desires. This, then, is the foundation of the new birth, the entire corruption of our nature. Consequently it is, that, being born in sin, we must be “born again.” Therefore every one that is born of a woman must be born of the Spirit of God.
But how must a man be born again? What is the nature of the new birth? This is the Second question. And a question it is of the highest moment that can be conceived. We should not, therefore, in so substantial a concern, to be content with a slight inquiry; but to examine it with all possible care, and to ponder it in our hearts, till we fully understand this important point, and clearly see how we are to be born again.
Not that we are to expect any minute, philosophical account of the manner how this is done. Our Lord sufficiently guards us against any such expectation, by the words immediately following the text, in which he reminds Nicodemus of as indisputable a fact as any in the whole compass of nature, which, notwithstanding, the wisest man under the sun is not able fully to explain. “The wind bloweth where it listeth,” not by thy power or wisdom; “and thou hearest the sound thereof;” thou art absolutely assured, beyond all doubt, that it doth blow, “but thou canst not tell whence it cometh, nor whither it goeth.”
"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 3:8 KJV
The precise manner how it begins and ends, rises and falls, no man can tell. “So is every one that is born of the Spirit:” Thou may be as absolutely assured of the fact, as of the blowing of the wind; but the precise manner how it is done, how the Holy Spirit works this in the soul, neither you nor the wisest of the children of men is able to explain.
However, it being sufficent for every rational and Christian purpose, that, without descending into curious, critical inquiries, we can give a plain scriptural account of the nature of the new birth. This will satisfy every reasonable man, who desires only the salvation of his soul. The expression, “being born again,” was not first used by our Lord in his conversation with Nicodemus: It was well known before that time, and was in common use among the Jews when our Saviour appeared among them. When an adult non-religious person was convinced that the Jewish religion was of God, and desired to join within, it was the custom to baptize him first, before he was admitted to circumcision. And when he was baptized, he was said to be born again; by which they meant, that he who was before a child of the devil was now adopted into the family of God, and accounted one of his children. This expression, which Nicodemus, being a Teacher in Israel, should have understood this as well, our Lord uses in conversing with him, only in a stronger sense than he was accustomed to. And this might be the reason of his asking.
Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? They cannot be literally: John 3:9 KJV
Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother's womb, and be born? John 3:4 KJV
But they may spiritually: A man may be born from above, born of God, born of the Spirit, in a manner which bears a very near analogy to the natural birth.
Before a child is born into the world he has eyes, but sees not; he has ears, but does not hear. He has a very imperfect use of any other sense. He has no knowledge of any of the things of the world, or any natural understanding. To that manner of existence which he then has, we do not even give the name of life. It is then only when a man is born, that we say he begins to live. For as soon as he is born, be begins to see the light, and the various objects with which he is encompassed. His ears are then opened, and he hears the sounds which successively strike upon them. At the same time, all the other organs of sense begin to be exercised upon their proper objects. He equally breathes, and lives in a manner wholly different from what he did before. How exactly does the parallel hold in all these instances. While a man is in a mere natural state, before he is born of God, he has, in a spiritual sense, eyes and sees not; a thick impenetrable veil lies upon them; he has ears, but hears not; he is utterly deaf to what he is most of all concerned to hear. His other spiritual senses are all locked up: He is in the same condition as if he didn’t have them.
Therefore he has no knowledge of God, no interaction with him; he is not at all acquainted with him. He has no true knowledge of the things of God, either of spiritual or eternal things; therefore, though he is a living man, he is a dead Christian. But as soon as he is born of God, there is a total change in all these particulars. The “eyes of his understanding are opened;” such is the language of the great Apostle Paul.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. 2Cor. 4:6 KJV
His ears are being opened, he is now capable of hearing the inward voice of God, saying, Be of good cheer; thy sins are forgiven thee; go and sin no more. This is the claim of what God speaks to his heart; although perhaps not in these very words. He is now ready to hear whatsoever “He that teacheth man knowledge” (Psalm 94:10) is pleased, from time to time, to reveal to him. He feels in his heart, to use the language of our Church, the mighty working of the Spirit of God; not in a gross, carnal sense as the men of the world unwisely and willfully misunderstand the expression; though they have been told again and again, we mean in that way neither more nor less than this. His feelings are inwardly sensible of the graces which the Spirit of God works in his heart. He feels, he is conscious of, a “peace which passeth all understanding.” (Phil. 4:7) He many times feels such a joy in God as is “unspeakable, and full of glory.” (1Pet.1:8) He feels the love of God shed abroad in his heart by the Holy Spirit which is given unto him, and all his spiritual senses are then exercised to discern spiritual good and evil. By the use of these, he is daily increasing in the knowledge of God, of Jesus Christ whom he hath sent and to all the things pertaining to his inward kingdom. And now he may be properly said to live, God having quickened him by his Spirit, he is alive to God through Jesus Christ. He lives a life which the world does not know of, a life which is hid with Christ in God. God is continually breathing, as it were, upon the soul, and his soul is breathing unto God. Grace is descending into his heart; and prayer and praise are ascending to heaven. Now by this interaction between God and man, this fellowship with the Father and the Son, as by a kind of spiritual respiration, the life of God in the soul is sustained, and the child of God grows up, till he comes to the full measure of the stature of Christ.
From therefore it manifestly appears, what is the nature of the new birth. It is that great change which God works in the soul when he brings it into life, when he raises it from the death of sin to the life of righteousness. It is the change shaped in the whole soul by the almighty Spirit of God when it is created one more in Christ Jesus, when it is renewed after the image of God, in righteousness and true holiness; when the love of the world is changed into the love of God, pride into humility, passion into meekness, hatred, envy, malice, into a sincere, tender, interested love for all mankind. In a word, it is that change whereby the earthly, sensual, devilish mind is turned into the “mind which was in Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 2:5) This is the nature of the new birth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit
It is not difficult for any who has considered these things, to see the necessity of the new birth, and to answer the next question, therefore, to what end, is it necessary that we should be born again? It is very easily discerned, that this is necessary, first in order to holiness. For what is holiness according to the oracles of God? Not a bare external religion, a round of outward duties, how many so ever they are and how exactly so ever performed. No Gospel holiness is no less than the image of God stamped upon the heart, it is no other than the whole mind which was in Christ Jesus; it consists of all heavenly affections and calmness mingled together in one. It implies such a continual, thankful love to Him who hath not withheld from us his Son, his only son, as makes it natural, and in a manner necessary to us, to love every child of man; as fills us with insides of mercies, kindness, gentleness, long-suffering. It is such a love of God as teaches us to be blameless in all manner of conversation; as enables us to present our souls and bodies, all we are and all we have, all our thoughts, words, and actions, a continual sacrifice to God, acceptable through Christ Jesus. Now, this holiness can have no existence till we are renewed in the image of our mind. It cannot begin in the soul till that change be formed, and by the power of the Highest overshadowing us, we are brought from darkness to light, from the power of Satan unto God, that is, till we are born again, which therefore is absolutely necessary in order for holiness.
But “without holiness no man shall see the Lord,” (Heb.12:14) shall see the face of God in glory. Of consequence, the new birth is absolutely necessary in order to eternal salvation. Men may indeed flatter themselves so desperately wicked and so deceitful is the heart of man! that they may live in their sins till they come to the last breath, and yet afterwards live with God. Thousands do really believe, that they have found a broad way which leaded not to destruction. What danger, they say, can a woman be in that is so harmless and so virtuous? What fear is there that so honest a man, one of so strict morality, should miss the chance of heaven, especially if, over and above all this, they constantly attend on church and atonement? One of these will ask with all assurance, “What, shall I not do as well as my neighbors?” Yes as well as your unholy neighbors; as well as your neighbors that die in their sins. For you will all drop into the pit together, into the lowest hell! You will all lie together in the lake of fire, “the lake of fire burning with brimstone.” Then, at length, you will see, but hopfully God will grant you the blessing that you may see it before hand. The necessity of holiness in order to glory, and consequently of the new birth, since none can be holy, except he be born again.
For the same reason, except he be born again, none can be happy even in this world. For it is not possible, in the nature of things, that a man should be happy who is not holy. Even the poor, ungodly poet could tell us, no wicked man is happy. The reason is plain, all unholy angers are uneasy angers. Not only malice, hatred, envy jealousy, revenge, creates a present hell in the climb, but even the softer passions, if not kept within due bounds, give a thousand times more pain than pleasure. Even hope, when delayed, and how often must this be the case, make the heart sick, and every desire which is not according to the will of God is liable to pierce us through with many sorrows. And all those general sources of sin, pride, self-will, and idolatry are, in the same proportion as they prevail, general sources of misery. Therefore, as long as these reign in any soul, happiness has no place there. But they must reign till the curves of our nature is changed, that is, till we are born again. Consequently, the new birth is absolutely necessary in order for happiness in this world, as well as in the world to come.
“For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son.This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.” John 3:16-21
And this concludes the rest of John, Chapter 3, which leads right into one of the most important verses in the bible.
O Lord Loving Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and also our dear Father, we all thank You that you have permitted us to see another Christmas season. We ask that this season bring us all personal spiritual blessings. Let us go back and remember the Magi who were lead by a glorious star that was so bright that directed them all to the Christ Child. Let us remember that Christmas is the celebration of the birth of our Lord Jesus, who redeemed us from sin and death, and granted us eternal life with Him and You Father. Please bring this church continued growth so we can prosper from the work of our hands, hearts, and minds, as we help others and continually seek out lost souls and to bring them all to You Father, and Your Son. We do thank You we are able to bring the Gospel and saving grace to so many others throughout the world. Please Lord help us to gather the lost, bring to us O lord these chosen ones, so they can learn about your wonderful affection and fellowship and the Love of Your Son and the message of His birth in Bethlehem, and the finishing work at the Cross at Calvary. Oh Holy Spirit, during this Christmas season grant all the pastors, teachers, priests, chaplains, elders and laypersons a special outpouring to awaken the unresponsive listeners, to stir up the lukewarm, to encourage the shy, to reassure the doubting, to calm the disturbed, and to comfort the sorrowing and suffering. In the mighty Name of Jesus, Amen and Amen.
