8. The final result of being born of God that we will consider this morning is found in 2 Cor. 5:17, R. V., "Wherefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature (creation): the old things are passed away, behold, they are become new." The ninth result of being born again, including all the other results that we have been considering, is that in the regenerate man, old things are passed away, they are become new. In the place of the old ideas, old affection, old purposes, old choices, are new ideas, new affections, new purposes, new choices.
III. THE NECESSITY OF THE NEW BIRTH
For just a few moments let us look at the necessity of the New Birth. This is set forth in one of our texts and in the verses following, 1 John 3:5, 6: "Verily, Verily, I say unto you, except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." We see here that the New Birth is a universal necessity, and we see why it is a necessity. The words translated, "Except a man be born," etc. more literally translated would be, "If any man be not born out of water and Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God." And why he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God the following verse says, and that is because all that one gets by natural generation is "Flesh" and the Kingdom of God is spiritual, and, therefore, to enter it one must be born of the Spirit. No matter how refined and intelligent our ancestry, no matter how godly our fathers and mothers may have been, we do not get the Holy Spirit from them. All we get is "flesh." It may be refined flesh, moral flesh, upright and very attractive flesh, but it is flesh; and "they that are in the flesh cannot please God," nor "inherit the kingdom of God." The flesh is incapable of improvement. No more "can the Ethiopian change his skin, or the leopard his spots" than can a man
who is unregenerate attain to a life pleasing to God. (See Jer. 13:23.) He must be born again. The necessity is also absolute and imperative, so absolute and imperative that Jesus said to Nicodemus, though he was a man of most exemplary morality, a man of high moral and spiritual education, a teacher of Israel, a leader in the religious life of Israel, "You must be born again." (John 3:7.) Nothing else will take the place of the New Birth. Men are trying to substitute education, morality, religion, orthodoxy, baptism, outward reform, "new thought," "theosophy" or the knowledge of God, and other such things, for the New Birth; but none of these, or all of them together, are sufficient, you must be born again. There is absolutely no exception to this rule. As Jesus says in John 3:3, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except any man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
IV. HOW CAN ONE BE BORN AGAIN?
The question, therefore, confronts each one of you, Have you been born again? There is no more important question that you could possibly face. Face it in these pages and don't dodge it. And that brings us to the immediately practical question, How are men born again, or what must any one here to-day, who is not born again, do in order to be born again right here this morning? This question also is plainly answered in the Word of
God; and I can give you the answer in a very few minutes and give it so that any one here can understand it. There are three parts to the answer.
1. The first part of the answer you will find in Titus 3:4, "Not by works done in righteousness, which we did ourselves, but according to his mercy, he (i.e., God) saved us through the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost." These words tell us very plainly that it is God who regenerates and that He does it through the power of His Holy Spirit. The same thought is found in our text, John 3:5, 6: "Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." Regeneration is God's work; wrought by Him by the power of His Holy Spirit working in the mind, feelings and will of the one born again, in your heart and mine.
2. Some one might infer from the fact that regeneration is God's work, which He works in our hearts by His Holy Spirit, that all we have to do is to wait until God sees fit to work; but we see plainly from other passages in the Word that this is not true. We are taught the second thing about how regeneration is wrought in James 1:18, "Of His own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures." Here we are taught that the