Albert N. Martin

Will you turn with me, please, to the gospel according to John? I shall read in your hearing verses 1-8.

“Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews; the same came unto him by night and said unto him, ‘Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that You do, except God be with him.’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Verily, verily I say unto you, except one be born anew [or born from above or born again] he cannot see the kingdom of God.’ Nicodemus said unto 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, ‘Verily, verily I say unto you, except one 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. Do not marvel that I said unto you, ‘You must be born anew.’ The wind blows where it will and you hear the voice [or the sound] thereof, but know not whence it comes and whither it goes; so is everyone that is born of the Spirit.’”

There are times when an anemic brand of Christianity, and even the world, so misuses, distorts, and abuses precious, biblical terminology, that the true people of God find themselves reluctant to use that terminology—even though it is biblical—for fear they will be associated with its misuse and its distortion. However, this is not the right response to such a situation. Rather, the people of God and the servants of God, in particular, should take those very biblical terms—which are buried in the rubble and rubbish of misuse, tarnished and scarred by misconceptions—reach in, take them out of the rubble, scrub of the rubbish, rub off the tarnish, seek to repair the scars, and hold up those truths in all of their inherent, biblical beauty and even majesty.

Now, such is the term “born again” and “the new birth.” I frankly confess I am ashamed at how long it has been since I’ve preached a sermon focusing on the doctrine of the new birth, on the necessity of being born again. I believe one of the major reasons is because the term “the new birth” or “born again” came into such tragic misuse, distortion and abuse—as I’ve already described—in the late 60s and early 70s when almost everything but the lamppost on the corner claimed to have had a born-again experience. Everybody and everything was born again. About the only thing I didn’t hear about was born-again hookers and muggers, but you had born-again everything. In the soul of a true child of God who appreciated something of the biblical doctrine of the new birth, there was a tendency to distance ourselves from the tragic misuse and misconceptions that clustered around that terminology. However, tonight, in our 8th message in this series entitled, “Simple Signposts to the Celestial City,” we are going to be looking at our Lord’s teaching on the new birth or being born again.

Listen to the complete message.