A passage in the Gospel of John that I think possibly everyone in the gathering tonight is acquainted with. The first sixteen verses of the Gospel according to John chapter three. But before reading them we'll read the last three verses of John chapter two. Now when Jesus was in Jerusalem at the Passover in the feast day, many believed in his name. when they saw the miracles which he did, but Jesus did not commit himself unto them because he knew all men, and needed not that any should testify of man, for he knew what was in man. Now, you'll understand the conversation with Nicodemus better if you think of those last words of chapter two. He knew. what was in man. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. 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. Nicodemus said 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? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of 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. Marvel not that I said unto thee, You must be born again. the wind bloweth where it lifted, and thou hearest the sounder off, but canst not tell, whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of this earth. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou, a master, a teacher of Israel, knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and your seeeth not a witness. If I told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? And no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son. Whosoever believe it in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. God will bless that lovely portion of his word. I was very struck when my brother was speaking to have him make reference to John chapter three and then John chapter four. For that's how I'd like to start speaking to you tonight. It's very interesting to notice the contrast between chapters three and chapters four. In John chapter three we have a night scene and in chapter four a day scene... In chapter four, it's a man in the picture. In chapter three, it's a man in the picture. In chapter four, it's a woman. And when Jesus talks to a woman of ill repute, he doesn't talk in the darkness of the night and under cover. He talks to her in the blaze of the sunlight. The wisdom of the Lord Jesus Christ in his pathway and service for God. He talks to the woman and every eye can see him. But when it's a man, it's different, and he's talking to him in the night. The man of chapter three is a good man, and the woman of chapter four is a bad woman. That's no reflection on women, but that's the story as we have it. In chapter three, it's the man that comes to see Jesus, but in chapter four, it's Jesus goes to see the woman. It was grace on Jesus' part that when the man arrived, he was there. But it was greater grace on Jesus' part that he should go to see the woman. And I love to think that if the Lord showed grace to a woman like that, surely there's grace for all in the meeting tonight. Then it's interesting to notice the sermons. I use that word for use of a better one at the moment. The sermon of chapter three is the subject of the new birth. And the sermon of chapter four is the subject of living water. And I often say this, if the Lord had sent me to talk to these two individuals, and he had described their characters, and then he had said, now I'm giving you two messages, use whichever message you think better for the party's concern. I would have studied them, I believe, carefully. And when I would have read those words, ye must be born again. And thought of the immoral creature of chapter three, chapter four. I would say, that's the message for her. Well, now I think of the importance of the man of chapter four and the good living character. I said, I think I'd like to talk to him about the water of life. But the Lord Jesus, for very good reasons, as we see in a few minutes, spoke as he did to Nicodemus. You must be born again. You know, the man at chapter three was an intellectual. He was a man who of letters. But the woman of chapter four was an ignoramus, but they both shook hands. They were both for spiritual ignorance. The woman of John chapter four hears the Lord Jesus Christ saying to her, If you knew, the Lord Jesus Christ says to the man of John chapter four, who says, We know, thou knowest not these things. So you see,spiritual knowledge is not obtained in the colleges of this world. A man may be an intellectual genius, and without question Nicodemus must have been, but in spite of that, and although he would breathe into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and make his little speech and say, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, and no man could do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Are you a teacher? You're a teacher. And you don't know these things. So you see, divine knowledge must be imparted through the operation of the Spirit of God. Both were spiritual ignoramuses. Now, having said that, I would like to say this, in the favor of Nicodemus, there was a need in his heart registered there, and I want you to notice that he did sweet things. First of all, I want you to know that he came. And secondly, I want you to know that he came to Jesus. And thirdly, I want you to notice he came when he could. He came at night. Now, thank God you're in the meeting tonight. Because our voice is not reaching the way out there. And if you were sitting in your home in Atlantic or Lyman or somewhere else in the state or wherever it is you might come from, we can't reach you. But thank God you are where we can reach you. Blessed be God that came to the meeting. But then I want you to notice he didn't only come, but he came to the right person. He came to Jesus. Now we might have a mourner's bench, and we do not have. And we might bring you to the mourner's bench. We might sit down with you in our Bible and bring you to a verse in our Bible. But wait a minute. Coming to the gospel meeting, coming to the mourner's bench, and coming to the gospel text will never save you. It is amazing how many people have the idea that having been christened as a baby, and that is a lovely word, christened. Maybe you've used it and you don't know what it means. It just means Christ. You've been Christed. Christed. In other words, when the water was placed in the baby's face, the idea is, now that baby is Christed. He belongs to Christ because we put the water on his head and said the little word. Now, some of you have been carried to the baptismal font. Well, you can die and go to hell, dear friend. And then some of you have come to the confirmation class, and the bishop's hands may have been placed on your head. Some of you may have come to the Lord's table, as we call it, and still, oh, die and lose your soul. You may come to the tent, the tent, you may come to the pond, you may come to the table, you may come to the text, you may come to the bench, you may come to the thousands in one different place, it's all commendable, and never come to Christ, means he'll never be saved. Now, he came at night. Well, he came when he could. The scripture doesn't say anything about why he did come at night. But I do know this. He could come at night and he came. Maybe he could have come through the day. That's for begging the question. He came and he came at night and thank God he came. You know, some of us came in the morning of life and we'll ever be thankful to God for it, the morning of life. I heard three men tell their testimonies once. One man had been a drunken sailor. And he said, I lived the average sailor's life. And he pulled a curtain down. And thank God that he did on the life that he lived. The other man, he came. And he had been a soldier and a sailor. And he put up his hands like this. And he said, I've been behind prison bars as often as you see fingers on my hands. The third man got up after those two startling testimonies. And he said, well, I can't tell you what those men said. But I have the best testimony of the three of us. because all those sins they've hinted at, I know nothing about. Because when God saved me, He saved me as a child. He came in the morning of life. But, beloved friend, if you haven't come, I would say then this is your opportunity, and I would say you should come tonight. Now, when Nicodemus came, I want you to notice something. Jesus gave him an answer, which was absolutely... irrelevant to the things that he said. Notice what he said. We know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. Now had I been in the place of the Lord Jesus, and he had said that to me, what do you think I would have said? Well, thank you, Nicodemus. I appreciate your kindness. Would you like to have a little talk with me? But the Lord didn't say a word. He said, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. But Nicodemus didn't say a word about being born again. You see, when you come to talk to us, we talk back to you according to what you say, but not the Lord Jesus. When he talked to Nicodemus, he talked to him as to what he was not saying, as to what he was thinking. For he knew what was in man. And the preacher doesn't know your thoughts as you sit in that meeting. But the Lord Jesus knows them. And some of you, even right now, if I were he and took a piece of paper on a white cloth and wrote those thoughts down, you'd flee, Lyman and that dancing, and maybe never be seen again. He knows the thoughts that are in your heart. None of thought was through your mind, but he knows that one day there was a proud, awfully self-respecting, righteous Pharisee invited Jesus to dinner. He sat down in his home to dinner, and a woman came in from the streets. But she washed his feet with her tears, and the proud, self-respecting Pharisee said to himself, Nobody has heard a word. This man's not the man I thought he was, profit nothing, taken homage from a creature like her. Lord Jesus Christ, Simon, I have some more to say to you. Yes, sir, say on. And then in a few words he wrote, Pour it right out as though it burst him like a bag. And through his thoughts right on the ground before him, he knows what you are thinking. So Nicodemus breezes into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ, and speaks as a teacher to a teacher. We'll get down to talking a little bit. And the Lord Jesus Christ says, We're Nicodemus. You're not so much interested in my ability as a teacher. You've got a burden on your heart. And that's what you've come to see me about, and that's what I'm going to talk to you about. Now I want to say three things then about the new birth in relation to this conversation with Nicodemus. And one is the question in his mind, what is this new birth? And the second question in his mind, and what does it do for a person? And the third one is, who is it that needs it? And the Lord Jesus Christ answers those three questions of the heart. Apparently, the answers of the Lord Jesus show us those were the questions that were in his mind. What is this new birth? And that's the reason I read down to verse sixteen. It's a divine operation. God's in it. Christ's in it, and the Holy Spirit says. What does God do? He loves you. What does Christ do? He died for you. What does the Holy Spirit do? He operates in yourself. So what is it? The new birth is a divine operation. God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost. Any of you friends been to Glendale Memorial Park in California? I was in Los Angeles once and some folks say, did you like it? Well, if I never go back again, I'll never be concerned about it. And if I do go back again, I'm going to Glendale to see a picture that I saw when I was there before. It's a religious painting, and actually it's the most unscripted religious painting that ever I looked at, and that's not what interests me. But here is what does interest me in looking at that picture. It's the crucifixion of Christ. And at the end of the picture, shown every day, every hour of every day, for fifteen minutes, there's the voice of the announcer, and he quotes John three and verse sixteen. But that's interesting. It's Tal, right? But look, over here are three paintings, oil paintings of three different men. One man is Paderiske. Second man is Jan Stika. And the third man is Dr. Eaton. Dr. Eaton was the chairman of the Glendale Memorial Park. He bought the picture in Europe. Haderiske was a great musician. He dreamed this picture. And he confided his thoughts and ideas to Jan Stika, the Dutch man. And he went out and painted it. So one man dreamed it, Haderiske. Second man, he executed it. Beyond Stika. And the third man, he brought it to the conference or brought it to the Glendale Memorial Park. I lost interest in the picture as a picture after that. These three men enthralled me thinking of God the Father. He dreamed salvation for you. The Lord Jesus Christ, he performed the operation whereby he died to bring it to you. And blessed be God, the Holy Spirit for nineteen hundred years has been bringing it to men and women everywhere. Now, you never could have been born again if God hadn't loved you. You never could have been born again if Jesus Christ hadn't died for you. And you never will be born again unless the Spirit of God operates in your heart. And if you're sitting in this meeting tonight and you're not saved, You're sitting in this meeting tonight, and you're quite callous, you're quite indifferent. Don't pat yourself on the back. After the meeting last night, when those brethren preached on the horrors of hell and dying and losing your soul, and you announced, there wasn't a move so far as we could see. Don't feel you're a big shot. Don't pat yourself on the back, and don't say, I've got the courage. The idea might be that you're without feelings. Because God the Holy Spirit has left you severely alone. And you'll never be saved. Never be saved. No matter who the preacher is. Until the Spirit of God works within your heart. Years ago there was an old preacher. Some of the folks around here have mentioned his name to me. A dear old man called George Gould. Nobody could ever preach the gospel. Ever I heard like that man. And I tell you, when he preached he preached the papos. And you felt it. He told a story from my own city, Belfast, of a young fellow who was playing football on a Saturday afternoon, and it was soccer, as they call it, and he was kicked on the knee. And he was carried home from the field screaming. And the doctor was sent for him, and he looked at that swollen knee. He told the boy's mother, there's nothing I can do till the swelling goes down, and he suggested fomentations be applied. But the pain continued through Saturday evening, and most of Sunday, but by Monday morning, the pain had disappeared. And the doctor came for his visit on the Monday morning. He's met the boy's mother at the door. Well, she said, Doctor, the news seems to be good this morning. The pain is gone. All together gone, he said, Yes, he says he's fine now. And very seriously, he went up the stairs to the bedroom. and he pulled the clothes down and looked at the boy's knee and began to squeeze it a little bit. Don't you feel anything there? No, doctor, he says, through the night it disappeared. The pain disappeared. So then he took his little lance out of his little case and he started to prick it a little bit. And each time he prick it, he raised the question. Did you feel that? No, the boy said every time. And then the doctor made a good jab and in went that lance. Now he says, you feel that? Feel what, he said. What I'm doing now? The doctor took the lamp out and pulled the clothes up and he came downstairs and he put his hand on the mother's shoulder and he said, I've got bad news for you. Mortification has already set in. Your boy will be dead in a day and he died. Why, he was without feeling. Without feeling. without feeling. I could say something rashly. I'm taking my time to say it. I'm taking it over before I say it. And now I'm going to say it. You could give me the combined wealth of all the millionaires who've ever lived in this world. And knowing what I do know now, my Bible, and the future, I wouldn't change places with any one of you in this meeting, not save who is without feeling. The operation of the Spirit of God, God's love, Christ's death, means nothing. He needn't have loved you. Christ did never have died for you unless the Spirit of God operates in your heart and conscience. And I say again, if you're absolutely indifferent to the meeting tonight, you should go through those doors screaming, God left me. God left me. God left me. God left me. For God may very well have left you. And some of you never admire you two at the back there smiling. I know where you're bound for. You're bound for hell right now, young lady. And you too, beside her. God's preaching. Not a human being. And when you can sit and smile like that, I tell you, you need to be talking to you. You need to be talked to. Serious matters are sitting in a meeting and maybe laughing. No laughing in hell. And five minutes lost in the flames of hell. Weeping and reeling and gnashing of teeth. We're not here to pass that. We're here for business or God. These souls reached and saved. And we'll never stand tension like that in a gospel meeting. Love of God. God had never loved you. You could never be saved. If Christ had never died for you, you never could have been saved. The Spirit of God has left you. You may be left forever. Would you like to be saved? Would you like to be born again? Would you like to know the joy of sins forgiven? We'll thank God that may take place in the meeting tonight. What will it do for me? And I'll tell you, friend, what it will do for you. Without the new birth, you can't go into heaven. Why? For two reasons, you don't have a title, and you don't have a capacity. When God made you and me, he made us for earth, and he didn't make us for the moon, and he didn't make us for the depths of the sea. A man may put a diver suit on, go down to the depths of the sea, he may put an astronaut suit on and go up into the heavens, but he's never going to live in the moon or he's never going to live in the bottom of the ocean. God made men of one blood of all nations that dwell on the earth. God made us for the earth. If he transported us with these bodies to the other planets, then someone would freeze in moments and another would boil. But we're not boiling or freezing on earth because we're built for this planet. But beyond the universe, the starry universe, there's the heaven of heaven where God lives. And you need a title to be there and a capacity to enjoy it. Thank God you have it in the new birth. When my mother gave birth to me, there was nothing to be done. I was born with all the capabilities as a baby, then a boy, then a man to enjoy the world in which I was born. I need the new birth for the heaven of us. Now the new birth gives me not only the title, And when I reach the pearly gates, then I'll put in this plea that met a ransom sooner for Jesus died for me. That's my title. And then, thank God, I have a capacity. Now then, in closing the message, who needs it? That's coming back to what I said. If I had been sent, I would have said to that woman of John chapter four, I would, I don't believe I would have sat down. I wouldn't have liked to have been seen in a covenant. And I think, in my little bitter sex, self-respectability, I would have held my Bible under my arm until she came. I wouldn't have asked her for a drink, not she giving me a drink. And when she came, I would have said, just a moment, ma'am, I have a message from God for you. And here it is. You must be born again and turned in my heel and perhaps I would have left her. Lord Jesus didn't give her that message. If he had given that message to that woman, some of you might have stalked out of this meeting tonight. You would have said that's not a message for me. When he gave it to Nicodemus, you're in. Who must be born again? Marvel not that I said unto thee, you, you, you must be born again. Now the question, have you been born again? If you have been born again, when did it happen? If you have been born again, and where did it happen? If you have been born again, and how did it happen? And if you can't answer, don't leave this building tonight. For likely you're in your sins and bound for hell. You must be born again. God grant that someone tonight, even as we bow in prayer and as her brother Pat said, if necessary, after the meeting, don't go away until this matter is settled. And you know that you're born again and bound for hell. Shall we pray? O God, our Father, we bow in thy holy presence and thank thee for a fitness to speak on holy familiar terms with thee. We bless thee the blood of Christ that has drawn us near. We thank thee, Father, that we feel at home in thy presence, even though all of us were born in sin. But we'll ever thank God that that moment dawned when we were born again and that born into the family of God. We thank thee then, we can say, our Father's home is our destined dwelling place for all eternity. There are some in this meeting tonight, Lord, and we feel reasonably sure that on our journey nearer hell, and then this meeting opens. And our Father, although we would be severe, realizing these matters are tremendously important and serious, at the same time our hearts would bleed. And we'd weep over sinners, careless and indifferent, O God of mercy on me. Use thy word tonight, then we pray, that before they leave this building and pill their head on their bed, they can say in the words of the hymn with which we open the conference, it is well, it is well of my soul. God grant it, we pray, for Christ's sake. Amen.