Dear Heavenly Father,

We come into Your Throne Room in the Name of Your only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Holy Father we ask for You to please open our eyes, our ears and our hearts so we can come to a better knowledge of You and Your Word. Father we ask You to draw us to Your Son, Jesus Christ and grant us true saving faith in Him.

Amen

Let us begin our study by reading the final words our Lord gave during His sermon on the mountain side. They are recorded in,

Let us return and reread the theme for this study,

To obey Jesus' instruction and hence have our lives built upon rock, the questions arise as to: "What have we heard? And "What are we to put into practice?"

After considering the breadth of all what Jesus taught in His sermon on the mountain side I believe that the answer to these questions is twofold.

First of all, Jesus is teaching us to love God with all our hearts, our minds and our soul. To remind us of this teaching let us read the following excerpt of what Jesus said to a lawyer who wanted to know which of the commandments was the greatest. The portion of Jesus' response to him that is applicable for this portion of our study is recorded in,

To realize the importance of this commandment let us read Jesus' warning to and His concern for the church in Ephesus. It is recorded in,

Let us notice the following verses,

2-3 … From all outward appearances the members of the church in Ephesus had remained true and steadfast in their love for Jesus Christ.

4 … Unfortunately, this was not the case. Even though the members of the church in Ephesus remained steadfast for Jesus, their love for Him was cooling down and fading away.

5 … In other words, the members were warned to rekindle their love for God. If they did not do this the consequences would be devastating.

The second major lesson our Lord gave through His sermon on the mountain side is that the remainder of the ten commandments can be summarized by simply stating that we are to love our neighbors as we love ourselves. However, in the Gospel according to John we discover that for those who are truly His disciples, Jesus commands that we are to love our neighbors as Jesus loves us. To see this let us read from,

The significance of this commandment can not be overstated. To see this let us read what the Holy Spirit said through John in,

With the above teachings in mind one might ask: "How?" "How can we possibly love in the manner that Jesus commands?" The answer to these questions is simply by using the gift God has given use through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ. Specifically, we must be born again and allow God the Holy Spirit to live His life through us.

To see this we will,

1. Read from the Old Testament prophet Ezekiel where God foretold that a time was to come when He would give His people a new heart and a new spirit.
2. Quickly review the necessity for us to be born again of the Holy Spirit.
3. Explore the conditions that must be present for the new birth to occur.
4. See that water baptism plays an important role in our new birth experience.

2. Discover that as a true born again believer in Jesus Christ we actually have God the Holy Spirit living within us. We will also discover that as we yield our lives to Him and trust in God's promise to fulfill His Word He, the Holy Spirit, will bring forth from within us the love that Jesus commands us to have.

With this introduction in mind let us now read,

Let us notice the following verses,

24 … He will gather us from the nations.

25 … He will cleanse us from our impurities, that is our sins, and idols, that is those things that tend to take us away from following God.

26 … He will give us a new heart and put a new spirit within us. Notice, it will not be a repaired heart and spirit but will be NEW ones!

27 … To move us to follow His decrees and laws, He will put the Holy Spirit in us. Just imagine, God the Holy Spirit Himself will live within us. Consequently,

28 … We will be His people and He will be our God!

Now some may say that this prophesy only refers to the natural descendents of Abraham and it only refers to the reconstruction of the nation of Israel. To see that this prophesy is not limited to the natural descendents of Abraham and is for today let us first consider what the Holy Spirit wrote through the Apostle Paul in,

Thus, it is not the natural children of Abraham who are the true children of God. No, it is the children who are born as a result of God's promise, like Isaac was, who are the children of God. This is made very clear in,

Secondly, the Bible also teaches us that God's promise, given through Ezekiel, for a new heart and new spirit was ushered in through the death, burial and physical resurrection of Jesus Christ. Thus, this promise is for today and, as seen above, for anyone who will receive Jesus Christ. To see this let us read what the Apostle Peter said on the Day of Pentecost after the Holy Spirit descended upon them. To do this let us read from,

Let us notice the following verses,

37 … After the people heard Peter explain that the phenomena they just witnessed was the promised gift of the Holy Spirit, they were troubled and wanted to know what they should do.

38 … The Apostle Peter explained to them that they needed to repent of their sinful ways and be baptized in Jesus Christ. It is noted, as we will discover later in this chapter, one is only to be baptized in Jesus Christ after they have received and accepted Him as their Lord and Savior.

39 … The promise of the Holy Spirit is for:

1. You … those at the time of Pentecost.

1. Those far off, that is those in other places and in other generations.
2. All whom the Lord will call.

Now that we see that the promise of a new birth, given through the prophet Ezekiel, is not limited to the natural descendents of Abraham and is for today, let us now review,

So that there is no doubt in our mind for the necessity to be born again, let us begin our study by reading the conversation that Jesus Christ once had with Nicodemus. As we read this conversation let us recall that Nicodemus was a member of the Jewish ruling council, very learned in the Jewish faith and a respected teacher of the Holy Scriptures.

In reflecting upon the above conversation, one may ask (as Nicodemus did) what does it mean to be born again? Jesus provides us with the answer to this question in verse 6. Specifically, when we are born through our natural parents, we received the natural nature of humanity, that is Adam’s sin nature. As Jesus said, flesh begets flesh. However, when we are born again, we receive the nature of God, that is we receive the Holy Spirit. As Jesus told Nicodemus, the Spirit gives birth to the spirit.

Before we move on, let us pay particular attention to what Jesus said to Nicodemus in,

In other words, Jesus is also teaching us that our new birth is a sovereign work of God! It is He who extends His Grace, that is He extends to us unmerited favor and provides us the faith to be transformed. To see this more clearly, let us prayerfully consider,

Since the new birth is a sovereign work of God, we find that He deals with each one of us as He sees fit. Consequently, there is no precise formula or procedure for how and where we are born again. As Jesus told Nicodemus, it is like the blowing of the wind.

However, so that we are not deceived by the evil one with a false or deceptive spiritual experience, God has provided us key conditions that must be present for the new birth to take place and be genuine.

In reading the New Testament we find that the following five conditions are necessary for the new birth to occur:

1. We must believe that Jesus Christ is the only begotten Son of God.
2. We must recognize that we are sinners and incapable of saving ourselves, that is we need a Savior.
3. We must believe that Jesus Christ came to save us, that is He is our Savior.
4. We must believe that on the cross Jesus bore our sins and through His death and bodily resurrection He saved us from them.
5. We must exercise our belief and by faith call upon Jesus Christ to save us.

Even though the proceeding conditions are presented in a particular sequence, it is noted that this was out of editorial necessity. However, God is sovereign and chooses the order and circumstances by which He brings those whom He calls to the required beliefs and actions for their new birth.

The first condition necessary for our new birth is that we must believe that,

To see this, consider what Jesus once said to Nicodemus concerning Himself in,

Let us now read what He once said to the Jews then and now us,

As we saw in Chapter 20, the fact that Jesus is the one and only begotten Son of the living God means that He is our Lord and God.

In reading the Scriptures further, we find that this belief in itself is not enough. The reason for this is that the Bible shows us that even the demons believe in who Jesus is. As an example or witness to this fact, let us read what the demons said before Jesus cast them out of two men and into a large herd of pigs.

Notice the demons clearly know and believe that Jesus is the Son of God. Obviously, for our salvation and new birth, more is needed.

This brings us to the second condition necessary for our new birth. Namely, we must recognize that each and everyone one of us is a sinner and needs the Mercy of God to save us. In other words we must believe that,

To see the importance of this, let us consider the parable of the tax collector and the Pharisee.

Let us notice the following verses,

11-12 … As mentioned earlier, the Pharisees were very learned men in the Jewish faith and had a good head knowledge of the Holy Scriptures. In addition, they were extremely careful and diligent to observe all the ordinances and laws of the Temple and the Temple services. Consequently, this Pharisee did not consider himself to be a sinner. In fact, rather than humbly approaching God and asking for His Mercy, he in effect boasted of his righteousness.

13 … The tax collector believed he was a sinner. He humbly came before God to seek Mercy .

14 … Notice how God views those who think more highly of themselves than they should.

In fact this issue of recognizing that we, that is you and I, are sinners is the whole reason why God, through Moses, gave us the Law, that is the Ten Commandments. To see this, consider what the Holy Spirit says to us in,

Let us notice the following verses,

19 … The Law was not given so you and I might be able to justify ourselves through it, that is to show how good we are by complying with its demands. No, it was given to hold us accountable to God by showing us how short we fall to its demands. In other words, it was given to expose our sin.

Therefore,

20 … No one will be declared righteous by observing the law. Instead, through the law we become aware of sin in our lives. In other words, by the Law, we find out the things we have said, thought or did that were offensive to God.

In reflecting upon the above we find that the Law was not put into effect so we could justify ourselves by complying with it. Instead the Law was placed into effect so that through it we would recognize our sinful state and, as the tax collector, by faith ask God for His Mercy.

This leads us to the third condition required for our new birth. Specifically, we must believe and accept the fact that,

Because of God's Love and Mercy Jesus came to this earth to save you and I from our deadly disease called sin. To see this, let us carefully consider what Jesus said during dinner in Matthew's house to the self righteous Pharisees. It is recorded in,

There are many lessons to be learned from this encounter. However, for this particular study, let us focus on the principle that we must consider ourselves deathly ill with a disease called sin and in need of the doctor, Jesus Christ. If we believe that all is well and we are righteous then, as Jesus implied, He is of no value to us. Also notice that Jesus did not say we are to get better before we come to Him. No, He said we are to come to Him and He will heal our disease, that is save us from our sin. We must remember that it was for this very purpose that He came. To see this, consider the following words that Paul wrote to Timothy in,

This now brings us to the fourth condition necessary for our new birth or salvation of our souls. Specifically, we must believe that,

In other words, we must believe that through Jesus’ death and resurrection He made the perfect atonement for you and I. His resurrection assures us that He is truly the Son of God, is alive and interceding for us (Hebrews 7:25) and that His sacrifice was accepted, that is He made perfect and complete amends, for the forgiveness of our sins. In addition, He also paid the price of redemption so that we could be released from the bondage of Satan and sin. For us to better understand this glorious gift from God let us return to Jesus’ conversation with Nicodemus and read what else Jesus had to say about the new birth. Even though we have covered this portion of Jesus' conversation with Nicodemus in chapter 20, it would be beneficial to review it again. Thus, let us begin where Jesus talked to Nicodemus about the snake Moses lifted up during Israel's exodus from Egypt. To do this let us read from,

To better understand what Jesus meant by lifting up the snake and how it applies to His saving us from our sins, let us go to the Old Testament and read about the incident that He referred to.

The incident concerning the snake occurred during the later portion of Israel's exodus from Egypt. At the time of the incident the people of Israel had been travelling in the desert for many years. In fact, by this time Aaron, Moses' brother, had already died. Their journey had been a very difficult one. The majority of the time the only solid food they had for nourishment was the thin wafers of manna that each morning God miraculously provided for them. With this background, let us now read what happened.

Let us notice the following verses,

4-5 … The people grew impatient and sinned against God and Moses. Rather then believing and trusting that God delivered them from Egypt to save them from Pharaoh’s tyranny, they believed God brought them to the desert to kill them by starvation. Not only did they lose or not have faith in God, but also felt that He meant to harm them.

6 … As a result of their terrible sin, God became angry and sent poisonous snakes to bite the people, that is because of their sin, He judged them.

7 … The people confessed their sin, that is admitted that they were in grave error, and asked Moses to ask God to have mercy and forgive them.

8 … God responded to Moses’ prayer and told Moses to make a snake and put it on a pole. He also told Moses that whoever would look up at the snake would live.

9 … Moses followed God’s command and God fulfilled His promise.

How does all this relate to us and to Jesus? To see the analogy, let us remember that because of the people’s sin, they were bitten by a snake and would die. The same with us when we are bitten by sin … we die,

In the above incident, after the people confessed their sin and asked for mercy, Moses was told to put a snake, that is a symbol of their sin, on a pole. The pole was raised up so the people bitten by a snake could look upon it and be healed. When Jesus Christ was nailed to the cross and lifted up, it was our sin that was placed upon His flesh for us to see.

In returning to the incident with Israel, remember that when the people looked upon the snake they were healed. It is the same with us. When you and I, through faith, see Jesus on the cross bearing our own personal sins we too are healed. To see this, let us return and complete our reading of,

With all this background, let us now return and read more of the conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus.

In reflecting upon the above incident with the snake, it is important to remember that the people confessed their sin and through Moses, called upon God to save them from the deadly bite of the poisonous snakes.

Thus, the fifth and last condition for our new birth is that,

In other words, as the Israelites, we too must confess to Jesus Christ that we are a sinner. We must confess to Him that we have transgressed against His commands and laws. We must be so sorry for this condition that we not only ask Jesus Christ to forgive us but also save us from the power that sin has over us. In other words, we are to be so fed up and horrified with our unrighteousness that we submit to Jesus Christ's lordship and ask Him for forgiveness and to save us from our sins.

When we do this, Jesus Christ will send the Holy Spirit to live and dwell inside us. This is the new birth. When this happens, we become a child of God and by His Grace and Mercy are saved. In fact, this is exactly what Jesus was telling the Jews during the great Jewish Feast of Tabernacles.

Let us notice the following verses,

37(a) … "If anyone is thirsty". This is not the thirst for physical water but is the thirst for righteousness, holiness and for God.

If you thirst for these things, that is repented or sincerely want to live a life away from your sins, then

37(b) … Go to Jesus and drink! Cry out to Him for this spiritual water.

38 … If we believe and have faith in Him and go to Him to quench our thirst for righteousness and holiness, Jesus will provide you streams of living water to flow from within you.

39 … This living water is not physical water but the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, that is the new birth!

As we carefully reflect upon the above conditions necessary for our new birth, we find that they are beautifully summarized in,

Once we are born again, that is all the above conditions have been met, we are to be baptized. To see this, let us read what Jesus told His disciples when He commissioned them to go forth and present the good news of His coming to all the nations.

Even though the subject of water baptism is not for this chapter the following two points must be made: (1) It is by faith we are saved and not the mere act of baptism and (2) water baptism with faith in Jesus Christ plays an important role in our salvation and new birth.

The fact that the we are saved by faith and not the mere act of baptism is best illustrated by the encounter that Jesus had with the thief on the cross.

Let us notice the following verses,

40 … Basically the thief professed his reverent fear of God.

41 … The thief, by stating that Jesus did no wrong, was saying that Jesus’ claim to be the Son of God, which is why He was being crucified, is true. In other words, he proclaimed Jesus to be Lord.

42 … The thief also recognized Jesus as King and called out to Him to save him.

43 … Jesus assured the thief he will be with Him in paradise. In other words Jesus told the thief that he will not be doomed to the Lake of Fire (Hell) but instead will be with Him in Paradise.

In addition to the fact that our Lord Jesus Christ asks us to be baptized, the second point to be made is that baptism, with faith in Jesus Christ, is an important element of our new birth and the salvation of our souls. This is best illustrated by reading what the Apostle Peter said as he was relating our baptism to Noah and the flood.

Perhaps the best way for us to receive a better understanding of what the Apostle Peter said is to read verse 21 as given in, "The Amplified Bible."

In other words, when we are baptized with faith in Jesus Christ we are demonstrating that our old self (the one without the Holy Spirit) is dead in Christ. Thus, we bury it in the water of baptism. As we come through the water of baptism we demonstrate or proclaim that we have been born again with a new life. This new life is the one in which through faith in Jesus Christ the Holy Spirit has come to live and dwell within us. To see this let us read what the Holy Spirit said about baptism in,

Before we conclude this study let us summarize what we have just covered,

As we saw earlier in this chapter, by being born again, that is by God the Holy Spirit coming to live inside us, we became a new creature, a new and different being.

As a new creature or new being, we find two profound miracles happened to us: (1) we became a child of God and (2) we now have the Holy Spirit living inside us.

The fact that the born again believer is a child of God is seen by considering the following Scripture,

Another way to see this is by reading,

Let us pay particular attention to the following verses,

3 … We have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in Christ. Note that these are spiritual and not earthy or carnal blessings.

4 … We have been chosen to be holy and blameless in His sight. In other words, in Jesus Christ our sins are forgiven and forgotten.

5 … Through Jesus we have been adopted as His sons.

6 … Because of His glorious Grace and Mercy, He, through His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, has freely given us these things. In other words, we can not earn or work for these blessings. When we are born again they were bestowed upon us.

However, God did not stop here. There is another miraculous blessing of our new birth. To help us overcome sin,

To see this, let us prayerfully consider the following,

Let us notice the following verses,

3 … He has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him. In other words, God the Holy Spirit now lives inside the born again believer to move them to live a life worthy of their call to Him.

4 … By knowing God and trusting Him to fulfill His promises to us, we can escape the corruption that is in this world and participate in the divine nature.

For example, one of the fruits of the Holy Spirit is love. As we live out our daily lives and trust or place our faith in God to manifest His fruit of love through us, we will experience God’s love flowing from us to others.

So who is a wise man or wise woman? To find out let us return to the Scriptures for the theme of this study and read from,