1)
There was a man of the
Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews:
2)
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.
3)
Jesus answered and said
unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a
man be born again, he cannot see the
4)
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?
5)
Jesus answered, Verily,
verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the
6)
That which is born of the
flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.
7)
Marvel not that I said
unto thee, Ye must be born again.
8)
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.
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hat God
“requires” is largely confusing to the church world, today, largely because of
trying to understand that for which it is not prepared. For what is that which
the world is not prepared? In a word,
"Spirituality." You see, all that is called "church"
is not recognized as such by the Lord. By not knowing the Lord, it remains
without that which is necessary to understand Him. Consequently, the church
world must develop its own doctrine for doing so.
Contrary
to what the World is touting as "essential," the solution to a
relationship with the Lord and the understanding of things spiritual is not in
street education, book education or any other kind of education. The
"antidote to ignorance" is found only
in the revelation of the Holy Spirit.
Like
it or not, we are born natural, fleshly beings with absolutely no ability to understand that which is
spiritual. Not only are we without ability, but we are without capacity as well. As if this were not
enough, we are intrinsically distrustful of other beings. So, what all of this
"adds up" to is a serious difficulty coming
to the knowledge of the truth.
Is
there any hope for us? Only
if we are willing to accept the Holy Spirit. You see, without Him, we
are forever "locked out" of the insights and blessings of God, for as
we are taught by Him, we become blessed by Him and the only lessons that He
teaches are spiritual ones.
All
that He has, is and gives is made available to all men, but only those men who
are spiritual will be able to
partake. You see, to be "primed" for spiritual reception, one must first be converted. That is, one
must be changed from one thing to
another. In this case, man must be changed from the natural to the spiritual realm.
In
our text, today, we are made aware of Nicodemus, the Pharisee, who, because of
his station, chose to approach Jesus under the cover of darkness. As a
Pharisee, he, along with twelve other men, was allowed to legislate, giving us
a glimpse as to the amount of power he possessed.
Our
attention is drawn to the fact that he used the title "rabbi" in
addressing Jesus. From all indications in the scripture, Jesus recognized the
address as a form of flattery and so, chose to ignore it. How often do we go to
inquire of the Lord with our own ulterior motives and come out with great
insight?
Today,
it is so difficult to find "Nicodemuses"
because of our propensity to try to make "natural" sense of too much
that God does. This causes more "struggles" in the Church than
practically anything else. Man runs into brick walls trying to make natural
sense of what can only be understood spiritually.
This is why the Lord went to the trouble of letting people know that the
For
those of us who insist upon maintaining our "individuality," we will
have to come to accept the fact that it is impossible for the natural man to perceive
and receive God. All men who resist Him will find themselves
unprofitable, unproductive and miserable. For you see, if the Lord does not run
one's life, he has no life.
If
we are to be successful in "...the spiritual life which God requires"
we are going to have to get to the place of being "dogmatic" about the
truth of salvation. We cannot allow
anyone to think that just going to church and keeping the ten
commandments is enough. For one thing, we know that it is impossible to
keep the ten commandments and indeed, they were never
meant to be kept.
Those
of us who already belong to the Lord must learn to move Him through our praise.
The "secret" to this is to approach Him with a "thank you"
for freeing us from sin. With this, needs to come the
recognition that freedom from sin came with the infilling of the Holy Spirit.
Others must know how one's life is changed and we must be fair enough to be
willing to share such knowledge with others. After all, doesn't everyone
deserve the "chance" that we have been given? n