During the five years that I was pastor of the First Southern Baptist Church in Dell City, Oklahoma, our church had two different personalities. The first two years were quite different from the last three. The difference was that during the last three years, I began to realize that there were many different ways in which our church was not growing as spiritually and as mature as it should have been. I realized that there was nothing that could make a church grow like the Word of God. I found myself fumbling for sermons and always trying to have something new and fresh and different to say. And then I realized that instead of being a topical preacher, trying to find just the right topic for that right particular Sunday, that the thing that people needed to grow was to have the Word of God in an expository manner preached to them. And so I decided that I would start on a 20 -year program of preaching and that I would start from the book of Genesis 1 -1 and go through the book of Revelation all the way through the New Testament and that I would take word by word, verse by verse, chapter by chapter. Sometimes I would spend three sermons on one word. Sometimes an entire chapter would consume a sermon. It was the richest experience of my life. Our prayer meeting crowds grew from 300 to 800. The depth of the people was incomparable. It was immeasurable. As Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday night, straight through, without interruption, I promised our people that if I stayed and they stayed and we would live those 20 years out, that they would grow in grace and have a knowledge of the Word of God and that that wonderful experience could change their lives. As I did, things began to happen. It is impossible to tell you the revitalization that occurred in that church. It became one of America's greatest churches. After I was called to Houston, the church was three months before they called another pastor. And I want to say to you, to God's glory, that during those three months, without a pastor, the Sunday school attendance, the training union attendance, not only held up, the preaching crowds and prayer meeting not only held up, but it exceeded anything they'd ever done. The church averaged 27 conversions and additions by letter per Sunday without a pastor during the interim. That was more than we did when I was there. That's more than they're doing now. They've fallen all the way down to 25. They've almost fallen apart. I say to you that that is what God will do to a church that preaches and loves and believes and honors and exalts the book, the Word of God. But I must also admit that when I had gone about halfway through the book of Exodus, I found it more difficult to preach in Exodus than in Genesis, that it was not nearly as exciting. And as I began to go ahead into Leviticus and Numbers and Deuteronomy, I really wished that I was off the hook. I really wished that I was not going to have to take eight or ten years because much of it became repetitious. I was anxious to get into the New Testament. Well, I wasn't so anxious that I wanted to move to do it, but the Lord moved me to Houston. And I got off the hook. And I have the chance to do it again. And so I'm going to do this time what I learned from the process of trial and error that I wished I would have been able to have done that time. The Lord knows how to take care of preachers. And this is what I would have done had I had the chance and what I do have the chance that I'm going to do here. I'm going to take nine months. Now, at about 15 sermons a month, Sunday morning, Sunday night, and Wednesday night, that's going to be about, for nine months, 140 sermons. And I'm going to bring these messages straight through the book of Genesis. The word Genesis means the beginning, the book of beginnings. And when we have established Genesis in our minds, we will have laid a foundation. We find the beginning of the home, the beginning of man, the beginning of religion, the beginning of democracy, the beginning of society, the book of beginnings, how it all began, is recorded in the book of Genesis. I will do this beginning next Sunday morning through the nine -month college term, Sunday night and Wednesday night, straight through. If you miss a Sunday night or a Wednesday night, you'll miss something. And I guarantee you that if you'll come those three times a week through those nine months of preaching, it can be one of the most unusual and thrilling experiences of your life. As I take a historical background, make a modern -day application that is exactly to be found right there in the scriptures, and do expository preaching through the book of Genesis. Now during the next summer months, next summer, and I'm going to stay home more next summer than I did this summer, I'm going, who said amen? I'm going to take the rest of the Old Testament and preach it in three months. Now that's going to be something to see. I even want to see that myself. But I'm going to take in 45 messages through the summer months and just skim the cream and give you the highlights and consolidate and crystallize the remainder of the Old Testament. Then beginning a year from next Sunday, when the college term begins again, I have planned a 10 -year preaching program from Matthew to Revelation, straight through. You say, you can't do that. That's ridiculous. What are you going to do about special things? What are you going to do about special activities? I faced that problem when I began preaching through Genesis before. Let me tell you what happened. We came to the place where it was Mother's Day, and I just happened to be on the story of Mother Eve. On Father's Day, the Holy Spirit saw to it that we just happened to be on the story of Noah and the ark. Now what greater thing can a father do than to get his children in the ark? Any preacher can preach on Noah and the ark on Father's Day if he's got any preach in him. We were having a stewardship campaign, and we just happened to be on the story that day of presenting the tithes to Melchizedek the priest. They were having the disturbances in Chicago. The riots and the war demonstrations were in the newspapers, and I wanted to preach on the Christians' attitude toward war. That morning, we just happened to be in the 14th chapter of Genesis, the story of Ketaleomor and the First World War. A problem arose in the church. I wanted to deal with the problem. And we just happened to be that day on the story of Abraham and Lot, where they had a problem between them. And the wiser man said to the younger man, let there be no division among us. Now I submit to you that the Spirit of God knows how to have the preacher where he ought to be when he ought to be there. And I don't want you to think that this is going to be a stale, dismal experience. To the contrary, I guarantee you the next nine months, if you'll stay with me, bring your friends, come morning, night, and Wednesdays, that you will receive one of the greatest experiences and blessings of your life. And the entire rest of the whole New Testament and Old Testament, all of religion, all of the Bible, all of logic, all of history, all of the future is based on what you will find in the book of beginnings, the book of Genesis. It is as exciting as it will be important. Don't miss it. Now, with that, I was trying to decide this morning, if I had one last sermon to preach before I began with a pre -planned study through a particular book like Genesis, where I was going to be bound to what I was to preach that day, what one sermon would I preach to you if it were going to be the last sermon I would ever preach? And I thought, what question would I answer? What sermon would I preach if I knew that I had one television program, one radio broadcast that would go to all religions, to all denominations, all over the world, one time? In thinking of that, I remembered an incident that I had in Southern California. Two weeks ago, as we attended the Lay Institute for Evangelism, which is going to be held in our church, the 10th through the 13th, the most exciting, tremendous witnessing opportunity and school to learn how to witness you'll ever have in your life. I went out in taking some of the training myself to better improve my own witnessing techniques, and I witnessed to several people one afternoon. We went to three doors, the first three doors, where we found people at home. We talked to three women who had together, between the three of them, been a member of a Nazarene, a Catholic, and a Baptist church 108 years. There was a survey that we took that asked some questions, such as, about whom do you know the most of all the world's great religious leaders? Do you attend Sunday school? How often do you go to church? And then one question was, how do you think one becomes a Christian? And these three adult women, beyond 50 years of age, who had together belonged to Nazarene, Catholic, and Baptist churches 108 years, all of them answered together something like this. One becomes a Christian by being good, by doing the best he knows how, by following the commandments, by living up to the Sermon on the Mount. And I went away saying, oh God, how pitiful that here in Christian America, religion, religious people of my denomination, of denominations to the right and the left and the middle of all kind, and so few have the slightest idea how one becomes a child of God. And I am aware of the fact that in this congregation and over the radio stations where this sermon is broadcast, that many of us still cannot crystallize in our minds what it means to be saved. And I decided that today I would preach to you this last sermon before I begin through the book of Genesis on the subject of the new birth. If you have your Bibles this morning, please open them, and let us see together from the word of God what our Lord Jesus said to men as to how one is saved. John chapter 3, verse number 1. John chapter 3, verse number 1. 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 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? 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, Ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, where it will, where it wants to. Thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whether it goeth. So it is. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and saith unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? With these words, the most dynamic interview that ever took place between God and man occurred one day, perhaps in the city of Jerusalem. It must have been at night. Perhaps it was a windy night. As Jesus Christ referred to the wind as an illustration of his point, on this windy, dark night, perhaps Jesus Christ and Nicodemus were meeting somewhere yonder on the top of a roof. Maybe in a quiet street. But they were alone for a very important meeting. This man, Nicodemus, came to Jesus Christ at the nighttime. Theologians through the years have speculated as to why he came at night. Some say because he was embarrassed. He was afraid. There are those who say that he came to Christ at night because the crowd was so large. It was impossible with the press of the people to have a prolonged, intense conversation in the heat of the day. I disagree with both. I believe Nicodemus came to Jesus at night because he couldn't wait till the next morning. I believe he was in a hurry. I think he was urgent. I think he was excited. I believe he came to Christ at night because he really wanted to know some answers fast. I believe he was converted. It was he who begged the body of Christ and buried it in a beautiful tomb. I believe he was a follower of Christ. I believe his actions verified the fact that he had responded to the gospel of Christ. Now he came to Jesus one day and said, good master, 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 herein Nicodemus made his first mistake. He said, we know that thou art a teacher come from God. Jesus was not a teacher come from God. He was God come to teach. He didn't represent God. He was not an ambassador for God. He was no spokesman for God. He represented God. And when Nicodemus got the word from Jesus, he got the word from God. He got the final answer. He got the straight word. Jesus Christ then turned to Nicodemus. Now Jesus looked on the inside and saw something wrong. Oh, to be sure, Nicodemus was a very brilliant man on the outside. He was a leader, a member of the Sanhedrin, a master in Israel. Now for me to call you a Pharisee would be an insult. But in Jesus' day, the connotation was different. A Pharisee was one who taught teachers how to teach. A Pharisee taught teachers how to teach religion. Now there are many great Pharisees in the world. There were many great teachers. But Gamaliel was one of the three greatest. It was his responsibility to oversee the teachers of religion to make sure that they did it right. In other words, Nicodemus was so religious, so much the very incarnation, the very epitome of religiosity, why he wouldn't take more than one step on the Sabbath than the law allowed. If the Sabbath law allowed 200 steps and he took 200 steps and found himself in the middle of the street, he'd leave that other foot up until the sun went down. He was a legalist. He would not take step 201 until the Sabbath was over. If you take the Pope in Rome, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Billy Graham, Harry Emerson Fosdick, and all of the world's great religious personalities, externally you have a man something like Nicodemus. He was a teacher who taught teachers how to teach teachers to teach. Now that's somebody. He had the robes, the candles, I'm sure. He had the accruements and the fineries. He had the procession and the pomp and all of the religious accruements of spirituality. But there was something missing on the inside. His life had never been changed. He had an external relationship that appeared to be very religious, but he was lost and empty and dead and sterile and impotent and void on the inside. The Bible says the wages of sin is death. This spiritually dead man had no relationship with the living God because the only way men can get it is through a regenerative experience of faith in Christ. And he had not had that. I rather imagine that when Nicodemus complimented Jesus and said, we know that there are a teacher come from God, that he expected that Jesus would return the compliment. He probably perked up his ears and expected Christ to say something like, well, wonderful, Nicodemus. Thank you. I've heard about you too. Jesus didn't return the compliment. He didn't even give him the time of day. He just cut right across country and went to his heart and said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Nicodemus was shocked. He, an old man, a mature man, a grown adult. And Jesus was telling him that he would have to shrink down and become a baby again, reenter his mother's womb, be born again to go to heaven. Jesus not only said that, he said, Nicodemus, you not only won't go to heaven unless you're born again, you won't even see the kingdom of God. You won't get within a 10 million miles of it. And Nicodemus said to him, you expect me to enter into my mother's womb and be born. How can these things be? To which Jesus Christ replied, art thou a master in Israel and knoweth not these things? Education is very important. And I don't know any of us that don't need no more, that don't, that do not need more. I think I don't, they don't need no more. I'm sure I do. They do not need more. But I want you to realize this morning, ladies and gentlemen, there are a lot of people standing in pulpits, writing books, preaching sermons, teaching theology with a string of degrees as long as they are, to whom I would like to say, Art thou a master in Israel and knowest not these things? For if a man does not know and does not get out the central heart of the gospel message, that men, the good news in Christ is that men are regenerated, lives transformed by a new birth experience, if they don't know that, they don't know anything. Jesus was amazed that this religious leader had so much religion on the outside and missed it on the inside. I feel sometimes like many people go to church, like the little boy who came home and his mother said, Son, what did they talk to the preacher preach on in church today? He said, I don't know, Mama. He never did say. He never did say. I wade through sermons. I listen to broadcasts. I read books of theology. I study the classic theologians. I hear contemporary preaching and teaching. And I submit to you that from the modern day writing and preaching, it seems that 95 percent of preachers and Christians and teachers and theologians today assume that everyone is already a Christian, that they're already born again and go on with religion from there. The airplane won't fly until you get gas in the tank. There's no good to run the race until you stop at the starting line. This is basic. Jesus said to this man, you must be born again. And ladies and gentlemen, I say to you simply today that if a man like this man, as important as he was, as good as he was, as religious as he was, if he had to have an entirely revolutionary new relationship and experience with God, a mystical experience called the new birth, without which Jesus said, men cannot enter the kingdom of God, that if he had to have that, then you and I don't stand a chance without the same thing. You must be born again. Three words I would suggest to you. Number one, you. You. It is a personal word. You yourself, personally, individually, must be born again. Conversion is not the process of osmosis. Religion is not the product of group action. You do not get it by assimilation. He said you individually, specifically, personally, must be born again. I've heard it so many times. My parents are Christian. I belong to a Christian church. I live in a Christian country. I have attended a religious university. As though by osmosis, we were going to kind of soak it up. Jesus didn't say everybody had to be born again. I mean that in the broader sense. He didn't say that. He said you, specifically, personally, must be born again. There's going to be no question of everyone else in judgment. There'll be no question of other people's decisions, but yours. You, specifically. Your life must change. You must be transformed. Ponce de Leon sought for the fountain of youth. Yonder in Florida, where that beautiful fountain is that Ponce de Leon thought he had found, when he discovered, thought he had found the fountain of youth. There are beautiful steps leading up to it in the form of a cross. There is a fountain of youth, but it can only be experienced through the cross. Life is the result of death. A mother goes into the valley of the shadow of death to give birth. After Calvary, there is Easter, but Easter is the result of death. You can have life. You can have a new, living, vital relationship with Christ. Have you ever wished your life could start over? Have you ever wished you could blot out yesterday and begin life anew? The Bible says you can. But remember, it is you that must have the experience. Must Jesus bear the cross alone? These girls sang so beautifully a moment ago. And will all the world go free? No, there's a cross for everyone, and there's a cross for me. My cross is a cross of crucifixion. I must die to self if I would live to him. The self must die if the new would live. For you to be born again, you personally must zero in on your own sin and your own self and your own relationship to God. It is a personal matter. A young woman on the college campus said once, I was born in a Christian home. Doesn't that make me a Christian? Well, if being born in a Christian home makes you a Christian, being born in a bread pan makes you a biscuit. And the logic doesn't stay true. It's not consistent. You are not a Christian because you were born in a Christian home, a Christian nation, or belong to a Christian church. It is a personal relationship to God. He said you must be born again. Secondly, it is in parity. He said you must be born again. Now there are those who say preacher, we use different words, we approach it differently, but we all talk about it, and we all do the same thing. Now that's very syrupy talk. But whether you are a Baptist or a Lutheran or Episcopalian, you're going to have to zero in on this one central and simple fact, that joining the church or being good or being baptized is not salvation. He didn't say you may be baptized or may be born again if you want to. He didn't say if your church teaches it, and if not, just do what your church says. He didn't say it's an option. You say we don't do it like that in our church. It isn't a Baptist doctrine. It doesn't matter what a church does. Christ said you personally must be born again. That's in the divine imperative. There are no degrees of this word must. It is not less important and more important. It is an exclusive, unalterable imperative. It has to happen, regardless of whether you're the president of a great university, the owner of a large bank, the head of a great nation, or the most vile and down -and -out man in the world. Jesus said there are no exceptions. None will enter the kingdom of God, but those who have had this personal experience that men have to have. Now the third word is this. You must be born again. Again, this word be carries wither the connotation of becoming something that one is not. It is a change, meaning to become. In other words, a transforming change must come into your life. There was a time in my life that I loved to drink. I loved to do things that were wrong. But now, because Christ has changed my heart, my want -to has been changed. It isn't as though the outside were changed. Oh, I had the same hair, the same legs, the same feet, after I met Christ, but Jesus put a new heart in me, a new will, a new ego, a new person, a new character. A Christian and communist were standing on a street corner one day, and a bum walked by, unshaven, poorly clothed, ill -kept. The communist very proudly said, Now that's capitalism. Look at the rich, and look at this poor man. If communism were in power, communism would put a new suit of clothes on that man's back. The humble Christian said, If Jesus Christ were in power in that man's life, Christ would put a new man in that suit of clothes. That's the difference. Christ changes the inside. He changes the heart. Oh, it doesn't do you any good to say, I lie, I'll cut off my tongue and never lie again. You don't need a new tongue, you need a new heart. It doesn't do any good to say, I lust and my eyes will be plucked out, or I'm guilty of stealing and I'll sever my hands. You don't need a new hand, you need a new heart, so you don't want to steal. Jesus changes the heart. Christ changes the desires. A fine Christian psychologist in Oklahoma City said to me, we can take them apart, but we can't put them together again. To understand a problem, to analyze a difficulty, to recommend a solution is wonderful, but it is only in the power of Christ that Jesus comes into the heart and gives men a new fountain of experience, a new life, a new heart that desires to do differently, that has the power to follow the solution that is prescribed. You must have this experience. Your life can and may and will and must be transformed. Now there are those of you who are saying, preacher, if I'm just baptized, won't that be sufficient? Tuesday night, in the Sherman High School football stadium, there was an average attendance every night of 3 ,000, which completely filled the stadium, and 300 people accepted Christ, and other 300 rededicated their lives in that small city. And on Tuesday night, two boys came and heard me preach. They were from another church. They were high school boys on the football team. They were so under conviction that they went home and got their pastor up out of bed well after midnight because they could not sleep with conviction. Immediately, the pastor took them down to the church and baptized them. I say to you that they're as lost as they ever were. All of the water in the world will not wash away sins. You must be born again. The Bible says that that is born of the Spirit is Spirit. That that is born of the flesh is flesh. You must be born of the water and of the Spirit. So doesn't that mean baptism? No, it doesn't at all. Anytime you're trying to understand what the Bible is saying in a controversial subject or a difficult text of Scripture, you need always to study that passage of Scripture in the context in which it is said. Don't pull it out of its heart. Study the whole thing. Now let me show you. Take your Bibles once again, please. Nicodemus, in the fourth verse, when told he had to be born again, says, How can a man enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now verse 6 says, Now that verse right in the middle says, You must be born of the water and of the Spirit. You see, Nicodemus says, Can I enter in my mother's womb? Jesus says, Nicodemus, you must be born of the water. You must have a birth of the womb. You must be born of the flesh, yes. But you must also have a spiritual birth. Then he goes on to amplify it by saying, For that that is born of the flesh is only flesh. But that that is born of the Spirit of God is spiritual. The wages of sin is death. My flesh can produce no good. As a sinner, I am a living dead man. But when Christ comes into my life, the Spirit regenerates my spirit, and I am born again. Old things are passed away. A man that is born has no past. When a baby is born, it's not so many weeks or months old. It's zero. It starts from there. And I say to you that the same as you have no past when you're born, and a whole life before you, the day you come to Jesus Christ, when your spirit is transformed, when Christ makes you whole on the inside, when life and character and heart are transformed from within, you also have no past. Yesterday's failures and sins, yesterday's disappointments and problems, do not exist. They're behind Christ's back as far as the east from the west. And the whole new life begins to open up in front of you. Ladies and gentlemen, today is the first day of the rest of your life. And it can be the first day of your real life if you get new life in Jesus Christ. Have you been born again? Has there become a time in your life where the things you love you begin to hate and what you're despised you begin to love, your heart, your character transformed? That's the new birth. It's not being good or baptized or joining the choir or being confirmed or going to confession or joining the church. It is an eternal change by the living power of Christ who gives you a new heart, new character, new emotions, a new will, a new personality like unto his, born by the Spirit of God. It can happen. It will happen if you'll open your heart. And it must happen for you to be a child of God. May we bow our heads and close our eyes. Heavenly Father, as we come to the closing verses of this service today, the hymn of invitation, we know that all across here there are men and women that have never been saved. They've never had a new birth experience. They need it. They want it. They're interested in it. And we know that Satan would give them a thousand reasons to say, well, don't go down there today. I'm not a member of that church or it's Sunday morning or it's too formal or I'll think it over. I'll do it later. We know that today is the day of salvation. And dear Father, we pray that everyone from the preacher, the members of the staff, the deacons, the choir, the ushers, the teachers, every member of the church, every visitor, good, bad, or indifferent, shall honestly ask themselves the question, have I been born again? Has my life been changed? Have I been transformed by the power of Christ? And if there is one who cannot say yes, we pray, oh God, they shall come and receive Christ as their Savior. In Jesus' name, Amen.