The Believer and the New Birth

In this sermon the speaker continues a series on the believer’s relationship with the Spirit and the Word, focusing now on the "new birth"—the moment a person is born again. He emphasizes that conversion is a single, definite event, not a gradual process, and illustrates this with personal anecdotes about his own birth, marriage, and a transformed church member named Sid. He explains that the new birth makes a person a completely new creation, citing 2 Corinthians 5:17 and the story of Nicodemus in John 3, where Jesus insists that one must be born of water and the Spirit. The preacher argues that this transformation is not merely external religiosity but an inner, spiritual rebirth that replaces the old nature entirely. The sermon then explores how the new birth occurs, interpreting Jesus’ teaching as pointing to the cross as the method by which the old self is crucified and a new nature is implanted by the Holy Spirit. He warns against relying on religious rituals or emotional experiences alone, urging listeners to seek a Bible‑centered, faith‑based conversion. Finally, he extends an invitation to those who have not experienced this new birth, or who wish to reaffirm it, offering counsel and prayer for anyone ready to respond.

What is Houston's First Baptist Church?

Houston's First Baptist Church is a relevant biblical community where we gather our hearts, grow our souls and give our lives as we seek to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20). This podcast provides weekly messages from Pastor Gregg Matte and others. Visit us at HoustonsFirst.org to learn more about HFBC, and visit us in person the next time you're in Houston!

Now we are these four Sunday mornings with a slight interruption for the ordination of our ministers and last Sunday's special patriotic emphasis, giving attention to a brief four -part series. We have looked at the ministry of the Spirit of God in his relationship to the believer. And then we looked at the Word of God and the believer. Now as I have said, the cooperation of the Spirit of God and the Word of God is the dual vehicle by which God always creates life. And it is life in the believer that Jesus Christ came to give. Now life suggests two things. It suggests a beginning and an ending. And next Sunday morning we are going to look at the security of the believer and find that in fact this kind of spiritual life is eternal life and has no ending. This morning I want us to look for a moment at the dynamic imperative of the new verse. The fountain of youth from which every believer drinks in which the Spirit of God gives him a specific beginning. And I want you to just go away remembering and believing, if nothing else, one thing. And that is that as surely as I was born April the 5th, 1934, 41 years ago at about 4 .02 in the morning, I had a specific time when I was not and then I was. Just as definitely as 905 August the 27th, 1955, I said I do and I was married. And one minute before that I wasn't and one minute after I was. Now just that specifically does a man become a Christian. You do not go to heaven by osmosis. You don't get religion simply by a gradual exposure to things religious. There is a moment in time and history and in time, in place, specific, tangible day, moment, and second when you are not saved, and the next second you are saved. And the Bible calls it being born again. Now there are many expressions for conversion. The Bible speaks of conversion, of salvation, of redemption, of atonement, of justification. The Bible talks about making a public profession of faith. It speaks to following Jesus Christ, about commitment to him, about being saved, about being converted. Many expressions refer to this spiritual, in time, in place, specific moment when a man becomes God's child and is no longer, as the Bible says, the child of the devil. Jesus one day said to the Pharisees who were bragging about their philosophy and religiosity, I'm sorry folks, but with all your religion, you are not God's children. You are in fact of your father, the devil. And some of those very same Pharisees were converted, and then he said, you are of your heavenly father. You change families. But in all of these expressions, I think the most exciting and the most dynamic description of that new dimension and relationship to God is called the new birth. It is called being born again. Nothing that I know of speaks quite as positively and dynamically to me as of the nature of relationship of a new man in Christ as that. The Bible tells us over in 2 Corinthians 5, 17. If any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things become new. Now, the literal Greek word is a new creation. That is, he has started to be something he has never, ever been before. We had dinner the other night with a man named Sid Schumann. I didn't know the old Sid very well. But he, they're members of our church and live in California now and come back regularly on business. And the people around the table who were his former business associates and his wife gave testimony, as did he, that he doesn't talk the same and he doesn't act the same and he doesn't look the same and he doesn't feel the same. My wife, his wife said, I am married to a brand new man. And repeatedly, the conversation turned to the fact, if you could have only known the old Sid. But the old Sid is dead. He has been created. There is a new creation. After I was converted, I went back to my hometown. I walked the same and looked the same, but I was a different person. A Christian and a communist were standing on a street corner and a poor man walked by, dejected, poorly clothed, unshaven, unkempt, broke, down and out. The communists very proudly said, now there's your capitalism. You see that man, if communism were in power, communism had 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, Jesus would put a new man inside the suit of clothes. That's the difference. It is so revolutionary. It is so specific. It is so drastic. It is so transforming that when it happens in a person's life, the only way you can describe it is to say that the old person is dead and simply doesn't exist. And person that prior to this moment of the new birth has never, ever been before. Jesus describes it for us. A marvelous passage of scripture in John's gospel. It is in chapter three, verse one. Please turn, if you will, with me. John chapter three, verse number one. I love this verse of scripture. We're going to read several verses, so follow along and share your Bible there with one nearby who may not have theirs. John three, 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, what? 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 said, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter 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 wants to. Now hearest the sound thereof, but thou canst not tell whence it cometh or whether it goeth. So is every one that is born of the spirit of God. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, how can these things be? Jesus said, oh, poor Nicodemus, art thou a master of Israel and knowest not these things? This man named Nicodemus was an interesting man. I want to point out four or five things to you. First consider with me the man of the new birth. He was a Pharisee. Now if I call you a Pharisee, that's an insult. It means you strut around. You pretend to be more than you are. You put on a pious act, not necessarily in Jesus' day. He was a member of the Sanhedrin. He was a ruler of the Jews. He was the epitome of religiosity. He was a leader. He was one of the great Pharisees. You take Billy Graham and the Pope in Rome and the greatest rabbi you know and all the world's great religious leaders and roll them into a bundle, you have a man like this. He came to Jesus Christ at night. A lot of people wonder why he came at night. I think he came at night because he couldn't wait until the next morning. I believe he was in a hurry. He was excited. He was sincere. He had never seen a man do what Jesus did. And he came to him and said, Master, that means teacher, we know you're from God. We know you're a teacher come from God because these miracles validate the authenticity of your ministry. You couldn't do what you do if God didn't work with you. But he was wrong. You see, Jesus was not simply a teacher come from God. He was God come to teach. He didn't know it, but Nicodemus was confronting deity. He was having an interview with God in flesh, face to face. And he began complimenting him and he said, now, Master, we know that you're a great man. You're a good teacher. You're a fine rabbi. And I think we could have a nice little conversation here on spiritual things. It must have been a windy night. Perhaps they met in secret on top of a little building somewhere. Jesus later gesturing perhaps to the wind to say, just like the wind is, so is every man that is born of the Spirit of God. A marvelous and mysterious thing. Notice after he began exchanging complimentary, flattery, introductory remarks that Jesus Christ didn't even so much as acknowledge that. The very preceding verses at the close of John chapter 2, Jesus makes it clear that he wasn't concerned with external religion. How many candles you light and robes you wear and how many prayers you say and how many churches you belong to how religious you are, he's concerned with what's in the heart of man. That's where man is, the man that lives in the body. And so Jesus didn't even give him the time of day. He didn't even so much as say, well, hiya, Nick, I've heard a lot about you too, boy. No, he didn't say, well, I think you're a pretty fine fellow too, Nicodemus. No, he looked inside his heart with those piercing steel gray eyes and said, Nicodemus, you must be born again. Boy, he could not have zapped him anymore if he told him he could jump over the moon. Nicodemus throws up his hands and says, how can these things be? I want you to look for a moment at the must of the new birth. Jesus said to him, you must be born again. He was telling him something which was dynamically real, but which this man could not comprehend at all. He didn't say you may be born again. Nicodemus, you're an awfully lot of groves to heaven, you see. Now, Jesus made it very clear that there is a way that seemeth right unto man, but the end thereof are the ways of death. He said, if any man tries to come into heaven any other way, he's a thief and a robber. You know, he said, Nicodemus, this isn't one of many ways. It is not a good way. It is the way. Nicodemus, it's imperative. You say, suit yourself. Well, some folks say, well, our church is just as sincere. We just don't teach it that way. Then your church is not teaching the truth. You just say, suit yourself, make up your own way. He said, you must. M -U -S -T. It's in the dynamic imperative. You've got to do it like this. Nicodemus, a man simply must be born again. I want you to look at the mystery of the new birth. It was amazing to him. How in the world is it that a man can be born again? Now understand, you ask what this means for a man to be born of the water and of the word. Ask a hundred preachers, you'll get a hundred different answers. Ask me, you'll get the truth. It is a mystery. Let me tell you what I believe it means. I believe one of the basic factors in biblical interpretation is the contextual approach. It simply means in context. In what context did Jesus say a man had to be born of the water and of the word? Many good, sincere theologians say that it means baptism. Many good, sincere theologians say that it means to be born of the water of the word. When, you know, sometimes the word of God is used symbolically as water. And it cleanses and washes us. Jesus said a man has to be born of the water and of the spirit. When did he say that? Look here. Nicodemus asked a question. He said, how can a man be born when he's old? Immediately we have an insight that Nicodemus did not understand the spiritual implication of Jesus' answer. Later on, Jesus went on to say in verse number 10, are you a master in Israel? Man, you're a teacher of theology? And you don't understand this? Well, didn't he understand? He didn't understand that it was a spiritual birth. He thought it was a physical birth. And so he says, how can a man be born when he's old? Can he earn him the second time to his mother's womb and be born? You mean here I am, a 65 -year -old rabbi, maybe 5 '9 and 185, and I'm supposed to shrink down? I'm supposed to become a 6 -pound, 4 -ounce, 21 -inch -long baby, go back in my mother's womb and be born again? That's exactly what he says. That's what he thought he meant. Now, doctors have called the water birth, the physical birth of a human, the water birth for centuries. Now, you can take a choice, but I believe that it's obvious to me that in the verse before and the verse after, Jesus is trying to explain that it's not another womb birth, physical birth. A child encompassed in his mother's womb is entirely encompassed in water. The breaking of the water announces the birth of the child. He says, no, I don't mean go back and have another water birth. I'm talking about being born of heaven, born of the Spirit of God. He says, this mystery that you must understand, Nicodemus, is not just a physical birth. I don't believe he's talking about baptism. I can excuse yourself. I believe a man can live in a baptistry and he goes webbed feet and scales and waddles like a duck and never go to heaven. Over in the 8th chapter of the book of Acts, let me read something to you. Here was a man named Simon who was baptized by the apostles, sent out orthodoxly from the New Testament church. And they turned to this brand new man who's just been baptized and say to him thou hast neither part nor lot in this matter for thy heart is not right in the sight of God. Acts 8 22. Repent therefore of this wickedness and pray God if perhaps the thought of thine heart may be forgiven thee for I perceive that thou art in the gall of bitterness and in the bond of iniquity. You're still in the bondage of thin. There's just a baptized sinner. You're wet on the outside but your heart's withered on the inside. And it isn't joining the church. It isn't church membership. It isn't being good and giving the PTA. This miracle. Look for a moment at the miracle of the new birth. It is something which is so dynamic so transforming the change when the word of God which makes me know that I'm a sinner before God and the spirit of God cooperate jointly which makes me sorry for my sin gives me a conviction to turn from sin to God jointly cooperate in the innate innermost part of my being. In my soul, in my soul, in my soul, my mind, my heart, my emotions, my will, the inside of me, regardless of what I am in the outside, the inside wants to be a new man. And opening my heart to God, he comes in by the power of his spirit and ingrafts into me a brand new dynamic personality. You see, the new birth isn't simply patching up the old nature. It is the impartation by the spirit of God of an entirely brand new nature. Jesus Christ one day said, men don't put new wine in old wineskins. You see, old wineskins have expanded so far. You put old wine in old wineskins. It's done fermenting. It's done expanding. He said, you put new wine in an old wineskin, and when it starts to ferment, it starts to expand. It'll bust the wineskin because it's already given all it will. The new won't fit the old. You can't put a patch on the old. You'll bust it. And I'm looking at the faces of hundreds of people whose personal, intimate stories I know that are marvelous of how by simply getting on your knees and acknowledging to God that you aren't what you ought to be and that you want a brand new nature, God, to change your affections, old things to pass away. Relationships have been broken. Affections have been changed. And there has been a new release of power in your life. And you don't go whoring after the idols of the world. You seek after God and you love him. Why? Because you're not the old man you used to be. You have been born all over again by the spirit of God. That's a beautiful and wonderful and marvelous offer. And I want to say two things. First, no matter how religious you are, you must have a new birth experience. And secondly, no matter how bad you are, you may have a new birth experience. He's been in the business of changing hearts for a long, long time. Now, a word of caution. You can be saved when you're 8 and 7 and 11 and 13 or 15 and not have a very dynamic change because there wasn't a lot to repent of. There weren't a lot of bad traits to transform. There weren't many sins to cover. And so don't go out thinking, boy, if I didn't have an emotional thing that's just like an explosion, explosion, well, when I was 8 or 10 or 12 or 15, that means I didn't get it. No. The more a man has sinned, the more he is ingrained, the more engrossed in his being is the tendency to go away from God, the more dynamic will be the change when he goes back to God. We must not look at an experience -centered thing or an emotion -centered thing. We must look at a Bible -word -centered thing. And the Bible tells us how a man is born again. Now, we've looked for a moment at the man of the new birth, the must, the miracle, and something else I just forgot. What's my other point? The mystery. Good, Felix. I'm glad you're listening. Now, I want us, for a closing moment, to look, if you will, at the method of the new birth. How does it occur? Well, they're going on down here through the 11th and 12th verses. Jesus is saying in verse 11, we're telling you what we've already seen and know. And I'm trying to explain about how this physical thing works, and you don't understand that. How are you going to understand heavenly things? Now, look in verse 14. You see, this is all in the same context. John 3, 16, and the whole thing here, which culminates in verse 21, is an answer to Nicodemus' question, how can a new birth occur? So in verse 24, or 14, he says, Nicodemus, just the same way Moses, here's the method how it works, 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 everlasting life. For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God set not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. The method, then, is the cross. Paul said that the world is crucified unto me. The world, the flesh, the devil, the old way, the old lust, the old pull. How? By the cross. So as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, in the very same way must the Son of Man be lifted up, nailing my old affections, my old personality, my old drives and desires and lusts and selfishness to the cross, that in dying I might live again. So it happens by a cross. So that when you come to the cross, to the Lord Jesus, you say, Lord, my old nature pulls me down. But before you can give me the life of a dynamically beginning new nature, I want you to crucify the old nature. Therefore, I entrust my sin and my self to you, Jesus, to what you did on Calvary for me. In faith I apply that to me. I reckon that as mine. Let my selfish sins be crucified to your cross. And in you I stand justified. I receive a new nature. And God does that mystery in faith immediately when a man opens his heart to the Lord Jesus Christ. You remember the movie, The Poseidon Adventure, that was very popular. It said that the thesis of the movie was that a ship hit by a tidal wave, a luxury liner, I think on New Year's Eve, capsizes and for days is upside down. The people live inside there, but the up is down and down is up. And in the ballroom, everybody's dancing on the ceiling, literally. But the ceiling's on the floor. And one man says, Follow me. I know a way out. And a few follow him and die. But the only people who get out are those who listen to a man who says, Look, I know a little bit about this ship. And if we can get up here to this corner, we can get through the quarters and do an escape hatch on the bottom, which is now up, and get out. And they find an old Christmas tree. Well, it's a new Christmas tree, but it's kind of beat up. And they thrust it into the sides. And he crawls up that tree. And a few follow him. And only a few believe him. And most go the other way and die. And those few who go the way of the tree live. Well, a long time ago, God made religion very, very simple. And it just boils down to this. That men in their heart, in their personality, are rebels against God and slaves to their own passions and their own lusts and sins. And God sent Jesus Christ, his son, to a tree to die that he might deal with our sins and disposing of them by grace, through faith, give us eternal life. And a lot of people are saying, no, this way's all right and that way's all right and I know another way and follow me and go this way. Jesus Christ said, the must of the new birth occurs by the method of the cross. And when a man dies to sin himself by trusting what was done for him and putting himself under the blood and repenting of his sin and turning to God by grace, through faith, when he climbs the tree of the cross, the only way out, the Spirit of God comes into the new man and implants in his heart a divinely new nature and it is so transformingly different from anything he's ever known that the only way you can describe it is to say the old man doesn't even exist. He started afresh and his life has been born all over again. You've been born again? Well, I'm a deacon. I've been ordained. Have you been born again? I'm a member down at the Presbyterian Church or the Episcopal of Methodists or the Baptists or the Assemblies or something. Have you been born again? Let me tell you something. The church clerks will be too busy looking up their own names. Judgment Day to be looking up your name. Better be sure your name's written in the Lamb's Book of Life. You must be born again. Let's have a spiritual inventory. Let's have a self -analysis for a moment. Just draw a circle right around where you are and find out, is that man born again? Maybe bow our heads together, please. I don't look at being Episcopals or Methodists or Baptists. I don't look at being baptized or being church members. If you're listening on television, just call the church. The number's on the TV set or listening on radio, it's 223 -4024. But listen, here in this building, God is waiting to do eternal business with you. Have you truly been born again? I want to ask a question. How many folks here can say, Preacher, I fail too much. I'm weak and I know I'm not what I ought to be. But I do know that I have had an experience with God. I just praise the Lord. I don't do as well as I should and I sure want to do better. But I know I've been born again. Raise your hand, would you? Oh, beautiful testimony. Thank you. You just can't reform. Turn over a new leaf. Take an old boy, steals apples off a train, put a new suit on him, send him to Harvard, give him a degree and a $64 cap vocabulary, turn him loose. I won't steal apples off the train anymore and I steal the whole train. See, he's become an educated crook. He's changed everything but his heart. That's what makes a sinner, the heart. If you say, Preacher, I've never been born again or I don't really know if I have or not. I really would like to just remember me in prayer. Would you raise your hand and put it right back down so I can see you? Thank you. God bless you. Upstairs, balcony. Thank you. Our Father, we pray for persons who need you. May they respond and settle the matter in Jesus' name. Amen. We're going to extend the invitation just for a moment now. Listen, it's fourfold. If you've never been born again or you don't really know, the pastor, associate, minister of education, education, youth director, counselors, we're all trained and we'll talk with you and counsel with you down here and help you to make this decision and to know it. All you have to do is willingly come and say, I'd like to know. Maybe you have been born again but you're not living like it and you ought to rededicate your life. You come. Just come and you don't need to talk to us. Just come and kneel and pray and talk to Jesus a few minutes. Now maybe you've been born again. You've been saved. Maybe at junior camp or at home or another church or something. But you'd like to come forward and make it public. Join the church. You come. Maybe you've already been a Christian. You belong to another church. You want to join. We welcome you. I want to ask Christians to pray and everybody to join in singing now. God will do his work. We'll stand and sing the invitation. Come on. We're waiting just for you.