Baptism Essential To Obedience

Baptism Essential To Obedience

(No. 2339)

INTENDED FOR READING ON LORDS'S-DAY, DECEMBER 17, 1893.

DELIVERED BY C. H. SPURGEON,

AT THE METROPOLITAN TABERNACLE, NEWINGTON, ON LORD'S-DAY EVENING,
OCTOBER 13, 1889.

"He who believes and is baptized shall be saved." Mark 16:16.

IF our congregations were what they ought to be, it would be a very
simple matter to preach, for a sermon would then only need to be like
the orders given by a commanding officer to his troops–short, sharp,
plain, clear, distinct! Our hearers would not need illustrations and
metaphors–they would simply ask to be told what they must do to be
saved–and the more plainly they could be told, the better pleased
would they be. I am going to try, this evening, to preach that kind of
sermon, sinking the preacher into the teller of good news, plainly
speaking of the way of salvation. If you want to be saved, listen to my
message. If you do not care for salvation, yet, perhaps, while you hear
it, you may be set a-longing, and God may bless you. My text is
preceded and followed by other important words, "Go you into all the
world and preach the Gospel to every creature. He who believes and is
baptized shall be saved; but he that believes not shall be damned."

The Gospel, then, is for "every creature." Wherever there is a man,
woman, or child–an intelligent creature–the Gospel is to be preached
to such a person. You who are gathered tonight are clearly within that
description and, therefore, the Gospel is to be preached to you. But if
we are commanded to preach it, it is implied that you are commanded to
hear it! To hear it without attention–to hear it without resolving to
obey it–will be useless work. Hear it, therefore, as I desire to
preach it, remembering that Christ stands here to hear me preach and to
mark how you accept the message from Himself that I am to deliver.

This Gospel is sent to every creature because every creature needs it.
Whether the creature knows it or not, he is lost–lost by nature and
lost by practice, too–so much lost that he cannot save himself! He
needs to be saved. Will you all believe that? If you have not believed
in Christ, you are lost, and you cannot save yourself. Begin by
believing that fact. But then rejoice that there is sent to you a
Gospel which can save you, a Gospel which is adapted and meant for the
salvation ofjust such a person as you are, for to you God says–"He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved."

My fellow Christians, you who have believed in Christ, it is time for
us to bestir ourselves, for we have not preached the Gospel to every
creature, yet, by any stretch of the imagination! Some persons have
never preached it to anybody– some, I mean, of the very persons who
are commanded to preach it to every creature! A quaint preacher says
that if some of God's people were paid ten dollars an hour for all that
they have done for their Lord, they have not earned enough, yet, to buy
a gingerbread cake, and I am afraid that statement is true. So very
little have some persons done for the spread of the Gospel that the
world is none the better for their being in it! Do I speak too
severely? If I do, you can easily pass over what I say, but if not, if
it is so that any here have never yet fairly and squarely spoken of the
Gospel of Jesus Christ, begin at once!

When you get home, tonight, speak of the Gospel to your nearest
relative, and go out, tomorrow, to your next door neighbor, or to the
friend whom you can most easily reach, and tell them of the good news
that your Lord has revealed to you, and so help to preach the Gospel to
every creature! An army chaplain once said to the Duke of Wellington,
"Do you think that it is of any use our taking the Gospel to the hill
tribes in India? Will they ever receive it?" The duke replied, "What
are your marching orders?" That was the only answer he gave! Stern
disciplinarian as that great soldier was, he only needed marching
orders and he obeyed–and he meant that every soldier of the Cross must
obey the marching or-

ders of Christ, his great Commander. Go you, therefore, as far as your
position and capabilities allow you, and tell to every creature the
word of the Gospel as it is recorded in my text, "He who believes and
is baptized shall be saved."

I want to do my part, tonight, as far as my feeble voice will permit
me. And I will speak a few words, first, concerning belief. Secondly,
concerning Baptism. And, thirdly, concerning being saved. We shall get
the whole text clearly in considering those three points.

I. First, CONCERNING BELIEVING. This is the main point. This is the
hinge of salvation, for he that believes in Christ is not condemned–he
that believes in Him has everlasting life.

Now, concerning believing, let me, ask, first, What is to be believed?
Well, you are to believe that you have broken the Law of God and that,
consequently, you are under condemnation. But that God, in His infinite
mercy, has sent His Son, Jesus Christ, into the world that you might
live through Him. His Divine Son–His only-begotten Son–was born of
Mary, as a Man of the substance of His mother, feeling as we do and
was, in all respects, most truly Man. Being here, He obeyed His
Father's will and, when the time came, He gave Himself up as a
Sacrifice for guilty men. He died, "the Just for the unjust, that He
might bring us to God." Himself being without sin, He took upon Himself
the sin of His people– "Who His own self bore our sins in His own body
on the tree." Being found with human sin imputed to Him, He suffered in
the place of those whose sins He bore. On the Cross His blood was
shed–for without the shedding of blood there is no remission of
sin–and by that shedding of blood He blotted out the iniquity of all
those who put their trust in Him. This is what you have to believe,
that–

"He bore, that you might never bear, His Father's righteous ire."

He was laid in the grave and on the third day He came forth from the
tomb, rising, again, for the justification of His people as He was
crucified for their offenses. After a while He went up into the highest
Heaven and He is now enthroned there, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords.
He sits at the right hand of God, even the Father, and there He pleads
and makes intercession for sinners. Believe this–"Through this Man is
preached unto you the forgiveness of sins." He is exalted on high, a
Prince and a Savior, to give repentance and remission of sins. That is
what is to be believed. I might go into a great many details, but I
shall not do so tonight. The essence of what is to be believed is that
Jesus Christ is given of God unto us, that by His death He might put
away sin and we might be reconciled to God–and that whoever believes
in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life!

That I may answer this question better, let me correct it, or turn it
into another, and then answer that. The question is not so much what is
to be believed, as Who is to be believed? For, in very deed, the
believing of a certain thing to be true, though that may be helpful, is
not the whole of the matter. I, believing a thing to be true, trust
myself to that truth–there is faith, the act of trust. But if we would
be saved, we must trust a Person! We must trust the Lord Jesus Christ.
You are not so much saved by believing a doctrine as by trusting a
Person–you must believe the dogma, or you will not trust the Person,
but, believing the doctrine, you then come, and put your trust in the
Person about whom that doctrine is taught. If you would be saved, trust
yourself with Jesus Christ! He, who died, lives, and, "He is able to
save unto the uttermost them that come unto God by Him." Saving faith
is trusting in the Lord Jesus Christ–trusting Him truly, wholly,
solely, constantly–trusting Him now! Behold Him, then, the Son of God,
enthroned in Glory! Lay your soul and all its sins at His dear feet and
trust in Him to save you–and He will do it!

Many will ask a third question–Why is He to be trusted? I should like
to answer that by another–Why is He not to be trusted? When one said
to me, the other day, "I cannot trust Christ," I enquired, "Can you
trust me?" And when the quick reply was, as it ought to be from a
hearer to a minister, "Yes, Sir, I do trust you," I said, "Well, then,
you certainly can trust the Lord Jesus Christ, for He is infinitely
more worthy of being trusted than ever I can be." Cannot trust Christ?
That is a wonderful piece of Satanic delusion! I can say, tonight, that
I can not only trust my soul to Christ, but that if I had as many souls
as there are grains of sand on the seashore, I could implicitly trust
them all to Him! Why should I not? He is "God over all, blessed
forever," and He is Man, tender and gentle–therefore He ought to be
trusted. O my Hearer, can you look the Crucified Christ in the face and
say that you cannot trust Him? Can you see the bloody sweat in the
garden? Can you gaze upon the nailed hands and feet and pierced side of
this suffering Man, who is, at the same time, very God of very God, and
can you then say that it is hard to trust Him? Oh, no! He is so true,
so noble, so generous, so faithful that I beseech you to trust Him, and
to trust Him now!

That raises another question–When is Christ to be trusted? And the
answer is, NOW! He was never more worthy to be trusted than He is
tonight and you never more needed a Savior than you do tonight. You
are, perhaps, talking about trusting Christ at some future time. You
tell me that you do not trust So-and-So, but that you hope to trust him
one of these days. I will not give a penny for such a hope as that! No,
Friend, if at any future time you should deem Christ worthy of your
confidence, He is worthy of your trust, tonight, for He is the same
yesterday, today and forever. Just as you are, in that pew, or sitting
in the aisle, Christ deserves your confidence–and I pray you to give
it to Him. Cast your guilty soul on Him this very moment! Live not
another second in unbelief, for that unbelief is a slander on my Lord,
a grievous injury to His dear, faithful love. Now, while the word is
leaving my lips–as it reaches your ears–say and mean it, "I do
believe. I will trust Jesus. I yield myself to Christ and take Him to
be my Savior."

"If I do that," says one, "When will the blessing come?" The text says,
"He who believes and is baptized shall be saved," and the blessing will
come at once! Swift as the lightning flash is the act which saves the
soul! One moment a man may be black with accumulated sin–the next
moment he may be white as the driven snow. It takes no time for God to
blot out iniquity. We pass in an instant from death to life, from
darkness into marvelous light! I am praying that while I speak to you
in feebleness, God may work with His almighty power–with that right
hand that tore the Red Sea in two–that the ransomed of the Lord might
cross over dry-shod! May He come and save the people made ready by His
Grace for this night of His glorious power, leading them immediately to
believe and giving them, at once, as the result of their faith,
reconciliation to God and justification by Christ Jesus!

Here let me correct a mistake into which some people fall. They say,
"Do you exhort us to believe?" I do, indeed, with all my heart. "But,
Sir, faith is the work of the Spirit of God." Yes, did I ever say that
it was not? I insist upon it continually that, wherever there is any
faith, it is worked in us by the Spirit of God. But listen. Did I ever
tell you the Spirit of God believed for us, or did you ever read
anything in Scripture approximating to that statement? No, the Spirit
of God leads us to believe, but we distinctly believe–and it is our
faith that saves us–it is not that the Holy Spirit believes instead of
us and we lie still, like a man under the surgeon's knife. Oh, dear,
no! Every faculty is awakened and awakened by the Spirit of God! We see
that Christ can save and we believe it. We believe that He will save
and we trust Him to save us. It is our own act and deed–it cannot be
anybody else's act and deed. You cannot believe for another! There can
be nothing like sponsorship, here, and the Holy Spirit, Himself, cannot
believe for you! It is not written, "Let the Holy Spirit believe for
you." That would be absurd! But it is written, "Believe you." "Believe
on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." With your own proper
mind and heart you must believe in Jesus Christ if you would be saved.

I do not know that I need say more concerning believing. I have often
tried to explain it, but I am afraid that I have not always made it as
plain as I have intended. Only let me warn you not to say, "I
understand the plan of salvation very well. Dear Sir, I am sure I do! I
do not need it explained to me, I understand it perfectly." My dear
Friend, it is one thing to understand the plan of salvation and quite
another thing to believe in Jesus Christ to the salvation of your soul.
It is a pitiless night, the rain is pouring down and here is a man,
sitting out in the street, exposed to the ill weather, and he has got a
plan of a house down there on the wet pavement. And He says, "I am all
right! I understand the plan of a house quite well." You see, he is
looking at the plan–he has a view of the front of the house–he knows
where the windows and doors should be. And he has a ground plan, too!
He can see where the kitchen is and the passage to the kitchen. And he
knows the arrangement of all the rooms. But, my dear Fellow, you are
getting wet through and through from the raging storm–why do you not
go into the house for shelter? "Do not talk to me," he says, "I
understand the plan of a house very well." The man is a fool if he
talks like that! Everybody concludes that he is out of his mind and
what is he who is satisfied with understanding the plan of salvation,
but who does not come to Christ and put his trust in Him? Come to Him
now, I beseech you! You who do not know so much about the plan of
salvation, come to Jesus–come and trust Him–trust Him now!

II. Now, in the second place, a little CONCERNING BAPTISM–"He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved."

Please observe that I did not make the text. Perhaps if I had made it,
I should have left out that piece about Bap-tism–but I have had no
hand in making the Bible–I am obliged to take God's Word as I find it.
And here I read these words of our Lord Jesus Christ, "He who believes
and is baptized shall be saved." "Do not dwell on the Baptism," says
one–"leave that out." That is what you say, my dear Sir. I cannot see
your face, but I do not believe that you are my

master. My Master is the Lord who taught holy men to write this Book
and I can only go by the Book! The Book has the Baptism in it, so I
must stick to the Truth of God as it is in the Book–"He who believes
and is baptized shall be saved."

First, let me remind you that our Savior's words teach us that Baptism
follows faith–"He who believes and is baptized." Never neglect the
order of things in the Bible! If God puts them one, two, three–do not
you put them three, two, one. You never had a servant, I hope, who
twisted your orders out of order. Did you ever say to her, "Mary, now
go and sweep the parlor, and afterwards take the duster and dust the
table, and the shelves and the books"? Did she come to you, some time
later, and say, "Madam, I have done as you commanded me. I dusted the
table, the shelves and the books, and then I swept the room"? Every
good housewife here knows what would happen from turning the orders
upside down in that fashion!

Now, a great many in the Christian Church at the present day have put
it thus–"He that is baptized and believes." I am not one of those
maidservants. I dare not turn my Master's orders upside down! You have
no right to baptize people till they have believed in Christ as their
Savior. Remember how Philip put it to the Ethiopian eunuch when that
worthy man said, "See, here is water; what does hinder me to be
baptized?" Philip answered, "If you believe with all your heart, you
may." And if you do not believe with all your heart, you ought not to
be baptized–you have no right to this ordinance of Christ unless you
are a Christian! "He who believes and is baptized"–that is the
Scriptural order. Read the New Testament impartially and you will
always find that those who were baptized were Believers. They believed
in the Lord Jesus Christ and then they were baptized into the name of
the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.

Next, I would have you notice that this matter of Baptism is often
linked with faith. Over and over again it is put so in the New
Testament! There are passages which I will not quote tonight, in which
Baptism has a peculiar prominence given to it in connection with the
work of salvation. It might have been put, "He who believes and comes
to the Communion Table shall be saved," but it is not so written. Some
churches have exalted what they call, "The Holy Eucharist," into a very
elevated position, indeed–far beyond what Scripture has ever accorded
to it–yet the Lord's Supper has never had given to it in the Word of
God the position of being put side by side with faith as Baptism is in
this and other passages. I am not going to dwell upon that point,
tonight. I merely tell you what is the teaching of the New Testament.
You shall give your own account of it if you please, but our appeal is,
"to the Law and to the Testimony!"

This much, also, I must say, that it is not possible that there can be
anything saving in the Baptism, itself. The act of applying water in
anyway whatever cannot wash away a single sin! That would be going back
to the old Covenant of Works, the old ceremonies of the Mosaic Law. All
the washings under the law–and they were very many–never washed one
sin away! Nor can any washing in water take away the sin of any man.
Even the tears of Christ are never spoken of as putting away sin–it is
His precious blood, alone, that cleanses away the sin of men. In my
text, while it says, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved,"
yet, when the condemnation is announced, it is simply, "He who believes
not shall be damned," and the matter of Baptism is not mentioned, for
there are many who believe, but who are not baptized, and who cannot
be–as the dying thief, for instance–yet are they assuredly saved.
Nevertheless, here stands my text and I cannot alter it, "He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved."

Why do you suppose that Baptism is put into this prominent position? I
think that it is for this reason–Baptism is the outward expression of
the inward faith. He who believes in Christ with his heart confesses
his faith before God and before the Church of God by being baptized.
Now, the faith that speaks thus is not a dumb faith. It is not a
cowardly faith. It is not a sneaking faith. Paul puts the matter thus,
"If you shall confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus, and shall believe
in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you shall be
saved. For with the heart man believes unto righteousness and with the
mouth confession is made unto salvation."

But why is confession so necessary to prove true faith? I answer that
it is necessary to the very existence of the Church of God, for, if I
may be a Believer and never confess my faith, you may be a Believer and
never confess your faith–and all round we should thus have a company
of men believing, but none of them confessing! And where would be the
outward ordinances of the Church of Christ at all? Where would be any
minister? Where would be the setting up and growing of the Kingdom of
Christ? For a hundred reasons, it is absolutely necessary for Christ's
Kingdom that the Believer should openly confess his faith. Do you not
see that? And therefore, Baptism being God's way of our openly
confessing our faith, He requires it to be added to faith that the
faith may be a confessing faith, not a cowardly faith–that the faith
may be an open faith, not a private faith–that so the faith may be a
working faith, influencing our life and the life of others, and

not a mere secret attempt for self-salvation by a silent faith which
dares not acknowledge Christ. Remember those words of the Lord Jesus,
"Whoever, therefore, shall confess Me before men, Him will I confess,
also, before My Father which is in Heaven. But whoever shall deny Me,"
(and in that place it means, "He who does not confess Me"), "before
men, him will I also deny before My Father which is in Heaven." There
is, therefore, no regenerating efficacy about water, or about
immersion, or about Baptism in any shape or form–but it is necessary
as the outward visible expression of the inward spiritual faith by
which the soul is saved!

And, dear Friends, once more, Baptism is often the test of obedience.
He who believes in Christ takes Him to be his Master as well as his
Savior. And Christ, therefore, says to him, "Go and do so-and-so." If
the man refuses to do it, he thereby proves that he does not intend to
be the disciple of the Master. "Oh!" says one, "you know that Baptism
is a non-essential." Have I not begged you to cease such idle and
wicked talk as that? Have you a servant? Do you go to business early in
the morning? Do you like a cup of tea at six o'clock, before you start
for the city? The maid does not bring it to you and you ask, "Why have
I not had my tea brought to me?" "Oh," she answers, "it is
non-essential. You can do your business very well without that cup of
tea." Let such a reply as that be repeated, or let it be given only
once, and I will tell you what will be non-essential! It will be
non-essential for you to keep that girl any longer in your house! You
will want another servant, for you will say, "Clearly she is no servant
of mine! She sets herself up as the mistress of the house, for she
begins to judge my commands and to say that this one is essential, and
that one is not essential."

What do you mean by, "non-essential"? "I mean that I can be saved
without being baptized." Will you dare to say that wicked sentence over
again? "I mean that I can be saved without being baptized." You evil
creature! So you will do nothing that Christ commands if you can be
saved without doing it? You are hardly worth saving at all! A man who
always needs to be paid for what he does–whose one idea of religion is
that he will do what is essential to his own salvation–only cares to
save his own skin and insinuates Christ may go where He likes! Clearly,
you are no servant of His! You need to be saved from such a
disreputable, miserable state of mind–and may the Lord save you!

Oftentimes, I believe that this little matter of Believers' Baptism is
the test of the sincerity of our profession of love to Him. It would
have been all the same, it may be, if the Lord Jesus Christ had said,
"Pick up six stones off the ground and carry them in your pocket and
you shall be saved." Somebody would have said, "That stone-picking is a
non-essential." It becomes essential as soon as Christ commands it! It
is in this way that Baptism, if not essential to your salvation, is
essential to your obedience to Christ. If you have become His disciple,
you are bound to obey all your Master's com-mands–"Whatever He says
unto you, do it."

III. Now, lastly, CONCERNING BEING SAVED–"He who believes and is
baptized shall be saved."

What is this being saved? Well, it means, of course, what everyone
wants it to mean, salvation from the punishment of sin. "He who
believes and is baptized shall be saved." His transgressions shall be
forgiven him, his iniquity shall be blotted out, he shall not be
brought into condemnation–and in the Last Great Day he shall be
justified in Christ. No, he is justified now, as the Apostle says,
"Therefore, being justified by faith, we have peace with God through
our Lord Jesus Christ." That is certainly a part of this being saved.

It means, next, that he that believes and is baptized shall have
salvation from the dominion of his old nature. When you believe in
Christ, there shall suddenly spring up in you a new life, a new
principle–a well shall be dug within your being and a fountain of
Living Water shall begin to bubble up within you unto life everlasting!
A miracle shall be worked upon you–there shall come into your heart
the Holy Spirit who shall dwell there to re-create you, to set up
within your soul a new throne whereon shall reign a new King! The old
dominion of sin shall be broken as with a rod of iron and there shall
be a new order of things within your heart–righteousness shall begin
to reign there by Jesus Christ.

"He who believes and is baptized shall be saved." That is, he shall
have salvation from his old sins. He shall no longer be the slave of
drunkenness. He shall get the love of swearing by the throat. He shall
have his lying, his anger, his passion under his feet. "He who believes
and is baptized" shall see all his old adversaries put to the rout and
what he could not do, through the weakness of his flesh, shall be done
for him by the power of the Spirit of God! And by Divine Grace he shall
master his sins. He shall begin to live unto God, under new impulses,
strengthened with a new power and so he shall be delivered from his old
sins.

Listen again, for this is wonderful. "He who believes and is baptized
shall be saved"–he shall have salvation from going back to his old
sins. If it were not for the Final Perseverance of the Saints, I should
think my Gospel a poor Gospel

to preach, but he who truly believes in Christ shall have such a change
worked in him that the blessed work shall never be undone! My Lord
shall light such a candle in your heart that the devil, himself, shall
never be able to blow it out! Christ shall come to you with such power
and authority and set up His eternal Throne in your soul with such
Divine majesty and might that you shall be His in time and throughout
eternity. We preach about no temporary salvation, no work of Grace
that, by-and-by, will grow feeble and lose its power! We tell of a work
of Grace that shall enable you who believe to go on from strength to
strength, from glory to glory, till every sin in you shall be driven
out and you shall be made perfectly like your Lord! Then shall you
behold His face in righteousness and be with Him forever and ever.

Once more, "He who believes and is baptized shall be saved"–he shall
have salvation from the age in which he lives. "But," says one, "I do
not want to be saved from that." You don't? "No." But if you go with
the age and go with the world, you will go down the Niagara which this
age is just now shooting–down to the destruction to which this world
is doomed! Cherish not the friendship of the world that slew your Lord,
for the world and the works that are in it shall be burned up. You
remember how Peter said, on the day of Pentecost, "Save yourselves from
this untoward generation"? That is what I want you to do tonight! "With
many other words did he testify and exhort, saying, "Save yourselves
from this untoward generation." A man who wishes to be a man and who
desires to be a saved man, has to take up arms against this evil age!
He who would prove himself to be alive unto God must swim against the
current of the times! Dead fish go down stream–can't you see them? I
see the white bellies of the dead fish floating down by myriads! But
the living fish goes up the stream, against the current, and finds his
way to purer waters! Beloved, he who believes in Jesus Christ with all
his heart shall be made to play the man where men are now so few–and
to stand fast for God and His Truth where others yield to the Satanic
power–and to be holy where ungodliness, like a mighty torrent, now
sweeps down our streets! "He who believes and is baptized" into the
adorable name of Jesus, swears, as a Red Cross Knight, to follow
Christ, and Christ, alone–believing in Him though every man is a
liar–and resolving for Him to live, for Him to die and in Him to find
hope here and eternal happiness hereafter! He is the man who shall be
saved from this present evil age to the Glory of God the Father.

All this great work is worked by faith in Christ–that is the one way
of salvation! "He who believes on the Son has everlasting life."
Believe in Him, as men sometimes say, "up to the hilt." Believe in His
Manhood sympathizing with you. Believe in His Godhead able to help you.
Believe in His blood cleansing you. Believe in His eternal life
bringing everlasting life to you. God bless you, everyone, for His dear
Son's sake! Amen.

EXPOSITION BY C. H. SPURGEON: JOHN3:1-18.

If you were called in to see a person who was dying and wished to read
a chapter from the Word of God, but you were afraid that the sick one
did not know the way of salvation, you could not select a better
portion than the one we are about to read. I have chosen it in the hope
that some may now learn from it what they must do to be saved.

Verses 1, 2. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler
of the Jews: the same came to Jesus by night. Perhaps he was very busy
during the day. It is better to come to Jesus at night than not to come
to Him at all. All hours are convenient to Christ–you may come to Him
when you are at home tonight. When everybody else is asleep, Jesus is
still awake. In all probability, however, Nicodemus did not wish to
commit himself by coming to Christ by day. He had not yet tried and
tested Him, so he would not be thought to be Christ's follower till he
had, first, had a quiet private talk with Him. As a ruler of the Jews,
he was wise in acting thus discreetly.

2. And said unto Him, Rabbi, we know that You are a teacher come from
God: for no man can do these miracles that You do, except God is with
him. He admitted the truth as far as he could see it. The miracles of
Christ proved Him to be a Divinely-commissioned teacher. Always be
willing to go as far as you can go in the pursuit of the Truth of God.
If you cannot see everything at once, see all that you can see. Be not
of a caviling spirit–be frank and teachable as this man was.

3. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto you,
Except a man is born again, he cannot see the Kingdom of God. It is
such a mystery, a thing of such a marvelous character, that his old
nature cannot see it. He must have new eyes. He must be a new man. He
must be born again before he can "see the Kingdom of God." Have you
caught this idea, my dear Hearer? Do you understand that you cannot
polish yourself up to a certain point and then see the Kingdom

of God? You must be born again! There must be a radical change in you,
a new birth, a birth from above, if you are even to see the Kingdom of
God.

4, 5. 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 you, Except a man is born of water
and of the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. At first
Jesus said that a man could not see the kingdom of God except he was
born again. Now He tells Nicodemus that a man cannot enter the Kingdom
except he is born of water and of the Spirit. There must be a
cleansing–he must be "born of water." There must be a spiritual
life–he must be "born of the Spirit," or he cannot enter into the
Kingdom of God.

6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Nothing more. However
godly your father, however gracious your mother, all that is "born of
the flesh is flesh."

6. And that which is born of the spirit is spirit. There must be, then,
a Spirit-birth, or else you have no spirit–you belong not to the
spiritual realm–and you cannot see and you cannot enter the spiritual
Kingdom.

7. 8. Marvel not that I said unto you, You must be born again. The wind
blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound thereof. The sounding of
the wind blowing through the trees–

8. But cannot tell from where it comes, and where it goes. Where it
begins, where it goes, or where it comes to an end, you cannot tell.

8. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. You do not know where the
spirit-life begins and you cannot tell to what it will lead. There are
heights to which the spirit-life can carry you, of which you have never
dreamed–this is a mystery beyond your understanding.

9. Nicodemus answered and said unto Him, How can these things be? He
did not deny that they might be, but he asked how they could be. Ah,
many a man has asked the same question! "How may I be made anew? How
may I become a new creature?" Only He that makes all things can make
all things new! The new birth is as great a wonder as creation, itself,
and there is as much–and a great deal more–to be worked upon you to
make you a Christian as has been worked upon you to make you a man.

10. Jesus answered and said unto him, Are you a master of Israel, and
know not these things? These truths lie on the very doorstep of our
holy religion! There are deeper and higher mysteries than these.

11. 12. Verily, verily, I say unto you, We speak what We know, and
testify what We have seen; and you receive not Our witness. If I have
told you earthly things. Commonplace things, the lower things of faith.
"If I have told you these"–

12. And you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you of
heavenly things? There are mysteries in our holy religion which we
would not tell to everybody. It would be casting pearls before swine to
mention them to unregenerate men. Christ tells Nicodemus that the
primary Truths of God must be believed before the more advanced
doctrines can be revealed.

13. And no man has ascended up to Heaven but He that came down from
Heaven, even the Son of Man which is in Heaven. It is Christ who knows
everything! He understands all mysteries! He can teach all Truth, for
He has been in Heaven. He came down to earth and He has gone back again
to Heaven. Now, perhaps, some of you will be saying, "How are we to be
saved? If there is no salvation without the new birth, how can we
obtain the new birth?" Listen. The same chapter which tells you of the
mystery of regeneration, tells you of the simple way of salvation by
faith in Christ!

14. 15. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so
must the Son of Man be lifted up: that whoever believes in Him should
not perish, but have eternal life. "Whoever." If you believe in Christ,
you are born again! If you trust Him, you have the new life! This
simple way of salvation is not contradictory to the way of salvation by
the new birth– it is the same thing stated in a form that we can
comprehend!

16. For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son,
that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have everlasting
life. This text has saved thousands of souls! The constellation in the
heavens called the Great Bear, has in it the two pointers which direct
the eyes of the observer to the pole star–and this verse points to
Christ so clearly, so distinctly, that many have found Him by it and
have lived! Let me read it again: "For God so loved the world, that He
gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not
perish, but have everlasting life."

17, 18. For God sent not His Son into the world to condemn the world;
but that the world, through Him, might be saved. He who believes on Him
is not condemned: but He that believes not is condemned already. Not,
"shall be condemned at the last," though that, also, is true, but "He
that believes not is condemned already"–

18. Because he has not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of
God. May the Lord bless to us the reading of this very simple Gospel
chapter, for our Lord Jesus Christ's sake! Amen.