Transcript of message from TV Broadcast 667 -- taken from Closed Captioning Text

-- Brother Thomas: "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."

Now if you'll notice that he says there he can not see it even. "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, 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.

"Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you of heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses 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 eternal 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."

You know the way you entered this world was through a birth. And there was some natural seed sewn. It's a process of nature that God has given us and through the obedience to the laws of that process we have a conception and then after nine months you have a baby. That's a birth, but that's the birth that brings you into this world.

And as a baby, as a human infant you don't know much. About all you can do is...well they put that nipple in your mouth and you can open that mouth and grab it and start sucking. It's just natural for a baby to do that. You don't have to teach him that. He knows. So God has provided the means to grow him up and then of course he just... That's all he does to begin with.

And he begins to gain a little weight. He begins to grow and you talk to him, especially the mother. He begins to recognize her voice and all the little things that a mother does with a baby. He'll laugh at her. She'll love him and of course he learns that face and that voice. It becomes special to him. And then as he grows on up she teaches him and of course he learns to crawl and finally pull up and then walk. Then of course you know the rest. But anyway I'm trying to compare that with this birth.

This birth here is spiritual but it's just as real. I'd say it's more real, because that is all natural--the birth that I just described and talked to you about. That's all natural. That which is flesh is flesh. It can never amount to anything else but that. But this birth here, it's a spiritual birth. The seed is all together different. In first Peter, chapter 1, verse 22 and 23 the scripture says... Peter says to those he's writing this to, "Seeing ye have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that ye love one another with a pure heart fervently: Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." You know that scripture alone is enough to teach me that salvation is eternal.

( congregational amens ).

In the first place would God or does God start something and then let it fail? The scripture I quoted last night, "Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:" So I think that people get under the influence in meetings. Maybe they're moved upon and they may make a profession of faith, but it don't mean anything. There's much that's done in the way of religion that's not the Lord and the church is filled with lost people today. They're not saved. Just because you join the church doesn't mean a thing. You have to be born again.

( congregational amens ).

And you have to be born of this incorruptible seed. Out of all the seed in the world--and of course you know what I mean by seed, any kind of seed. We used to plant, you know, on a farm. You'd get sacks of peanuts and sacks of beans and other things, corn. And then it would have maybe a stamp on it telling you what percentage of germination you had in the seed, and some of 'em has a greater, larger germination quotient than others.

But anyway I have seen people plant seed and then it not come up. They say we've got to plant that again and they go back and plant it again, you know, until finally they got a stand, what we call a stand. That means it comes up. Now the Word of God, if it's corruptible seed...and it could be preaching... not all preaching is incorruptible seed.

( congregational amens ).

The incorruptible seed would have to be inspired by the Spirit of God and given out by the inspiration of the Spirit, not just a man talking. Some preaching is not incorruptible seed because some of that won't germinate. Some of it is pleasing platitudes or philosophy or philosophical sayings. Some of it is...well it just don't help anybody. We're talking about that that's inspired by God.

( congregational amens ).

Of course it's not us to cause it to have its effect. If you preach the Word itself, that causes you to feel your need. And if you begin to feel your need, that means that God is dealing with you. That's God's way. This Word is the only way that God can work with your heart.

That's why Paul said to young Timothy, "Preach the word; be instant in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort with all longsuffering and doctrine. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;" That means it'll tickle your ears--tell you what you want to hear. But God has promised to bless this Word and we always got people that don't know the Lord. They're there but they've never yielded to it.

( congregational amens ).

And we've got churches where you go and you can't hear the Word. They got a program. They have something they put on and sometimes people subscribe to that. They join that church. They go in but nothing happens to 'em. Why? Because there's nothing there. You got to sow good seed. It's got to be incorruptible seed.

Out of all the seed in the world, this is the only incorruptible seed. There is no other. That means it can't be corrupted. That means... and I believe too that when it's sewn in the heart of a human being I believe the heart has to be prepared. That don't mean that every person that hears receives but there's some that's ready and some are not.

( congregational amens ).

We don't know who they are. That's why we have to preach the word--give it out where ever we're at. Then God will bless it. Let's go back over now to John chapter 3. Over in the 15th chapter of Acts, Peter here is up at Jerusalem. He's talking to the disciples who are questioning him. Some of the Jews were very legalistic. They still wanted to believe you had to obey the laws of Moses and do those things. And so that's the bone of contention that's come up here.

And Peter had gone in to these men and they'd received the Word of God. They'd been saved. That's the household of Cornelius. Of course the Jews of Jerusalem they didn't like that. They said he's gone into uncircumcised people. They wanted to believe that nobody could be saved but them. That's about somebody that belongs to some church saying you've got to belong to my church to be saved. Of course we don't believe that here. But nevertheless I guess some people do.

So the real crux of the matter that determines whether you're right with God, whether God has saved you, is this right here. This is in Acts 15. And Peter now is trying to explain to them how he knew that this was right, what he'd done. In verse 8 he says, "And God, which knoweth the hearts..." Do you think God knows our hearts?

( congregational amens ).

He, "...bare them witness, giving them the Holy Ghost, even as he did unto us; And put no difference between us and them, purifying their hearts by faith." That's the only thing that purifies your heart and, "...without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him." Amen?

( congregational amens ).

So can you just visualize what this meant here? This man named Nicodemus; it says here he was a ruler of the Jews. He was a Pharisee and a ruler of the Jews. He was quite a high up fellow. I mean he had a reputation. And for him to stoop down to the lowly estate of Jesus, this itinerant preacher going around the country preaching everywhere to anybody who would listen to him, that was quit a condescension to come down to that level. But you know you have to get to the place where you're willing to come down where God wants you.

( congregational amens ).

I don't believe God saves you until you do. You can do it in one act, in one moment in your heart but it's got to be done. Except we become as a little child we'll not enter in. Is that right?

( congregational amens ).

So he came to Jesus by night the scripture says. I don't know whether he was ashamed or not, but there's some significance to that or it wouldn't have said that. I believe another place in reference to it says, "The same came to Jesus by night..." So it's a vital point. I imagine he might have thought, well, some of my Pharisee brethren from the local synagogue might see me so I'll just sleaze in here at night and find out these things. That's what he did.

And so he was convinced that Jesus had something that maybe he needed. So Jesus come right to the point. He didn't waste no time. He said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him..."--Now that was strange language--"...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."

Now that water I believe is the Word--washing of water by the Word. That's used as a type. It doesn't make any difference what it is. We know that we have to be born again. How many of you actually know what the new birth is? Well I'm not trying to find out anything. I'm not trying to pry. I just wonder. It's real.

( congregational amens ).

It's real. You'll never get over it. And when you're born again, you ease out of the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of God. You may live here and stay in this world, maybe 60 or 70 years but you're a citizen of God's kingdom.

( congregational amens ).

His kingdom doesn't come by observation or outward show but it's real. Just think about it. There are citizens of this kingdom in this world. There's citizens of this kingdom right here, in this church tonight and we'll see 'em one day. We'll be in the same place they're in. And I expect to be there a good long while. It won't be like a tour in the Bahamas.

( laughter ).

It won't be a vacation either. Praise God! I'm looking forward to it. I believe it's coming. It may be sooner than we expect.

( congregational amens ).

And I'll tell you when it comes it may come suddenly without warning you may feel your feet leave the ground. Then you'll see a hole open up there and you're gone. Amen. "We shall not all sleep..."--Paul says in 1st Corinthians chapter 15--"...but we shall all be changed, In a moment in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed." Praise God! I'm glad of that aren't you?

( congregational amens ).

Paul said, "I shew you a mystery... for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible...." That's because we have this incorruptible seed in us. Then we get that incorruptible body to go with it.

( congregational amens ).

"For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ."

Did you know that, for us I'm talking about, Christians Christ is the end of the law for them that believe? We're out from under that law. Hallelujah! And we're no longer a prisoner of sin. We've been delivered from it. Praise God!

( congregational amens ).

And we can't be tried for it. We're dead to it. You can't do anything with a dead man. I remember a fellow one time. I knew him. In fact I was in CC Camp with him back there many years ago. This fellow and a young man, they killed a fellow and they had him in jail. And they went in there one day--something got wrong with him--to see about him and he was dead. Well I tell you they didn't try him. They didn't try him at all. They come and got his body but he was gone. And when you're dead you don't stay in that body. You leave it. You're going somewhere. You're either going up or you're going down. I'm gonna go up.

( congregational amens ).

I hope you are too. I don't want anything down there. You say you've been down there?

( laughter ).

Well I tell you right now, sometimes you can live almost down there here in the flesh. But anyway I'm thanking God we've got a better place to go to.

( congregational amens ).

Yes, when you're born of God's Spirit, you enter another realm. Things are different. That's why Paul says in 2nd Corinthians is it, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new." And that's true. That new there is the same as where the Lord said, "...Behold, I make all things new...." That's the new creation, new heavens, new earth. We'll be new.

You'll have some new people to go in there too. That won't pass away. All this is corrupted here. But thank God we have that coming. Yeah that's 5:17, 2nd Corinthians 5:17, "Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature..."--or creation--"...old things are passed away; behold all things are become new." That word "creature" there is "creation" in the Greek and it's the same thing that's used in reference to the new earth, new heavens and new earth. Even these heavens the stars are corrupted. Stars are not clean in His sight. Amen. Think about it. But praise God for what the Lord has done for us.

( congregational amens ).

"For he hath made him..."--Christ--"...For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." Now a lot of you here have had babies, human babies. How many? Lift your hands. Well you know you take good care of 'em, don't you? Can you imagine God having any babes in Christ and not taking care of them?

-- Congregation: No.

-- Brother Thomas: I can't either. I can't visualize the great benefactor of time and eternity, which is God... and one word that describes God best of all, it says God is love. I can't imagine Him letting one of His perish can you? "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never..." what?

-- Congregation: Perish.

-- Brother Thomas: That's what the Word says. "My sheep hear my voice..." John chapter 10 Jesus said, "...and I know them, and they follow me: And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father's hand." You're as secure as you can be. Hallelujah!

( congregational amens ).

It's a wonderful thing to be in God's hands.

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