THE NEW BIRTH

THE
NEW
BIRTH
By Paul J. Levin

THE NEW BIRTH
By Paul J. Levin
A man was asked why he preached so often on,
"Ye must be born again." He answered, "Because ye
must be born again." Have YOU been born again?
Without the new birth, you have no hope of escaping
the terrors of Hell or enjoying the glories of Heaven.
The Lord Jesus said, "Ye must be born again." (John
3:7)
I. WHAT THE NEW BIRTH IS NOT
1. It is not religion. Nicodemus was a Pharisee,
a very strict religionist. He celebrated the Passover,
paid tithes, said prayers, brought sacrifices and tried
to keep the Law. To HIM the Lord Jesus said, "Ye
must be born again." Lawkeeping, joining a church,
being baptized or living up to a religious creed will
not save you. There will be many in Hell who did all
of these things. Will you? Ye MUST be born again.
2. It is not morality. You may try to keep the
Golden Rule, pay your bills, be a good neighbor, stay
out of jail, and live a clean, moral life, but that won't
save you.
It is not recorded that our Lord said, "Ye must be born
again[,]" to cowardly, vacillating Pilate, or to two-faced,
hypocritical Judas. Why? Because you would say, "I
know miserable hypocrites like Judas and men like
Pilate need to be born again, but I'm not like them. I
wouldn't betray Christ with a kiss after professing to
be His friend. I wouldn't order Jesus to be beaten
and then turn Him over to a howling, blood-thirsty
mob to be crucified. Gangsters, thugs, adulterers,
liars, drunkards and gamblers need to be born again,
but not I. I'm all right."

My friend, do you realize that God's Son spoke these
words on the new birth to a man who was doing his
best to gain Heaven? Without a doubt, he was
neither a crook, drunkard, nor gambler. He was a
true husband, a good neighbor, a man of clean morals,
and religious. If he needed to be born again, so do
you. How do you expect to go to Heaven without
being born again if Nicodemus couldn't?
3. It is not reformation. Even if you would quit
all your meanness, that would not be the new birth.
Your trouble is not on the outside, but on the inside.
You don't need exterior decoration, but interior regen-
eration. Satan wants you to rest in a false peace. We
warn you in Jesus' name, don't be satisfied unless you
have been born again.
II. WHAT THE NEW BIRTH IS
1. It is a mystery you cannot explain, but a
reality no man can explain away. "The wind
bloweth where it listeth [pleaseth], and thou hearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it
cometh, and whither it goeth: so is everyone that is
born of the Spirit." (John 3:8) Just as Nicodemus
could not understand or explain the wind, so no man
can understand or explain the new birth.
But the wind is a reality no man can explain away.
Only a fool would say, "I don't believe in the wind
because I have never seen it and I can't understand
it."
See the wind move the big limbs of an oak. Watch
the wind tear a house to splinters. You cannot deny
the reality of wind! You cannot see the Holy Spirit.
You cannot explain Him. But see His mighty power
make the harlot pure, the liar honest, the drunkard
sober, the blasphemer pray, and then try to deny the
reality of it.

2. It is the work of God by which a poor, lost,
guilty, hell-deserving sinner who receives the Lord
Jesus receives a new nature, becomes a child of God
and begins a new life. It is a second birth, a spiritual
birth.
Physical life begins by birth. Spiritual life begins the
same way--not by joining a church and becoming
religious. You cannot JOIN the family of God, you
must be BORN into it. Someone has said, "You can't
make a Christian out of anybody." True, Christians
are not made, they are born.
A birth is the coming into being of a new life which
has the nature of its parents. When you were born
the first time, you were made a partaker of the old
nature, the sinful nature we all received from Adam.
When you are born again, you become a partaker "of
the divine nature" (II Peter 1:4). Is this true of you?
DO YOU have the divine nature?
No matter what kind of religious profession you have
made, no matter how good a person you may be
morally, unless you have been made the partaker of
the divine nature, you are not saved. God gives you
this new nature the moment you receive His Son. It
is instantaneous. You can no more be born again by
degrees than you can shoot a firecracker by degrees.
When you are born again, you begin living a new life.
That is what happened when you were born the first
time; you began living a life you had never lived
before.
Some think they are going to Heaven just because
they went forward in a meeting. Be sure you are born
again. There may be a more spectacular change in
the life of one who is a drunken, railing blasphemer,
but even in you who have not been down deep in sin,
there is bound to be a change when you are born
again. There will be a new attitude towards the Lord
Jesus Christ, His Word, and His people.

Are you SURE you have been born again? You may
not know the exact day or hour you trusted Christ,
but you should be able to say, "I know NOW I am
born again." If you are not certain about this most
solemn matter, I beg of you to tell the Lord Jesus that
you receive Him now. Then read John 3:36 and
believe it. "He that believeth on the Son hath ever-
lasting life[.]"
III. WHY YOU MUST BE BORN AGAIN
1. Because the Lord Jesus Christ said so.
That ought to settle it.
2. Because you have a sinful nature. The
nature we all receive from Adam is fallen, corrupt
and totally depraved. God says the heart of man "is
deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked:" (Jer. 17:9).
With this old nature you could not enjoy yourself in
Heaven. If you can't find any pleasure in a prayer
meeting now, how can you expect to enjoy Heaven
hereafter? Heaven is a holy place. When you are
born again, God gives you a holy nature that you
might enjoy yourself in Heaven, a holy place.
3. Because you cannot save yourself. "(8)For by
grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: (9)Not of works, lest
any man should boast." (Ephesians 2:8-9) "Not by works
of righteousness which we have done, but according
to his mercy he saved us," (Titus 3:5). Now don't
skip lightly over these two quotations from God's Holy
Word. Read them again and again until the truth
grips you. You cannot save yourself--you MUST be
born again.
IV. HOW TO BE BORN AGAIN
"(11)He came unto his own, and his own received him
not. (12)But as many as received him, to them gave he

power to become the sons of God, even to them that
believe on his name: (13)Which were born, not of blood,
nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but
of God." (John 1:11-13)
1. It is not of blood. Your are not a Christian just
because your parents may be. You do not inherit sal-
vation from your parents. Even though your folks
may be saved, if you have not been born again, you
are lost.
2. Nor of the will of the flesh. It is not by your
own efforts and willpower. You will fail. So why not
stop trying? Instead of trying, trust, receive, depend
upon the One Who died and rose again.
If I'd ask some of you if you were a child of God, you
would say, "I don't know for sure, but I'm trying to be,
in my poor, weak way." Now suppose you ask Johnny
Jones if he is the son of Mr. and Mrs. Jones and he
answers, "I'm not certain, but I'm trying to be in my
poor, weak way." How silly. He is not their son
because he tries to be, but because he was born into
their home. If you are a child of God, it is not
because you are trying to be, but because you have
been born into His family.
3. Nor of the will of man. It is not brought
about by any of man's religious creeds, systems, or
ceremonies. No man or organization can do anything
to you that will make you a child of God. Join what
you will, go through ceremony after ceremony, memo-
rize creeds, and try to keep the rules and regulations
of man-made systems, but it will not save you.
I heard a man testify, "I have been the president of
the men's Bible class in our church for the past two
years, but I didn't get saved until just two months
ago." For twenty-two months the president of the
men's Bible class, a member of a church, believing
in God and the Bible, but lost because he had never
been born again.

4. But of God. The Lord Jesus said you must be
born "of the Spirit." It is God's work, not yours. It
is a miracle. Only God can perform it. If God has not
done a work in your life, you are not born again. Your
part is to believe God's record about you, that you are
lost and in need of Christ, and receive Him as your
Lord and personal Saviour. He died at Calvary, satis-
fying the righteousness and justice of God, that He
might take your sins and punishment upon Himself.
He arose and is seated today as God's Man at "the
right hand of the Majesty on high" (see Hebrews 1:3), and
He is offered to you as God's salvation. When you
receive HIM, you will be saved, for Paul says we are
"children of God by faith in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26)
You do not receive Christ by taking communion. You
receive Christ by faith. Just tell Him that you
receive Him as your personal Saviour.
A personal friend of mine, a preacher of the Gospel,
told me that he was a Sunday School superintendent
before he was saved. A lady told me she was a church
member 38 years before she was saved.
Before is is eternally too late, I beg of you again for
your sake, for your family's sake, for Jesus' sake, do
not trifle with this thing. Bow at the feet of the risen
Lord and tell Him you receive Him now. "He that
hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son
of God hath not life." (I John 5:12)
Just bow your head and say: Lord, I am a guilty, lost
helpless sinner. I believe You suffered on the cross for
my sins and died in my place to pay the penalty for
my sins, and that You rose again. I call on You to for-
give my sins and give me eternal life.
Now read Romans 10:13: "whosoever shall call upon
the name of the Lord shall be saved." Did you call
upon Him? Then He says you are saved!
See John 6:47: "He that believeth on me hath ever-

lasting life." Did you believe on Him--that is, did you
receive Him and trust Him for salvation? Then He
says you have eternal life!

I realize the need of the New Birth. I do here and
now sincerely receive God's risen Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ, by [repentance and] faith, as my Lord and Saviour, trusting
Him to wash my sins away. I will stand on His
promise, "He that hath the Son hath life[,]" and when
I have opportunity I will confess Him before men as
my Lord.

No. 0100
Bible Tracts, Inc.

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