Two Damning Delusions

Introduction: John Owen's Two Damning Mistakes

0:03 A sentence from something that I read from John Owen many moons ago has fastened itself upon my mind, and I could no more preach on this than fly to the moon, and I'm just going to take my clue from that sentence and turn to the Word of God. I trust I am constrained by the Spirit of God to do so.

0:26 The sentence that John Owen uttered, and I am not giving Owen as my text, I'm giving Owen as the pathway into the text of Scripture, he said the two great and damning mistakes of men with reference to their soul's salvation are these. One, that they may enter heaven at last, though they are strangers to the new birth. And two, that they profess that they have the new birth, though they have not been made new creatures in Christ Jesus. John Owen, the great theologian, the greater preacher, and a true pastor, in dealing with the souls of men, found again and again two delusive errors. One, he found men and women who entertained hopes that they were ready to die and face eternity, though they were strangers to the new birth. And he found others who felt that they had the new birth and were therefore prepared for eternity, who evidently had not become new creatures, in Christ.

1:43 And I believe the human heart being exactly the same in every age, there are no two greater delusions in our day, in this assembly tonight, than those two. Believing that somehow God has constrained me to speak on these lines because he has a word, for some of you who may be under one or the other of those categories, let us turn to the word of God. First of all, then the first delusion. Is it possible that men can enter heaven if they have not been born of the Spirit of God?

The First Delusion: Hoping for Heaven Without the New Birth

2:23 Listen to the words of Jesus. Speaking to Nicodemus in the third chapter of John, he says to this perfect son of the covenant, I always like to think of him as such, for he was, he was within the covenant nation. He had the covenant sign, rain in his flesh. He was circumcised the eighth day, as every good son of the covenant was.

2:50 He was very knowledgeable. He was the teacher in Israel. That's how our Lord refers to him. He had not opted out of the covenant.

2:58 He was not someone who had come to years of discretion and then cut himself off from the covenant people. He was a perfect son of the covenant, within the framework of all the covenant graces and blessings, and he comes to discuss something that he observes in the Lord Jesus, namely his signs and his miracles. And our Lord very abruptly speaks to him and says in John 3 and verse 3, Jesus answered and said unto him, Truly, truly, I say unto thee, except one, he didn't say to Nicodemus, except you be born anew. Nicodemus, whatever I say to you, I say to you as an individual, as it's true of all men universally, except one be born anew or born from above or born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That is, he cannot perceive it inwardly and spiritually. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he's old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born?

4:06 Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say unto you, except one be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.

4:31 And if there were no other references in the entirety of the word of God from Genesis to Revelation, these three texts in the words of our Lord would be sufficient for, however, to dispel the darkness, the fogginess, the fuzziness of men's minds with reference to this simple issue that they cannot enter the kingdom of God unless they're born again.

4:58 And so the Lord says to Nicodemus what he says to you and to me. Except we are born again, we cannot see, we cannot enter. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born anew. And so if I were to close the service tonight simply by quoting those words, you ought forever to know that if you entertain one ounce of hope that you will see and enter the kingdom of God without the new birth, you're entering hopes that have no foundation in the Scripture.

5:34 I don't know where the foundation is. Ultimately it goes back to that Father of lives who is a murderer and who wants to murder your soul. And he's not fastidious. He's not fastidious about his instruments.

5:47 He can use religious lies. He can use all kinds of lies. No matter what lie he uses, it has its one ultimate intention to destroy and to damn your soul. And so I say to every boy, every girl, every man, every woman, whether from a religious background as was Nicodemus, whether from a very religious background with the privilege of a praying mom and dad, perhaps a mom and dad who even carried you to a baptismal font or took you forward in a service of dedication, I say to you from this word of the living God, except you're born again, you'll never see, you'll never enter the kingdom of God.

6:33 And if you hope that you shall on some other basis, you're hoping against light and against truth and you're believing a lie.

Why the New Birth Is Necessary: The Radical Nature of Flesh

6:44 But now you might ask, as no doubt Nicodemus asked, why must there be such an experience of spiritual grace and power so as to call it a new birth? You see, our Lord was underscoring the radical nature of that work that God does by which men enter the kingdom. Whether Nicodemus thought he could drift in on the crest of his religiosity and his religious privilege, I don't know. But Jesus said, you don't get into the kingdom, you're born into it.

7:19 Birth is a radical thing. Up to the moment of birth, that life was not. And there it is, and it breathes its first, and it is a new thing. And the concept of a new creation, of course, is picked up by the biblical writers as well.

7:35 Well, why then? Is such an experience of God's grace necessary? Well, the simple answer of this passage from the lips of our Lord is that every son of Adam is so bad by nature, that nothing short of this will ever fit him for the kingdom of God. And our Lord says it in those brief words in verse 6, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

8:02 That which is born of the spirit is spirit. Don't be amazed that I said unto you, you must be born anew. In other words, once you begin to understand individually, personally, inwardly, experientially, you, I'm not talking you collectively, you individually, once you and I begin to understand what this little phrase means, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, you'll never again be amazed that Jesus said you have to be born again to enter the kingdom. Once you begin to understand what you are as a fleshy creature, you'll never be amazed again that Jesus said you must be born anew.

8:42 What then is the characteristic of flesh, as our Lord states it here? Well, the first characteristic of flesh, of that which is born of the flesh, that which partakes of depraved, carnal human nature, is described by the Apostle Paul in Romans 8 and verse 7.

9:05 The words in the original for carnal and fleshy all have their common root. Notice how he describes a person who is born of the flesh. Romans 8 and verse 7. Because the mind of the flesh is everything, enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can it be.

9:31 And they that are in the flesh cannot please God.

9:39 Why did Jesus say you must be born again? Because that which is of the flesh is flesh. And what is the characteristic of flesh? This text says the characteristic of flesh is its enmity against God, its non-subjugation, to the law of God, and its total inability to be subject to God and to be pleasing to God in that state.

Three Characteristics of Flesh: Enmity, Fruit, and Blindness

10:05 May I ask you a very simple question this morning? Has God ever taken the lid off and given you a look at what your fleshy heart is like by nature? Now remember, who was he talking to? Was he talking to a man that went out with a placard and said, down with the Ten Commandments, down with morality, down...

10:24 No, no, no, no. He was talking, he was talking to Nicodemus. A man who could say with the Apostle Paul as touching the law blameless in its external demands. No doubt Nicodemus' moral and ethical conduct was beyond reproach.

10:39 He would have been elected Christian citizen of 1973 in Podunk, Ohio or some other place.

10:47 And yet Jesus said, Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. Beneath all that external religiosity, beneath all that external religious privilege is a disposition of utter and absolute enmity against the very God whom you say you love. The very God whose words you traffic in as the teacher in Israel.

11:16 You shall never forget the words of A.W. Tozer, that dear saint of God who's gone to glory.

11:22 Listening to him on a tape a number of years ago, I remember him saying, I've seen a number of ugly sights in my life, but the worst sight I've ever seen is my own heart.

11:35 And every Christian can say that, at least in principle. But you see that in all those years, when the claims of God and his law and when the provisions of God and his Son were matters of indifference and unconcern, the living God of heaven and earth was saying to you, you are my creature, obey me. And that fleshy carnal heart was saying, I am the master of my own soul. I'll do as I please.

12:06 I will not have this man to reign over me. Now in some people, that breaks out into open, profligate ungodliness. In some people, it's veiled as it was with Nicodemus. But the common denominator of every person who has never been born of the Spirit of God is that he has a carnal mind that is enmity, enmity against God.

12:32 It is not subject to the law of God. Neither indeed can be, therefore they cannot please God. My friend, that's what God says about you. Now my question is, has the Holy Ghost ever shown you that that wasn't an overstatement?

12:47 That's the truth. Has the Spirit through the Word shown you that's what I brought into this world? A carnal mind, enmity against God. Not subject to his law.

13:01 Has God shown you that? If he has, my friend, you'll know it. You don't take that by faith. God brings it home by spiritual sight and it breaks you and it crushes you and it humbles you.

13:17 That's the first characteristic of that which is born of the flesh. And when we understand that, then we're not amazed that we must be born anew. Something so radical must occur to that basic disposition of enmity to God and non-subjection to God that we can act as a man. Actually say with the psalmist, I delight to do thy will.

13:38 Oh my God, yea, thy law is within my heart. Second characteristic of the flesh is described in Galatians chapter 5. Galatians chapter 5. What can the flesh produce?

13:54 Well, suppose I took all the children out next week and said I'm going to plant my garden. And I took some lettuce seeds.

14:05 What would your kids think of me if they saw this preacher standing in his garden and said, I'm going to plant my garden. I'm going to plant my garden. I'm going to plant my garden. Cutting a little furrow with his finger to put the lettuce seeds in.

14:13 Puts them in, covers them over and pats them very gently. And then one of your kids says to me, Oh, what are you doing? I say, Oh, I'm putting in lettuce seeds. What are you doing that for?

14:23 Oh, I hope to get a crop of tomatoes.

14:27 I mean, the three-year-old would have sense enough to know. Either that guy's pulling my leg or he's crazy. No, no, you plant lettuce seeds. Lettuce seeds produce after their kind.

14:38 And this is exactly what Paul says in Galatians chapter 5. What will a fleshy heart produce? He tells us, The works of the flesh are manifest, which are these, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmities, strife, jealousies, wrath, factions, divisions, parties, envies, drunkenness, revelings, and such like. That which is born of the flesh is flesh.

15:09 And the seeds of a fleshy heart can only be produced by God. By God. By God. By God.

15:12 By God. By God. By God. It can only produce the fruit and the flowers of flesh indeed.

15:19 Flesh can refine itself, but it can only produce flesh.

15:24 God says that your heart can only produce these things. Oh, maybe not necessarily outwardly. You say, well, my heart has never produced adultery, fornication, uncleanness. Ah, has it?

15:38 Jesus said, Whoso looketh to lust upon a woman, in his heart hath committed adultery with her.

15:49 Jesus said, Whoso has a spirit of derision and a spirit expressed in these words, Thou fool is guilty of breaking the commandment, thou shalt do no murder.

16:04 What has your fleshy heart produced? It's produced these sins, and that's all it can produce. And yet the mark of the people of God is described in the next few verses. The fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, self-control.

16:23 How can those fruits ever grow from a fleshy heart? They cannot. And so God describes the new birth under another figure in the Old Testament. He says, I'll take out the heart of stone, and I will give them a heart of flesh.

16:39 Oh, my dear fellow girl, man, woman, are you guilty of that first great delusion that dear John Owen saw again and again, thinking that you are fit? Fit for heaven, though a stranger to the new birth. Listen to the words of Jesus. Except a man be born anew, he cannot see.

17:01 Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Why? That which is born of the flesh is flesh. And what's the mark of that fleshy heart?

17:14 Enmity against God and the production of everything that is contrary to the law and to the character. There's another characteristic of a fleshy heart. And Jesus hints at it in verse 3. He that you must be born again, you cannot see the kingdom of God.

17:34 Turn to 1 Corinthians chapter 2 and verse 14.

17:40 Now the natural man, the man who only has what his mother and father were able to give him in the process of procreation, they may have given him a wonderful mind, they may have given him a noble soul, but he has nothing more than what's been passed on in the process of procreation, has nothing more than what he's picked up in his education, and that may be much in the knowledge of the world about him, in the knowledge of himself, in the knowledge even of religious things. But listen to this indictment. The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for their foolishness, untold. Neither can he know them, because they are spiritually judged. The mark of that which is born of the flesh, it is enmity against God. It produces that which is contrary to the law of God.

18:40 And thirdly, it cannot savingly perceive the truth of God.

18:47 Let me illustrate it. It's been going on right in this building tonight. I have no doubt but that some of you have actually had to restrain tears of joy or shouts of halalness. I have no doubt but that some of you have actually had to restrain tears of joy or shouts of halalness.

18:58 When you were singing of such great truths as God's effectual call in that great hymn of Isaac Watts, why was I made to hear thy voice and enter while there's room, while others make a wretched choice and rather starve than come? T'was the same love that spread the feast that sweetly drew me in, else we had still refused to come and perished in our sin, and some of us were probably on the very brink of losing our composure. While others of you, we could have been singing about Jack and the Beanstalk for all you were concerned. Why?

19:38 Same words, same buildings, same atmosphere, same everything. I'll tell you why. Some see with an eye that's been opened by virtue of the new birth, and others of you look with eyes that are sightless. And Jesus said, You must be born anew, for that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the flesh is not only enmity against God, not only produces that which is contrary to His character and His law, but is totally incapable of understanding His truth.

The Nature of the New Birth: Water, Spirit, and Ezekiel 36

20:13 That which is born of the flesh is flesh. Now, my friend, that's why you have to be born again. Ah, but you say, what is this new birth? What does it, what constitutes it?

20:26 Jesus gives a hint in the text. Look at it. That which is born of the flesh. Of the spirit and of the water.

20:33 Except a man be born of water and of the spirit.

20:41 What did He mean by that? Well, He wasn't saying a thing about baptism. And the only people who see the waters of baptism here, whether it's immersion, effusion, or sprinkling, are those who put the water of baptism there. He was talking to a man knowledgeable in the Old Testament.

20:58 And He was talking about a spiritual experience that He says, Nicodemus, ought to be aware of. He said, Art thou the teacher in Israel? And knowest not these things? And I, along with many other commentators, believe that our Lord had precisely Ezekiel 36 in His mind when He spoke to Nicodemus.

21:16 Look at those words. God says, In the promise of new covenant blessings, Ezekiel 36, 24, For I will take you from among the nations and gather you out of the countries and will bring you into your own land. And, And I will sprinkle clean water upon you and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will I cleanse you. A new heart will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you.

21:47 And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep mine ordinances and do them. This is essentially the same promise given through Jeremiah in Jeremiah chapter 31 quoted in Hebrews 8 and in Hebrews 10. The blessings of the new covenant. He's saying, Nicodemus, listen.

22:14 You are the Pharisee. You are the sanctified one. You are the holy one. You are one of these who purifies himself every time he's been out in the marketplace and you have all kinds of washings and ablutions and all the rest.

22:29 But Nicodemus, you need to be, cleansed in a realm that the waters of your acts of purifying can never touch. You need to be cleansed from your spiritual and moral filthiness. You need to be born of water. Water, speaking of that spiritual experience of cleansing.

22:51 Cleansing that comes through the blood of the everlasting covenant. And not only, Nicodemus, do you need cleansing, you need quickening. You need to be born of water. And of the spirit.

23:04 I will put my spirit within you. And the effect of that will be that you will desire to walk in my ways. You see, the new birth is not some kind of a coat of many colors experience in which we necessarily must feel tingles and chills up and down our spine. It is not necessarily an experience that we can consciously point to the hour it happened.

23:30 No, no. No. The new birth is known not so much by our ability to dissect it in terms of our experience. Jesus said in John 3, look at the passage.

23:42 He says, you can hear the wind. You can't tell where it comes from, where it goes. But you hear it. You know it by its effect.

23:52 So is everyone born of the spirit. And to be born of the spirit is to be brought by the mighty power of God into the orbit of the cleansing, and renewing work of Jesus Christ. To be cleansed from our filthiness in his precious blood. To be quickened by his spirit unto a life of obedience.

24:15 And it's not essential that we should know when God begot us by his spirit, but that we have been begotten by his spirit.

24:28 Though we know that the point as far as God's dealings we pass from death to life, surely, the ways of the spirit, are mysterious. And some of us reared in Christian homes in which our consciences were constantly sensitive to the truth of God's word, in which we made, perhaps as I did, a half a dozen false starts. And we made decisions and professions, and some of us cannot point to the precise time that we pass from death unto life. But one thing we know, whereas once we writhed in the filth, we now pant after holiness.

25:03 Where once our hearts were enmity against God, we now love his law. Where once we produced nothing but flesh, we even see growing in us something, all too little but, thank God, something of the fruit of the spirit. Where once there was total darkness, we now see, though we see through a glass darkly, we see, and the things which once bored us to tears, throw us to goose bumps.

25:33 And we say there's no explanation, but that I've experienced the difference between the two. The divine begetting, a begetting of cleansing, a begetting of renewal. Oh, my dear friend, young or old tonight, listen to me as I speak to you earnestly and directly. Are you guilty of John Owen's first observed delusion, thinking you're fit for heaven, though a stranger to the new birth?

Conclusion of the First Delusion and Transition to the Second

26:02 I set the record straight for you tonight. Except a man be born anew, he cannot see, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.

26:13 But then, Mr. Owen observed, there was a second great delusion. The delusion that one had been born again, though his life did not evidence that transformation which always follows the new birth.

26:28 And to what scripture shall I direct you for an exposure of that damning delusion? There is one pivotal text, and then we shall look at a collection of other texts. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, 2 Corinthians, chapter 5 and verse 17, familiar text to many of us.

The Second Delusion's Pivotal Text: 2 Corinthians 5:17

26:55 Wherefore, if any man is in Christ, born of the Spirit, he is vitally united to Christ. The he is are in italics, you'll notice in your Bibles.

27:10 No verb is there in the original. It's as though the Apostle Paul were sitting and writing or dictating this letter to the Corinthians. And he's describing, what is the effect of true saving religion? What is the effect of this union with Christ by virtue of God's quickening work leading us to repentance and faith in the Savior, united by the Spirit unto the Son of God?

27:35 And he says, if any man be in Christ.

27:40 And he puts his pen down or he's silent if he's dictating. And he meditates. He allows the thought to run through his mind frontward, backwards. He looks at it from this side and that side.

27:51 How shall I describe it? If any man be in Christ, what's the effect of this? Under what analogy shall I frame it? What shall I use to somehow set before the people of God the magnitude, the glory, the tremendous effect of it?

28:07 He picks up his pen and he puts a dash after the words if any man in Christ, dash, exclamation point.

28:20 That's the force of the original.

28:23 If any man in Christ, new creation, born anew. And what is the result of it? Look at the text. Old things are passed away.

28:37 Behold, they are become new. That's the effect of true saving religion. Being made a new creation. There will be the fruits of that new creation as inevitably as night follows day.

Present-Tense Tests and the Purpose of 1 John

28:52 So the work of the new birth wrought by God in us will produce these effects evident in the lives of all who are born again. So I move to a second class of hearer tonight. You may be one who breathed quite easily during the first half of the sermon. You said, well, that preacher's not talking to me.

29:16 Oh, no, I certainly do believe except a man is born again. He'll never enter. Oh, I buy that. Oh, amen.

29:22 Give it to him, preacher. That's it. That's right down the line. Sixteen ounces to the pound.

29:27 Gospel truth. My friend, let me ask you a question. You agree that without the new birth no one will see or enter the kingdom of heaven. You agree to that.

29:36 You subscribe to that. You say amen to that.

29:40 And you go further and say, yes, I have experienced that. If so, then you ought not to be afraid of this next question. What is there about you right now this night, June 3rd, 1973, that has no explanation but that you're a new creation? Now, I'm not asking what was there about you that time when you made a decision.

30:02 And you got the chills up and down your spine and you felt glorious and you said, oh, I know I must be born again. My friend, I'm not concerned. You can blot out that day from your memory as far as I'm concerned. My question is, what is there about you right now tonight?

30:16 What has there been about you this past week that has no explanation but that you've experienced that birth of cleansing and renewal?

30:28 Every test in the New Testament directed to professing Christians by which they are to do this, to judge whether or not they are the real thing, are present tense tests.

30:43 God nowhere says if you can remember something that happened in the past, you're all right. God says no if you can discern evidence of something that's happening now.

30:55 If any man in Christ, he is a new creation. Not he was for a week or two weeks.

31:03 And I direct your attention now to a series of texts from that great little epistle of John, 1 John. And we're just going to look at a few of them. To show that my statement is not simply the authoritative barkings of a preacher,

31:20 but an honest portrayal of the truth of Scripture. Notice John's purpose in writing, among other things. He tells us in chapter 5 that he's writing to professing Christians, believers. To the end, verse 13, these things I write unto you that believe in the name of the Son of God.

31:42 These things have I written unto you that ye may know that ye have eternal life and that you may continue to believe in the name of the Son of God. Well, what things did he write that they might know? And at this point, I must give vent to one of my deepest frustrations. Whenever I hear this verse quoted in the context of saying, look, now you've made your decision and God says you ought to know.

32:05 And here's where he says it. 1 John 5, 13. These things I've written to you they may know. God wants you to know.

32:10 And they don't pay any attention to the things that were written that they may know. What things were written that these people might know that they were born of God? Did he give them a string of promises to claim? Did he give them some directions?

32:25 If you can remember the day, the hour, the place you made a decision, you may know he did no such thing. What things did he write that they might know? This comes at the end of the letter. Well, you don't need to be a scholar to know that what you've got to do is go back to the beginning of the letter and read the things that he wrote that they might know.

32:42 That's just good horse sense. Alas, alas. Many times people use little horse sense when it comes to the state of their eternal souls. Now let's look at some of the things he wrote.

Test 1: Walking in Light (1 John 1:5-7)

32:54 Just a couple of them. 1 John chapter 1 verse 5 And this is the message which we've heard from him that is from the Lord Jesus and announce unto you that God is light and in him is no darkness at all. If we say we have fellowship with him in other words if we profess to be born again by the Spirit we have been united to Christ we are Christians. If we say we have fellowship with him and walk in the darkness that is we frame our lives by the darkness.

33:38 The absence of light is darkness. The absence of a life framed by the holy precepts is darkness. The absence of the word of God is darkness. What does John say about us?

33:49 We're backslidden and we need to get reconsecrated. He says we lie and we do not the truth.

33:57 He says we're just bald-faced liars. That's what we are. But he says if we walk in the light not perfectly but that's the bent and drifted purpose as he is in the light we have fellowship one with another and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son goes on cleansing us from all sin in whom is the cleansing of the blood continually effective only in those who are walking in the light and who walks in the light everyone who is born of God. He doesn't walk in the light perfectly.

34:29 He doesn't walk in the light with equal alacrity at any given point in his Christian experience. He may have a specific area of darkness where he's fought the Lord and God is dealing with him. I'm fully aware of all the Bible teaches about the remaining sin in believers. I have to live with myself.

34:49 But don't believe these words of their clear meaning. There are only two realms in which you are basically and pervasively walking either light or darkness. And if you're not walking in light the blood of Jesus Christ is not going on cleansing you from all sin. It means you're yet under the wrath and anger of God.

35:08 You've never been born again. Chapter 2 We're addressing ourselves to the second great delusion that John Owen observed that men professed to be born anew who do not evidence a transformed life. Verse 3 And hereby do we know that we know him. Here's one of the things he wrote.

Test 2: Keeping the Commandments with Universal Obedience (1 John 2:3-4)

35:31 Hereby do we know that we know him if we remember our glorious conversion experience.

35:43 That's the Bible according to 20th century perversions of the truth of God. Hereby do we know that we know him if we can quote 3 verses on assurance of salvation. Well instructed in the doctrine of eternal security. And know that no matter how much we foul up we're still safe because we've made a decision.

36:13 Oh dear ones I'm not trying to be smart or facetious. These are lies that people are clinging to and the only thing it seems that's going to cause them to relinquish them are the flames of hell.

36:27 Hereby do we know that we know him if we are keeping his commandments. It doesn't say and this is how we came to know him by keeping his commandments that would be a destruction of the whole message of the gospel. No no we come to know him in his gracious sovereign work of regeneration the new birth. God overcoming the blindness and the rebellion leading us to repentance and faith his effectual calling that's how we come to know him but John says hereby do we know that we know him if we are keeping his commandments.

37:08 He that saith oh I know him you can't scare me preacher I know I'm safe I can remember when I made a profession and I called on God and my joy was unbounding and blah blah blah and on we go and yet your life is not marked by a diligent serious adherence to the revealed will of God you know what God says about you look at it he that saith even if he's sitting in Trinity Baptist Church June 3rd 1973 he that saith I know him and does not make a practice of keeping his commandments that's the force of the original it's a present tense verb I know him and does not keep his commandments what does God say about you? God uses language that doesn't even seem fastidious in our modern pulpits God says you're a liar and the truth is not in you the truth has never been fused to your being by the operation of the Holy Ghost and the truth is not in you and the truth is not in you and the truth is not in you and the truth is not in you now my friend let me press that on your conscience are you making the practice of keeping his commandments not perfectly for John said in the previous verses if we say we have no sin we lie and the truth is not in us anybody who says yes sir I'm keeping his commandments I'm wholly sanctified I got the second work and I never sin again God says you're a liar too you're a liar too truth's not in you

38:36 because if the truth's in me it's constantly exposing my remaining sin and I must pray as long as I'm as long as I pray every day thy kingdom come thy will be done I must also pray forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors not obeying imperfectly not obeying in an equal zeal at any point in our lives but the drift of our lives is what obedience to his word now notice what it says hereby do we know that we know him if we keep some of his commandments no no if we keep his commandments you see the dividing line between a hypocrite and a true Christian is what the old writers would say is the commitment to universal as opposed to partial obedience the hypocrite will choose the commandments which are convenient for him to obey forsake not the assembling of yourselves together so nobody fights it no persecution if you come to church you've got a ride to church parents are going so it's easy to keep that commandment forsake not the assembling of yourselves together for most of us but what about the person who risks being disowned by his parents being divorced by a husband or wife ah obedience to that command now has some moral content doesn't it you see some people find it easy to keep certain commandments even to their personal advantage material advantage social advantage but the mark of a true Christian is he keeps the

40:06 commandments of God with a principle of universal obedience so that the commandments that impinge upon his carnal delights the commandments that cross him in his remaining carnal desires he cries out oh God that all of my ways were directed to keep thy commandments and when he must in obedience to the command be ye holy for I am holy deal with a sin that's as dear as his right hand and his right eye Jesus said for sheer love to the Savior and out of obedience he'll be willing to pluck out the right eye and cut off the right hand Jesus stated it beautifully in John 10 when he said my sheep hear my voice and they follow me notice he didn't say my sheep hear the sweet elements of my voice but they hear my voice my voice that says sweetly come all ye that labor heavy laden and we know we're his sheep when we find ourselves coming saying Lord I am a weary heavy laden sinner will you receive the likes of me and we have his promise him that cometh unto me I'll in no wise cast out but that voice also says if any man come after me and hate not father mother brother sister

41:35 yea and his own life also he cannot be my disciple and the true sheep says Lord I hear your voice calling me to rest but I also hear your voice calling me to give you that place of unrivaled affection in my heart and Lord I desire to obey both utterances of your voice he calls us to glory but he calls us to a cross he calls us to reign with him he calls us to suffer with him and he said my sheep hear my voice John says you say you're born of God you say that through the new birth you've come to see the kingdom of God you've come to know God here's the evidence now may I press it home close to your conscience is your life marked by universal obedience not perfectly not equally at every stage of your life but is it the pervasive dominant characteristic your heart your will your mind your spirit are turned in the direction of the voice of Jesus and your feet walk his ways you see if the dominant characteristic of that which is born of the flesh is enmity against God Romans 8 7 and the dominant characteristic of those born of the spirit is

43:04 subjection to God and that's exactly what Ezekiel 36 says he says I'll take out that heart of stone I'll take out that carnal heart and what will be the evidence I'll give a heart of flesh I'll write my laws upon it and I'll cause them to keep my statutes and to do my judgments and if God has begotten you by the spirit he's begotten you unto a life of obedience is that true of you how about you kids you keeping his commandments the commandments that tell you to be kind one to another to be forgiving one to another to obey and honor mommy and daddy listen you children if God gives you the new birth you'll evidence that he's done something

Application to Children and Parents

43:56 one for adults and one for children you parents you better get your expectations for your children leveled by the standard of the word of God and you better expect in your kids something more than just their natural gullibility to swallow what mommy and daddy say for a supernatural work of the Holy Ghost they are born of flesh and they need the new birth as much at age five as they

44:26 year fifty that which is born of the flesh is flesh whether it's born in Christian homes or not Christian homes whether it's five or fifty here was a man who had all the privileges of the covenant community and God says you need the new birth that's it we better expect a principle of universal obedience in our children at the level of their understanding at the level of their comprehension at the level of their limited development yes but my expectations for my children if they claim to know God are not measured by what the psychologist says I can expect of kids it's measured by what the word of God says I expect of his grace grace in a child is supernatural grace granted the development of the fruit won't be that which it will be when they're twenty but it's still fruit that only God the Holy Ghost produces how about you kiddies you say you're born of God you've entered the kingdom are you keeping his commands you're walking in the light and you can go right through the book of first John we'll just take one other one other notice now in chapter three verse nine whosoever is begotten of God whosoever

Test 3: Not Practicing Sin (1 John 3:9-10)

45:55 has the new birth does not make a practice of sin that's the way the new American standard translates it I believe and that gives the force of the original why because his seed remain within him that is the principle of divine life and he cannot make a practice of sin because he is begotten of God in this the children of God are manifest in the children of the devil whosoever does not practice righteousness is not of God neither he that loveth not his brother these things have I written that you may know you say that you're born again you say that Jesus Christ is your savior that the Holy Spirit has come to indwell you and he says here's the test do you make a practice of holiness what kind of holiness again just like obedience universal holiness the law of God touches the thoughts as well as the actions the intents and the attitudes as well as the deeds and the external performances and the mark of a man who's been born of God is that the divine seed within him which hasn't come externally but inwardly in the depths of his being makes him at the depths of his being long for holiness he cannot make a practice of sin why it's incompatible with the new life unto which he's been begotten and I emphasize

47:24 again that that divine begetting is inward in the deep springs of our being so if I'm talking to someone tonight oh yeah I must be a Christian I made a decision I live a reasonably good life my friend listen to me you're a stranger to the divine begetting unless you know what it is to pant after and along after

47:52 holy dispositions as well as for holy actions and holy deeds though you may blush in the presence of your fellow Christians if you lose your temper and find yourself restless till you've tracked them all down and said forgive me I was unlike the savior and you go to your closet and ask the Lord to forgive you listen you'll blush just as much when in secret away from the sight of

48:23 minister and you'll go down upon your knees and say oh God cleanse the chambers of my soul do you know what that is do you know what that is my friend I'm not giving preachers talk there's one that I don't like with pulpits we got this one down as low as we could and as close as we could to negate it but somehow I could feel some of you still

Summary, Exhortation, and Gospel Invitation

48:54 and aren't walking in the light and walking in obedience and pursuing holiness of heart God says you're deluded you'll perish in hell unless you come into the orbit of that gracious work of divine begetting the work of cleansing and the work of you you can go through the book of first John and see the other things that John wrote as an indication that the divine begetting had indeed been wrought in the hearts of men but I close now with this summary and final exhortation St. Rowan observed there were two great delusions by which men were ill prepared for eternity one that they could be fit for heaven without the divine begetting two that they could have the divine begetting without a transformed life did you come into this building tonight clinging to one of those two delusions I cannot believe that God has constrained me to preach I think there's only one other time in twenty years of preaching I've ever done this outside of preaching in the street park preached totally extemporaneous without a piece of paper in front of me you notice I haven't done careful exegetical work phrase by phrase I would never dare to do that without being as I always am hours

50:24 with my Greek Testament and my commentaries no no but these are basic truths that under God have been the meat and drink of my soul and ministry for twenty years I feel safe taking them as it were off the cuff but I can't believe God's led me to do this to impress you I can't believe God's led me to do this just because there are few more people that ought to hear the tail end of this morning's message next Lord's day I believe God's led me to do it because some of you came into this building tonight enveloped in one of those two delusions you came into this building enveloped in the delusion that you could be fit for heaven without the new birth have you seen the folly of that delusion have you heard the words

51:22 come home my friend listen don't go out tonight and say he just got me upset he's emotional he stirred me up that's the voice of God you better cherish those echoes of the voice of the almighty within your bosom today if you hear his voice harden not your heart are there some of you who came with that second delusion oh you really said in that first half of the sermon sock it to him that's it give it to him about halfway through the second part of the sermon you began to feel a little uncomfortable tonight you began to feel a little shaky didn't you as God led his servant to speak in this way to send arrows to your heart ah my friend they're love arrows they're gracious arrows God means you no harm he wants to strip you of your delusion now while the door of mercy is still wide open and in that door stands a gracious savior who bids you come and if you refuse to be stripped now by your pride there'll be no refusal in that day when he says depart from me I never knew you which category do you fit my friend whichever it is thank

52:52 God I

52:55 If you read on the third chapter of John Jesus went on from the necessity of the new birth a work which only God can effect and which must be effected if we are to be fit for heaven to speak of his own death upon the cross for the new birth is always effected in connection with the preaching of the gospel the glorious message of Christ dying in the room and stead of sinners and though the mere preaching of the gospel of itself cannot effect the new birth and though I'm theologically astute enough to know that man will not believe unless there is that mysterious divine beginning I know all of that but I also know that men are begotten as Christ crucified is held before them all look unto the Son of God for 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 lifted up was he to die it is finished was his cry now in heaven exalted high hallelujah what a savior and he lives tonight to save all who come unto God by him come in your delusion come in your confusion and say Lord Jesus have mercy upon me and you have the promise of the word of

54:24 God him that comes to me I will in no wise cast out may I share an incident that gives me great encouragement preaching tonight I was at a conference just Friday and Saturday out in the Pittsburgh area and a man approached me at the close of the morning service whom I had not seen as best I can reckon for thirteen years and

54:55 as we conversed together he said I know it would encourage you to know that many of the young people look back to that summer as the time when God drew them to himself and he said all these years they've been monuments of God's saving grace and they've come up into mature adulthood and they're pillars in the church and going on with God now I had no knowledge of that because even back then I had given up this business of cutting notches in the rifle by asking people raise the hands come down an aisle but believe that the preaching of the word and the earnest pleading with people in Christ's name were the means at our disposal ah my friend can it be that someone will look upon this night as the night when God stripped away their lives

55:56 thank God for a powerful gospel that can arrest men when they least expect maybe you sauntered into this building tonight saying well what will this babbler say a lot of you visitors here tonight I've never seen you before I don't know what's brought you here maybe it's evident now why God brought you here oh look and live flee to the Savior embrace him cast yourself upon him be born

56:29 see the kingdom of God let us pray