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THE KING’S BUSINESS
he was an intensely religious man, a man who studied his Bible, and a man who' prayed, he was a man who carefully observed the ceremonials of the Jéwish religion (which was a divinely revealed religion. Ch. 4:22), he was an active worker, he was a teacher of the truth as far as he knew it, indeed he was “the teacher of Israel,” what more could a man need in order to fit him to see and enter the kingdom of God? And yet the Lord Jesus said to him, “You need to be born again.” If Nicodemus could not see nor enter the kingdom without the. experience of the new birth, certainly none of us can. The necessity of the new birth is absolutely universal, there are no exceptions. The teaching is very common today, that while certain classes of men and women, those that have gone into sin and whose charac ters have’ become corrupted, may need to be born again, people who are well born the first time, of pious parents, and who have a naturally amiable disposition, and who have been reared morally and relig iously from early childhood, do not need to be born again'. No man, woman or child shall see or enter the Kingdom of God without being born again. 2. The seventh verse teaches us that the Necessity .of the New Birth is not only universal, but that it is also IMPERA TIVE. Our Lord Jesus says to .Nicode mus, “You must be born again,” not merely you may be, but “you must be.” The new birth is not merely a matter of privilege, it is a matter of solemn and imperative neqessity, and I say to every one of you, who has not already been born again, “You must be born again.” 3. The third thing that Jesus teaches regarding the Necessity of the New Birth is that it is also ABSOLUTE. Nothing else will take the place of the new birth. (1) Reform will not take the place of the new birth. Many of the preachers of our day are preaching reform, they are telling men, and telling men very forcefully, that they must give up this sin and that sin in their lives. Well, reform is well enough
in its way, but mere reform will not save, no matter how thorough-going the reform may be. Men need something deeper and more radical than reform, they must be “born again.” The central teaching of one great preacher in this land was “Quit your meanness,” and he led thousands of peo ple in this country to quit their meanness in many forms, but qutting one’s mean ness is not enough, however, desirable it may be, asi far as it goes. 'W h at men need to be. told is “You must be born again." There must bq not mere reformation but regeneration. (2) Morality is not enough. Morality is an attractive thing, but it is an external thing. (Nicodemus had moral ity, but he needed something more, some thing deeper, something that underlies a true and abiding, morality. Our Lord said (Matt. 5:20), “I say unto you, that except your righteousness shall exceed the righ teousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven.” The Pharisees were moral, scrupulously moral, but their morality was superficial, it was not a morality of the heart.1 The only man who will enter into the, kingdom of heaven is the man whose morality is of that deep kind, affecting the will and the affections and the whole inner life, that results from the new birth. (3) Baptism will not take the place of the new birth. In the fifth verse we are told, “Except a man be born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.” Even if we take the water in this passage to refer to the water of baptism still we find our Lord Saying that it is not enough to be born of water, but that we must be born “of water and the Spirit.” The birth from above, the birth by the power of the Holy Ghost, is necessary, even though one has been baptized by water in any form of baptism. In the eighth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles we read of Simon Magus who was baptized, and whatever the proper form of baptism mky be, he was certainly baptized by the proper form (for the work was done by a divinely appointed man) and yet further on
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