THE KING’S BUSINESS
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does it. We preach the Word of God to men, God quickens it by the power of His Holy Spirit as we preach it, it takes root in the human heart, and the result is the new nature. If we wish to see others born again we should give them the Word of God in the power of the Holy Ghost, and the result will be that they will be born again. If we have not been born again ourselves, we should read and ponder the Word of God, and while we do so, look to the Holy Spirit to quicken it in our hearts, and the new birth will be the result. ■3. T he new birth is wrought by the H oly S pirit through H is word in us WHEN WE LOOK TO, OR BELIEVE IN , JESUS C hrist . This comes out in verses 14 and IS. Nicodemus had asked the Lord how these things could be and how one could be born when he is old, that is, how one could be born again. Verses 14 and IS contain the Lord’s answer to the question. He said, “And as Moses lifted up the ser pent in the wilderness, even so must -the Son of Man be lifted up; that whosoever betieveth in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.” The Lord was refer ring to an incident in the wilderness when the murmuring Israelites were bitten by fiery serpents and were dying from the bite, and Moses cried to God for deliverance, and God commanded Moses to make a ser- ■ pent of brass (in appearance like the fiery serpent that had bitten them) and to put it on a pole and that it would come to pass that everyone that was bitten when he looked at the serpent on the pole would live (Num. 21:5-9). We all have been bit ten by the serpent of sin. His bite is death, eternal death, but the Lord Jesus Christ. has been “made in the likeness of sinful flesh” and “lifted up” on the cross of Calvary where He made a perfect atone
ment for sin, antf as soon as we look at Him on the cross and put our trust in Him as our sin-bearer, that moment we are born again. The same thought is found in the 16th verse, “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotteh Son, that whosoever believeth on Him should not perish but have eternal life.” All any one has to do to be born again is, to look and live, to look at Jesus Christ, putting his confidence in Him, to look at Chirst cruci fied and put faith in Him as his atoning Saviour, and the moment we do thus put our faith in Him, that moment the Spirit of God, through His word, which presents Him to us as our atoning Saviour, imparts to us%God’s own nature and we are born again. The same thought is presented very clearly and very simply in the first chapter and the 12th and 13th verses, “As many as received Him (i. e., the Lord Jesus), to them gave He the right to become children of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” All any one has Jo do then to be born again is to receive Jesus Christ, to receive Him as that which He offers Himself to be to u s : as our atoning Saviour, who bore all our sins in His own body on the cross; as our risen Saviour and deliverer from the power of sin; as our Teacher sent from God, who spoke the very words of. God; as our Lord and Mas ter, who has a right to, and to whom we surrender, the absolute control of our lives; and as our Divine Lord. If there is anyone who reads this article, who has never been born again, all you have to do to be born again is to thus receive Jesus this moment, and the moment you do so receive Him you will be born from above, born of God.
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