In this sermon, the speaker emphasizes the importance of being born again and having a personal encounter with God. He highlights that the purpose of Jesus coming to earth was to reveal God and bring salvation to the world. The speaker encourages the audience to read the book of John to understand the true meaning of the Bible and to have a deeper relationship with God. He also mentions the significance of new birth preceding the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, indicating that the teachings in the Sermon on the Mount are intended for believers.

In chapter 3, you do understand, of course, that the reason for the new birth is to take sin out of you and put holiness, the holiness of God inside you. You understand that? Now when John wrote the first chapter, he said that the Lamb of God had come to take away the sin of the world. Now just supposing for a moment, and a horrible thought, but I put this down as a test question for you. What is the sin of the world? The sin. Do you think it's a meaning great pile of sins of everybody, sinned in the universe or the world? What I suggest to you that I might be looking for this answer, if I said it as a question, disobedience through unbelief. That was the sin for which Adam and Eve were turned out of the garden. Everything rises from that. Once you're born again of God, all sin will multiply, not every practice of it or every conceivable angle of it, but all sin will be in your life if you do not disobey, if you do not obey God from the moment of new birth and on through your life, through unbelief. That's the sin. All things are possible to him that believeth. Doesn't say if you don't commit adultery or something, or if you don't murder someone. This is the big thing. You know, of course, that sin started in heaven. This is why God's been very lenient to us on earth. Very wonderful. There were a host of heavenly beings before a human being ever breathed air. You understand that? The rebellious nature. It's always your nature, always your nature that is at stake. For instance, if I'm not talking to you as from my nature, I might as well have stopped the time I would have done you harm. You don't suddenly put on a preacher's coat and go out preaching. You know what I mean? People think you care. You can't. You never preach if you don't preach out of the bowels of Christ. Never. Never bother. We were talking of Littleton's home before I left, when I say home, my home in the North. At least where I stay, mostly, when I'm up North. I was talking about Marian Mashain. Have I told you about this before? It's often on my lips. Marian Mashain wrote that men return again and again to the man that preaches as though he's hanging from the nails of the cross. You should write that down. You won't find many, many quotes of that. Hanging from the nails of the cross. That's what it cost God to get rid of the sin that started in heaven, transferred to earth by the fallen angel. We would never have known anything about it, beloved. Never have known anything about it, would we? Wouldn't it be necessary in his sight to our well-being, our blessing, and if you like, our ministries, all these kinds of things. We wouldn't have known. How glorious it is then that we can be born of God's own spirit and not be subject to the spirits that come upon us through father, mother, or any other. You know that though you rub shoulders with bodies, you meet up with spirits. When you see me, you've met a spirit, son. You understand? Clothed in flesh, of course. Wesley always has it right, he always has that phrase, veiled in flesh. That was the Godhead seal, the Christmas hymn. But, beloved, you and I have to see that that's what's got to happen to us, not so perfectly in flesh as he was, without blemish or spot, formed within Mary by the Holy Ghost, not by her own powers, but by God's power. You understand what this is about, beloved? I'm a spirit talking to you, and if my spirit isn't talking to you, either you are dead or I am, or we both may be. Do you understand that? That's it, isn't it a pretty face, or handsome mug, I was going to say. It doesn't matter. It's whether or not you and I are beautiful in the sight of God. All his children are born perfect, or else he's not the father of them. I mean the spirit. If you are born again of God, you are born a new, pure spirit, unless he's never begotten you. How, then, are you and I going to keep this spirit in all its pristine glory and purity? That's what all the advice or commands or whatever it is in the Bible are about, in the epistles and so on, to show us how to keep that new spirit pure and holy. He wants to present his church to him, a glorious church, without a spot or a wrinkle or any such thing. You say that will be a miracle. I'll say it's a miracle, but that's the proposition. Just as when he made Eve and Adam, Adam and Eve perfect in the beginning, they spoiled it all. Don't you spoil it. Don't you spoil it. God wants us to be in this wonderful realm. I would like to remind you that the book says, now in the place where he was crucified, there was a garden. That's right. And that garden was planted with new, pristine, wonderful seed. His name was the Jesus seed. Just keep that in mind. You didn't think there was a garden called Calvary, did you? Don't tell you it was a cross or a Golgotha. It says, in the place where he was crucified, though he may have had an ugly cross on one side and an ugly cross on another, and soldiers waiting to plunge a spear into his dead body, and blood and stench and awfulness and betrayal and cruelty. I won't go on to magnify the adjectives. All around him, there was a garden. Well, we know all about this garden, but it wasn't called a garden, except in one gospel. Now, it's very wonderful. That's the mustard seed that a man planted in his garden, to take the place of the fig tree. God wants us to see this marvellous thing. People were hanging on a fig tree, maybe a figment, I don't know. But you have to see the truth and what it's about. And understand, not just the words of Scripture, but the spirit of Scripture. That's what we have to understand. You talk about the garden of Gethsemane, but not the garden of Golgotha. I'll guarantee, I hope not, in the future. Here's the thing to see. God was full of hope when he planted his seed in the garden. Within three days, it started to bear fruit. You try that on a mustard seed and see whether you can produce it in three days. But here's the glory, beloved, that God wants us to enter into. There's a little talk about that in verse 14 of this chapter, but we won't run ahead of ourselves. Oh, I guess this hope of mine to get through this chapter in one lecture has almost gone out of the window. Perhaps we can gallop the last few verses. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, just the thing that Mary said to the angel, how can these things be? That's the how that's connected with birth. Jesus was being born. And you're to be born as a seed, if I may say so, with limited thought, as a seed of Jesus, another son. Not like the son, of course, that was unique. But everybody asks the same question. How can these things be that you're talking about? Well, just simply put a seed in its right setting, right ground, it will grow alright. Verse 10. Jesus answered and said unto him, art thou the teacher, master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, or that we do know, to put the emphasis, and testify that we have seen. Ye receive not our witness. Who's the we? Who is the we? Father, Son and Holy Spirit. He was commonly, I should think, though it wasn't often recorded, speaking in the plural sense, as we thought before. It doesn't mean that speaking to you, it's my Father that's speaking to you. In this context, he's bringing us into a consciousness of impossibility, really, in the human level. Because you cannot stand before anybody and say, we say this and we say that. I say this, I say that. It's the truth. It's as far as human beings are concerned. We speak, he was aware of being one of, shall we say a team, Father, Son and Spirit. He was there, he was the mouthpiece of his Father. And of the Holy Ghost. Need I explain that anymore? You can't be consciousness, we, body, soul and spirit, that's all me. I'm we, I'm body, see it's my body. Can you hear my soul? And do you catch my spirit? We wouldn't talk such nonsense as we do sometimes, if we were aware that we are a triune being. Here then, is the thing for us to understand. So he's passing on, I must have confused poor old Nicodemus out of this world. He didn't quite know, he couldn't have caught it in his mind. He knew all about Moses, he knew all about the seed of Israel's nation. The seed of Israel's nation? Sure, yeah surely, that he was the man named Isaac. Who in faith, Father Abraham, received as it were from the grave, from the dead, from the altar. Yeah, he knew all about that. He knew there was a Trinity in the beginning. Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. But he got no clue of connecting the same principle with Christ. Jesus was the representative of God. I want to be like that. You don't know all these things. Nicodemus, you started by asking me a question, but he didn't say that. He didn't condescend, he could have said, you don't know anything, you're not really alive. You've only had your human curiosity, based upon knowledge of the Old Testament, probing. Thank God he got through, I'm actually sure of that. There's a good way to begin. Verily, verily, verse 11, I say unto thee, we speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen. You receive, but not our witness. Now here's another word, which way you can read the verse. We speak, that is, you're a human being, I'm a human being. We're all human beings, and we all say what we think, what we see, that's what we do. I have preferred to put the spiritual emphasis upon it. You're all students, you'll all say what you think, what you know. I'm a student, and God's kept me a student of this book for many decades, and of him too. You've got to see what it's about, beloved. I'd rather ransack these early chapters of John than get through the book, so that you'll know what it's all about. This is the way to read your Bible, everyone, I'm telling you, this is the way to do it. So I've learned. Go right on. If I've told you earthly things, and you believe not, how shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things? Did you know that new birth is an earthly thing? You've got to be born again while you're on this earth. This is... While you're on this earth, Nicodemus, you've got to have another birth. It's an earthly thing. I come down to earth, I was born in the magic of la la la, I'm going to hang on the cross, I'm going to shed my blood, all on this earth. Not that the love had its origins on this earth. Gee, I tell you what. You've got brains. Think. Think. What does that mean? What does he really say? That's what you've got to do. If you've got the Holy Ghost living in you, he will lead you to the truth that he inspired in the beginning. Just keep at it. Just keep at it. Don't waste your time on these other things. And he says this. No man has ascended to heaven, but he that came down from heaven. Even the Son of Man, which is in heaven. And you would have said that the Son of Man was on earth. In an upper room. In Jerusalem. In the middle of the night, talking to an inquirer. That's what, you may have said it that way. But he said, I'm in heaven. How can you be in heaven and on earth at the same time? Don't ask me how. I'm only telling you that that's the mystery. God is in heaven. He's here. I hope he's by my side. While I'm saying this, daring to say it to you. That's the thing. You will live in a two-fold sphere, beloved. Once you're really born of God. Make your conscious visitations to heaven more frequent and more wonderful than your visitations to the lecture room. Learn what this is about. And then people can say, where's he coming from? Where's she coming from? Lots of people have said that about me. I'm not boasting, I'm just telling you. Where's he coming from? That's a modern term. It's all there for everybody to read. And say, well, you're an old man of 83. Well, yes, I am. I'm not expecting all of you. What I'm expecting of myself, in that sense. But it was almost as though Jesus was saying to Nicodemus, well, I'm expecting something of you, Nicodemus. You're the teacher of Israel. And he had got his curiosity quickened within him. Come to Jesus. Where's you coming from? Well, we know you're a teacher sent from God. He was. But he almost denigrated him by saying it. He might have known that it was God himself talking to him. And Jesus gave him the hint. We speak what we do know. I guess that bear sat up with his head wrapped in brown paper and vinegar all night to try and puzzle out what he could not know till he was baptised in the Spirit on the day of Pentecost. You say, how do you know Nicodemus? Well, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt. Let's go on, shall we, beloved, to see what this truth. Now, well, perhaps I ought to make this one comment. Poor Nicodemus, he must not have known when his head was on his shoulders or what was happening to him. Talking to the Lord Jesus Christ or the Lord talking to him. Now, away goes the Lord back in the history that this man knew. 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 everlasting life. You will know that that word perish there does not refer to death. It refers to what every man unborn of God is doing every day of his life. That's the actual meaning in the Greek. You and I, except by God's grace, could all be perishing sitting here. That's the kind of perishing he's talking about. It doesn't mean death. It means except the death of the spirit, of course, and of the soul within you. That's what he's referring to. And it's a big thing. He's not talking about going to hell. He's talking about perishing moment by moment while you're breathing on this earth or quite the opposite, living every moment, every breath while you're on this earth. Hell isn't eternal death. It's the place where eternal death has its way out with all human beings. Heaven is not the great place of eternal life. It is the place where those who eternally live will live. Let's not talk about destinations. He's talking about spiritual condition. God values your every breath, your every moment. Now you're his. He wants you to live as he lives. It's his life, by his spirit. Oh, in ratio to his. We can't talk about it. He originated that life. But he's come to share it with us. That's what he means. He wants to save mum the full of you. He wants to save it. He wants you to live it to the full in the spirit. That's what it's about. Eternal life or eternal death have nothing more to do with relations, with you then, you arriving in London and getting off at the terminal of Victoria, if that's what you saw on the train. That's what it means. It's you. You. All right. That's why. That's very wonderful. Now, it's also wonderful that the next verse says, For God loved, he so loved you. That's why. You know the famous verse, probably the most famous verse in the Bible. John 3, 16. But have you noticed this? If you haven't, you'd better write this down or contain it in your memory. God grants you a memory like he gave me, although it's fading a bit these days. You will see this. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. All right. That was the last great miracle that God did before they exited the wilderness. The last miracle. That's what you will find in the Old Testament. They ended their wilderness wanderings and death when Moses put up the brazen serpent upon a pole in the midst of the camp that whosoever looked toward it could live. That's it. It was in a place called Oboth. And it's the thing to do with spiritualism. They were wicked spirits symbolized or embodied in the serpents. The fiery serpents that bit people and they died. That's right. They would all have died in the wilderness. All a lot of them. The fiery serpents were going to the camp. It was look and live or refuse to look and die. Wonderful, isn't it? And then right next to that comes the verse. God so loved the world. He doesn't want you to die on the borders of getting out and never getting over. And you can go like that to a church. Get a little more belief. Well, I think I'm believing. Am I believing more? Believing more and die before you get in to the kingdom of God. So virtually they were all born again in a day. You know, Israel was constantly having this. You know that, don't you? Really, I don't want to start on all these subjects, but it's so true. They sheltered under the blood, if you like, in the room. But they were, as it were, the nation was born in a day when they went through the Red Sea. And everybody else died in the sea. Pharaoh, his captains, they were born in a day. Redeemed. And three days afterwards, because it was Easter Sunday, they were, as it were, born up on the other side of the Red Sea. Luke calls this, sorry, Paul calls this being baptised unto Moses. Baptised Moses. Of course you knew this, I suppose. Where he said, Israel were all under the cloud. They were all baptised unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea. Baptised. Into Moses. Same word, unto and into, the same word in the Greek. Baptised. Had to be unto Moses because they couldn't all get in Moses. But here's the truth. Baptised into Jesus Christ. Bible's only got one message, really. And so, here, then, is the truth. They were baptised, then, once. And they were, as it were, baptised unto them. They all were going to die. They couldn't have stopped the fiery serpents. Except one way. Look at Jesus Christ on the cross. That's what it says, really, in the figure. Make a model of a serpent, will you? Only a brazen serpent. His God wants to get through the truth into you. The truth through into you. That's right. I made my son to die for you. You Jews. There are lots of people now, other than Jews. You think he's nothing. Well, by the way, they crucified him. Same truth. Look at him. Look at him. And if Nicodemus only knew it. He was giving Nicodemus an opportunity to look at Christ. But he was saying something more. Which cohabits with the truth of Israel. They were virtually looking at their heaven on earth. The promised land. They were on the borders of the promised land. Into it. Into everything. That's what it's all about. The Bible inheres. It's coordinated. There's one truth running through it all. All the other things. It doesn't matter about David. They said some nice things. Wrote some nice psalms. And marvelous prophecy of Isaiah. Somebody else did something. So you can learn lessons from everything in life. You can look at a bee and learn lessons. Thank God. Those which he inspired being kept for us to see. But the Old Testament is only a book of parables to you. You will see the truth there. Lived it out in this nation. Now, what does it say to you? You've read this piece about Oboth. What has it meant to you before? Except that they were being punished for sinning and so on and so on. And they look, you know, the usual stuff. I was brought up on it. The evangelical line on it. Thank God for the evangel. But, ah me, have we got it right? Have we got it right? Have we understood? You'll never understand everything. But it would be good for you to understand that. And then the Bible will lift you. You'll want to spend your life preaching it to people. That's what you'll want to do. And God is so marvelous. Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness. Even so, must the sun be lifted up. The serpent was dead. A brassy, horrible thing. Do you believe this? That the serpent is death? In the natural, it's got it somewhere behind his teeth. A little sack of poison. So you see, beloved. God has wonderful ways with us. This marvelous love of God. And you wonder now, because God has displayed it so fully, why men love darkness rather than light. The Old Testament was meant to throw light. That's why, one of the reasons anyway, why John Baptist stood on the wilderness side of Jordan. Introduce them to their promised land. And that's why Jesus went as far as Jordan out that way. He may say, I'm taking on from John Baptist now. He's representing the old. And he took on. Leaving the light of the world while he was in it. He came again as we go back. This is why I'm taking you carefully, studiously, through these open chapters of the truth. Don't matter about anything else to do with it. You got to see this, beloved. That it says, in him was light. And the light was the light of man. Okay. So wonderful. What did he come for? Be it what, be it the light of the world. But listen, a light's business is to attract you to itself in the darkness, of course. But, do you know the chief thing about the light of Jesus Christ? Supposing I was to put this down as a test. You'll be very glad I don't. And you were expecting, what, what, alright. Talk about Jesus Christ's light in your own words. Give it to me, a page, on it. What would you write? Do you know, the first thing that God, that Jesus threw light on, was? You must be born of the Spirit. And he didn't say a word. He was born of the Spirit into the world. But, we could go on, we could go on to all kinds of things. But the real reason he came into the world was to throw light on God. As well as on me. God didn't need a light to see by. But you did, you needed to see God. That was his first purpose. God, there was an airy fairy about God, them as they are now, in the world. Throw light on God. I'm not like this, I'm not like that. And I'm not like you and all these thousands of things. This is me. Throw light on God. And of course, throw light on you. And on the world. And on sin. And our inward state, which just to be, would be a murderer. For that's what our representatives did to Jesus. Away with him. That's the natural thing of sin. He came to throw light on God. So he's going to say, God, I know him. I've seen him. I've handled him. I've heard him. This is John in his first epistle. That's what it's about. It isn't knowing how to prepare a sermon or anything else. That could be helpful. What a marvellous thing it is then. So we'd better read it. God didn't send his son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved from its ultimate end. He that believeth on him is not condemned, but he that believeth not is condemned already. Because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God, and believed in his name, leave alone him. The Jews didn't believe in his name, you know that. The name means Saviour. They didn't believe he was the Saviour. Strangely enough, God turned their ignorance, deliberate ignorance, wickedness and sin into our saving. God turned it. You've got to remember this is primarily dealing with the state of the Jews. You understand that. John Baptist came to the Jews and so on and so on. But it's probably developed. God so loved the world at last that John has put in something which the Jews would have thought was terrible. We are the chosen nation, don't you understand? I met over in Germany a place that a Jewish lady, since she's born again, says there's no need to preach to the Jews, they're going to be saved anyway. Do you believe that? I tell you, take basis upon a false interpretation of so all Israel shall be saved. Find a scripture for it. You have to be changed to get your thinking right. We don't think right. I'm reading in the overall how God ministers so mercifully. You're condemned already if you don't believe in the name, just the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation that light has come into the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil. Everyone that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. Your life and your belief don't match up. After these things, but he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest. Now listen to this phrase, that they are wrought in God. Do you know what Jesus did in all the works he did? He wrought what he saw wrought in God. We shall read it before we go through. I can only do what my Father shows me to do. He said so. Fancy that. But don't fancy it, it's real. Wrought in God? You mean God wrought in humanity and brought his Son into it? Yes. But Jesus says that's the Son that God the Father wrought in Mary and through Mary. He's saying this. We're thinking in polemics. We're understanding truth. Because we understand the principle of truth is God and what God has done and what God has said. And it turns all the thinking of thinking people upside down. The philosophies of the philosophers for which you can get a doctorate in a university. How marvellous it is for us to understand what it's all about. Well, I'm going to gallop through these last verses. Oh no, I can't gallop possibly. You'll have to permit me to come on to it again. But we'll go on a little further. Because it's ten to one and you're hungry, aren't you? After these things came Jesus and his disciples into the land of Judea. And there he tarried with them and baptised. Now let me say here that Jesus was not baptising. I'll tell you in the next chapter four, verse two. Check it out. That he did not do any water baptising. His disciples did it. Chapter four, verse two. Let's see this. Do you know why he didn't baptise in water? Water indicated that sins were forgiven. So that's marvellous, isn't it? No, he'd come for greater things than that. Hallelujah, he'd come to baptise in the Spirit. He did not want to get you confused in your thinking. Dear old John, who wrote this book. Oh, he's so great. I love old John, you know. I'll have a great time when I meet him. Sometimes I think I've met him when I read it. Beloved, you understand this Bible is only about a meeting in Spirit, don't you? You, son, daughter, anybody. For you to meet God and his Spirit. That's what it's about. Oh, it's about the cross. But that was all endured. All the results of it so that the Holy Ghost should come and you meet him. That's what it was for. And he'll show you Jesus. You really meet the Lord Jesus when you meet the Holy Ghost. Really meet him. It says here too, John was baptising in the inn near the Salem because there was much water there and they came and were baptised. For John was not yet cast into prison. Now it's important for you to get this. You check this out in Matthew chapter 4, but not now. Make a note of it in your mind. John was not yet cast into prison. So, new birth comes before the Sermon on the Mount. Because the Sermon on the Mount begins in Matthew 5. The Sermon on the Mount is only intended for those that are the Lord's. It's no good this world trying to call it communism or socialism or what. John was still extant. John was still public. John was still carrying on his baptism. Water baptism. He was not yet cast into prison. Then, this isn't a sort of a, in a way just inserted. It's great truth for you to get hold of. Don't time teach people. The Sermon on the Mount before you taught them and brought them into new birth. That's what the Bible is telling us. So, we're learning of God. All right. There arose a question. Between some of John's disciples and the Jews about purifying. And they came unto John and said unto him, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jordan, to whom thou barest witness, behold, he has seen baptizing. All men come to him. John answered and said, A man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. You yourselves bare me witness that I said I am not the Christ, but I am sent before him. He that hath the brightest of bridegroom, for the friend of the bridegroom which standeth and heareth him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom's voice. This, my joy therefore, is fulfilled. Isn't that wonderful? Don't you think that's wonderful? Jesus came into the world more than to be a light. In fact, he is coming and he is light bearing, I hope, has borne clear testimony and given you light to see that he has come to seek a bride. Has that ever dawned on you? Harken, each one of you answer this. You needn't do it out loud, but do it inside. Have you married Christ? In your heart. You must understand this. The heavenly Christ can only have a heavenly bride. Do you understand that? If you will insist on being earthy and earthy minded and all that business. Do you understand? Are you beginning to see? And you know who gives the bride away, don't you? The father of the bride. So you make sure you are born of God. He's going to give you to Christ in the ultimate, in the consummation. I'm going to be there now. I'm looking forward to that. But we'll be able to discuss that a little bit more tomorrow. But here's the wonder of it, beloved. It seems to me that John has compressed all the vital things we need to know in the first three chapters. There are things that are good, that are right, that are very powerful, meaningful. But this is it. The whole meaning of it. Christ was lifted up in the wilderness, looked like the serpent, because he wanted to win a bride. But he loved her. Well, he loved the world, yes. Well, he's not posh when there's love. In this sense, gives them all a chance. Where were you born? I know we're a heterogenerous lot, I suppose. I don't know. But here we are, beloved. Doesn't matter scrap where you were born. You might have been born in a funny place called Ireland. But the whole belief is this, beloved. Don't you see that doesn't matter two hoots to God? And until you first of all learn to disclaim your earthly birth and refuse to be an Irishman or an Englishman or a Scotsman or a Welshman or wherever you've come from and be God entirely. Of course, you'll be queer. Everybody will say you're queer. So you have to pay your taxes. Don't you be a realist? That's what they think is real. This is reality. You renounce your first birth utterly. If God tells you to leave all your relatives behind and go and live in China, you go and live in China and take the Chinese for your relatives. Nobody here from China. I mean, I'm not wanting to throw any aspersions upon being Chinese. They're probably better than all the English that have ever lived. Except those who were worthy to die for the Lord and did do it at the stake and things like that. Don't you understand God's chosen you? You should forsake everybody for that if necessary. But don't let a deep down thing inside say, Oh, I'm English. You're not. A queer lot, anyway, don't want to be an Englishman or woman. And it ever entered into you what it's about? A God so loved the world that it means this. Not just that he gave his son. The giver is in the end as a bridegroom to new people. If you won't be new, I don't know. It's got to renew your thinking, you've got to be new in your attitude. You may have to be new in your habits if God said go and live out at Samoa or somewhere. You understand? You might have to pay different taxes or none at all. You'll be satisfied where you are. In Christ. I must finish because that clock beats me very reluctantly. God bless you. And I hope by God's grace to see you tomorrow.