In this sermon from the 1966 Southland-Kazakh Convention, Major Thomas emphasizes the importance of Jesus as the fulfillment of all that was written and foreshadowed in the Bible. He explains that Jesus came to earth as a man, clothed in humanity, to demonstrate how man should live. Major Thomas references John 3:16 to explain that becoming a Christian means accepting Jesus as the Son of God and believing in him. He also refers to Philippians 2:5 to encourage listeners to have the same mindset as Christ, who humbled himself and became a servant. Overall, the sermon emphasizes the truth about God and man that Jesus reveals through his life and teachings.

The 1966 Southland Keswick Convention, Dallas, Texas. January 20th. Major Thomas. Message, A Man Approved of God. Thank you so much for that very wonderful message to our hearts. It's lovely to share the ministry in this way with our brother, Frank Boggs. And to add the spoken word to the sun word, and it's all about our wonderful Lord Jesus, in whom, as we have already had tonight so wonderfully demonstrated, we share such rich fellowship. When I saw that show of hands I felt very much at home. As I'm a baptized Episcopal Presbyterian with strong leanings towards the Methodists and the Brethren, with a congregational background with just a splash of Salvation Army, I really felt at home. Folk have sometimes asked me my denominational allegiance, well I just had to tell you. It's so wonderful to be with you again tonight, and to know that you're here, as I believe those of us on the platform and in the choir, consciously to enjoy the presence of our Lord Jesus. Isn't it a thrilling thing to think that all throughout this past day we have been sharing his life? Because that's exactly what it means to be a Christian, to share the life of the Lord Jesus. And as we share his life, he shares our lives. He's not ashamed. He's not ashamed to call us his brethren. The firstborn among many brethren. And that's why tonight I want to talk about him. Because, you see, the subject officially for tonight, as it has been throughout this day, is the person, office and work of the Holy Spirit. And there is no person who more wonderfully, lucidly demonstrated in his humanity the person, office and work of the Holy Spirit than the Lord Jesus himself. So the obvious person to talk about is the Lord Jesus. Because for thirty-three years he gave a demonstration of this wonderful, glorious truth. He was himself the most vivid, glorious demonstration of this phenomenon. This phenomenon of all phenomena, which Dr. Redpath described this morning as the eschatological phenomenon. God in the flesh, manifest. The Word, the eternal Word, the created Word, incarnate. That's a phenomenon. But what we do need to recognize constantly and again and again remind ourselves of is that if it is a phenomenon that God can be manifest in the flesh, it was precisely to be such a phenomenon that God created you and me. And I want to remind you at the very outset of our session this evening, as we consider the person of our wonderful Lord Jesus, that everything he was as a man, he as God created us to be. Now sometimes we don't recognize that fact. We tend, of course, to think of the Lord Jesus as Superman. And by thinking of the Lord Jesus as Superman, we rob ourselves of the glorious, emancipating message that his life brings to you and to me. The amazing thing is this, that although the Lord Jesus was never less than God in eternal, unchanging co-equality in the tri-unity of deity with the Father and the Holy Spirit, the amazing thing is this, that when he came into this world, he came to be precisely man as he as God created man to be. You see, when I think of the Lord Jesus as Superman, essentially God in his humanity, and behaving only in all the fullness of his deity as a man, I tend to worship him, love him, admire him. But when it comes to my responsibility to live the kind of life on earth that he lived then 1,900 years ago, I almost dismiss it and say, well, it was all right for him. He was God, but I'm not God. But you know, if we think like that, we rob ourselves of the message of the life of the Lord Jesus. Because what the Lord Jesus is trying to teach us and tell us throughout the 33 years of his sinless humanity on earth is how to be man as he as God was man. Demonstrating man's humanity. You see, the Lord Jesus is not only the truth about God, he's the truth about man. He was the truth about God because he was the truth about man. Because to tell you the truth about man, man was to be the truth about God. Is that obvious to you? Let me say it again. Think it through. The Lord Jesus on earth for 33 years was the truth about God because he was the truth about man. Because to tell you the truth about man, man was to have been the truth about God. Genesis chapter 1, God said, let us make man in our image. And in the likeness of God made he him. So if Adam, in his innocence, he created, efficiently to function for the purpose which God made him, walked this earth and you wanted to know the truth about God, who ought you to have looked at? The one whom God created to make an invisible God visible. Adam. And if Adam was being true to his humanity, he would be the truth, exactly the truth about what God was like. Now isn't that an amazing thing? And of course you see today in the 20th century, you and I are being true to our humanity only in the measure that we are the truth about Jesus Christ. The tragedy is this, and of course this is the nature of our sin, that all too often we're telling lies about Jesus Christ. We call ourselves Christians, inhabited by the living, eternal, timeless God. And we should be telling the truth about Jesus Christ by what we are. We should be telling the truth about Jesus Christ by the attitudes we adopt, the language that we use, the thoughts of our minds. But we're not telling the truth about Jesus Christ. As he so perfectly told the truth for 33 years about his father. He could say, he that has seen me has seen who? The father. Because I am the truth about my father. I just don't tell you the truth about my father. I am the truth about my father. There's nothing about me that is incompatible with what my father is. I am the truth about God. That's a phenomenon. And yet it was precisely for this glorious function that you and I were made. That man should be inhabited by God himself in such a way that God can communicate his character, his nature, his very being through a man. Wonderful. Do you know what it says in the 57th chapter of the prophecy of Isaiah? Isaiah 57 and verse 15. For thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity. Well, where's God? What is his habitat? What is God's habitation? Eternity. Only eternity is big enough for God. For God is preexistent, self-existent, eternally existent. From the timeless ages of the past on into the timeless ages of the future. You see, God's character is eternal. He is eternal life. This is the record that God has given to us, eternal life. And this quality of life called eternal is vested in the person of the Son, the Word, who was with God and is God, and by whom all things were made, the creative Word. And there's only one place big enough for eternal life, and that's eternity. And God, who is eternal, inhabits eternity. But the amazing thing is this. Thus saith the high and lofty one that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is holy, I dwell in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite and a humble spirit. The amazing thing is this, that the God who inhabits eternity is the one who is prepared to inhabit you. God incarnate. God clothed with a man's humanity. This is the unique character of man as God made him, that he was literally, not just figuratively, but literally, factually, to enter into it experientially, created by God literally to be inhabited by God. And when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, he came to show us exactly what man was intended to be and how a man on earth may be inhabited by an eternal God so that that eternal God can give tangible expression to his character, his person, his being, his nature through the man whom he inhabits. And to this end, the Lord Jesus became man. Would you turn with me to the epistle to the Philippians? Chapter 2, verse 5 tells us, Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God, a form that no man has seen and a form that no man can see, the form of God. God has a form, but we don't know what that form is. The Lord Jesus, we know, was in the form of God. But he thought it not robbery to be equal with God. He did not think this equality with God was a thing to be eagerly grasped or retained. But he made himself of no reputation and took upon him the form of a servant and was made in the likeness of men. And being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. The Lord Jesus, in the form of God, possessing all the attributes which make God God, deliberately set aside those divine attributes that make God God and submitted himself to those limitations that make a man man. But he, as God, created a man to be inhabited by God, that the God who inhabits eternity might habit that man and that the God inhabiting that man might, through that man, make tangible, visible, his own character, his own being. And that a man without the God who inhabits him is nothing. For it is the God in the man who makes the man man as God intended man to be. And that is why when the Lord Jesus Christ came into this world, though he was never less than God, deliberately made himself all that a man is without God, nothing. He made himself of no reputation. In the New English Translation it says, He made himself nothing. Amazing. The Lord Jesus, of his own free volition, he need never have done it, made himself nothing. All that a man is without God, nothing. Now, the purpose for which, of course, the Lord Jesus made himself nothing was that his father, as God, might inhabit his humanity and be in him everything. That there might be a total communication of the character of his father, as God, through his humanity as man. It was the office of the Lord Jesus, in the sinlessness of his humanity, to place God where he could be seen. For no man has seen God at any time. The only begotten Son, in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him. So the first consideration for tonight, against this background, is Jesus becoming. Jesus becoming. As man, the Son of God on earth, in his humanity. Jesus becoming. And we're going to examine the office of the Holy Spirit in that process whereby Jesus became. And to this end we're going to turn to the first chapter of the record that Luke gives us in his Gospel. Luke, chapter 1. Jesus becoming man. The Son of God and the Son of Man. 26th of chapter 1 in the book of Luke. In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee named Nazareth to a virgin espouse to a man whose name was Joseph of the house of David and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her and said, Hail of thou art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee. Blessed art thou among women. When she saw him she was troubled at his saying. Cast in her mind what manner of salutation this should be. The angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary, for thou hast found favour with God. And behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and thou shalt bring forth a son, and shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great. He shall be called the Son of the Highest. And the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David. And he shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. Now that's how it all began. Bethlehem over 1900 years ago, that first Christmas day when the Lord Jesus was born in this world and God was incarnate and stepping out of eternity into time and closing himself with man's humanity. This is how it began. It began with the word of God upon the lips of God's faithful servant, the angel Gabriel, who suddenly burst into the life of this woman Mary. Behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus. He shall be great. He shall be called the Son of the Highest. He shall reign over the house of Jacob forever. And of his kingdom there shall be no end. The astonishing, unknackable, incredible word of God. That this message should come from God upon the lips of his faithful servant to this woman's heart. It began with the word of God. Something God had to say. God said it. The angel Gabriel delivered the message. That's all. And the natural reaction of the natural heart of this natural woman to this unnatural word was one of incredulity. How shall this be seen? I know not a man. I'm sure our brother who led us in prayer at the opening of this session had no idea that this is the particular passage that God had laid upon my heart for the opening of this evening hour. But my heart rejoiced when he quoted these words. Because this was the natural reaction of the natural heart of a natural woman to the unnatural word of God. How can this thing be? Seeing I know not a man. Here the woman Mary repudiates the physical, natural premise of physical, natural birth. We may recognize from this, of course, that if the Lord Jesus Christ had not been born miraculously by divine intervention conceived of the Holy Spirit, then this woman Mary was not only unfaithful to the one to whom she was betrothed, but she was a bad woman. She was a liar. But her protest in the face of the angel was simply this. The physical prerequisite of natural birth is not extant. This is a sheer physical, natural impossibility. How can this thing be? Not only did Mary herself repudiate the physical prerequisite of natural, physical birth, but Joseph himself, we're told, in the record as Matthew gives it in the first chapter of his gospel, repudiated himself, all physical responsibility for the birth of Jesus Christ. For in Matthew chapter 1, verse 18, we're told that the birth of Jesus Christ was on this wise. When, as his mother Mary was espoused to Joseph, before they came together she was found with child of the Holy Ghost. Then Joseph, her husband, being a just man and not willing to make her a public example, was minded to put her away privily. For here was a woman who was espoused to him to be his wedded wife. But before they came together in marriage, and suddenly to his alarm he discovers that this woman is already great with child. But he's a kind-hearted man, he's not a vicious man. He's a broken-hearted man. He's grieved, he's cut to the quick to think that this woman upon whom he had lovished his love, and in whose love he had trusted, had betrayed his comfort. But being a just and a kind-hearted man, he didn't want to make her a public exhibition, so he decided that he would put her away privily, just quietly dispense with her, without exhibiting her to public shame. But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. That which is conceived in her is of divine origin, of the Holy Ghost. And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins. Joseph repudiated the physical responsibility for the birth of the Lord Jesus. Mary denied that she had had any intercourse with any other man. If the Lord Jesus had been born in any other way than by the direct, miraculous intervention of God, conceived in the womb, the only occasion in the whole word of God where this particular expression is used, which in itself is gynecologically inaccurate, conceived in the womb of the Holy Spirit, then we must be led to the only other possible alternative, that Jesus Christ was born the illegitimate child of a faithless woman who added lying to her infidelity. This, of course, is what some would have us believe today, who tell you that the virgin birth of Jesus Christ is neither true nor necessary, who repudiate it theologically as though it didn't matter, as once the theologians of his day repudiated the miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus in the womb of Mary. For you will remember in the eighth chapter of John's Gospel, when the Lord Jesus was talking to the Pharisees, John chapter 8, he says, verse 40, Now ye seek to kill me, a man that hath told you the truth, which I had heard of God, this did not Abraham. You do the deeds of your father. Then said they to him, We be not born of fornication. We have one father, even God. Do you understand what they meant? This was a wicked, sly stab. We be not born of fornication. We are not illegitimate children like you are. That's what they meant. For the ecclesiastical hierarchy of his day repudiated the miraculous conception by the Holy Spirit of the Lord Jesus in the womb of Mary, as do all too many of our theological leaders today. But the birth of Jesus Christ was no accident. The birth of Jesus Christ was the fulfillment of the divine program named Jesus, a son from his mother's womb. You turn to the prophecy of Isaiah again, and to the 48th chapter, and here is the whole trinity of deity. In a nutshell, in one verse, Isaiah 48 and verse 16, Come ye near unto me, hear ye this, I have not spoken in secret from the beginning. From the time that it was in your human past tense, there am I in the eternal present tense of deity. This is the Lord Jesus speaking prophetically on the lips of his servant Isaiah. I have not spoken in secret from the beginning, from the time that it was, there am I before Abraham was, I am. And now the Lord God, the Father, and his Spirit, the Holy Spirit, hath sent me, the Son. Chapter 49, verse 1. Listen, O isles, unto me, and hearken ye people from far. The Lord hath called me from the womb, from the bowels of my mother, hath he made mention of my name, Jesus. Redeemer, Jesus, Savior, Emmanuel, God with us, God incarnate, the Word made flesh. That which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost. She shall bring forth a Son, thou shalt call his name Jesus. For he shall save his people from their sins. And so the Lord Jesus was named before he was born, named a boy. How, how can this be? Turning back to the first chapter of the Gospel of Luke. And in the 35th verse, the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the highest shall overshadow thee. Therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. Mary, if you want to know how the Word of God is to be implemented, I will tell you. The Word of God will be implemented through the Spirit of God. By the Word of God, the incorruptible seed through the Holy Ghost. The Spirit of God, implementing the Word of God, to clothe the life of God with the body of the Son of God. This was the office of the Holy Spirit. And the virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ is the most magnificent illustration that the Bible gives us of spiritual regeneration. The virgin birth of the Lord Jesus Christ presupposes the total depravity of man. It recognizes the fact that every child born of fallen Adam's race will be inhabited by sin and totally uninhabited by God. And therefore it was necessary that God, the Holy Spirit, miraculously should intervene, that fashioned within the womb of Mary there might be a little body presented to the Lord Jesus as the Son of God, as that which would clothe His life on earth, uninhabited by sin, but only exclusively totally inhabited by God. And the birth of Jesus Christ, conceived of the Holy Spirit, sets a magnificent precedent for that spiritual new birth which the Bible calls spiritual regeneration. It's by the Word of God and through the Holy Spirit. The Word of God fulfilled in the power of God, by the Spirit of God, to clothe the life of God with the Son of God. That was the birth of Jesus. But was it enough that God said it and the Spirit did it? No, that in itself wasn't enough. For Mary said, look at chapter 1 and verse 38, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me according to thy word. I place my humanity at your disposal, God. I don't see how this can happen. Your Word has come to me clear and true, without ambiguity. You told me exactly what your plan is. It's diametrically posed to all physical laws, all natural precedent. But God, if you said it, and if your Holy Spirit is here to do it, Behold the handmaid of the Lord, I place myself unreservedly at your disposal to this end. That the Word of God might be implemented by the Spirit of God, it demanded of Mary the obedience of faith. Her availability to the operation of the Holy Spirit, who would bring into experience and make real all that God had said. For if you will remember from our consideration of yesterday morning, it is faith that invokes the activity of a second party. Faith on the lips of this woman, Mary said, I don't know how, but you say you will, thank you. My faith invokes your activity. I ask no more questions, I place myself in availability. That you may come into business and accomplish in me that which is your perfect will. And the birth of the Lord Jesus was by the Word of God through the Holy Spirit upon the obedience of faith. On the part of one whose humanity was made available for God to implement His own gracious and eternal purpose. Jesus, the coming. And on that first Christmas morning over two, nearly two thousand years ago, a little baby was born. Nursed within the arms helplessly of this woman. Of course, we take it for granted today that Mary should have placed herself thus at God's disposal. That there might be implemented in terms of her humanity this miraculous incarnation of the Lord Jesus. We take it for granted because her name has become enshrouded with sentiment and glory. But of course, in making herself available to God in this unique and amazing way, she died to all her own prospects. However could she imagine that Joseph would understand, and he didn't. However could she explain this to her own parents. However could she expect the neighbors to believe her story, and none did. We take it for granted that she should have placed herself in this way at God's disposal. Why should we take it for granted today that this woman should place herself at God's disposal. That the Holy Spirit might implement the Word of God. That Jesus might be indomitable in terms of her humanity and be born that first Christmas day. When you and I still hesitate to place our humanity unreservedly at the disposal of the Holy Spirit. That the same Lord Jesus Christ might become incarnate in terms of our humanity. Jesus becoming clothed with the body that the Father prepared for him. That he might offer this body back to the Father. For in becoming man, Jesus, in equality with the triunitive deity, deliberately in his own free volition, made himself nothing. What did he do with this body that the Father presented to the Lord Jesus? He did with this body that the Father presented to the Lord Jesus, exactly what had been agreed as between the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit before ever the world was. Before ever the world was fashioned. He was the Lamb's slave. And agreed as between Father, Son, and Holy Spirit was this redemptive plan. Father, give to me on earth a body utterly unsullied, unstained, uninhabited by sin. And Father, I will offer this body back to you. That you may be in me all that we as God intended to be in man when we made it. I'm going to offer, Father, this body back to you that you present to me so that it may be wholly filled and flooded with God himself. So that the invisible triunity of deity may be given visible expression in terms of my humanity. This, Father, is the plan. And to this, Father, I fully agree. Turn with me to the epistle to the Hebrews, chapter 10. Hebrews, chapter 10. Hence, when Christ entered into the world, verse 5, he said, Sacrifices and offerings you have not desired, but instead you've made ready a body for me to offer. In burnt offerings and sin offerings you have taken no delight. Then I said, Lo, here I am. Come to do your will, O God, to fulfill what is written of me in the volume of the book. Lo, here I am, Father, here I am. Here's the body that you've prepared for me that I may offer it to you, that everything may be accomplished in this body that has been written in the volume of the book. And we have already seen in our earlier discussions that the volume of the book was, of course, the Old Testament Scriptures that foreshadowed, as the written word, everything that was to be accomplished gloriously in the person of the living word. For you cannot detach the living word from the written word, nor can you detach the written word from the living word. For the moment you detach the living word, Jesus, from the written word, the Bible, the Bible, as the written word, ceases to be redemptive and it ceases to be regenerative, because it does not have in Jesus its content. If, on the other hand, you have a Jesus, purely the figment of your imagination, who does not, as the living word, comprehend and correspond to the revelation already given to us in the written word, you have a Jesus who is neither redemptive nor regenerative. For the Bible without Jesus cannot save you, nor can Jesus without the Bible save you. Because if you have a Bible that does not have the Lord Jesus as its glorious consummation, you have a Bible which is not God's revelation of His redemptive or regenerative purpose. It is a Bible which you are misinterpreting. As the Jews themselves misinterpreted the word of God, when He came unto His own, His own received Him not, they crucified Him. And if you have a Jesus who doesn't have the nails in His hands and His feet, if you have a Jesus who did not set His face like a filth to the cross, if you have a Jesus who is simply a sentimental idealism, simply an example set nineteen hundred years ago, a beautiful man, a great philosopher, a noble teacher, a prophet among many, if you have Jesus who is not the incarnate word, who came to implement gloriously all that had been foreshadowed of Him in the written word, then you have a Jesus who cannot redeem you. You have a Jesus who cannot regenerate you, because this Jesus you have is not the Jesus of the Bible. But when you bring the Lord Jesus and the Bible together, you have a regenerative word written and living. You have a redemptive word written and living, for Jesus is the fulfillment of all that was written and foreshadowed in the volume of the book. And He said, Father, to this end the Holy Spirit came upon this woman Mary, that I might be clothed as the Son of God with this humanity that you have fashioned, that the very life of God might be incarnate in terms of my humanity, that I on earth might be man as we, Father God and Holy Spirit created man to be. How do we become Christians? What is it that really happens when a boy or a girl or a man or a woman becomes a Christian? Turn with me to the third chapter of John's Gospel. John's Gospel, chapter three. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God, for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him. I am expecting, Master, to hear some divine utterance from your lips. I believe that you are a God-sent teacher. What have you to teach me? What is God's word to me? My heart on your lips. And Jesus answered and said, This is the word of God, except a man be born twice, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Strange words to a mature adult. Words that shocked his intelligence. Words that did violence to his credulity. And the natural reaction of this natural man to this unnatural word of the Lord Jesus was identical with the natural reaction of the natural heart of that natural woman to the unnatural word of the angel Gabriel. For Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Master, he said, this is physically impossible. This violates every known physical precedence. This is contrary to natural law. A man cannot be born twice. And the Lord Jesus answered and said, you want to know how? I'll tell you. Nicodemus, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. The animal body that you at present inhabit, Nicodemus, was born the animal way of your animal parents by animal methods. That which is born of the flesh is flesh. You're quite right, Nicodemus. You will never be born again that way. You will never again enter into your mother's womb and be born a second time. But you see, Nicodemus, if the animal body that you possess at this moment was born to you of animal birth, there is another kind of birth by virtue of which you become possessed of another kind of life. It is called eternal life, Nicodemus. It is the life of God himself, the God who inhabits eternity and who is prepared to inhabit them that are of a humble spirit and a contrite heart. You see, Nicodemus, you were created to be a phenomenon. You weren't created by God just to be a higher form of animal life. You were created, Nicodemus, for this unique office, a man inhabited by God himself and none other. But you see, Nicodemus, when you were born into this world, you were born the natural way of a fallen natural parent. And you have inherited the spiritual bankruptcy of your fallen forebear, Adam. God created man to be inhabited by himself, and when God first made man, God indwelt him and God in the man was the origin of his image and expressed his nature through the man. But I'll tell you what happened, Nicodemus. That man, Adam, repudiated the basic principle of his humanity. He kicked over the traces and said, I can be a man without God, and he became an animal. Born the natural animal way, that which is born of the flesh, his flesh. But not only did that happen, Nicodemus, but something infinitely worse happened. For his soul that was to be directed by the indwelling Holy Spirit of the Triune Deity, that through mind, emotion, and will, in the totality of his personality, the nature and character of God should have been put on display, brought out into the open, where everybody could see the truth about God, because he was the truth about man. That soul was invaded in its spiritual destitution by an agency of satanic origin that has abused, misused, and prostituted man's humanity ever since the first Adam fell into his sin. And your mind, Nicodemus, and your emotions, Nicodemus, and your will, Nicodemus, have been polluted and corrupted and prostituted by Satan himself. And that is why God's purpose for you, Nicodemus, is that on God's terms of reference, your humanity might once more be reinvaded by the God who made you, that he might reoccupy and once more monopolize your being, and make you man again, Nicodemus, as God intended man to be. You must be born from above. You must receive the quality of life that is vested in God himself, eternal life. That, Nicodemus, which is born of God the Holy Spirit, is spirit. Marvel not that I say unto you, third richest man in Jerusalem, cultured, influential, and not insincere, religious, you've got to be born twice by the Holy Spirit. For the wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, and thou canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So, Nicodemus, is everyone that is born of the Spirit.