Characteristics of the New Birth

Sermon Transcript by Rev. Ernest O’Neill

What is it to be born of God? That’s really what I would like to try to talk about, what it means
to be born of God. And I won’t ask you to look up references for this first part because we’ve
already talked about it before. You remember, how we said that the very first step that we can see
in scripture is that verse in Colossians 1:15 where Jesus was the first-born of all creation and he
is the very image of God and he was born first of all, the only begotten son and that that was the
first step. And then that the second step was this one in Ephesians 2:10, that God created us in
Christ Jesus for good works which he had prepared beforehand that we should walk in them. And then
that God himself gave us free will in Jesus and explained to the Savior that I have to give these
men and women free will if they are going to be part of you and therefore part of me. I have to
give them free will, we ourselves have free will.

And there is a verse that later on you can look up afterwards it’s 30:19-20, “Behold I have set
before you life and death, choose life that you may live.” And God at that point set before us life
and death and said, “Now, I have put you in my son and you can choose that or you can choose death.”
Then you remember, he foresaw what some men and women would do if not all indeed. And the lamb was
slain from before the foundation of the world. God said to his Son, “Now you and I have to bear the
consequences of what we have done. If they choose not to receive us, if they choose not to be in
you, if they choose not to be part of us, my Son we have to bear that. Now I ask you, if you will
bear that?” And that’s you remember, where the verse Isaiah it is, “It pleased the Lord, it was
God’s will to bruise Jesus” that is it was his will to ask the Savior to bear that pain for us and
that that is I think Isaiah 53:12.

And all that happened there. The lamb was slain from before the foundation of the world right there
and everything was prepared and then God created Genesis 1:1, God created the earth and gave us free
will. And from that point on of course, we chose one way. We rebelled against the whole idea of
being in Christ. We rebelled against the whole idea of depending on God. We rebelled against the
whole idea of being part of another person and we resolved simply to go our own way and that is the
way that the world has been going since it was created. And during all that time you remember, we
talked about Romans 8:28, all that time all things have been working together to conform us to the
image of Jesus. Everything that happens to us works to say to us, “Look, this is what happened,
this is what happened. Turn, turn, turn.”

Now, there is a great danger I think for you all and for me to look at that and say, “That seems
reasonable. Not only reasonable but that seems scriptural so I believe that. So then what I must
do now is to live in Christ. I’ve been created in Christ and I’ve to live in Christ and Christ has
to live in me.” And it’s very easy for us to think that therefore all we need is a mental
adjustment to that and to start trying to live in Jesus. And there are all kinds of people that try
to do that and they end up just in a mystical meditation and mental assent that brings them into the
same position as the Jewish people who were under the law. That is, they end up trying; they end up
trying to be like Christ even though they themselves are actually out of Christ. They try to be
like Christ. Really what Satan said to Eve, “You shall be as God.” And they want to go this way
but be like God. And so there are many Christians, many church people are the same of Jews who live
under the old dispensation, they live in a constant futile frustrated life of sinning and being
forgiven, sinning and being forgiven, sinning and being forgiven and yet they continue on this
downward path all the time.

It’s important therefore to see that it’s not enough to believe because that’s the problem the great
parts of Christendom think all you have to do is believe this. After all whosoever believes is not
condemned it says, so you just have to believe. And so people try to believe that and what they
really do is they believe and they try. They just believe and try and that’s why most of
Christendom has ended up in utter frustration. They try to live as people who have been born of the
spirit but they can’t and so they just keep on, “I believe that, I believe that. I must try to make
it real in my life so I have to try; I just have to try harder.” And so Christendom lives off of
books, and books, and books that are designed to teach us how to try better, how to try harder.

First step it seems to me, to some degree of reality in your life, is to see that there are people
who believe and do not love God at all. Look at James 2:19, “You believe that God is one; you do
well. Even the demons believe—and shudder.” Even the demons believe and shudder. It’s vital that
we see that even the devil believes. This is reality so even the devil believes this. So it is
possible to believe this and still to be a devil. It is not enough just to say you believe and you
want to try. Jesus told us plainly what is needed Mark 1:15, “And saying, ‘The time is fulfilled,
and the kingdom of God is at hand; repent, and believe in the gospel.’”

So Jesus was saying, “Everything has been done, the feast has spread, my Father has created you in
me, he has crucified you in me, everything is ready, now, not just believe but repent.” And repent
is in Greek “metanoia” and in English translation it’s “metanoia” and some of you who know something
about pneus and pneumatic in English know that that is your mind and meta is to change. And first
of all it means you yourself have to change your mind, you have to change your way of thinking about
your own life and you have to decide whether you’re willing to do that. You have to decide, “Am I
willing to change my mind about my birth that I have not actually been born first and foremost of my
parents, that I have been born first and foremost in Jesus and that he is my Father and that I owe
my life to him and I don’t owe my life primarily to my mother but I owe my life to him.

It means changing your mind about your own parentage. It means changing your mind about the way you
think life should go for you. It means changing your mind about your feeling that you have a right
to live your life the way you please or you have a right to do with your life what you please. It
means changing your mind about who actually is in you. It means changing your mind about the idea
that this is your life, that this is you in this body and that you can do with this body what you
want. It means believing at last reality that this is Christ’s life and that this is not your life,
and that Christ alone has the right to do what he wants with this life and not you. It means loved
ones at least that but it does mean changing your mind about those things. And if you still have a
mind that thinks, “Oh well, my mother is not really just my sister she’s really my mother I owe
everything to her and my father is not just my elder brother he’s really my father and I owe
everything to him.” Then you haven’t changed your mind because in fact, reality is that you and I
were made in Jesus and we are part of him and we owe everything to him and he is, in fact, our
Everlasting Father.

And the other is true, that this is a lie and a deception that God has allowed to take place so that
we would be free to work out all that he has done here. You can see that he did all that in
eternity and then he provided time for us to work that out in our free wills. And so what is being
worked out here is what God has done there and it’s vital for us to change our mind about who is in
this life. If you still think, “This is my life. I’m my own person. I have the right to act on my
own; I have the right to think my own thoughts. I ought not to do bad things, but I have the right
to do what I think is right.” If you have that feeling that you’re still on your own, that this is

still your own life, that this is not anybody else’s life but yours, in other words, if you still
think that this life has only you to answer to and you don’t think that Jesus, that this is his
life, that this is absolutely his life. That everybody else calls you by your first name but you
know better, you know that Jesus is the name of this person here. If you don’t change your mind
about that, then you aren’t repenting.

The second part of repentance is not by any means just the mental change of mind but it is a
volitional change. Volition is will. It means that you stop doing those things. That you stop
thinking that way about your parentage, you stop thinking that way about whose life this is, and you
stop doing the things that spring from that attitude of mind. You actively exercise your will to
stop that. Now, that’s what Jesus means when he says, “Repent.” And when you repent, then a mighty
change takes place and all of eternity flows in to you here this little speck in time and all of
eternity comes in and the Holy Spirit works the miracle of making eternity real in you and bringing
you eternal life. But above all, making all this real in you and then you are born of the spirit.

Now that loved ones, is a mighty change and God works that change and he works it in response to an
honest repentance. A repentance that means a change in the way you think about your life and that
means a change in your will. It means you stop doing the things that really you have developed all
through your life on the basis of the fact that this is your life and not anyone else’s. On the
basis that you owe only what you do owe to your parents and to nobody else. But when you change
that will, in other words, when you actually not simply believe it but when you say, “Lord God,
thank you I am willing for that. I am willing to be destroyed in Christ and to be born from the
Spirit and to come into you Lord Jesus, and for you to come into me and live your life over again in
me.” Then, a mighty change takes place and the Holy Spirit enables you to be born from above.

The new birth is the only thing that will enable us to live this life. Now, all I’d like to say
very plainly is, that is a change from darkness into light. That is being translated from the
kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of his beloved Son. That is a different kind of life and that
life has certain clear qualities and clear symptoms that you cannot mistake. I’ll show you one of
them, 1 John 3:9, “No one born of God,” no one who experiences that new birth, “Commits sin.” Why?
“For God’s nature,” you can see that, “God’s nature abides in him,” Christ lives in him. “And he
cannot sin because he is born of God. By this it may be seen who are the children of God, and who
are the children of the devil; whoever does not do right is not of God, nor he who does not love his
brother.”

It’s just very clear. It’s just very clear and very plain, a person who is born of God, and you see
how it explains it, a person who is born of God does not sin. He cannot sin because now it is not
him that is alive it is Christ that is alive and he is translated utterly into a whole new way of
life. I mean, sin he doesn’t – sin is no problem to him. It isn’t a problem not to sin because his
whole heart is that of Jesus and he finds himself wanting to go the way Jesus wants. So, there’s an
absolute change in him and so he doesn’t sin not because he says, “I must not sin. I must not sin,
otherwise I’m not born of God so I have to not sin so that I can prove…” No, no, it’s not backwards
like that at all. That’s like a person who is dead saying, “I’ll have to breathe, I’ll have to
breathe to prove I’m alive and not dead.” Well you’re dead, you can’t breathe that’s it. In order
to breathe you have to come alive. So it’s foolishness to say, “Oh well, I’ll have to try not to
sin.” It’s like saying, “I have to try to breathe. I have to try to see. I have to try to hear.”
No, those are all symptoms that you have if you’re alive. So, when a person who is born of God,
they don’t sin. Why? Because God’s nature abides in them.

I want us to be very clear what sin is. James 4:17, “Whoever knows what is right to do and fails to
do it, for him it is sin.” That’s it nothing complicated. If you know what is right to do it and
you don’t do it that’s sin. You don’t need to get into all kinds of theological niceties, it’s just
plain and straight if you know what is right to do and you don’t do it then that is sin. Because?
Of course, you can see why it’s sin, if you know all of this and you don’t do it well, then you’re
just rejecting what the mighty God the Creator has done in eternity and what he had in mind when he
made you. So, you’re turning against all that is power, and all that is live, and all that is good
in the universe. So you’re deliberately turning against it so that is saying plainly to God, “You
have given me free will to reject you. I reject you.” That’s what it is. Whoever knows what is
right to do and doesn’t do it, that’s sin. That’s saying, “I do not want what you want. Whatever
that means, I don’t want what you want.”

Now, I just want us to see these things so that we do not become a bunch of hypocrites and so that
we do not become a group that plays games with each other and thinks that we can play games with
God. I don’t want us to do that because we are lost if we do that. I’m lost and you’re lost if we
play that kind of game so I want you to be very straight about it and not try to build a theological
defense for yourself that enables you to continue to remain dead in your sins. When, because you
see what I’m saying, when this all awaits you, as long as you are alive in this world this awaits
you. That’s why the Bible says, “Jesus came not to condemn the world but to save it.” Right up
until you die this is all yours so this morning, if you feel, “Oh well, I am not in that position.”
Then I’m saying, “Here it is the table is spread, the eternity is waiting, it is all alive for
you.” God is saying today, “Come now and enter in. Come now and change your mind. Come now and
change your will.” So that’s why I want you to see these things.

Not to make you sad and not to steal your assurance from you but so that you will do whatever is
needed for all this to flow in upon you because you see, that’s what it is it is a flowing in.
That’s why Jesus says, “It’s being born from above.” It’s a wonderful supernatural life that comes
from him that is above yourself, it lifts you into a new realm, a realm that you can’t lift yourself
into it. All eternity flows into time, eternal life comes into a little temporal being like us.
That’s what it means.

Now, what I’d like you to do is to be clear, alright what are some sins? Galatians 5 and this is
where I think it’s very easy for us to play games. Galatians 5:19, flesh is “sarx” in Greek and it
means the life that is independent of God. “Now the works of the flesh,” the works of a life that
is independent of God, “Are plain: fornication, impurity, licentiousness, idolatry, sorcery, enmity,
strife, jealousy, anger, selfishness, dissension, party spirit, envy, drunkenness, carousing, and
the like.” Now, what God is saying there is all of these are works of the flesh. Any one of them
is a work of the flesh. You might be free from fornication for various reasons, you might be free
of impurity for various reasons, you might be free of idolatry because of the society you live in,
but if you have enmity towards anyone, or strife, or jealousy, or anger, or selfishness, or
dissension, then you have a work of the flesh. That is sin.

Now, if you’re angry with anybody else in this family at any time, or if you lose your temper with
somebody else, if you express angry words to another person in this room, of course if you express
angry words to anybody outside this room it’s the same, but if you do that, that is sin. That is
sin and Christ does not sin. And if Christ is in you he does not sin. So it’s very important that
you and I are real about it, otherwise we become just a clever bunch of sophisticates who go and
preach to the people in Thailand and the people in China and we ourselves live like devils. And
then you see, we have a way of saying to ourselves, “Oh well, we’re trying, we’re trying.” No, it

doesn’t matter how hard you try a dead person with all the trying in the world can’t become an alive
person. So, a person who is born of the flesh cannot become a person born of the spirit by trying.
They can only do it by a total repentance, a total change of mind about who owns their life, a total
change of mind about whose life this is. And only then if they are willing to stop these things and
to stop these sins, because that’s what repentance is, it is not only changing your mind about who
owns your life, and changing your mind about who lives in your life, but it’s a volitional act
stopping the sins that you have become conscious of in your life. And of course, before you do that
you have to confess them and confess you remember, is agreeing with God about what is sin.

Now, while you continue to count anger as just a refined type of failure in your personality, you
are not agreeing with God. God says, “Anger is sin.” He says – you’ve heard how it was said of old
time whoever kills is guilty of the judgment. I say to you whoever is angry with your brother is
guilty of the judgment. Jesus said that anger is like killing just the same as unclean thoughts are
like committing adultery. And what you need to see is that he says that to us to help us, to save
us, not to beat us down but to bring home to our hearts that if that is in our life, Christ is not
in our life. And it’s vital for us to allow Christ to be in our lives.

What of course is really the truth is the dear Savior is in your life but he’s being crucified daily
by your refusal to believe that he is in your life, and your refusal to let him live, and your
determination to behave the same way as the very soldiers that killed him behaved. So of course, it
is a wretched agony that is taking place inside you. Christ himself is being crucified daily and
moment-by-moment by your own attitude and you yourself are living in the midst of death and
deadness. So loved ones, it is vital to be honest about that. It’s vital for Marty to be, it’s
vital for me to be honest about that. For Martha, for Sheila, it’s vital for each of us to be very
honest. You cannot be angry with each other, you cannot have strife and dissention, you cannot
argue with each other, you cannot have those things in your heart and Christ be living in you. You
cannot, it is a contradiction. God’s nature abides in one who is born of God and he cannot sin
because God’s nature abides in him.

What we need to do is be very honest and real about our sins and then see that this very moment God
is willing, this very moment. But that will only continue as long as you have that attitude of
mind. You are my parent Lord Jesus, I was made in you. This is your life, you are to live this
life as you please and I exercise my will along with yours to reject all sin. Everything that I
know is wrong I will turn from. Now wherever there is not a soft and yielding heart like that then
Christ does not dwell and you need to be born of God. So it’s very important that we are born of
God and it’s very important that we live in the light of what God has done in Jesus and that we live
the life of one who is born of God. If you don’t live that life you are not born of God.

So loved ones, I do ask you please not to lower the standard of heaven because you’re just lying to
yourself. The standard of heaven and the standard of Jesus is a life above sin, above known sin.
And if we’re not living that life then there is the answer and God is willing every moment, until we
die and then comes the judgment. He’s willing every moment to bring all this in upon us through the
Holy Spirit, more than willing, if we are willing to accept in our hearts and our wills what he has
done in eternity. Let us pray.

Lord Jesus, we see you standing before us with all of eternity in your hands and you’re holding it
out to us. And we see Lord that you cannot give it to people who do not believe. We see you can
only fill us with yourself if we believe that we were made in you and owe everything to you and you
are our Everlasting Father and if we believe that this is your life, it is not ours. It is yours to

live. You alone have the right to make decisions in it. You have the right to do with it what you
want. But we do see Lord, that if we believe those things then we will exercise our will in the
light of reality. We see that we will turn this very day from every known sin in our life and we
will stop doing it.

We will stop being angry with another person. We will stop being jealous of another person. We
will stop being proud. We will stop being critical because your heart is in this. And we see Lord
that your heart is here. That all the yearnings we’ve had for being good has come from you. It has
been you crying out within us to be allowed to live and we have repeatedly rolled the stone back
over the grave to keep you dead so that we could live.

Lord Jesus, we see that you give us the choice this very day, to roll that stone away from the mouth
of the grave and to come to you on our knees and apologize with all our hearts for having buried you
and to help you free from the grave clothes and to allow you to live free and whole and complete and
royal in this life.