{"id":870873,"date":"2012-06-01T06:00:45","date_gmt":"2012-06-01T06:00:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/?p=870873"},"modified":"2012-04-11T17:59:34","modified_gmt":"2012-04-11T17:59:34","slug":"born-of-the-spirit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/?p=870873","title":{"rendered":"Born of the Spirit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In this blog post, let’s review what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in John 3:1-4 and then look at verses 5-6 about the difference between being born of the flesh and being born of the Spirit.<\/p>\n

We have seen in verses 1-4 where Jesus teaches Nicodemus and us<\/em> that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible to be very religious, and yet be very lost and spiritually separated from God.<\/p>\n

Nicodemus was a type of Jewish leader who was at the top of the religious counsel in Jerusalem. He was called \u00e2\u20ac\u0153a ruler of the Jews\u00e2\u20ac\u009d referring to his position on the Sanhedrin which presided over religious and judicial matters.<\/p>\n

But he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t born again. So, Nicodemus was spiritually dead to the true God\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 he needed more than religion or virtue or sincerity to get to heaven\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 and the same is true of you and me.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

The only remedy for spiritual deadness to God is something that must come from God Himself. Jesus said \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0153you must be born again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d God must enable you to want this salvation before you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll ever be inclined to believe it. He has to change our heart.<\/p>\n

So that brings us back to verse 5 of John chapter 3. Look\u00c2\u00a0at verses 5 and 6\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

5<\/sup><\/strong> Jesus answered, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. 6<\/sup><\/strong> That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. [ESV]<\/p>\n

We began looking at verse 5 the last time we were together. We saw that the phrase \u00e2\u20ac\u0153born of water and the Spirit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d was just another way of describing the new birth. Being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153born of water and the Spirit\u00e2\u20ac\u009d means the same thing as being \u00e2\u20ac\u0153born again.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n

We saw that \u00e2\u20ac\u0153born of water\u00e2\u20ac\u009d isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t referring to water baptism, because baptism is the external symbol<\/em> or sign<\/em> of new birth, but never the cause<\/em> of new birth.<\/p>\n

And born of water isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t referring to natural<\/em> birth, because Nicodemus already knew<\/em> he had been naturally born \u00e2\u20ac\u201c he didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t need to undergo another biological birth.<\/p>\n

But what did Nicodemus need? What do all spiritually dead people need which Jesus said must come from above? We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll consider the answer to these questions in our next post.<\/p>\n

Until then,
\nPastor Kevin<\/p>\n

.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In this blog post, let’s review what we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen in John 3:1-4 and then look at verses 5-6 about the difference between being born of the flesh and being born of the Spirit. We have seen in verses 1-4 where Jesus teaches Nicodemus and us that it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s possible to be very religious, and yet be … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Born of the Spirit”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870873"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=870873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870873\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=870873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=870873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/provbaptist.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=870873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}