Christian Clarity

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The New Birth in Jesus Christ

John 3:3 Jesus answered and said to him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born anew he cannot see the kingdom of God.

That you must be born again in Jesus Christ is plainly and unambiguously declared as spirit and as life by God in His Holy Scriptures. You are born again of water and of the Holy Spirit of God in Jesus Christ. That new birth is accomplished by the hearing of the Word of God and is the receiving of a new heart and a new spirit (in which God places His Spirit)and the saving of the soul. You are born again as spirit both of water and of God's Holy Spirit. You must then be baptised by water, the Holy Spirit and by fire.

John 3:5-8 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Do not wonder that I said to thee, It is needful that ye should be born anew. The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit.

I. Why the new birth:

A. Introduction to the true enemy: sin

1 Kings 21:4-14 And Ahab came into his house sullen and vexed because of the word that Naboth the Jizreelite had spoken to him; for he had said, I will not give thee the inheritance of my fathers. And he lay down on his bed, and turned away his face, and ate no bread. And Jezebel his wife came to him, and said to him, Why is thy spirit sullen, and thou eatest no bread? And he said to her, Because I spoke to Naboth the Jizreelite and said to him, Give me thy vineyard for money; or else, if it please thee, I will give thee a vineyard for it; and he said, I will not give thee my vineyard. And Jezebel his wife said to him, Dost thou now exercise sovereignty over Israel? arise, eat bread, and let thy heart be glad: I will give thee the vineyard of Naboth the Jizreelite. And she wrote a letter in Ahab's name, and sealed it with his seal, and sent the letter to the elders and to the nobles that were in his city, dwelling with Naboth. And she wrote in the letter saying, Proclaim a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people; and set two men, sons of Belial, before him, and they shall bear witness against him saying, Thou didst curse God and the king; and carry him out, and stone him, that he may die. And the men of his city, the elders and the nobles that dwelt in his city, did as Jezebel had sent to them, as it was written in the letter that she had sent to them; they proclaimed a fast, and set Naboth at the head of the people. And there came the two men, sons of Belial, and sat before him; and the men of Belial witnessed against him, against Naboth, in the presence of the people, saying, Naboth blasphemed God and the king. And they carried him forth out of the city, and stoned him with stones, that he died. And they sent to Jezebel saying, Naboth is stoned, and is dead.

Of the many truths God has declared concerning sin, the above revelation is instructive:

1. God had given a blessing to a particular son who knew its worth and would not despise it by selling it at any price
2. Another son wanted that very blessing and could not be satisfied without it as being jealous
3. The son who possesed the blessing was conspired against by an enemy he did not know he had and killed to get his blessing from God.

God, through His Son Jesus Christ says of those to whom the garden (you) and vineyard (you and all your brothers and sisters as sons of God) were entrusted:

Mat 21:33-41 Hear another parable: There was a householder who planted a vineyard, and made a fence round it, and dug a winepress in it, and built a tower, and let it out to husbandmen, and left the country. But when the time of fruit drew near, he sent his bondmen to the husbandmen to receive his fruits. And the husbandmen took his bondmen, and beat one, killed another, and stoned another. Again he sent other bondmen more than the first, and they did to them in like manner. And at last he sent to them his son, saying, They will have respect for my son. But the husbandmen, seeing the son, said among themselves, This is the heir; come, let us kill him and possess his inheritance. And they took him, and cast him forth out of the vineyard, and killed him. When therefore the lord of the vineyard comes, what shall he do to those husbandmen? They say to him, He will miserably destroy those evil [men], and let out the vineyard to other husbandmen, who shall render him the fruits in their seasons.

What has been wrongfully taken possesion of is you. The thing that has taken possesion of you has been identified by God as sin. Sin is not an act or a state in which acts are commited but is a speech (that is not the Word of God) which entered the world when Adam listened to it in the voice of his wife Eve and ate the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Quite literally in every way, you have been conspired against by an enemy you were not aware you had and you have been in truth killed spiritually and seperated from God such that the sin should have the fruits of the garden that is you. For God says this of His beloved (you as part of the church) before the new birth in Jesus Christ:

Song 4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, [my] spouse; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

That sin has killed you is without question. For God says through one who is a real, literal new creation in Jesus Christ and has been born again and who is no longer shut up or sealed

Rom 3:20 Wherefore by works of law no flesh shall be justified before him; for by law [is] knowledge of sin.

and

Rom 7:5-8:1 For when we were in the flesh the passions of sins, which [were] by the law, wrought in our members to bring forth fruit to death; but now we are clear from the law, having died in that in which we were held, so that we should serve in newness of spirit, and not in oldness of letter. What shall we say then? [is] the law sin? Far be the thought. But I had not known sin, unless by law: for I had not had conscience also of lust unless the law had said, Thou shalt not lust; but sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, wrought in me every lust; for without law sin [was] dead. But I was alive without law once; but the commandment having come, sin revived, but I died. And the commandment, which [was] for life, was found, [as] to me, itself [to be] unto death: for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me]. So that the law indeed [is] holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good. Did then that which is good become death to me? Far be the thought. But sin, that it might appear sin, working death to me by that which is good; in order that sin by the commandment might become exceeding sinful. For we know that the law is spiritual: but I am fleshly, sold under sin. For that which I do, I do not own: for not what I will, this I do; but what I hate, this I practise. But if what I do not will, this I practise, I consent to the law that [it is] right. Now then [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me. For I know that in me, that is, in my flesh, good does not dwell: for to will is there with me, but to do right [I find] not. For I do not practise the good that I will; but the evil I do not will, that I do. But if what I do not will, this I practise, [it is] no longer I [that] do it, but the sin that dwells in me. I find then the law upon me who will to practise what is right, that with me evil is there. For I delight in the law of God according to the inward man: but I see another law in my members, warring in opposition to the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which exists in my members. O wretched man that I [am]! who shall deliver me out of this body of death? I thank God, through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve God's law; but with the flesh sin's law. [There is] then now no condemnation to those in Christ Jesus.

God gave His Law in order that the truth concerning sin should be understood by you in the new birth. Sin existed without law but was dead in that the speech of sin must wait on the Word of God in order work its evil as death must wait on life to arrive before it can kill. No life--no death. No law--no revealing and acting of sin. Without the new birth, there is only death and total ignorance of the truth and even existence of sin because you lived under the law of God when you were physically born.

For God says even of those who are ignornant of His law and break it unknowingly:

Lev 5:2-5 Or if any one touch any unclean thing, whether it be the carcase of an unclean beast, or the carcase of unclean cattle, or the carcase of an unclean crawling thing, and it be hid from him, -- he also is unclean and guilty; or if he touch the uncleanness of man, any uncleanness of him by which he is defiled, and it be hid from him, when he knoweth [it], then he is guilty. Or if any one swear, talking rashly with the lips, to do evil or to do good, in everything that a man shall say rashly with an oath, and it be hid from him, when he knoweth [it], then is he guilty in one of these. And it shall be, when he shall be guilty in one of these, that he shall confess wherein he hath sinned;

Unclean is unclean. If someone has a desease that is deadly and communicable, it is impossible to use ignornace as a medicine or that the actual desease is negated or the danger to others negated by their ignorance and explicit denial of it or to false define it so as to seem to have overcome it. Sin is in your flesh irrespective of your knowledge of it or ability or disability to acknowledge it. But when God brings to your awareness the sin, you are ALREADY guilty and sin has worked in you. The purpose of the law was to bring to your awareness the existence of sin. God gives what is before Him perfection and says: do this--be perfect. Yet you cannot do the law perfectly. The slightest imperfection is proof the sin is still there. The imperfection and lack of perfection demonstrates something sels is there other than the Word of God else you would be perfect. Therefore you must be given new life in Christ which He Himself provides in His Word. That is, God has planned in advance of your knowledge of sin in faithfulness to you to forgive you--to seperate you in every way from the sin that had killed you.

For sin denies its own existence through you in former times, now as you read, and through many others now. It denies itself by various words: saying it doesn't exist outright and falsely defining itself as an act done in 'free will'.

It is impossible to even understand the truth of sin without being born again. Sin is the enemy you did not know you had. On having his eyes opened and seeing the true enemy God says through one of your brothers, David the king, prophet and priest of God:

Psa 92:9-13 For lo, thine enemies, O Jehovah, for lo, thine enemies shall perish; all the workers of iniquity shall be scattered. But my horn shalt thou exalt like a buffalo's: I shall be anointed with fresh oil. And mine eye shall see [its desire] on mine enemies; mine ears shall hear [it] of the evil-doers that rise up against me. The righteous shall shoot forth like a palm-tree; he shall grow like a cedar on Lebanon. Those that are planted in the house of Jehovah shall flourish in the courts of our God:

God has declared this very enemy, the speech of sin says to itself that no one can see them or hear them and thus it has thought to get away with its murders:

Psa 64:4-6 That they may shoot in secret at the perfect: suddenly do they shoot at him, and fear not. They encourage themselves in an evil matter, they concert to hide snares; they say, Who will see them? They devise iniquities: We have it ready, the plan is diligently sought out. And each one's inward [thought] and heart is deep.

Psa 59:7 Behold, they belch out with their mouth; swords are in their lips: for who [say they] doth hear?

You had been killed by an enemy you did not know you had and were in every way helpless to do anything about it as that which is dead can do nothing. But God in His love and faithfulness sent first His law so that sin would be identified in your understanding after you were born again which reveals that God intended all along to save you, even before you were physically born and born again from above in Jesus Christ. For the law was given before you were born and Christ has already come been born of the virgin, Incarnated, lived, was crucified and buried, rose the third day as being the first-born from among the dead. God sent His Son, Jesus Christ to pay the penalty before God under law for the evil sin had worked in you and forgave you (distinguished you in every way from sin as not being the source of the evil but of having been killed, used to do evil and then accused by Satan before God of hating God as if you had not been killed and had 'free will'.(!)) and birthed you again free from sin as an adopted son of God, raising you from the dead in Christ. That is, you are an inheritor of the blessing of being a son of God in Jesus Christ.

Eph 6:11-13 Put on the panoply of God, that ye may be able to stand against the artifices of the devil: because our struggle is not against blood and flesh, but against principalities, against authorities, against the universal lords of this darkness, against spiritual [power] of wickedness in the heavenlies. For this reason take [to you] the panoply of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and, having accomplished all things, to stand.

To the lords of this present darkness who conspired in the speech of sin, (within themsleves) God says:

Mat 21:43-46 Therefore I say to you, that the kingdom of God shall be taken from you and shall be given to a nation producing the fruits of it. And he that falls on this stone shall be broken, but on whomsoever it shall fall, it shall grind him to powder. And the chief priests and the Pharisees, having heard his parables, knew that he spoke about them. And seeking to lay hold of him, they were afraid of the crowds, because they held him for a prophet.

But to those very priests and Pharisees who killed him and who in truth knew nothing of the sin that had formerly killed them and used them to kill Christ even though they were deceived that they were not killed and had 'free will' and thought of themselves as being the experts on God, God said:

Luke 23:34 And Jesus said, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

As Christ forgave them, so He forgives you if you hear His Word as spirit and as life. For He says:

Heb 12:25 See that ye refuse not him that speaks. For if those did not escape who had refused him who uttered the oracles on earth, much more we who turn away from him [who does so] from heaven:

and

Heb 3:7-14 Wherefore, even as says the Holy Spirit, To-day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness; where your fathers tempted [me], by proving [me], and saw my works forty years. Wherefore I was wroth with this generation, and said, They always err in heart; and they have not known my ways; so I swore in my wrath, If they shall enter into my rest. See, brethren, lest there be in any one of you a wicked heart of unbelief, in turning away from [the] living God. But encourage yourselves each day, as long as it is called To-day, that none of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we are become companions of the Christ if indeed we hold the beginning of the assurance firm to the end;

1. Raised from the dead

Sin had killed you as is plainly and unambiguously declared by God as spirit and as life:

Rom 7:11 for sin, getting a point of attack by the commandment, deceived me, and by it slew [me].

That all were killed by sin and all fallen is also unambiguously declared by God as spirit and as life:

Psa 14:3 They have all gone aside, they are together become corrupt: there is none that doeth good, not even one.

So you are not the one that got away. No one got away but all were killed by sin.

Seeing then that all were killed, all the elect must be raised from the dead. This is exactly what God says:

Ezek 37:11-14 And he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel. Behold, they say, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost: we are cut off! Therefore prophesy and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord Jehovah: Behold, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, O my people, and bring you into the land of Israel. And ye shall know that I [am] Jehovah, when I have opened your graves, and have caused you to come up out of your graves, O my people. And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: and ye shall know that I Jehovah have spoken, and have done [it], saith Jehovah.

and

Psa 20:8 They are bowed down and fallen; but we are risen and stand upright.

You must be raised from the dead. For God says that if you are elect you are the brother or sister of Christ who is the first-born from among the dead, Himself having risen from the dead after three days. First He declares that He will rise:

Mat 17:9 And as they descended from the mountain, Jesus charged them, saying, Tell the vision to no one, until the Son of man be risen up from among [the] dead.

Then He declares through His Holy Spirit through His son and apostle Paul that as the Christ has risen we should as well in Him:

Rom 6:4 We have been buried therefore with him by baptism unto death, in order that, even as Christ has been raised up from among [the] dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should walk in newness of life.

2. Restoration of oneness with God

Gen 3:8-13 And they heard the voice of Jehovah Elohim, walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah Elohim, in the midst of the trees of the garden. And Jehovah Elohim called to Man, and said to him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I feared, because I am naked; and I hid myself. And he said, Who told thee that thou art naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee not to eat? And Man said, The woman, whom thou hast given [to be] with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate. And Jehovah Elohim said to the woman, What is this thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent deceived me, and I ate.

Gen 3:23-24 Therefore Jehovah Elohim sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from which he was taken. And he drove out Man; and he set the Cherubim, and the flame of the flashing sword, toward the east of the garden of Eden, to guard the way to the tree of life.

Gen 4:26 And to Seth, to him also was born a son; and he called his name Enosh. Then people began to call on the name of Jehovah.

In truth Adam and Eve were God's garden. The elect are God's garden. For He Says concerning them and us as elect:

Song 1:6 Look not upon me, because I am black; Because the sun hath looked upon me. My mother's children were angry with me: They made me keeper of the vineyards; Mine own vineyard have I not kept.

Having been seperated from God, it is necessary that we be restored to oneness in Him. This restoration is also called the redemption, the reconciliation and the doing of it justice. Therefore Jesus Christ is called the Just One, the Redeemer (who purchased us with His own blood) and the Restorer:

Acts 22:14,15 And he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee beforehand to know his will, and to see the Just One, and to hear a voice out of his mouth; for thou shalt be a witness for him to all men of what thou hast seen and heard.

Isa 44:6-8 Thus saith Jehovah, the King of Israel, and his Redeemer, Jehovah of hosts: I [am] the first, and I [am] the last, and beside me there is no God. And who, as I, shall call, and shall declare it, and set it in order for me, since I appointed the ancient people? And the coming things, and those that shall happen, let them declare unto them. Fear not, neither be afraid. Have I not caused thee to hear from that time, and have declared it? and ye are my witnesses. Is there a God beside me? yea, there is no Rock: I know not any.

Isa 58:11,12 and Jehovah will guide thee continually, and satisfy thy soul in drought, and strengthen thy bones; and thou shalt be like a watered garden, and like a water-spring, whose waters deceive not. And they [that come] of thee shall build the old waste places: thou shalt raise up the foundations [that have remained] from generation to generation; and thou shalt be called, Repairer of the breaches, restorer of frequented paths.

B. Born of Water / The World will be destroyed

Gen 6:13 And God said to Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me, for the earth is full of violence through them; and behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

Gen 6:17-19 For I, behold, I bring a flood of waters on the earth, to destroy all flesh under the heavens in which is the breath of life: everything that is on the earth shall expire. But with thee will I establish my covenant; and thou shalt go into the ark, thou, and thy sons, and thy wife, and thy sons' wives with thee. And of every living thing of all flesh, two of every [sort] shalt thou bring into the ark, to keep [them] alive with thee: they shall be male and female.

1. The End of all Flesh: '...for the earth is full of violence through them..' The 'them' is not flesh but the words/spirits of the speech of sin that corrupted the flesh in which it dwelt having gained entrance to that flesh by the transgression of Adam. The end of all flesh, as has been demonstrated by subsequent history was set in motion from that point onward in order that God may destroy the speech/spirit of sin but not that spirit He gave to all living. The flood then was a cleansing of the earth of that speech of sin, even though the earthly tabernacle of the real, literal new creation in Jesus Christ that was Noah, his wife and his sons and daughters was not cleansed of that speech of sin. Sin then was braketed as having its place in no other than the flesh of man and the animals who survived as all else perished.

The Violence and Result before the flood and determination by God that he would destroy all flesh: (we are working backwards and forwards chronologically in order to establish the truth in you of being born of water...)

Gen 4:10-14 And he said, What hast thou done? the voice of thy brother's blood is crying to me from the ground. And now be thou cursed from the ground, which hath opened its mouth to receive thy brother's blood from thy hand. When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth yield thee its strength; a wanderer and fugitive shalt thou be on the earth. And Cain said to Jehovah, My punishment is too great to be borne. Behold, thou hast driven me this day from the face of the ground, and from thy face shall I be hid; and I shall be a wanderer and fugitive on the earth; and it will come to pass, [that] every one who finds me will slay me.

The earth is alive. Beyond the pagan 'Gaia', 'Mother Earth', false religions, emotionalisms and deceptions of the speech of sin, the earth itself is alive and is the habitation of flesh. Let no one fall into sin understanding this: no talking to dirt or offering sacrifices to rocks, trees, mountains or any other in the heaven or on the earth or beneath the earth. God had formerly cursed the ground on account of the transgression of Adam:

Gen 3:17-19 And to Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened to the voice of thy wife, and eaten of the tree of which I commanded thee saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed be the ground on thy account; with toil shalt thou eat [of] it all the days of thy life; and thorns and thistles shall it yield thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground: for out of it wast thou taken. For dust thou art; and unto dust shalt thou return.

The ground, the outward working and appearence of the earth was cursed because of the transgression of those who lived on it and whose flesh was comprised of the very dust of which the earth's outward clothing was made, that flesh itself now the home of the speech/spirit of sin. Having cursed the ground on account of Adam, God then does not further curse the ground but Cain FROM the ground. That is, Cain is seperated from his former livelyhood and desire, to see green things grow that satisfy hunger and are good to eat. For Cain was a tiller of the ground before he killed Abel, but Abel tended livestock. Further, even prior to his curse Cain's offering to God was of his own desires--green things from the earth which God rejected. But Abel's burnt-offering of blood and flesh was accepted by God as prefiguring of the sacrifice of God Himself for the salvation of His elect. For God says this of His sons:

Exo 34:20 ... none shall appear before me empty.

and

Gen 22:7-14 And Isaac spoke to Abraham his father, and said, My father! And he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood; but where is the sheep for a burnt-offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself with the sheep for a burnt-offering. And they went both of them together. And they came to the place of which God had told him. And Abraham built the altar there, and piled the wood; and he bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched out his hand, and took the knife to slaughter his son. And the Angel of Jehovah called to him from the heavens, and said, Abraham, Abraham! And he said, Here am I. And he said, Stretch not out thy hand against the lad, neither do anything to him; for now I know that thou fearest God, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only [son], from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold, behind was a ram caught in the thicket by its horns; and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered it up for a burnt-offering instead of his son. And Abraham called the name of that place Jehovah-jireh; as it is said at the present day, On the mount of Jehovah will be provided.

Cain's offering then was unacceptable as he thought to have made it himself by the sweat, the curse he had inherited from Adam's transgression and it was not provided for him by God. Self-manufactured offerings from within the curse are unacceptable to God.

The speech of sin through Adam in the flesh of all living, to include the earth is that evil which entered the world and which to this hour and until the end of days is on all the creation:

Rom 8:19-23 For the anxious looking out of the creature expects the revelation of the sons of God: for the creature has been made subject to vanity, not of its will, but by reason of him who has subjected [the same], in hope that the creature itself also shall be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. For we know that the whole creation groans together and travails in pain together until now. And not only [that], but even we ourselves, who have the first-fruits of the Spirit, we also ourselves groan in ourselves, awaiting adoption, [that is] the redemption of our body.

The flood then, because the speech/spirit of sin had filled the earth with violence was a cleansing of the earth with the earth. For God says"..I will destroy them with the earth...". Subsequently, God uses no new creation, but that part of the old creation which until that time had been hidden within it, namely the waters contained in the earth itself.

Gen 7:11,12 In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on that same day all the fountains of the great deep were broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened. And the pour of rain was on the earth forty days and forty nights.

Formerly there had been no rain as a mist went up from the earth and watered the ground:

Gen 2:4-6 These are the histories of the heavens and the earth, when they were created, in the day that Jehovah Elohim made earth and heavens, and every shrub of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew; for Jehovah Elohim had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground. But a mist went up from the earth, and moistened the whole surface of the ground.

God then did something which to the scientists and in fact all excepting Noah, among those who were destroyed, in their deception and enslavement to sin would haved seemed impossible: rain and great fountains of the deep simultaneously flooding the earth. For they had long supposed things to remain the way they were forever and that not only should nothing be changed but could be changed that they did not seem to effect themselves. How suddenly then and how strange it should seem to them that water should fall from the sky and that water not for their benefit but in fact to wash THEM away from the earth forever. It was just as strange to them as it would be today if there were no more rain but a mist suddenly watered the ground or that a new heavens and a new earth should be formed and they were to not only witness this new earth and new heavens being made but were to survive past such events to live eternally in Christ in the new heavens and the new earth.

John 3:5 Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except any one be born of water and of Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

Isa 65:17,18 For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be glad and rejoice for ever in that which I create. For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.

and

Isa 66:22 For as the new heavens and the new earth which I will make shall remain before me, saith Jehovah, so shall your seed and your name remain.

Yet those who are deceivd by the speech of sin speak in that same speech which can create nothing, sin, that all things to include the earth and themselves have always been the way they appear now and will always remain so. God specifically says as spirit and as life they will say these very words:

2 Pet 3:1-7 This, a second letter, beloved, I already write to you, in [both] which I stir up, in the way of putting you in remembrance, your pure mind, to be mindful of the words spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of the Lord and Saviour by your apostles; knowing this first, that there shall come at [the] close of the days mockers with mocking, walking according to their own lusts, and saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for from the time the fathers fell asleep all things remain thus from [the] beginning of [the] creation. For this is hidden from them through their own wilfulness, that heavens were of old, and an earth, having its subsistence out of water and in water, by the word of God, through which [waters] the then world, deluged with water, perished. But the present heavens and the earth by his word are laid up in store, kept for fire unto a day of judgment and destruction of ungodly men.

God also says through the Son, the Word of God, Jesus Christ:

Mat 24:37-39 But as the days of Noe, so also shall be the coming of the Son of man. For as they were in the days which were before the flood, eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day on which Noe entered into the ark, and they knew not till the flood came and took all away; thus also shall be the coming of the Son of man.

Therefore God says "..you must be born anew.." not solely as preparing for the time of disaster which is determined against the whole earth but so that you may live with Him eternally. For Noah lived after the flood, the proof of which is our own existence and the ark was simply a temporary place of safety during the emergency. In the new birth, of water and of Spirit, we live eternally in Christ to include that time of destruction already determined and coming without delay.

Being born then of water is a true birth, not a cleansing as so many are deceived. For we, as real, literal new creations in Jesus Christ are not cleansed by water but only by the blood of Christ. For God says:

1 John 1:7 But if we walk in the light as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanses us from all sin.

But as He has said:

"...that heavens were of old, and an earth, having its subsistence out of water and in water, by the word of God, through which [waters] the then world, deluged with water, perished."

We then have our subsistence out of water, which is then signified by baptisim, not as the water itself of the baptisim having any power on its own to birth anything, but by the Word of God. We are then birthed OF water and OF the Spirit BY the Word of God, which is Itself spirit and life. The substance of the water and the substance of the Spirit/Word of God is then our life in Christ. For God says of us as real, literal new creations in Jesus Christ before our new birth:

Song 4:12 A garden enclosed is my sister, [my] spouse; A spring shut up, a fountain sealed.

but after the new birth:

Song 4:15-16 A fountain in the gardens, A well of living waters, Which stream from Lebanon. Awake, north wind, and come, [thou] south; Blow upon my garden, [that] the spices thereof may flow forth. Let my beloved come into his garden, And eat its precious fruits.

and

John 7:38 He that believes on me, as the scripture has said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.

The water is as well a witness as being alive itself as no dead thing witnesses anything. For God says the three-fold witness is of Christ and of our new birth and is in particular the water, the Spirit and the blood of Christ.

God says through those who are born of water and the Spirit:

1 John 1:2-4 (and the life has been manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and report to you the eternal life, which was with the Father, and has been manifested to us:) that which we have seen and heard we report to you, that ye also may have fellowship with us; and our fellowship [is] indeed with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ. And these things write we to you that your joy may be full.

He also says through those born of water and the Spirit of the water, the Spirit and the blood, the substance of their being and that which continually as living cleases us from all sin:

1 John 5:610 This is he that came by water and blood, Jesus [the] Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that bears witness, for the Spirit is the truth. For they that bear witness are three: the Spirit, and the water, and the blood; and the three agree in one. If we receive the witness of men, the witness of God is greater. For this is the witness of God [which] he has witnessed concerning his Son. He that believes on the Son of God has the witness in himself; he that does not believe God has made him a liar, because he has not believed in the witness which God has witnessed concerning his Son.

That is, to not believe in Jesus Christ makes the very substance of our being a liar: the Word of God. For while we are comprised of the water and the Spirit, the water was made by the Spirit in an act of His Speech. It also makes the water a liar, the spirit a liar and the blood of Christ a liar.

But He says of those unbelievers who merely think to 'investigate' the truth of God to see if it please themselves (and it never does...):

Heb 10:28-31 Any one that has disregarded Moses' law dies without mercy on [the testimony of] two or three witnesses: of how much worse punishment, think ye, shall he be judged worthy who has trodden under foot the Son of God, and esteemed the blood of the covenant, whereby he has been sanctified, common, and has insulted the Spirit of grace? For we know him that said, To me [belongs] vengeance; I will recompense, saith the Lord: and again, The Lord shall judge his people. [It is] a fearful thing falling into [the] hands of [the] living God.

Born of Spirit:

Therefore we are born both of water and of Spirit, not seperately of either but both together, simultaneously as one in Christ.

The Word of God is Spirit and life. He is not merely a-live but is the source and progenitor of all life. For God says as spirit and as life:

John 4:24 God [is] a spirit; and they who worship him must worship [him] in spirit and truth.

and

John 1:1-3 In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him, and without him not one [thing] received being which has received being.

and

John 6:63 It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing: the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.

and

Prov 1:20-23 Wisdom crieth without; she raiseth her voice in the broadways; she calleth in the chief [place] of concourse, in the entry of the gates; in the city she uttereth her words: How long, simple ones, will ye love simpleness, and scorners take pleasure in their scorning, and the foolish hate knowledge? Turn you at my reproof: behold, I will pour forth my spirit unto you, I will make known to you my words.

We are specifically born again expressly by the Speaking of the Word of God when we hear Him with ears he gives us to hear with:

Mat 11:15 He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

and

James 1:18 According to His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of His creatures.

Therefore we are begotten in Christ as spirit.

John 3:6 That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.

and

Rom 8:9 But ye are not in flesh but in Spirit, if indeed God's Spirit dwell in you; but if any one has not [the] Spirit of Christ he is not of him:

The Spirit then, because it is at present unseen is in no way non-real or the equivalent of metaphor or mystery. For God says:

Heb 11:1-3 Now faith is [the] substantiating of things hoped for, [the] conviction of things not seen. For in [the power of] this the elders have obtained testimony. By faith we apprehend that the worlds were framed by [the] word of God, so that that which is seen should not take its origin from things which appear.

But now we exist and non-metaphorically so in Christ as unseen for a time as spirit:

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we children of God, and what we shall be has not yet been manifested; we know that if it is manifested we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.

Yet the unseen came forth in order to birth us as real, literal new creations in Jesus Christ:

John 1:14-18 And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us (and we have contemplated his glory, a glory as of an only-begotten with a father), full of grace and truth;(John bears witness of him, and he has cried, saying, This was he of whom I said, He that comes after me is preferred before me, for he was before me;) for of his fulness we all have received, and grace upon grace. For the law was given by Moses: grace and truth subsists through Jesus Christ. No one has seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared [him].

II. Hearing God now:

The means God uses to birth those who are real, literal new creations in Jesus Christ is His Word as His Word is spirit and life. You have then been born again by the Spirit of God as spirit, with a new heart and a new spirit and your soul has been saved.

Mat 1:18 Now the birth of Jesus Christ was thus: His mother, Mary, that is, having been betrothed to Joseph, before they came together, she was found to be with child of [the] Holy Spirit.

The only difference between you and Jesus, that is between you and God is that God is not created and you are and by Him. But you have been adopted into brotherhood with Christ by being birthed by the same Spirit.

John 6:63 It is the Spirit which quickens, the flesh profits nothing: the words which I have spoken unto you are spirit and are life.

Psa 119:50 This is my comfort in mine affliction; for thy word hath quickened me.

Gen 1:2-3 And the earth was waste and empty, and darkness was on the face of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light. And there was light.

God plainly says as spirit and as life that the speaking of His Word in the glad-tidings He sends is expressly the means used to birth real, literal, new creations in Jesus Christ.

James 1:18 According to His own will begat He us by the word of truth, that we should be a certain first-fruits of His creatures.

1 Cor 4:15 For if ye should have ten thousand instructors in Christ, yet not many fathers; for in Christ Jesus I have begotten you through the glad tidings.

Acts 22:14,15 And he said, The God of our fathers has chosen thee beforehand to know his will, and to see the just one, and to hear a voice out of his mouth; for thou shalt be a witness for him to all men of what thou hast seen and heard.

John 1:1-5 In [the] beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things received being through him, and without him not one [thing] received being which has received being. In him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light appears in darkness, and the darkness apprehended it not.

Though the speech of sin speak through many in its lies that none can know the means God uses to birth the new creation, God has been explicit in His truth. Satan in the speech of sin attempts to use the Word of God as if it were mere 'information' (absolutely denying the power and complete existence of the Word of God in total) in order to confound the simple by using the revelation of God:

John 3:8 The wind blows where it will, and thou hearest its voice, but knowest not whence it comes and where it goes: thus is every one that is born of the Spirit.

...as if it were 'information' and that 'information' indicative of a total and complete mystery of how we are born again.

In truth no one is in charge of God but God and no one can speak His Word on their own in His power. This is the truth the revelation expresses as God clearly and unambiguously says "..thou hearest its voice...". At any given instant God will speak to you His Word. There is no pattern to see or getting ready for it. One minute you didn't hear--now you do. Yet the speech of sin would have us begiled that nothing was heard and we cannot know if we have been born again at all--based on this one lie of Satan twisting the revelation given. Their judgment is just as what they do is attempt to come between God and His chidren with their own word they think to have disguised as His Word as if there was only one speech and that speech was sin. This is simply another example of sin attempting to create ignorance and to place it in the path of the new born Christian so as to make strategic use of it perpetually. We are not ignorant of Satan's devices.

It is plain then that we are truly and non-metaphorically born again in Jesus Christ expressly by the hearing of His Word that God sends to specific individuals whom He has prepared beforehand. That is, some are given ears to hear and some are not. God says for His elect through the Psalmist:

Psa 40:6 Sacrifice and oblation thou didst not desire: ears hast thou prepared me.

Therefore God says in His Son:

Mat 11:15 He that has ears to hear, let him hear.

A. That the new birth in Jesus Christ is of this earth and wrought in this present earthly body and is to be done only in this present earthly tabernacle before physical death:

Noah and his family were rescued from the flood by the means of the ark. Those who did not hear the voice of God were not saved and perished in the flood, the judgment of God. The earth is about to be consumed such that a new earth and new heavens will be formed by the voice of God. While the new birth in Jesus Christ is also eternal life and is knowing God, it is also a means of escaping the coming wrath of God upon all wickedness. For God says:

John 3:17 For God has not sent his Son into the world that he may judge the world, but that the world may be saved through him. John 3:18 He that believes on him is not judged: but he that believes not has been already judged, because he has not believed on the name of the only-begotten Son of God.

and

Acts 17:29-31 Being therefore [the] offspring of God, we ought not to think that which is divine to be like gold or silver or stone, [the] graven form of man's art and imagination. God therefore, having overlooked the times of ignorance, now enjoins men that they shall all everywhere repent, because he has set a day in which he is going to judge the habitable earth in righteousness by [the] man whom he has appointed, giving the proof [of it] to all [in] having raised him from among [the] dead.

nd

Heb 11:7 By faith, Noah, oracularly warned concerning things not yet seen, moved with fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his house; by which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which [is] according to faith.

(But now God says to you: 2 Sam 7:11 ...and Jehovah telleth thee that Jehovah will make thee a house." and "2 Cor 5:1 For we know that if our earthly tabernacle house be destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.) as He has already newly created us as spirit in advance of the new heavens and new earth.

and

1 Pet 3:20,21 heretofore disobedient, when the longsuffering of God waited in [the] days of Noah while the ark was preparing, into which few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water: which figure also now saves you, [even] baptism, not a putting away of [the] filth of flesh, but [the] demand as before God of a good conscience, by [the] resurrection of Jesus Christ,

As well, God says the new birth:

John 3:12 If I have said the earthly things to you, and ye believe not, how, if I say the heavenly things to you, will ye believe?

That is, God speaks as a creating act us the new birth that is on this earth now and this new birth in Him on the earth, while we are here of Spirit and of water. God first came to Noah and spoke Word to Him. THEN Noah built the ark and waited (not very long) on the flood. What good would the wooden ark have done Noah if it had been in heaven and he on the earth? What good was an ark without belief in God's Word not only of the flood, but that he would live beyond the flood? He and all his family needed BOTH to hear the Word of God and the ark on the earth and before the flood waters came, else he would not have survived irrespective of the presence of a theortical ark somewhere other than that into which he immediately went into on the hearing of God's Word.

(Gen 7:16,17 And they that came, came male and female of all flesh, as God had commanded him. And Jehovah shut him in. And the flood was forty days on the earth. And the waters increased, and bore up the ark; and it was lifted up above the earth.)

As well, the necessity of being born again is here and now, before the execution of His predetermined wrath on the whole earth and the heavens. For when the wrath comes God says to those who are already real, literal new creations in Jesus Christ:

1 Th 4:15-5:10 (For this we say to you in [the] word of [the] Lord, that we, the living, who remain to the coming of the Lord, are in no way to anticipate those who have fallen asleep; for the Lord himself, with an assembling shout, with archangel's voice and with trump of God, shall descend from heaven; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we, the living who remain, shall be caught up together with them in [the] clouds, to meet the Lord in [the] air; and thus we shall be always with [the] Lord. So encourage one another with these words.) But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that ye should be written to, for ye know perfectly well yourselves, that the day of [the] Lord so comes as a thief by night. When they may say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon her that is with child; and they shall in no wise escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day should overtake you as a thief: for all ye are sons of light and sons of day; we are not of night nor of darkness. So then do not let us sleep as the rest do, but let us watch and be sober; for they that sleep sleep by night, and they that drink drink by night; but we being of [the] day, let us be sober, putting on [the] breastplate of faith and love, and as helmet [the] hope of salvation; because God has not set us for wrath, but for obtaining salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who has died for us, that whether we may be watching or sleep, we may live together with him.

Demonstration of having been born again:

1 Cor 2:7-10 But we speak God's wisdom in [a] mystery, that hidden [wisdom] which God had predetermined before the ages for our glory: which none of the princes of this age knew, (for had they known, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory; but according as it is written, Things which eye has not seen, and ear not heard, and which have not come into man's heart, which God has prepared for them that love him, but God has revealed to us by [his] Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God.

That is, things prepared for us which had never been revealed to man's heart, for He says"...which have not come into the heart of man..." have been revealed and plainly spoken through us and to us as real, literal, new creations in Jesus Christ. We cannot then still have a man's heart as a man's heart has never heard the living truth of God which has already been revealed to us in Christ by His Spirit. Those things which have never come into man's heart are plainly understood in the new heart in the real, literal new creation in Jesus Christ. Therefore it is demonstrated that we HAVE a new heart and are not in search of one in that we have understood the revelation which sin through the fallen heart of man in its domination of that heart denies even exists. In that it is demonstrated we understand that revelation, it is demonstrated we HAVE BEEN born again as real and literal new creations in Jesus Christ.

As well God says of those already born again:

2 Cor 13:3-5 Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me, (who is not weak towards you, but is powerful among you, for if indeed he has been crucified in weakness, yet he lives by God's power; for indeed we are weak in him, but we shall live with him by God's power towards you,) examine your own selves if ye be in the faith; prove your own selves: do ye not recognize yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you, unless indeed ye be reprobates?

The Speech of sin amongst the Corinthians, after they had been born again, questioned their new birth in Christ and thought to set the condition that it must be answered in its own speech else no 'proof' was acceptable. For the sin remained in their flesh as the sin remains in your flesh but is no longer any part of you. But God says through His Spirit through His son and apostle Paul that there was no proof but Christ in them. Seeing that the abiding Word of God was in them, how did He get there? It was then, through Paul who was himself spoken through by God His Word which creates and which is not sin. therefore sin is never answered and perpetually accuses in your own flesh that no such new birth has occurred. For God says:

Gal 5:17,18 For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these things are opposed one to the other, that ye should not do those things which ye desire; but if ye are led by the Spirit, ye are not under law.

How can the flesh lust against what doesn't exist? For as soon as the Word came you heard and knew that the spirit was not in some other place being a rumor to you but real and now in you as the abiding living Word of God.

Further, God says His Word that is in you will Speak to you, instruct you and speak through you:

Psa 16:7 I will bless Jehovah, who giveth me counsel; even in the nights my reins instruct me.

and

Prov 22:17-19 Incline thine ear, and hear the words of the wise, and apply thy heart unto my knowledge. For it is a pleasant thing if thou keep them within thee: they shall be together fitted on thy lips. That thy confidence may be in Jehovah, I have made [them] known to thee this day, even to thee.

In the Name of Jesus Christ, Amen