In the Holy Bible, there are two kingdoms, only two - the Kingdom of God and the kingdom of darkness. By nature spiritually, every one of us is born into the kingdom of darkness and are under the power of darkness (See Luke 1:79; John 8:12; 12:35; Acts 26:18; Ephesians 5:8; Colossians 1:13; I Peter 2:9; II Peter 1:11; I John 2:11). The King that rules over the Kingdom of God is the Lord Jesus Christ. The king that rules over the kingdom of darkness is Satan (Luke 11:20-22); he is the god of this present evil world (II Corinthians 4:4; Galatians 1:3). Is the devil your king, or is Christ Jesus your King? There must be a change of kings in your heart and life. Men may think they worship Allah, or Buddha, or some other god, but if they are not born again, they are in the kingdom of darkness, and they are doing service to the king over all the children of pride, Satan himself.
Just as the Iraqis were born under a tyrannic ruler called Saddam Hussein, even so are sinners born under a evil tyrannic ruler called Satan in a dark, miserable country called Sin. The Iraqis lived under Saddam Hussein vicious rule until someone came and liberated them. Until then, the Iraqis had no way of escape. Likewise spiritually, there is no way out of the kingdom of darkness which we dwell in spiritually, until Christ Himself comes and redeems us from the power of Satan's rule over us. The only way to escape the kingdom of darkness and Sin is to beborn out of it. Every man is born in spiritual darkness; Adam's sin put out our eyes, we are all born without a spiritual optic, all of us are born blind and helpless. If you are not born again by the Spirit of God, you are in your natural sinful state, and there is no hope for you outside the moving and working of the Holy Spirit in your heart.
That's why Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." The only way to depart the kingdom of darkness and enter God's Kingdom is through being born again, the New Birth, that comes from above by the work of the Holy Spirit in our dead, sinful souls. Our sin is obnoxious to God, it condemns us before His bar of Judgment. Ye must be born again. It is an impossibility of you being saved and having your sins forgiven without being born again. The New Birth is the all-important change which must take place within your evil heart. You can only be born again, born from above, through the operation of the Holy Spirit. The New Birth is a radical, thorough, real, entire change of heart and mind.
That's why Jesus said, "Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of the water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God." The only way to depart the kingdom of darkness and enter God's Kingdom is through being born again, the New Birth, that comes from above by the work of the Holy Spirit in our dead, sinful souls. Our sin is obnoxious to God, it condemns us before His bar of Judgment. Ye must be born again. It is an impossibility of you being saved and having your sins forgiven without being born again. The New Birth is the all-important change which must take place within your evil heart. You can only be born again, born from above, through the operation of the Holy Spirit. The New Birth is a radical, thorough, real, entire change of heart and mind.
There is no possible way of getting into the Kingdom of God by you lifting yourself up by your own character and good resolutions. None of these will satisfy Divine Justice and bring you safely into the presence of a holy God. You must be born from above, God must reach down in mercy and lift you up from where you are, in Sin, to where He is, in Holiness and Righteousness. You live in this world of ungodly men. You are a man, you are in the flesh, you have a human spirit in your body, and it will never be more than a human spirit. That human spirit lacks Life, because it is dead in trespasses and sins (Ephesians 2:1; I John 5:12). That human spirit of yours is searching for something everlasting and immortal, but God must reach down and lift you up into His family and make you His own through the Blood of His Son.
You must be born from above - this is an absolute necessity. There are no other options or alternatives. You are a sinner; you are presently under the power, guilt, penalty, and condemnation of your sins. You need Life within - that is the essential thing. You may have everything else, but if you don't have Life, you do not have anything. The New Birth is a necessity that rules out everything else. It rules out your self efforts, turning over a new leaf, religiousness - it rules out all human wisdom and abilities. Your human efforts can never satisfy Divine Justice and give you Life within your dead spirit. Man's side of the New Birth is *Believing* (receiving Christ Jesus into yourself by faith), and God's side is *Regeneration* (giving the sinner Eternal Life through the power of the Holy Ghost). God reaches down and lifts you up out of your sin into Life Eternal (John 11:25; 14:6; 17:3) when you personally take and receive God's Son into yourself. Come to Jesus now by Faith, and Rest your soul's whole weight upon Him.
You must be born from above - this is an absolute necessity. There are no other options or alternatives. You are a sinner; you are presently under the power, guilt, penalty, and condemnation of your sins. You need Life within - that is the essential thing. You may have everything else, but if you don't have Life, you do not have anything. The New Birth is a necessity that rules out everything else. It rules out your self efforts, turning over a new leaf, religiousness - it rules out all human wisdom and abilities. Your human efforts can never satisfy Divine Justice and give you Life within your dead spirit. Man's side of the New Birth is *Believing* (receiving Christ Jesus into yourself by faith), and God's side is *Regeneration* (giving the sinner Eternal Life through the power of the Holy Ghost). God reaches down and lifts you up out of your sin into Life Eternal (John 11:25; 14:6; 17:3) when you personally take and receive God's Son into yourself. Come to Jesus now by Faith, and Rest your soul's whole weight upon Him.
You were born into a very bad family: the family of Adam. You need to make a family switch and change families. You need to be adopted into a new family. This is a crucial change. Your physical ancestor is Adam who was created by God in Genesis 2, but then Adam fell into sin in Genesis 3. You now have Adam and Eve's DNA in you. But Adam's deadly sin nature has also been passed on to you from your parents (Psalm 51:5). Your very nature is polluted with the evil of sin. Your relationship to Adam guarantees that your outcome will be eternal death (Romans 5:12; I Corinthians 15:21-22). Only the Holy Ghost can send home the word of God to a sinner's heart, apply the truth to a man's guilty soul, and plant the Gospel seed deep in the ground of the heart and make it stick and take root.
You must Return to God by the way of the Cross. There is no other way on this earth to Heaven but through faith in the Atoning Blood of God's Son. Men have invented whole religions and theories (evolution) to prevent coming to Jesus Christ's Blood for free salvation. Human nature would rather try to work its way to heaven and end up going to Hell, than trusting the Man who loved them to death, a bloody death on the Cross. Your secret sins are in the light of God's countenance, God sees you all the time, He knows what you're up to. God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good or whether it be evil. God knows the secrets of the heart.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel. That's what troubles the sinner's conscience. The only way you can avoid hitting the Judgment and suffering eternal damnation for your sins against your Maker is to trust and receive the Sin-Bearer, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Christ Jesus is the one Person who paid for your sins, so you wouldn't have to pay for them. Evolution is a pipe dream for grown ups, it was dreamed up to give those folks who love sin some fig leaves to hide behind here on earth. If you reject the Way (John 14:6) that God gave you to stay out of Hell, because of your bitter pride, you will wind up in a Lake of Fire.
The eyes of the Lord are in every place, beholding the evil and the good. God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to the Gospel. That's what troubles the sinner's conscience. The only way you can avoid hitting the Judgment and suffering eternal damnation for your sins against your Maker is to trust and receive the Sin-Bearer, Jesus Christ, God manifest in the flesh. Christ Jesus is the one Person who paid for your sins, so you wouldn't have to pay for them. Evolution is a pipe dream for grown ups, it was dreamed up to give those folks who love sin some fig leaves to hide behind here on earth. If you reject the Way (John 14:6) that God gave you to stay out of Hell, because of your bitter pride, you will wind up in a Lake of Fire.
The first birth also means, as a sinner, your 'spiritual ancestor' is Satan (John 8:44; I John 3:9-10). When Adam yielded to Satan in the Garden of Eden and sinned against God's words, Adam's spirit and soul died, and he became a child of Satan and partook of Satan's evil nature. If you are lost in your sin and without Christ today, you are kin to the devil. Having the devil as a spiritual father means your inevitable outcome is eternal judgment. All those souls in the devil's family, and not in the family of God will share in Satan's final outcome - the lake of fire.
What every sinner needs is a NEW BIRTH, a new Father, and a new family. The only way to get a new father is to experience the NEW BIRTH of the Spirit of God. The NEW BIRTH cannot be accomplished by human energy. The best we can do will never suffice. Jesus said, "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). When Jesus says "MUST," we had better listen very closely. We must realize and acknowledge that we are sinners to the core, we must receive the work of the Spirit in our hearts. Religious works and experiences can never bring the NEW BIRTH to pass in your soul. Your religion or reformation can never eradicate your sinful nature. Turn from your dead works and selfishness, let the Spirit of God wash you clean with God's blood and give you a NEW NATURE inside. God's family is only entered by the NEW BIRTH (I John 5:1; I Peter 1:3-4; Eph 2:19; Eph 1:11,18).
What every sinner needs is a NEW BIRTH, a new Father, and a new family. The only way to get a new father is to experience the NEW BIRTH of the Spirit of God. The NEW BIRTH cannot be accomplished by human energy. The best we can do will never suffice. Jesus said, "Ye must be born again" (John 3:7). When Jesus says "MUST," we had better listen very closely. We must realize and acknowledge that we are sinners to the core, we must receive the work of the Spirit in our hearts. Religious works and experiences can never bring the NEW BIRTH to pass in your soul. Your religion or reformation can never eradicate your sinful nature. Turn from your dead works and selfishness, let the Spirit of God wash you clean with God's blood and give you a NEW NATURE inside. God's family is only entered by the NEW BIRTH (I John 5:1; I Peter 1:3-4; Eph 2:19; Eph 1:11,18).
The reason why the Bible cannot be tolerated by lost men is because it treats "man" as a fallen, depraved, degenerate, sinful rebel whom his Creator will not accept on the grounds of his "humanity"- his First birth. In the Bible, the Lord God of Heaven and Earth demands a SECOND birth. All humanists, atheists, evolutionists, and pragmatists believe that "man" ("mankind") is the "measure of all things." The New Birth is a supernatural change within a man's nature that he cannot perform upon himself. The New Birth is work of God alone within the heart of a man. Let a man try to be as good as he can, let him be religious as much as he likes, but unless he is regenerated by the Holy Ghost, and has the New Birth, he still remains lost and ruined. There is one great distinction between men on earth, it's not their nationality, race, or religion, it's their spiritual state - every man is either a child of God, or a child of the devil, he is either born again, or dead in trespasses and sins.
The lost world thinks that MAN is the ABSOLUTE supreme authority when it comes to ethical and moral standards, conduct, motives, goal setting, progress, and knowledge-just as he "is"- without any New Birth. In short, this is why all eight major "religions" (Catholicism, Protestantism, Greek Orthodox, Islam, Buddhism, Taoism, Hinduism, and Judaism) emphasize man's ability to get to "Heaven" or "Paradise" or "Samadhi" or "Nirvana" or "Prajna" or the "Happy Hunting Ground" or "Valhalla" or etc., blah, blah, blah) by self-effort with no "new birth" required. If you die without the NEW BIRTH, you will bust hell wide open. "Religion" has always been the shortest shortcut any sinner could take to get to Hell; the road to the lake of fire is "paved with good intentions" (positive thinking about yourself) the whole way (Matt. 7:22; Prov. 14:12; Rom. 10:1-6; Ecc. 7:20; Psa. 39:5; Isa. 64:6).
"Religion" is a set of WORKS that sinners do to make themselves feel comfortable when they have a bad conscience (see Gen. 3:10). The Bible defines it as "the FIG LEAF factor" (Gen. 3:7; Matt. 21:19). Religions will teach that you can EARN immortality by WORKING your head off serving their church or temple, and being a good little boy or girl, good enough to EARN eternal life, so you can reject Christ and His FREE GIFT of salvation (Romans 5:15,18; 6:23). All religions lead to the same place - the eternal lake of fire. That is why there are so many religions and why so many people follow them instead of 'scriptural truth.' "Religion is the quickest way to HELL on which you can travel. It is an 10-lane paved slick highway, 'fully-lit' at night, and marked all the way without one curve, bump, or stop sign on it.
All the world religions are different so they can give a self-righteous sinner something 'special' which he can hold over the head of someone else, they appreciate their own 'belief.' By studying your religion, you raise your own self-esteem because you convince yourself that YOUR religion is better than theirs, and THIS gives you self-confidence, this self-confidence is satanic and will end up damning you. Every man has a conscience (Romans 2:15) with or without "religion," and every man has defiled his conscience or disobeyed it a number of times (Tit. 1:15; Rom. 9:1; Acts 9:5; 1 Tim. 4:2). When a man defiles his conscience, he then invents a set of "beliefs" and "teachings" by which he professes to live; he may or may not live up to them, according to how big a liar or hypocrite he is. Ridiculous religious beliefs are a dime a dozen, new ones come out every month.
Religions such as Catholicism, Jehovah Witnesses, Seventh Day Adventism, Taoism, Humanism, Greek Orthodox, Islam, Atheism, Buddhism, Christian Scientists, Baha'i, Church of Christ, Hinduism, Judaism, Charismatics, Shintoism, Agnostics, Protestants, Scientology, and Mormonism all have the same thing in common: they are all working their way to heaven in some way or fashion - they are just all different paths to the Lake of Fire that Satan has drawn out for self-righteous sinners that love themselves and reject Christ Jesus. All religious folks that trust in themselves and their religion do end up at the same place - The Lake of Fire. All religions are based on guilty consciences and self-righteousness no matter what 'beliefs' or 'teachings' they invent (I feel guilty, so I better go do better).
The purpose of all world religions and higher education is to destroy belief in 'absolute truth.' They will try to teach you this, all truths are 'relative,' and you are your own final authority, in other words, believe in yourself, you are God (Genesis 3:5). Man's sinful nature always tries to sidestep, duck, and dodge the truth of scripture, he loves 'relative' truths, he will avoid finding 'THE TRUTH' at any cost. Their alibi for sidestepping the truth is always "love" and "concern for others" or "being sensitive to others" or "a willingness to reach out and touch others" or "a meaningful exchange of ideas" or "doing good to your fellow man" or "making the world a better place to live in," "improving relations" or "building bridges" instead of "fences." They say, "Don't rock the boat, just believe whatever you think is right, just don't upset anyone. Let's get everyone to love each other at the expense of the absolute truth of scripture." But remember, Jesus Christ IS 'absolute truth' (See John 14:6). Modern man cannot tolerate truth; he must have his own opinions, delusion, deceit, equivocation, and counterfeit religion in order to carry out his purpose driven life in a seek for hope and change.
Your GREATEST NEED in this temporal life is to get out of your old family (Adam/Satan) and be 'born again' into a new family (Jesus Christ/God) through the NEW BIRTH. You need to switch families as soon as possible. Christ Jesus, God manifest in the flesh, left His majestic throne in Heaven, so free, so infinite His grace, He emptied Himself of all but love, and bled for Adam's helpless race (See Romans 5:8-9; 8:3; II Cor 5:21; Gal 3:13). Jesus Christ bore our infected sinful nature, our rotten sins, in His own body on the tree, so that we could freely be given His sinless nature (righteousness) freely by faith in His precious blood.
The NEW BIRTH comes through the simple gaze of faith at the Bleeding Lamb of God on Calvary's tree (John 3:14-16). You can't work up this faith - it is a gift of God - not of works, lest any man should boast. Don't look at your faith - look to Christ, He will give you faith and repentance freely. Believe in Christ alone, looking only to the Cross. Give up your dependence on yourself, your cleverness, your self-improvement, your plans of doing better or becoming religious - just look to Christ and receive the New Birth and everlasting life. The 'good life' is eternal life, and a life that God approves of, that's the Good Life.
The NEW BIRTH comes through the simple gaze of faith at the Bleeding Lamb of God on Calvary's tree (John 3:14-16). You can't work up this faith - it is a gift of God - not of works, lest any man should boast. Don't look at your faith - look to Christ, He will give you faith and repentance freely. Believe in Christ alone, looking only to the Cross. Give up your dependence on yourself, your cleverness, your self-improvement, your plans of doing better or becoming religious - just look to Christ and receive the New Birth and everlasting life. The 'good life' is eternal life, and a life that God approves of, that's the Good Life.
