Word of Truth

Pastor Martin turns from the Old Testament analogies of regeneration to the predominant New Testament analogy — the new birth. From John 3 he expounds both the necessity of the new birth (without it none can see or enter the kingdom of God) and its nature (the Holy Spirit is the special agent, spiritual cleansing is inseparable from the new birth as 'born of water and of the Spirit,' and sovereignty, mystery, and efficacy permeate it like the wind). He then shows the same truth in 1 John 3:9 where John hammers on the passive 'begotten of God' nine times, in James 1:18 ('of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth'), and in 1 Peter 1:3 and 23 (begotten by the resurrection of Christ and by the incorruptible seed of the preached word). He closes by directing the awakened sinner to cry to God for a new heart, refusing to be more fastidious than God who says 'for this will I be inquired of by the house of Israel.'