The New Birth | Billy Graham

Jesus said you must be born again to experience eternal life. In this 1982 sermon from Boise, Idaho, Billy Graham explains what that phrase means—and how you can be born again.
“Do you want to know what God’s will is for you? It is for you to become more and more like Christ. This is spiritual maturity, and if you make this your goal, it will change your life.”
― Billy Graham, Billy graham in quotes

From our archives, the Billy Graham plans.
Now I want you to turn with me tonight to the third chapter of John’s Gospel.
This man Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, probably afraid of criticism or he had a desire for a private conversation or maybe he wanted to give some more thought before committing himself to Jesus Christ.
In any event, he came and he asked Jesus some questions about spiritual life and Jesus looked him up and down and Jesus said, Nicodemus, you need to be born again.
In fact, he said, barely, barely.
And any time that Jesus uses that expression, that means that what is going to follow is very important.
He said very barely. I say unto you, you must, you have to be born again if you are to enter the Kingdom of heaven.
Two years ago, when we were touring Poland.
While we were there, we met a priest, a Monsignor who is head of one of the largest theological seminaries in the world.
And he said, I wanna tell you a story.
He said, I got my phd degree at the University of Chicago.
And one day I was riding in a bus and sitting behind me was a black woman and she punched me on the shoulder and she said, sir, I beg your pardon?
But have you ever been born again? And he said, well, I suppose I have.
He said, I’m a, I’m a priest. She said, that’s not the question I ask you, sir.
I asked you, had you been born again?
And he said, well, I, I’m, I uh she said, have you been born again?
And he said he went back to his rooms at the, at the university and got his bible down and turned to the third chapter of John and reread this passage and this passage spoke to him and he said he got on his knees and he had an experience with Christ that he’s never been able to get away from.
Now. He said my theology would tell me that I was probably born again at a different period.
But he said something happened. You can call it anything you want to commitment, recommitment, conversion, whatever something happened to me.
Now, the question I want to ask you tonight is, has that ever happened to you?
Give it some of the title?
Some of the name if you want, call it conversion, call it commitment, call it repentance, call it faith, call it whatever has it ever happened to you?
Many of you have thought a long time about religion and Christianity. Are you committed?
Are you committed to Jesus Christ? Jesus said, you must be born again.
Start with your hearts, be born from above. You can be changed. The world could be changed.
The country can be changed. A state can be changed. A family can be changed. A person can be changed.
You can be changed. Now, Nicodemus must have been stunned when Jesus said that to him because if Christ had said that to Zach, who’s a tax collector and they didn’t like tax collectors then much more than they do now.
But to say it to Nicodemus, one of the great religious leaders of his time, Nicodemus, it says was a ruler that meant that he was rich, he was religious and yet he was searching for reality.
How many of you go to church?
But you’re still searching, there’s still an empty place in your heart and something tells you inside that you are not really right with God.
You see Nicodemus fasted two days a week.
Do you know anybody in your church that does that? He spent two hours every day in prayer.
How many people do you know that spend two hours every day in prayer? He tied all his income.
Not many people even do that these days.
He was a professor at the theological school of theology and he worked hard at religion.
But Jesus said Nicodemus, that’s not enough. You must be born again, born from above.
Now, why did Jesus say that to Nicodemus? Because he could read the heart of Nicodemus.
He saw what was in him.
He saw that he had covered himself with religion, but he had not yet found the real thing.
Fellowship with God. What causes all of our troubles in the world, lying and cheating and hate and prejudice and social inequality and ultimately war.
Jesus said these things which proceed out of the mouth, come forth from the heart and they defile the man.
He said it’s in our heart. He said our hearts need to be changed.
Psychologist and sociologist and psychiatrist all recognize there’s something wrong with man.
There are many words in scripture to describe it that I’ll take only three words.
one is called a transgression. Sin is a transgression of the law.
First, John 34, sin is a transgression of the law of what law, the law of Moses, the 10 commandments.
Have you ever broken one of those commandments? Then you’re guilty of all.
It’s also the breaking of the law of conscience. Have you ever gone against your conscience at any time?
Sure you have. And if you go against your conscience very long, your conscience becomes dull and duller and duller until after a while, it’s a seared conscience and a dead conscience and your conscience is no longer a safe guide to go by it, lead you astray because you’ve gone against it so much.
And then there’s another when a commandment law, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart and soul and strength and mind and thy neighbor as thyself.
Have you always done that? No, then you’re a sinner in need of forgiveness, in need of being born again.
And then another word carries with it.
The idea of missing the mark or coming short of your duty and a failure to do what you ought to do.
The Bible says, all unrighteousness is sin. All unrighteousness is sin.
And yet before you can get to heaven, you must, you must have righteousness.
God says, be perfect as I’m perfect. Holy as I’m holy. Where are you going to get that perfection?
You don’t have it now. Where are you going to get that holiness?
You don’t have it now, but you can’t get to heaven if you don’t.
That’s why Christ died on the cross.
He died on the cross and shed his blood to provide the righteousness for you so that He provides you with the right kind of clothing to go to heaven.
And the clothes that you must have are called the clothes of righteousness.
And that was provided for you by Christ.
And then there’s another word iniquity are turning aside from the straight path. Isaiah said, we are like sheep.
We’ve gone astray. We’ve turned everyone to his own way.
Now here in Idaho, I know that I think this is a sheep state.
Maybe the sheep state in the United States. I haven’t seen any goats around yet.
And maybe you have guilts too.
In New Zealand they cross the sheep and the goats and they call them Jeeps. That’s a fact.
And, uh, when we were in New Zealand, I couldn’t get over the fact of, of what they were doing.
I don’t know whether that improves them or destroys them. I don’t know.
But some of you don’t know whether you’re a sheep or a goat.
Now, see Jesus said at the judgment, there’s gonna be the goats on this side and the sheep on this side and the sheep are going to enter into the kingdom of God.
Of course, there he’s talking about the judgment of the nations, but it could be applied to individuals or it could be that you’re a God and the goats are going to be cast into outer darkness.
The Bible says, but one thing you’re not spiritually, you’re not a Jeep. You can’t be both.
You have to choose which one.
And if you would like to make that choice, watching by television, pick up that telephone and call that number that you see on the screen right now.
And a counselor standing by to talk to you and to help you find Christ as your Lord and master, help you with your spiritual problems.
They’re all over the country.
So call right now and if it’s busy call again, they’ll be there all evening.
If the lines are tied up, keep calling, don’t give up the Bible says where as by one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin.
And so death passed upon all men for all have sinned. Thus, a radical change is needed by every person.
We need those sins forgiven.
We need to be clothed in the righteousness of God for the purpose of finding fulfillment in this life, finding something to commit yourself to.
What are you committed to? Are you a committed person? Do you really believe in a cause?
Do you really believe in a person that symbolizes that?
Cause why don’t you make your calls Christ and follow him? He’ll never let you down.
And then not only to find complete fulfillment in this life, but also to be acceptable with God to be acceptable by God.
Now, some of you would ask the question, what is the new birth? Nicodemus asked that question.
He said, how can a man be born when he’s old? You see Nicodemus like you and me?
He wanted to understand it. He wanted to understand it.
Now, I used an illustration years ago that I couldn’t understand because I was born and read on a dairy farm.
And I still wake up at night with nightmares doing this way because I had to get up every morning during high school at 3:00 and milk 20 cows.
And then when I came home from school, I had to milk those same 20 in the afternoon, my father had a small dairy had about 60 cows that we milked and then we would sell the milk door to door, have a little dairy truck that took the milk early in the morning.
And that’s all I remember almost as I was a boy because we worked hard on that dairy farm.
But how can a black cow eat green grass and produce white milk and yellow butter?
I don’t understand that. Well, I’ll tell you what because I don’t understand it.
I’m never gonna drink milk again. I’ve got to understand that before I can drink milk.
I almost quit milk when the cow stepped in the bucket and it just kept on milking.
I don’t understand color television. Do you know that?
I am so old that I can remember when there was no television and I tell that to one of my grandchildren, they look at me as though I came out of the arc.
I can remember when they were, we didn’t have any radio.
In fact, I remember the first station that came on, there was K D K A in Pittsburgh.
And my dad had an old crystal set set and he said, I think we’ve got it and got earphones and went to all stand around to try to listen.
The only station on there in the United States.
I told him, well, you can’t imagine a world without paved highways.
You ought have seen the two ruts in front of our house that went clear to town.
They were on the two paved streets in our whole town.
Well, suppose I would say because I don’t understand television how somebody can be in Rome or New York or Jerusalem or some place like that.
And I can see him instantaneously on my set. I don’t understand it.
I’m not going to watch it and I push the button to turn it off.
I’ve got to understand it first. Why you’d say you’re crazy.
Well, of course, I don’t understand these computers. I don’t understand all these things that they’re developing.
This whole scientific age has passed me by.
We didn’t study that in the school I went to, but I accepted by faith.
You see, Nicodemus could see only the physical and the materialistic.
And Jesus was talking about the spiritual Jesus said you must be born again.
Now, when he said that he did not mean that you can inherit it.
You cannot inherit it, which were born, not of blood, not the will of the flesh and the will of man, but of God.
Your father and mother can be the greatest, born again Christians in the world.
But that doesn’t make you a born again Christian.
I can be born in a garage, but that doesn’t make me a motor car.
And there are many people that have the idea that because they are born in a Christian home that they’re automatically Christians.
Well, you’re not and you cannot work your way alone, not by works of righteousness which we’ve done.
But according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit.
And then reformation is not enough.
You can reform and say, I’m gonna turn over a new leaf and I’m going to have New Year’s resolutions and all the rest of it.
Isaiah said, all our righteousness is filthy rags, rags in the sight of God.
If you take a pig and take him into your living room and into the bathroom, give him a good bath, wash him down with some Chanel # 5, put a ribbon around his neck, bring him in the living room.
You say now I’ve got a new pig. He’s, he’s turned into a perfect gentleman.
Look at him sitting over there, you open the door, let the pig out and see where he goes.
His heart has been changed. Only the outside have been changed.
And that’s the way with some of us, we’ve been changed some on the outside to conform to certain social standards or certain things that are expected of us in our churches and yet down inside, we’ve never been changed.
Now, that’s what Jesus was talking to Nicodemus about.
He said, Nicodemus, you need changing inside and only the Holy Spirit can do that.
You must be born from above. That’s a supernatural act of God.
The Holy Spirit convicts you of your sin disturbs you about the fact that you’ve sinned against God.
And then secondly, the Holy Spirit regenerate you. That’s when you are born again.
And then the Holy Spirit comes to live in your heart to help you in your daily life.
You don’t live here alone without any help.
The spirit of God goes with you from now on to give you assurance, to give you joy and to produce fruit in your life and to teach you the scriptures, you can’t reform, that’s not enough and you can’t imitate you, try to imitate Christ.
They used to have uh there was a book Sheldon wrote called in his steps.
And people thought that all you had to do is try to follow Jesus and try to do the things he did and you’d get to heaven, you can’t do it.
We can’t live up to the sermon on the mount.
You try living up to the sermon on the mount. Literally, you can’t do it.
You don’t have that kind of spiritual strength.
I told a story that happened many years ago from a couple in Oklahoma and they had read about this play in New York called my fair lady.
And they told everybody they were going to New York and they were gonna see my fair lady.
What they didn’t know is that it was sold out four or five months in advance when they got there, they couldn’t buy any tickets.
So they said, what are we gonna do? Our friends all back home will think.
We saw my fair lady. We’re gonna be embarrassed. So they hit up on a good idea.
They went over and they bought one of the books that you could buy for a dollar that told all about the play.
And then they saw people, they waited until people started coming out of the theater and they saw some of them throwing their tickets aside that had been cut in half.
And so they went over and picked up some tickets.
Then they began to hum and sing.
I could have danced all night or on the street where she lives or one of those tunes in my fair lady.
And when they got home, they were humming the tune, they had the book that told about it and they had the tickets and everybody thought they’d been to see my fair lady and that’s the way you are.
You know, the religious language. You can sing the songs, you can even pray the prayers.
The only thing is you haven’t been to the foot of the cross and been born again.
That’s the message Jesus was trying to get over to this religious leader.
Now, to be born again means in Ezekiel 36.
A new heart also will I give you and a new spirit will I put within you in Romans.
Paul speaks of it as being alive from the dead in 2nd Corinthians.
He calls it being a new creation, all things have passed away. Behold, all things become new.
And Peter Peter says, partakers of a divine nature. John calls it passing from death unto life.
The new birth brings about a change in the whole philosophy and manner of living.
Now, how is it accomplished? What happens? Well, there’s a mystery.
Jesus said the wind blows where it listed and you cannot tell from whence it cometh or where it go, you can see the result.
Now, the other day, I did not see when we had that terrible storm a couple days ago, I did not see the wind.
Did you? I saw the effects of it.
I saw limbs flying by parts of a roof torn off, flying by the dust, going by the willow trees bending over.
I saw the results of the wind, but I never actually saw the wind and neither did you.
You see the wind blows where it listed?
Jesus said there’s a mystery to it.
And the analogy of natural birth, I think applies here, you see natural birth is the moment of conception.
Then there’s the nine months of gestation and then there’s actual birth.
Now, you may be in one of those stages tonight. This may be the moment of conception for you.
It may be another stage of gestation or it may be actual birth.
Only the Holy Spirit could answer that question. That’s the mystery of it.
There is a mystery that I cannot explain to you and Jesus did not attempt to explain it to Nicodemus.
You see, that’s why we had to come by faith to Christ. We can never understand it.
Our little finite minds cannot understand the infinite, our finite minds cannot understand the mighty God.
We come by simple child like faith and put our faith in Jesus Christ.
And when you do, you are born again, but it happens this way.
First, there has to be the reception of the word of God.
And I believe that is conception first Peter 1 23 being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever.
And then in Romans 10 faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God.
Now tonight you are hearing and you’re hearing the word of God. And that’s the first step.
It pleased God by the foolishness of preaching or declaration or proclamation to save them.
That believe it sounds foolish that men can stand up and use words out of a Bible.
And that has power to penetrate your heart and change your life.
But it does because it’s God’s Holy Word.
This is not an ordinary book, this is a living book, a living word.
And then there’s the work of the Holy Spirit.
As I’ve already explained, he convicts and when he has come, he will reprove the world of sin and righteousness and judgment.
And then he dwells, he changes us.
He changes our wills, our affections, our objectives for living our disposition.
He gives us a new purpose, a new goals.
All things pass away and everything becomes new and then He dwells.
No, you not that you are the temple of God and that the spirit of God dwell in you.
Does God the holy spirit live in you? If there’s a doubt about it, pick up that telephone.
If you’re watching by television and call that number and a counselor will be there to help you to make sure that you have been born again.
You remember the story in the Bible of Naman.
Naman was the general command in chief of all the armies of Syria.
And Syria is much in the news these days, he was commander in chief.
He had everything the king had honored him, but he was a leer and he knew that in a short time he was going to be thrown out of the military and he was going to be just a person going around with a little bell saying, keep away, keep away, keep away.
I’m a leah, I’m a leer. I’m a leper.
And he heard a little slave girl from Israel tell about a wonderful man that could heal him over in Israel.
And he went to his king and the king said, if anybody in Israel can heal you, please go.
And he went and when he finally came to this man, after a number of experiences.
The prophet said, go to the Jordan and dip seven times and on the seventh time you will be healed, told a servant to tell him that.
In fact, the prophet didn’t even come out to see the general, the general was there and all of his uniform and all of his men and the prophet just stayed back in the kitchen somewhere, didn’t even come out and greet, just sent word to him.
And the general turned away and disgust.
But one of his captains said to him or one of his aides said, sir, if he had told you a hard thing, you’d have done it.
He said, go to the Jordan.
He said, yeah, but the Jordan river is muddy and our rivers are clear that Jordan river can’t do anything.
He said, well, why don’t you try, sir? You’re a leper. You’ve got to do something.
So the general went to the Jordan river and he dipped himself 4 or 5 times and he said, see the leprosy still there?
It doesn’t do any good. But sir, he said seven times.
So went down for the seventh time and when he came up, his skin was clean.
Whole, the thing that had saved him was the fact that he did what the prophet had told him.
The greatest prophet of them all is Jesus Christ. And he says, you must be born again.
How do you become born again? Repenting of sin? That means you’re willing to change your way of living.
And you’ll say to God, I’m a sinner and I’m sorry, simple child like and then by faith, receive him as your Lord and master and savior and then be willing to follow him and a new life of obedience in which the Holy Spirit helps you as you read the Bible and pray and witness.
If there’s a doubt in your mind that you have been born again, I hope you’ll settle it before you leave here tonight.
Because the Bible says now is the accepted time. Today is the day of salvation.
The Bible says, he that hardened his heart, being often reproved shall suddenly be cut off.
And that without remedy, you just can’t come to God any time you want to, you can only come when the Holy Spirit is drawing and he’s speaking to you tonight in answer to the prayers of thousands of people in Idaho and throughout the country come to Christ tonight.
Why do I ask people to come publicly?
We’ve seen several 1000 people do what I’m going to ask you to do.
I ask you to come publicly because Jesus said, if you don’t acknowledge me before men, I will not acknowledge you before my father, which is in heaven.
He hung publicly for you on the cross.
Certainly, you can come in front of this audience in this beautiful stadium and receive him into your heart.
I’m going to ask you to do that right now.
If you’re with friends or relatives, they’ll wait on you.
But I’m going to ask you to come and stand here in front of the platform and this is a symbolic act of an inward decision that you’re making.
And after you’ve all come, I’m going to say a word to you and have a prayer with you and give you some literature, then you can go back and join your friends.
God bless you. It’s wonderful to know that tonight can be a night of new beginning for you.
You say, well, how take a moment to call that number on your screen or to write to Billy Graham tonight or this week and let him know about your desire and we’ll send you some help through the mail that will encourage you and help you make your decision for Jesus Christ.
If you just prayed that prayer with my father, or if you have any questions about a relationship with Jesus Christ, I would just call that number that is on the screen.
There’ll be someone there to talk with you, pray with you and answer those questions and remember God loves you.
If you would like to commit your life to Jesus Christ, please call us right now.
Toll free at 18777724559. That’s 1877772 45 59.
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We’ll get the same helps to you that we give to everyone who responds at the invitation on behalf of Franklin Graham and the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association.
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