Читать книгу Wondrous Love, and other Gospel addresses - Dwight Lyman Moody - Страница 27

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Now let us go back to the man to whom Christ said these words. I often rejoice He didn’t say this to the woman at the well, nor to Mary Magdalene. If He had said it to them, people would have said, “Oh, that poor woman needs to be converted; but I am a moralist; I don’t need to be converted. Regeneration will do for harlots, thieves, and drunkards, but we moralists do not need it.” But who did Christ say it to? He said it to Nicodemus. Who was he? He belonged to the house of bishops. Nicodemus stood very high; he was one of the church dignitaries; he stood as high as any man in Jerusalem, except the high priest himself. He belonged to the seventy rulers of the Jews; he was a doctor of divinity, and taught the law. There is not one word of Scripture against him; he was a man that stood out before the whole nation as of pure and spotless character. What does Christ say to him? “Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” I can see a scowl on his forehead. He says, “What do you mean by being born again—born from above, born of the Spirit? Now I am old, can I a second time enter my mother’s womb, and be born again?” Jesus saith, “Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” He didn’t take back what He had said, but He repeated it. I can imagine Nicodemus was like tens of thousands of men in London to-day. The moment you talk to them about regeneration or conversion, there is a scowl on their forehead. They say, “I don’t understand it.” Of course, the natural man doesn’t understand spiritual things. It is a matter of revelation. A great many men try to investigate and find out God. Suppose you spend a little of your time in asking God to reveal Himself to you.