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Why is there so much pain and suffering in the world and how do we handle it in a way that won't destroy us, but could actually make us stronger, wiser and more hopeful all month long on Gospel and Life. And Tim Keller is teaching from the book of First Peter and looking at how Peter encouraged early believers who were facing intense suffering in pain. In his book, Walking With God through pain and suffering, Dr. Keller takes a deeper look at how, with God's help, we can face life's most intense challenges and confront the hard questions on suffering. Through deep pastoral insight and real life stories, Dr. Keller explores how we can face pain and suffering in our own lives. This month, Walking with God Through Pain and Suffering is our thank you for your gift to help Gospel and Life share the message of Christ's love and compassion with people all over the world. So request your copy today@gospelandlife.com give that's gospelandlife.com give now here's Dr. Keller with the remainder of today's teaching.

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Now secondly, and these are very closely tied, we see it's so central because it's necessary. Well, it's almost the same thing. Not quite. You see, as we read before, all men are like grass and all their glory is as the flower of the field. The grass withers and the flowers fall, but the word of the Lord stands forever. Now what is it saying? The reason it's central is because all of us are grass. Put it this way. I'm sure that Jesus Christ talked to many people about the new birth. But the only person that John the gospel writer records talking to Jesus about the new birth is Nicodemus. Why? Now? I think John had a reason and here's my guess why. Nicodemus had it all. He had it all together. You know, first of all, Nicodemus was a Pharisee. And a Pharisee is someone who knew the Bible inside out and was morally scrupulous and a very, very, very conscientious person. Oh, somebody says yes, but the Pharisees were narrow minded and bigoted and Jesus didn't like them. That's true, but not this one. Here's a guy who knew Jesus, who loved Jesus, who was concerned, was open to him. Here's a man who would risk his entire reputation and his job to talk with him. So you see, combined with his biblical knowledge and with his moral scrupulosity, you have an openness and a flexibility of spirit and a willingness to listen to Jesus. And of course, he was also a civic leader because he's a member of Sanhedrin. He had it all. And what does Jesus say to Nicodemus? See, this is what's so good. He says Nicodemus You, Nicodemus, you, you master Bible student. You morally scrupulous person. You civic leader, you compassionate and open person. You fan of Jesus Christ. You need to be born again. Which means none of these things counts for anything with regard to getting into the kingdom of God. You want to get into the kingdom of God, Nicodemus. These things count zero. You're in the very same spot as Mary Magdalene, the street prostitute. They count zero. See? Well, somebody says, how can that be? How could that be? In fact, that's what Nicodemus said. How can that be? Why do I need to be born again? Maybe this person or that person. Why do I need to be born again? And Jesus says, marvel not. Are you a teacher in Israel? You don't know these things. Look, a person at sea level looks at a person standing on 100 Foot Hill and feels that person's up pretty high. And the person on the hundred foot hill feels, looks down at the person on sea level and thinks that person is down pretty low. But the person on the top of Mount Everest, you know, 29, 30,000ft high, looking down on these two people know that they are virtually the same distance from the summit. I mean the distance is virtually nil. And anybody who thinks the person on the hundred foot hill is way high up has the limited perspective, you know, it has a limited horizon. In the same way God looks down at us and we're all ravaged with sin. What is sin? Well, sin, the Bible tells us, is playing God. You know what that means? It means you're your own savior. It means you're your own judge and you're living for your own glory. You're your own savior. That means you think you know how you can become an acceptable person. You've found ways to earn your salvation. See, you define your salvation. You get there, you're your own judge. You call the shots. What is right and wrong in your life? You live for your own glory, for your own happiness. What are you doing? You're your own God. Now I know for the last 80 years almost, you know, all your professors in all of our colleges and universities have said that's a mature, modern 20th century individual. But the Bible says it's the essence of sin. Because what you're and the reason your life is going so poorly is because you have taken on a job that you're unqualified for. And all of us know what it's like to be in a job you're under qualified, you're under qualified for, you can't handle. Now here's Nicodemus. And here's Mary Magdalene. And they're both doing the same thing. They're just spinning out. They're living to be their own God. They're living to be their own Savior. They're living to be their own judge. They're just spinning out this in a different way. You know, you can walk into a hospital ward and here's a woman and she's raving and she's screaming and she says she's in pain. And here's another person over here calmly asleep with a smile on her face. Which one's more sick? Don't judge too quickly. Maybe this person has just got a raving fever and it's about to break. And maybe this person is dying of a tumor on the inside and doesn't have long to live. Don't you see? Which one's more of a sinner, Mary Magdalene, huh, with the raving fever or Nicodemus with the silent self righteousness eating away at his entrails? Spiritually? Oh, the Bible's penetration sweeps away all of the worldly, superficial distinctions between good and bad. It doesn't talk about good and bad the same way we do 100ft down, you know, up. Down on sea level, from God's point of view, there is no difference. All are grass, all are fading. None are righteous. No, not one. Every one of us. Some in morally respectable ways. Some are using morality and using religion and using the church as a way to be their own savior. And other people are killing and murdering and raping as a way of being their own savior. And God looks at them and says, all our grass, Nicodemus, all of your accomplishments, all of your abilities, they count zero. You must be born again. Now, that's good news. That's the reason why the new birth is central, because it's necessary for everybody, no matter who you are. By the way, that's good news, isn't it? If any of you have been in New York for a while, you know it's good news. You know why? Because if you live in New York, you know, there's a lot of people who for years and years have said to you, you know, explore your desires, try things out. Don't limit your options. And so you've experimented with a lot of things. Yes, you've experimented and you've tried a lot of things. And, you know, some. Some of your concoctions have eaten their way right through your test tube and down into your knee, right through your clothes. You've really made a mess of things with all of your experimenting. And you've done some things that you can't forget. And you've done some things that make you feel awful and dirty. Here's the good news. You're not behind. You look at these other people who've made. Who seem to have got it together morally. They seem to have got it together vocationally. And look at yourself. And look where you are. This is the good news. You, Nicodemus, you Mary Magdalene, you're in the same spot. Don't you see, friends? No matter what you've done with your life, you're not behind. You're not behind the Nicodemuses. You must be born again. That's good news and it's bad news. Don't you see? It's hope and it's challenge. You must be born again. Why? All are grass. All are grass. Thirdly, we said the new birth is central. Secondly, we said the new birth is necessary. But now we can actually more quickly and just say, what is it? It is a definite, supernatural, complete and coherent event. First of all, when it says you have been born again, that is in the Greek, it's a past perfect. Now, a past perfect means an event that happened and is over, but its effects continue. A past perfect is an event that's over and is done with, but its effects continue. So, for example, in English, it's like, you know, in this case, it's not much different than our English language. If you say, I was accepted at Harvard, well, you were accepted at Harvard. That's a past thing that happened. You were accepted at Harvard two years ago, and it's over. The acceptance is over. But now, of course, the effects, the fact that you have access to the educational resources of the institution, the effects continue. But it's over. When the Bible says you must be born again. And when it says you have been born again, it's talking about a definite action in the past. You know what it means to be a Christian? A Christian is not somebody who's sort of endlessly hoping to trying to be a good person. Oh, no. Something has happened to you. There is a definite event. There is a definite moment. Now, having said that, be careful. People just. Let me just give you an illustration here. People feel that in order to ensure they're born again or in order to be sure somebody else is born again, that you've got to be conscious of when that moment was. Not always. Oh, no. Think of real births. Ah, the varieties. Some babies take forever to come. Endless contractions, right, mothers? Endless contractions. Three days. You go to the doctor. Only 2 cm dilated. How can it only be 2 cm dilated? On and on and on and on it goes. And some babies, two contractions and whammies in the taxi cab, right there on the back seat in the elevator. Some babies come forever, takes forever. An enormous number of contractions. Others just come like that. I felt a little bit of pressure. Good night. What happened? Some births are full of pain. Other births, just a little bit of pressure. Some babies come out, you know, kicking and screaming, in fit, and other babies come out almost dead. And they rush them into the intensive care unit, and it may be days before they even become conscious. Are any of these babies more born than any other ones? Do we talk about, oh, that one wasn't born as much as that one was? No, we don't talk about that. They were all born because there was a moment in which they passed from death to life. A moment from which they passed actually, in their case, from darkness into light. And in the same way, what does it mean to be born again spiritually? It means that though there may be incredible varieties of ways in which people come, one of, you know, each one of us is as born again as the next. There's a moment, but you may not be conscious of where that moment is, you know. C. Everett Koop tells the story of his conversion. He was a surgeon at Children's Hospital in Philadelphia. And one night, a nurse, a lady that he knew, took him to Tenth Presbyterian Church. And he sat in the balcony and he listened to the sermon. And he thought, this is interesting. And he says, I was an observer. I thought it was interesting. I thought I'd come back. I didn't really get it. I didn't really know. He says one year later, he had not missed a service. And he says, I suddenly realized about a year later that I wasn't an observer anymore. I was a participant. I wasn't a seeker anymore. I was a worshiper. He says, I suddenly realized that the same things that were being taught, I believed. He says, I wasn't sure where it happened. I realized I was born again, but I'm not sure where. You see, on the other hand, you have Martin Luther. He's sitting there, and he doesn't understand. He doesn't understand. He's reading Romans 1:17. And he says, suddenly, I realized that there's a righteousness that comes from God and is received by faith. And the moment I receive it, I begin to live. And he says, at that moment, I felt I was ushered through open gates into paradise. You see, some people, all the contractions in the world, they take forever. Some people, two contractions and in the back of the taxicab. But they're all born again. There's a definite event, there's a definite moment in which it happens. So it's definite. Okay. Be very careful, though. You know what? From what I can tell, a mother who's had one child likes to talk to an expectant mother who's had no children and tell her all about it. Oh, this is how it'll be. You know, once you've had eight or nine children, you stop giving advice. They say, not just because you're tired, because you realize there is no way that they all come. They all come differently, except they all come. They're all born. But one is not more born than the next. It's a definite event. Something happens to you. But secondly, it's a supernatural event because it says you're born of imperishable seed, not of perishable. Now, what that means is something fairly simple but extremely important. The Greek word for born again here is a little unusual. The normal word for born is geneo, from which we get a word, generation, you know, to generate something, you know, that makes sense. But this word is onageneo, which actually is the word not for the mother's role in birth, but. But the father's role, insemination. It's actually a word for planting a seed. And it tells us about that seed. It says we've been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable, through the living and enduring word of God. Now, it doesn't say that the word of God is the seed. It says it comes. And I'll mention that in one second. But what is that imperishable seed? You're built of perishable seed. This is the reason why the older I get, the more I start to fall apart. I'm made of perishable seed. This is the reason why you and I find, no matter how hard we try, we say, I'm going to be a new person on this. You know, you have New Year's resolutions. I'm turning over a new leaf, and you never can do it. You're made of perishable. But this tells us that the imperishable seed can be planted. And what is that seed? It's second Peter 1:4. We become partakers of the divine nature. It's laid into us, it's put into us. Okay? It's pressed into us. And that is what you need and that's what comes. It's supernatural. Ah, but not only. Okay, it's a definite event. It's a supernatural event. It comes from imperishable seed. Okay, but then, look, it's a complete change. The word born again. Why would Peter talk about it this way? Why would he talk about it? Why did Jesus use the term? Why did they all use the term? Because it's so radical. They wouldn't talk about being born again unless they were trying to say, this is as radical a change as possible. And somebody says, all right, well, tell me what exactly this means when I get this imperishable seed. What happens? You get a totally new outlook. You become totally new because you see things differently and you desire things differently. And I don't have really any time to go too much into this, but just consider this. A plant is a lower order of life than an animal, and human beings are higher orders of life than an animal. An animal is lower order of life than a human being. Why? The plant has sensation. It can sense some things, but there's a lot of things that it can't sense in its environment because it can't see. The animal can see it. All right, but let's move up. The animal can see a lot of things that the plant can't see, but it can't see a lot of things that the human beings can see because it doesn't have rational sight. For example, it can't tell the difference between tragedy and cruelty and justice and compassion. We see it. Is there such a thing as cruelty? Yes, but an animal can't see it. And so you see, in a sense, there are different orders of life. And to the next lower order of life, the next higher order of life is incomparable. And to the higher order of life, the next lower order of life is a form of living death. If a person becomes a vegetable, we call them, they're still alive, but they've gone down. Now, the Bible tells us that when the imperishable seed comes into your life, you are brought to the highest order of life, of all eternal life. Oh, what does that mean? What it means is as he, as Jesus says to Nicodemus, you must see the kingdom of God. You have to be born again to see it. He didn't just say to enter it, though. He said that to see it. You won't get it. You won't understand it before you're born again. You may believe in a general way that God is holy. You may believe in a general way that Jesus died For you. But when you're born again, here it is. Here it is, you see, becomes real. Heaven, hell, Jesus dying on the cross. All these things before you're born again. You may either think they're nonsense or you may believe in them in a general way, but you don't see them when you're born again. You see them. Why? Because the perishable seed, imperishable seed, comes through the word of God. It always comes through the truth. It is a coherent. It's a coherent experience. When. Look, when William Holland was one of the Wesleys friends, you know how he got converted? This is in the 1740s, he said. Mr. Charles Wesley was reading the preface to Martin Luther's commentary on the Galatians out loud. And I heard these words. What have we then? Nothing to do? No, nothing but only accept of him who of God is made unto us to be wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption. And when I heard those words, he said, there came such a power over me as I cannot well be describe. My great burden finally fell off at an instant. My heart was so filled with peace and love that I burst into tears. My friends, perceiving me so affected, fell on their knees around me and prayed. And when afterwards I went out into the street, I could scarcely feel the ground I was walking on. What happened? He had heard the gospel. He had heard it before, but he never saw it. He had heard that Jesus died for him, that he couldn't be saved by his good deeds, but only by the grace of Jesus Christ. But he finally saw it. The imperishable seed came in through the word of God. I tell you, when people say the new birth is for emotional types, that is the silliest thing in the world. It doesn't say that the imperishable seed comes in through the emotions. It comes in through the understanding. I get it. And the way you can tell you're born again is in many cases the same truths that you may have heard in Sunday school being raised up in it. Or the same truth that made no sense to you after having gone to college and you got rid of all of it. All of a sudden you actually see them. They become coherent, they become real, they become affecting, they comfort you. Now you live off them. They thrill you or they disturb you, but they affect you because you've moved up one more notch. You're not just a plant, you're not just an animal. You're not just a human being. You're a child of God. You don't Just have animal life, physical life. You don't just have even rational life. You've got spiritual life. Has that happened to you? Look at the baby rolling around on the ground. She can't tell you too much about herself. She can't tell you too much about what it means to be born. But you can see she's there. She's got an appetite. She can sense things. Are you born again? If you're born again, there's life, there's activities, there's vitality. Truths are dawning on you in ways you never saw before. Has that ever happened to you? If not, you're not born again. Has there been a definite time? You may not be able to put your finger on the moment, but you can see something happen in this time frame. Has that happened? Has something supernatural happened to you? Have you been changed in such a way that you can't account for those changes? They must be supernatural. They can't be naturally explained. You understand this necessity and the centrality of the new birth. Without it you can't be holy. And without that, you will never be able to process the suffering and troubles of this life in such a way that it turns you into a great heart. You must be born again. Marvel not that I say unto you. You must be born again. Let's pray. Our Father, we ask now that you would enable us to to rejoice if we are born again and be convicted and aware of it if we are not. So I really ask, Lord, that by your spirit, those who in this room understand the new birth would rejoice in their their recognition and their realization of it. And that also those in this room who begin to realize that they have not experienced this, they might be convicted, they might be drawn, they might be attracted, and they might not stop until they find out what it is. And I pray these things in Jesus name. Amen.

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Thanks for listening to today's teaching. It's our prayer that you were encouraged by it and that it helps you apply the Gospel to your life and share it with others. For more helpful resources from Tim Keller, visit Gospel. There you can subscribe to the Life in the Gospel Quarterly Journal. When you do, you will also receive free articles, sermons, devotionals and other great gospel centered resources. Again, it's all@gospelandlife.com you can also stay connected with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and X. Today's sermon was recorded in 1993. The sermons and talks you hear on the Gospel and Life Podcast were recorded between 1989 and 2017 while Dr. Keller was senior pastor at Redeemer Presbyterian Church.