The believer who came along and told his story to a famous evangelical author, the author's name I will give, Alec Marshall. He wrote, God's Way of Salvation. He also wrote, Alexander Marshall, So Great Salvation. And a believer came to Alexander Marshall, told him that I was visiting a friend one day when one of the children in the family asked me to write my name in his birthday book, as he called it. And the man readily agreed to give in to the boy's request, and he wrote a signature on the space relevant in the book to his particular date of birthday. So, it's in the month of June. And yet, instead of closing the book and handing it straight back to that little boy, he kept turning over more leaves of that same book, until in the birthday book, he reached another month, the month of September. And again, he took up the pen, and he drew the nib across the page, and he wrote his name at a particular date in that month, September. And I'm sure you can imagine the surprise on the face of that little boy. He signed his date in in June, and he did it again in September, and he had an absolutely blank, maybe skeptical look, and he thought, this man has to be joking and pulling my leg here. But he said, no, Tommy, I have two birthdays in the year, one in June and the other in September. Go to your mother again, said Tommy, and she will explain to you because she too has two birthdays, and she's only five years old, according to her second one, and then speak to your father. He's but a year old in his second birthday, and your aunt, talk to her as well. She'll tell you what it's all about. She's only two years old according to her second birthday. And if he was puzzled at the beginning, he's even more puzzled by all of these second birthdays within the family. Shortly after that conversation, Tommy's father did enter the room as well. Immediately the child runs to him and he cries out, this man here tells me that he has two birthdays, he tells me that you have two birthdays as well, and that on your second one you're really only a year old. And the father took his boy onto his knee, he tried to explain as best he could, all real believers in Jesus Christ have two birthdays each year. The first when they're born as sinners into the world, the second when they're born again. The that Christ used to Nicodemus that we have read tonight in John chapter 3, when they're born again, and they become children of God by His Spirit and by the Word of God through faith and repentance in Jesus Christ. Now, as father and son are talking, the other man is still there in the room, a lady called by the family came into the room as well, and Tommy, seeing her come in, lifted up his book, ran over to her, and he said, Daddy and mommy have two birthdays in the year, and this man here, he has two birthdays as well, and he's written the dates of them in my book here." And then he looked at her, and he said, have you got two birthdays? That lady didn't like the question, and she instantly changed the subject by inquiring after Tommy's rabbits. Each one here has been born once. Otherwise, that's not rocket science. We wouldn't be here at all, so that's very self-evident. We've been born once. The question is, have we been born twice? Can we say, yes, I have got two birthdays along the line that you've been discussing here tonight? Because The first birthday, we were brought into the world by fleshly and natural birth, and we're told in the Bible that by that birth, we are born in transgression. You'll remember what David said in Psalm 51 and 5. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. I came into the world, he's saying here, as a sinner. Sin surrounded me. The seeds of sin, because of my old sinful, twisted nature, were already in me. I never, in other words, ever had to be given a lecture as a young child growing up. Here's three good ways to sin, because I sinned naturally. I sinned automatically. I sinned because it was in me to sin. I sinned because I loved to sin, and it wasn't long until iniquity naturally found its wicked way right out from my heart into the surface of my life, born in transgression. We were also, naturally, born unto trouble. Job knew all about trouble, and in Job 5, verse 6 and 7, the statement is made, although affliction cometh not forth of the dust, neither doth trouble spring out of the ground, yet man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward. And I think that's a very expressive figure. If you see somebody welding, and the sparks are raining all around him, as he gets the welding gun in there, and there's all that big shower of sparks coming out, and many times in the world we have, well, turn on the news any time, and it's pretty much bad news after more bad news after even more bad news. It would nearly seem to be all parts of the world are competing to have the worst news. We are born onto trouble. Job is right. As the sparks fly upward, it's a bleak picture. But listen, this is where the second birth, the new birth comes in. That which our Lord spoke about in, we read it in the Bible tonight, John chapter 3, verse 3, and again in verse 7, where he looks at Nicodemus. Nicodemus has come in. He wants to know answers to big, pertinent, weighty questions, and here's the track that our Lord takes him down and doesn't allow him to move off. Verily, verily, here's the truth, Nicodemus, here's the truth you and I today need to hear every bit as much as Nicodemus did back then. except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. And for emphasis, he comes back at Nicodemus, ye must, it's a non-negotiable, ye must be born again. This second birth is an absolute necessity if we're going to get into glory beyond the grave. You may buy a car, And maybe you'll be satisfied with the basic model. And even more satisfied when the salesman goes into overdrive and begins to say, no, if you want this, and it used to be metallic paint and all of that, all the options, the optional extras come into play, and that'll be 500 pounds. We bought a BMW, didn't realize you had to pay 500 pounds at source to have a folding back seat. a division in it. And here's me one day thinking, right, just let's get in there and put the whole back seat down because I can't see a division, and you can't do that either. It was an optional extra. The second birth is not an option for some, but not an option for others. It is essential. for all who will enter heaven. There is one means whereby this will happen. We need to be born again by the power and the Spirit of God. One old preacher put it quite expressively. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. What does he mean? If you or I go on without seeking for the pardoning mercy and the grace of Jesus Christ for all of those sins that we have committed from the day that we're born to the moment that we die, then we have a not just one death lowered into the grave to face, but a second death that goes on eternally. The eternal death of our soul, but not so for the saved person. At a certain hour of a certain week of a certain month of a certain year, they passed from being the children of wrath, for they repented of their sin by grace given to them. They had faith in Christ with their empty hands. Of faith, they had embraced the Savior as one who had died for them, taken the burden, the penalty of their sin. They left the broad road. They started out on the narrow. They passed from the old creation into the new. They rose from spiritual death into spiritual life, from spiritual darkness they came into spiritual light, from the savagery of sin and the devil into the glorious victory of the children of God, born twice. They will die but once. Destruction and hell will never be their portion. The fearsome, everlasting pangs of the pit will not torment them. That is a blessed news, and I hope you receive it and act upon it. Born once, die twice. Born twice, die once. Where do you fit? Which side of the semicolon in that sentence are you? What best describes where you are right now? If you're sitting in a meeting tonight and you're still not saved, you need to be. It's time you were. Israel here as a nation had languished for about 430 years in the scorching heat and in those sweaty brick kilns in the land of their captivity in Egypt. For decades and centuries here, clearly, they had lived out their existence as a huge company of slaves, and they were working to the whim and to the fancy of Egypt's pharaoh. But now, as we meet up with them in Exodus chapter 12, all of that is no more. Those days are gone. They're behind them. Well, why the change? How did it come about? By the blood of the Lamb being shed and being spread over their homes for their pardon and their protection. They did what God commanded for their safety, and God held true to His word, and they were saved. Israel received a new birthday, a second start to a new year, and we have thought all about that in Sunday evenings gone by. Look at verse 2 of Exodus 12. This month shall be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you. This paved the way out of the bondage into the blessings of the Lord and ultimately into the land of Canaan. We have thought about over the past number of weeks the circumstances about this day. Then we came secondly to the change from this day. That set of 24 hours when the blood flowed, the lamb was eaten, when the Egyptians were smitten, when God's chosen people were saved, that was a premier day. That was a prominent day. That was a purging day. It was also a pioneering day to have lived in the moment back then. Fantastic. To have been born again by the Spirit of God and to live in that moment is absolutely wonderful. But then we moved on to the commemoration of this day, and that's where we are tonight, the commemoration of this day. What had happened on this occasion was not to be forgotten. Yes, it'll be etched in the memory of those who, while they lived, could have passed it on to people coming after them, but God specifically tells them in these two chapters, here's a day that you need to remember. Here's something you need to mark. You need to put it in the the birthday book, keep the mark there in red, keep it in constant remembrance during the generations of this nation. For example, they were to look at this demand for the commemoration, the demand for the commemoration. When you study the two chapters we're looking at tonight, Exodus 12 and Exodus 13, you'll pick up a number of words. that's emphasizing to them how they needed to remember this occasion. For example, keep appears eight times in our English Bible. Observe comes in five times. A memorial is mentioned twice. Then the term an ordinance for ever occurs on three occasions, and to crown all of these prompts We have this message in Exodus 13, in the verse 3. And Moses said unto the people, Remember this day, in which ye came out from Egypt, out of the house of bondage. For by strength of hand, the Lord brought you out from this place. There shall be no unleavened bread eaten. Now, you add them up and you have something in the order of twenty instructions here given by God in these two chapters of His Word, and He's telling the people there is a distinct emphasis, must be, upon remembrance. That night when you experience redemption by blood is peculiarly memorable. And if you're saved tonight by the grace of God, you can look back to that time. when this happened in your experience. You can recall what you were. Israel were later encouraged to do exactly that. In Deuteronomy 5, in the verse 15, remember that thou wast a servant in the land of Egypt. And for the children of God here tonight, weren't we servants and slaves and in bondage, bondmen and bondwomen before we were saved? We were bound to filthy habits. We were chained to corruption. We were given over to the reckless pursuit of pleasure. We were no lover of God, but a rejecter of His grace. We were no friend of those who took an open, strong stand for the Word of Christ, because our hearts were filled with iniquity. Isaiah chapter 1 does not paint a very pleasant picture between verse 4 and verse 6, but it describes me spiritually before I was converted. Sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corruptors. They have forsaken the Lord. They have provoked the Holy One of Israel onto anger. They are gone away backward. And Isaiah goes on to say how the whole head is sick, the whole heart faint, from the sole of the foot even onto the head. There's no sinus in it, but what you have are wounds and bruises and putrefying sores, and no human treatment is enough for this. Sinners in the eyes of God, that's what we were. But like Israel, we remember what God did for us. How could we forget? Again, that last book of the Pentateuch, the Pentateuch being the first five books of the Bible, the five books of Moses. In Deuteronomy chapter 7 and the verse 18 and the verse 19, thou shalt not be afraid of them, but shalt well remember what the Lord thy God did. unto Pharaoh, unto all Egypt, the great temptations, which thine eyes saw, and the signs, and the wonders, and the mighty hand, and the stretched out arm, whereby the Lord thy God brought thee out." They were told to remember what God did. In Psalm 77, And to verse 10, 12, words are relevant. This is my infirmity, but I will remember the years of the right hand of the Most High. I will remember the works of the Lord. Surely I will remember thy wonders of old. I will meditate also of all thy work and talk of thy doings. And we can slip right into the psalmist's shoes there and say, yes, that's what I want to remember. It's a glorious memory. Isaiah 51 and 5 tells us to look onto the rock when she are hewn to the hole of the pit, when she are digged, and we can look back to those times, blackness and sorrow and sin and hopelessness. I tell you, it's horrible and it's humbling to remember that time, but what a difference grace makes, what a difference God makes. By the right arm of His power, through the saving strength of His anointed, the Lord Jesus, the God of the heavens, scans our plight. He sees our despair. He increases our sense of guilt and makes us feel our need of Him. He bends us to the point of breaking by unwavering conviction, and then He lifts us out of the mire. We are free and we are safe and we are delivered. C. H. Spurgeon is arguably one of the most famous ever preachers of God's Word. Nineteenth-century London. After he died, there was one of his former students that took over for a short time. The pulpit there that Spurgeon had in the Metropolitan Tabernacle in London, he was Arthur T. Pearson. And he wrote that hymn that we sing from time to time containing these words, how helpless and hopeless we sinners had been if he never had loved us till cleansed from our sin. He maketh a rebel, a priest and a king. He hath bought us and taught us this new song to sing unto him who has loved us and washed us from sin. Unto him be the glory forever. Amen. That is something to get excited about. No doubt about that. And our Lord Jesus would want us to remember the day of our conversion, just like in Luke 22 and 19, at that supper, He says, this doom in remembrance of me. He will want us, when He has taken us away from the cesspools of iniquity and sin and shame, remember, He'd want us to remember what He has done for us. a Moravian preacher, James Montgomery by name. Go to Him, we sometimes sing it at our Communion season, according to Thy gracious Word in meek humility. This will I do, my dying Lord, I will remember Thee. When to the cross I turn mine eyes and rest on Calvary, O Lamb of God, my sacrifice, I must remember Thee. Notice as well here in Exodus 12, the demeanor during this commemoration. not only the demand for the commemoration, but the demeanor during this commemoration. How were they to conduct their time when their memories were stirred up, when they looked back on former times, when they considered how they had been delivered? What was their procedure to be when they would remember? Well, in verse 27 of Exodus 12, we're given some indication. as to how they were going about remembering what God had done. That ye shall say... It is the sacrifice of the Lord's Passover. He passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt when He smote the Egyptians and delivered our houses. And here's how the people did it. And the people bowed the head and worshipped. That tells me about their demeanor. They bowed the head and worshipped. In other words, there was prostration. They stooped low. That's what this word means. With the head in order to do honor to this person. It was a token of humility. It was a sign of respect. It was one of submission. This is how God wanted them to remember what had happened on the time of deliverance. They prostrated themselves before him, bowed the head, and worshiped. And this, isn't it, is what happens when a sinner is redeemed. It's not about what we did. That's not what we're commemorating. And so we bow the head before a sovereign God who did everything. Who did it all? It's all about what He did. a God of mercy, a God of grace, a God of unrivaled, unmeasured love. It's what He has done for us, because we had no merit in ourselves. We can't look back and say, well, I did this, or I did 10 percent, or I came up with 15 percent, or I 20 percent of the price that had to be paid, I came up with that. No, we had nothing to give. He did it all. And when I came into that New Testament book of Titus, Paul writing there, I read in chapter 3, the verse 3 to 5, for we ourselves also were sometimes, this is what we could bring to the table, foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers' lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. You don't want a big black plastic bin bag and put all of that stuff into that and hide it from you, card it around the back of the building. Don't let anybody see. That's what was in my heart. But God knows. What provoked the change? But after that, the kindness and love of God our Savior toward man appeared, not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy. He saved us by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. That's a very conclusive text. Sets it in concrete, how it happened. God did everything required in our salvation. So there's frustration. There's humility. An old minister, going back quite some time, had a very high-handed manner of introducing himself when he came to meet a person or went and visited in a home. And he's going round what he calls his parish, and he calls into the cottage of an elderly woman, And quite familiarly, she just said, come in and sit down and be comfortable here. And he thought she'd be nearly bowing to him. As he came to the doorway and he said, woman, I am a servant of the Lord, come to talk to you about the concerns of your soul. And that was his attempt to push back and let's not have any familiarity here. And she just latched on to that. But he said, I am a servant of the Lord. And she said right back, well then, you'll be humble like your master. And that preacher felt that reproof pretty sharply. And he never again tried to magnify himself at the expense of his office. Doesn't Philippians chapter 2, verse 6 to 8 speak of Christ like this, who being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God, but made himself of no reputation, and took upon him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of man, and being found in fashion as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient. He's going down and down and down, obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He's our supreme example, humbling himself. He who was so infinitely high, stood so very low for us. Shouldn't we do the same for him? And Paul emphasizes that when he says, let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus. And then he explains how that mind worked out. John Bunyan says, he that is down need fear no fall, he that is low no pride, he that is humble ever shall have God to be his guide. And so I'm saying, to my heart, in humility, in submission, in yieldedness, in reverence, I fall before the great King of kings. I bow the head with His people and worship. But notice, it's not just bowing the head. There is worship. In other words, we're talking about praise here, not only prostration, but praise. They're thanking God for what He had done. Isaiah 43 and 21 reminds me, this people have I formed for myself. They shall show forth my praise. Now, brother and sister in Christ, that is what the Lord is expecting from you and from me, that we should show forth His praise. Are we doing? Are we rising to the level of His expectation of us? When I think of the cross He bore, It's impossible for me not to praise Him. And when I think that God, His Son not sparing, sent Him to die, I scarce can take it in that on that cross, my burden gladly bearing, He bled and died to take away my sin. Well, what's the reaction when I think of this? Then sings my soul, my Savior God to Thee, how great Thou art, how great Thou art. We're going from the lines of Clayton, to that older hymn writer, Henry Francis Light, "'Praise my soul, the King of heaven. "'To his feet thy tribute bring. "'Ransomed, healed, restored, forgiven. "'Who like me his praise should sing? "'Praise him, praise the everlasting King.'" So, there's frustration. There's praise. That's the way they commemorated it. There's also pleasure. that contributed to the praise, that resulted in thanksgiving. The Passover, and you'll see it clearly in Exodus 12 and verse 14, was to be kept as a feast to the Lord, a feast, a day of rest from usual labor, one that marked rest of spirit. that had freedom from the thralldom of the enemy marked over it. That's what we are remembering here and rejoicing in and taking pleasure in. I call in John Bunyan. I've already referred to him. In Pilgrim's Progress, he depicts the man who he describes as being the truly happy man. These are his words. The truly happy man in Pilgrim's Progress, by definition, was born in the city of regeneration, in the parish of repentance unto life. He was educated in the school of obedience. He works at the tree of diligence. does many jobs of self-denial. He owns a large estate in the country of Christian contentment. He wears the plain garments of humility. He breakfasts every morning in spiritual prayer and sups every evening on the scene. He also has meat to eat that the world knows nothing of. He has gospel submission in his conduct, due order in his affections, sound peace in his conscience, sanctifying love in his soul, real divinity in his breast, true humility in his heart, the Redeemer's yoke on his neck. the world under his feet, and a crown of glory over his head. In order to obtain this, he prays fervently, believes firmly, waits patiently, works abundantly, redeems the time, guards his sense, loves Christ, and longs for glory." What a definition. Are you a child of God? That should be your description. Is it? That's the question you and I must answer. May God grant it is. One final thought. We've seen the demand for this commemoration, the demeanor during this commemoration, the duration, the time span of this commemoration. I want to spend a whole message on the theme, God willing, next week, so I'll be brief now. How were the Hebrews to keep this Passover in remembrance, and for how long? The answer appears very clearly, succinctly as well. In Exodus 12, look at verse 14. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial, and ye shall keep it a feast to the Lord throughout your generations, throughout your generations. Ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance forever. Verse 17 echoes the same. Verse 24, same thing again. The application is obvious, is it not? If Israel was to remember the events of that Passover night, that redemption by blood, if they were to remember that throughout the generations forever, we who have been washed in the Savior's blood, should recall or release from our sin forever. Never tire of thinking about it. Never cease from praising God for it. Never stop telling others about it, too, because you know what? The duration travels right through this life, and it's still going strong in eternity. Those in heaven, what are they doing? In Revelation 1 and 5, they're singing praises to the God who bought them by His blood. In Revelation 5 and 9, in Revelation 19 and 13, again, we see what is going on in heaven, redemption by the blood of the Lamb. and all thy pains and all thy love to me. Yea, while a breath, a pulse remains, I will remember thee." That's for the child of God who is saved. What if you're not saved tonight? I pray God will give you a picture of Calvary. We'll see And your eyes will be wide open to realize the Son of God loved me and gave Himself for me. He died in my pleas. He bore the entirety of my load and the penalty for all of my sin. He's dying for me. Come to Him. Embrace Him. With the empty arms of your faith, call out, Lord Jesus, see of my soul, for I need Thy saving strength and grace. And He will, this month, will be unto you the beginning of months. It shall be the first month of the year to you." And when you get a birthday book, you can make not one but two entries, born naturally, born spiritually by the power of Jesus Christ.