you it is utterly impossible to
make a man better without Christ; but that is what men are trying to
do. They are trying to patch up this "old Adam" nature. There must be
a new creation. Regeneration is a new creation; and if it is a new
creation it must be the work of God. In the first chapter of Genesis
man does not appear. There is no one there but God. Man is not there
to take part. When God created the earth He was alone. When Christ
redeemed the world He was alone.

"That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of
the Spirit is spirit." (John iii. 6.) The Ethiopian cannot change his
skin, and the leopard cannot change his spots. You might as well try
to make yourselves pure and holy without the help of God. It would be
just as easy for you to do that as for the black man to wash himself
white. A man might just as well try to leap over the moon as to serve
God in the flesh. Therefore, "that which is born of the flesh is
flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit."

Now God tells us in this chapter how we are to get into His kingdom.
We are not to work our way in--not but that salvation is worth
working for. We admit all that. If there were rivers and mountains in
the way, it would be well worth while to swim those rivers, and climb
those mountains. There is no doubt that salvation is worth all that
effort; but we do not obtain it by our works. It is "to him that
worketh not, but believeth" (Rom. iv. 5). We work because we are
saved; we do not work to be saved. We work from the cross; but not
towards it. It is written, "Work out your own salvation with fear and
trembling" (Phil. ii. 12). Why, you must have your salvation before
you can work it out. Suppose I say to my little boy, "I want you to
spend that hundred dollars carefully." "Well," he says, "let me have
the hundred dollars; and I will be careful how I spend it." I
remember when I first left home and went to Boston; I had spent all
my money, and I went to the post-office three times a day. I knew
there was only one mail a day from home; but I thought by some
possibility there might be a letter for me. At last I received a
letter from my little sister; and oh, how glad I was to get it. She
had heard that there were a great many pick-pockets in Boston, and a
large part of that letter was to urge me to be very careful not to
let anybody pick my pocket. Now I required to have something in my
pocket before I could have it picked.