Let's open tonight's service
with hymn number 22 in the Spiral hymn book, number 22, For the
Glory of His Grace. Let's all stand. Adam's sin defiles us all By
our deed, as by our birth We deserve the law's great curse
Helpless, hopeless sinners we Never can our souls retreat But
the Blessed Son of God came as man in flesh and blood He fulfilled
the last demands, and His death stretched out His hands. On the cross of Calvary, Christ
redeemed and set us free. In the time which God had set,
the Spirit came for His elect to regenerate and grow. From the ruin of the foe, By
His power and by His grace, We were born for God's own praise. Now your purpose we fulfill,
? Saved according to your will ? Sing this song of joyful praise
? For the glory of your grace ? Blessed, holy, triumphant ?
Hear our praise through Christ our Lord Please be seated. Let's open our Bibles to 1 Peter
2. 1 Peter 2. Begin reading at verse one. Wherefore, and anytime we see
wherefore, it's a transition word points us back to the points
that were just made, which we'll be looking at tonight in chapter
one. Wherefore laying aside all malice
and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all evil speakings
as newborn babes desire the sincere milk of the word that you may
grow thereby. If so be you have tasted that
the Lord is gracious to whom coming as unto a living stone,
disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God and precious. Ye also, as lively stones are
built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood to offer up spiritual
sacrifices acceptable to God by Jesus Christ. Wherefore also
it is contained in the scriptures Behold, I lay in Zion a chief
cornerstone, elect, precious. He that believeth on him should
not be confounded. Unto you, therefore, which believe,
he is precious. But unto them which be disobedient,
the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made
the head of the corner. And a stone of stumbling and
a rock of offense, even to them which stumble at the word, being
disobedient where unto also they were appointed. But you are a
chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people,
that you might show forth the praises of him who hath called
you out of darkness into his marvelous light, which in times
past were not a people, but are now the people of God, which
had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. Most of you probably know Robert
is in the hospital. He has double pneumonia. He has
sepsis, it's a blood infection, and also has a UTI. So he's dealing
with a lot of different infections. He's been very, very weak. They
have him on antibiotics, and we saw him again today, and he
was better. So I'm very hopeful that the
board's going to give him a full recovery. He's in ICU, so he can't receive
any visitors. Just remember to pray for him. Talked to Hugo. He's in New York
with Zobey and Zobey's sister Audi is having treatments done
for her cancer up there. It's inoperable. They're going
to try some different chemo on her. So Hugo asked that we would
remember them. Jennifer and John went out to
California for a couple of days, and Jennifer's gotten sick out
there, and she's wanting to come home. So remember to pray for
her. Scott has a mild case of COVID,
so he's not here, but he's fine. Let's pray together. Our Heavenly Father, thank you for enabling us to
keep coming to thee. Lord, you said, to whom coming? And once again tonight, you brought
us here where we can open your word and ask for your presence
and for your blessings and for the power of your Holy Spirit
for your understanding and for your grace to be able to worship. Lord, we we pray that you'd be
pleased to do that for us tonight. We pray for our brother Robert. Thank you so much for him in
Deanna and ask Lord that you'd be pleased to place your hand
of strength upon him and give him recovery and Lord for Jennifer
and for Scott and Audi and Lord, we know that all afflictions
are sent by you and Lord for your children, they're good.
And Lord, we pray that we would be mindful of that and that you
would give, as you always do, necessary grace to trust you in times of trials
and suffering. We ask it in Christ's name, amen. Number 352 in the hardback teminal,
let's all stand together, 352. Jesus, lover of my soul, let
me to thy bosom abide. While the dimmer waters roll,
while the tempest still Guide me, O my Savior, guide,
till the storm of life is past. Safe into the even night, O receive
my soul. Other refuge have I none. Thanks, my helpless soul, on
Thee. Thee, I'll leave me not alone. Still support and comfort me. All my trust on Thee is All my help from Thee I bring. Cover my defenseless head with
the shadow of Thy name. Thou, O Christ, art all I want,
more than all in Raise the fallen, cheer the faint,
heal the sick, and lead the blind. Just and holy is thy name. I am all unrighteous. ? False and full of sin I am ?
? Powerful of truth and grace ? ? Plenteous grace with Thee
is found ? ? Grace to cover all my sin ? ? Let the healing streams
abound ? ? They can keep me now ? of life, the fountain of art,
freely let me take of thee. Spring thou up within my heart,
rise to all eternity. Please be seated. All right, we'll look at those
verses in chapter one of 1 Peter, right? That the wherefore is
therefore. And I want to introduce this
message by telling you an experience I had yesterday. We were at the
hospital and sitting by Robert's bed and we were talking and chaplain
came in. And of course, you know, Robert,
he said, well, you're wasting your time here. So anyway, I
was able to engage him in a little conversation and we were not
in agreement on anything pertaining to the gospel. And he made this statement, he
said, well, he said, when I get to doubting my salvation, I look
back to that experience that I had when I accepted Jesus,
and I was born again, and that restores my hope. And so as he
was leaving, I said, Dennis, I said, where'd you go to seminary?
And he said, New Orleans. I said, when were you there?
Because I could tell he's about my age. And he said, 1980. We
were in seminary together, same seminary, same time. And after
he left, I thought, I could be doing exactly what he's doing. I could have retired and become
a chaplain and go around doing exactly what he's doing. And
I thought, Lord, thank you. Thank you for making me to differ. But I wanna give some attention to that comment
that he made about looking back at his experience for the hope
of his salvation. And men do that. They either
look to their works, or they look to their feelings, or they
look to an experience or a historical event in their life. Actually, the very last thing
he said when he got ready to leave, after it was clear that
we didn't agree with anything, the last thing he said was, well,
at least we're brothers in Christ. And I thought, why? Why do you
need me to affirm your salvation? I wish you would say, I don't
consider you to be a believer. Men desperately need the affirmation
of other men in order to get assurance of their salvation.
Now, I say all of that in order to call your attention to verse
23 of 1 Peter chapter one. And I looked up the words here
in this verse, and I hate it when preachers get into all sorts
of language issues, trying to parse
the scriptures. But there's something very interesting
here, because when we read verse 23, being born again, it might on the surface appear
to be referring to that experience that we had when the Lord arrested
us on our road to Damascus and knocked us off our high horse
and shined the light of the gospel in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. That's the born again experience. When we came to see
Christ for who he was and came to believe ourselves to be sinners. what the Lord said to Nicodemus
in John chapter three, Nicodemus, except you be born again, except
you be born of the spirit, you cannot see the kingdom of God.
And we know that being born again is a, is a, is a, an experience
that believers have in the time when the Lord, when the Lord
reveals himself and saves them, calls them, calls them I'll say. Now, I don't make that point
in order to put us where Dennis was or where Dennis is. I think
it's a great error for us to look back at an experience to
try to get, you know, comfort and assurance of our salvation.
And that's the very reason why I'm bringing this up, because
this phrase in verse 23 is in the present tense. It's not in
the past tense. It's in the present tense. The Lord is not saying, and having
been born again. He's saying being born again. It's in the present tense. And
it's also in the passive voice. So it's something that continues. Oh, and it's a participle. Now, that just means that it
has an ing at the end of it. So it's present tense, it's passive
voice, and it's continual. So a way to interpret this verse
would be to say, having the new birth in Christ continually acted
on us. That's what he's saying, having
the new birth in Christ, continually being acted on us. And I think that that's exactly
what Peter meant in verse four of chapter two, when he said,
to whom coming, to whom coming as unto a living stone. We don't
look back to an experience or to a feeling or to an event when
we when we actively did something in order to make what Christ
did work for us. That's what Dennis was doing
and that's what most men in religion do. They look back to when they
were when they were born again as the hope of their salvation.
Here's what the Lord's saying, and I've titled this message,
Being Born Again. Being born again, and again,
and again, and again, and again, and again. Oh, that's what Paul meant when
he said we die daily. You can't be made alive until
you die. And this is the work of the spirit
of grace in the hearts of God's people. Killing us of any hope
of our salvation being found anywhere else other than in the
active work of Christ in our hearts. Being born again. So it's a continual work of grace
that the Spirit of God does. Aren't you thankful for that?
Aren't you thankful for the continual work of conviction of sin and
the continual work of comfort, the continual revelation of Christ,
that even when we're unfaithful, he remaineth faithful for he
cannot deny himself. He won't, you know, he keeps
his dogs on a leash, doesn't he? And aren't you glad that
he does? He keeps his sheep close and whatever he has to do to
keep us, he knows everything we need. And he's so faithful. to cause us to be made alive
again and again and again and again and again. And we're so
prone to go back to the dunghill. We're so prone to try to find
some comfort and hope and assurance outside of Christ and the Holy
Spirit won't let us. continually being born anew and
afresh by the Spirit of God. Not of corruptible seed. Had a man ask me just the other
night, he said, well, weren't we made in the image of God?
I said, Adam was, Adam was. And all that simply means is
that Adam was without sin and able to fellowship with the Lord. Doesn't mean that he was, he
had attributes of deity. That's not what the image of
God means. It means that he was capable
of, of fellowshipping with God and that he was without sin.
But after the fall. All of Adam's children were born
in the likeness of Adam. You and I were made into this
world in the likeness of Adam. Turn with me to Genesis chapter
five. Genesis chapter five. Verse one, this is the book of
the generations of Adam In the day that God created man in the
likeness of God made he him. Male and female created he them
and blessed them and called their name Adam in the day when they
were created. And Adam lived 130 years and
begat a son in his own likeness after his image and called his
name Seth. So there it is. made in the likeness of God.
You and I were born of corruptible seed. We came into this world
speaking lies from my mother's womb, drinking water like iniquity,
spiritually dead, unable to fellowship with God as was Adam able to,
unable to know God. We're made in the likeness of
our father Adam, sinful and fallen and separated from God. And so when the Lord says that
we are being born again, continually being born of the spirit, not
of corruptible seed, not like the seed that we were
born in physically. Scripture says that every tree
yielded seed after its own kind. And so when you were born into
this world, you yielded the seed of your father, as I did. And
they, their father, and they, their father, all the way back
to Adam, yielded seed after its own kind. And that seed is corruptible. That seed is constantly decaying. David said it like this in Psalm
51, he said, behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my
mother conceive me. I was a sinner before I was born.
I was a sinner from my conception. I was created in the image of
my father and was sinful from the time of my very conception. Isaiah said, from the head, from
the crown of our head to the sole of our feet, we are corrupt,
putrefying sores. They've not been mollified. They've
not been anointed. They've not been tended to. We're
leprous, aren't we? That's how we come into this
world. And so the Lord's The Lord's comparing this incorruptible
seed of the spiritual birth to the corruptible seed that we
are by nature. Job asked this question, Job
14 verse four says, and who can bring a clean thing out of the
unclean? No one, that's what he said.
Who can take that which is unclean and make it clean? And Jeremiah
asked it like this, he said, can an Ethiopian change his skin
or a leper the spots? Can we change that nature? No,
no, we can't. So we have to be born again of
an incorruptible seed. That which is born of the flesh
is flesh, and the flesh profiteth nothing. That which is born of
the Spirit, that's life. The Spirit giveth life. And that's
what the Lord's saying here. We have an old dead man. We bear the body of this death
continually. We can relate very well to what
Paul said in Romans chapter seven. Who shall deliver me from the
body of this death? We're carrying a corpse around
on our back. And one day that body's gonna
be put back in the grave, and the scripture says in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 that that which is corruptible is gonna be made
incorruptible, and that which is mortal will be made immortal,
and flesh and blood cannot inherit
the kingdom of God. So that's our hope in the resurrection,
but right now, He's talking about the spiritual new birth that
we have daily in coming to Christ. And we come to Christ. What is
it that causes us to come to Christ? Is it not the corruption
of our flesh that drives us to Christ? Is it not the old man
that drives the new man to look again to Christ? Does not the
elder brother serve the younger brother? Sure he does, sure he
does. So the Lord says this new birth
that we experience continually by the Spirit of God's work of
grace in our hearts is causing us to look in faith to Christ
that we might have life. Turn with me to John chapter
one, John chapter one. This is our hope, brethren. Oh,
that we'd be born afresh and anew. We have life, life in Christ. John chapter one at verse 13,
or verse 12, but as many as receive him, to them gave he power to
become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. What is it to receive Christ?
It's to believe on him. It's not to make a decision or
pray a prayer or perform a work. It's not to do anything, it's
to believe on him. And that's part of the new birth,
isn't it? Faith comes as a result of being
born again. Faith is not the cause of our
new birth, faith is the result of our new birth. And verse 13 proves that, which
we're born, not of blood, not of ancestry, not because there
was something in your family lineage. No, we were made in
the image of our father, Adam. And the blood that we have is
corruptible. Nor of the will of flesh, Nor
of the will of man. In other words, the Lord's saying,
you're not born again because of some special status you have. You're not born again because
you decided to discipline your flesh, not by the will of the
flesh. I was talking to somebody, we
had a couple conversations the last few days. I mean, they were
just exactly the same conversation. They were religious men who were
looking. And this man told me, he said,
well, you know, when I was born again, I stopped doing this and
that, and my life has gotten better. And I said, well, that's
wonderful. You should get better. But don't
look to your improved life as the hope of your salvation. And
that's what the Lord's saying here. You weren't born again by the
will of the flesh because you disciplined your flesh or because
you, I did tell him this, I said, you know, religion's very powerful. And people's lives are changed
as a result of religion. I mean, you can be a Buddhist
or a Muslim or anything else and have a dramatic change in
your lifestyle. as a result of religion, but
that's not the new birth. That's not the new birth. We're
born not of the will of flesh, not of blood, nor of the will
of man. In other words, it's not a decision
that you made to be born again. You remember that the being born
again over there in our text is in the passive voice. So it's
a work that's done to you. It's not something that you decide
to do. Turn with me to Romans chapter
9. Verse 14, what shall we say then? Is there unrighteousness
with God? Jacob I've loved, Esau I've hated.
I'll have mercy upon whom I will have mercy. Has that made God
wrong? This man kept telling me, well,
you know, election takes away men's hope. If the salvation's
only for the elect, then those who are not elect have no hope.
And I said, if it wasn't for election, no one would have hope.
Election's the only open door that there is to heaven. If God
didn't elect a particular people, all men would be without hope. For he saith to Moses, I will
have mercy on whom I will have mercy and I will have compassion
on whom I will have compassion. So then it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, it's of God that showeth mercy.
You know, that word runneth means it's not by our effort. It's
not by the will of the flesh. It's not by blood. It's not by
a changed life. It's not by a decision that you
make. It's God that shows mercy. Of his own will begat he us with
the word of truth. Let's go back with me to our
text. Being, present tense, active voice, a passive voice,
participle. Having this work of grace acted
on you continually. Find your hope in your life.
in the new birth, in Christ. Not of corruptible seed. Not
the way your old man was created. We're dying. Everything in this world goes
from order to disorder. Everything is corrupted. Everything
is decaying. But of incorruptible. the incorruptible
seed by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. That's
why we keep going back to God's word, isn't it? Wonderful how
the Lord takes his word and just encourages our hearts. You know,
this is what, faith is believing God, period. That's all it is. And faith comes by hearing and
hearing comes by the word of God. And when you talk to religious
people who are looking back to an experience, they're looking
to a feeling, they're looking to an event, they're looking
to something, and you confront them with scripture, and they
will deny scripture in order to hold on to that false hope.
This scripture speaks against what you're saying. Yeah, but
what I'm saying is my experience, and I'm not gonna let go of that.
And that's, just the opposite of what we do. Every time we
go to God's word, Lord, if I'm wrong on this, show me. If there's
something I need to, Lord, you're going to have to reveal that
to me. Lord, I believe your word is perfect and it converts the
soul and it gives new life to my heart. And so we come to him through
his word, which liveth and abideth forever. The word of God is the living.
And we've often seen this, and it's important for us to be reminded
again of this, we never separate the written word from the living
word, do we? The Lord Jesus Christ is revealed in his word. This
Bible that we have is a revelation of who he is and what he has
done to accomplish the salvation of his people. And so when we
go to his word, we're always looking for Christ. And the two
cannot be separated. The Lord Jesus Christ is the
word that was made flesh who dwelt among us. And we beheld
his glory as the glory of the only begotten of the father,
full of grace and full of truth. And we know that he is that incorruptible
seed. He is the seed of Abraham. And he is the one who brings
this This word that is ever-living, incorruptible. This word that
abideth forever. Turn back just a few pages to
Hebrews chapter four. Hebrews chapter four. Verse 12, for the word of God
is quick. and powerful. Now that word quick
means living. It's alive. It's a living word. And that's what we pray for. How oftentimes we can get stale
and dead and unmoved. Lord, cause your word to be alive.
Cause it to be quick. Cause it to be powerful. Cause
it to cause the face of the Lord Jesus Christ to shine. Give me
life. Cause that new birth to be renewed
again in me. Sharper than any two-edged sword.
piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit and
of the joints and marrow and as a discerner of the thoughts
and intents of the heart. If the Lord answers that prayer
to make his word living and effectual and quick, it's going to involve
some dying on our part, isn't it? It's gonna involve some cutting,
it's gonna involve some serious spiritual surgery that God's
gonna do with this double-edged sword, which on one side cuts
and on the other side it heals. Neither is there any creature
that's not manifest in his sight, but all things are naked and
open unto the eyes of him with whom we have to do. Seeing then
that we have a great high priest that has passed into the heavens,
Jesus, the son of God, let us hold fast our profession. What
is our profession? Christ is my life. And he finished
the work of redemption. That's my profession. Christ
Jesus is the Lord and he's the son of God. And we have not a high priest which
cannot be touched with the feelings of our infirmities. Here's a
great word of comfort. This priest that we have that
intercedes for us, whoever liveth to make intercession for us,
who is the living word, he sympathizes with the weaknesses of our infirmities. Why? Because he was made in the
likeness of sinful flesh. He suffered the contradiction
of sinners, but more than that, more than that, he bore the full
shame and burden of our sin when he owned them as his own on Calvary's
cross and bore them in his body upon that tree. And all these
sin problems that you and I struggle with, he knew them. At a level that you and I have
never experienced. So when we go to Christ. We know. That he sympathizes with the
infirmities of our flesh. He knows them beyond anything
that we've ever experienced. He knows the full depth of it. He was in all points tempted
like as we are, yet without sin. He didn't commit any of those
sins, but he experienced the shame and sorrow and guilt and
punishment for sin. And the Lord saying to us, let
us therefore come boldly before the throne of grace that we might
obtain help, mercy in our time of need, Oh, come with confidence. Come with confidence. Being born
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word
of God, which liveth and abideth forever. This is God's holy word. Go back with me. I was thinking
about the similarities and the differences between the physical
birth and the spiritual birth. And one similarity is that a
baby is completely passive in its conception and in its development
in the womb. You didn't decide to be born.
You didn't decide to come into this world. That was done to
you. And so it is in the new birth. Second thing I thought about
is that it takes the seed of a woman and a man to produce
life. Contrary to the foolishness of
what some people are saying today, men cannot get pregnant. And
homosexual couples will never be able to, will never be able
to bring life into this world. Why? Because it takes the seed
of a woman and the seed of a man. And the seed of the woman is
Christ, and it's the preaching of the gospel. And then we have
the seed of the spirit of God. Remember when the Lord told the
prophet Ezekiel to preach to the dry bones, and he prophesied
to them, and they started to come together? And then the Lord
said, prophesy to the wind. We can say all the right things
about the gospel. But if the Spirit of God doesn't
bless it, if the seed of God's Spirit doesn't cause that word
to come alive, if he doesn't make it effectual, then we'll
not hear from God. So it takes both, it takes the
Word of God and the Spirit of God to bring about this new birth. The other thing I thought about
is that the thing that physical conception and spiritual conception
have in common is that they're the result of love. The result
of love. I know a baby can be conceived
outside of love, but you understand what I'm saying. the loving relationship
of a man and a woman who bring a child into the world. And so
it is in our new birth. This is a work of grace done
by God's love in the heart. Thirdly, the thing that this
has in common is that, is that life precedes breath. A baby is born alive and it breathes
because it's alive, and so regeneration. I asked one of these men, I was
talking to you recently, I said, I said, I said, well, and these
guys were religious, and so they understood some words, and I
said, I said, regeneration and faith. What happens, which one
is the result of the other? And both of them said, regeneration
is the result of faith. Both of them said that. You have
to have faith before you can be born again. I thought, no,
no. Faith is the breathing of the
baby who's born alive. Faith is the first thing that
the Lord does in the heart. I mean, we're not talking about
a chronological order here, but we're talking about a logical
order, that God has to breathe life into us before we can believe.
They happen perhaps simultaneously in time, but one has to happen
before the other. One has to cause the other, and
regeneration causes faith. Fourthly, the new birth and the
spiritual birth both produce seed after its own kind. So when
we have children, we're producing sinners just like we are. And
when the Lord Jesus Christ, you know, I was thinking about the
birth, the conception of the Lord Jesus Christ by the Holy
Spirit in the womb of Mary, that miracle, which was necessary
because he could not be infected with the sin of Adam. And so
to be without sin, he had to be, Mary had to conceive of the
Holy Spirit. She knew no man. But spiritually speaking, it's
the same way that Christ is formed in us. Christ is formed in us,
not by blood or by the will of the flesh or by the will of man.
It is not of him that willeth nor of him that runneth. It's
a miraculous work of grace by the Holy Spirit, just like it
was for Mary. That's what the Lord said to
Nicodemus, the spirit of God is like the wind, he listeth
withersoever he wills. And here's the seed that gives
life to the gospel. The difference is that the corruptible
seed of the flesh produces that which is corruptible. It produces
that which is sinful. Whereas the incorruptible seed
in the new birth in Christ gives us a new nature that is without
sin, without sin, justified perfectly before God. The new birth doesn't
change the old man's nature. It doesn't make us less sinful and
our old man's going to go back to where he came from. He's going
to go back to the dust of the earth. But the new nature, the new man is
perfectly without sin. So that as he is, so are we.
in this world justified in the sight of God, sinless. The corruptible seed is done
in the power of the flesh, and the incorruptible is done in
the power of the Spirit of God. Go back with me to our text and
let's look at verses 24 and 25 quickly. For all flesh is as
grass, corruptible. How long does grass last? It
grows up, you know, and it's not just the grass in your lawn. This is the grass that produces
flowers and, you know, all the different grasses of the world. But it's just there for a little
while. I'm thinking about what the Lord told Isaiah in Isaiah
chapter 40 when he said, comfort ye, comfort ye my people, speak
ye comfortably unto Jerusalem and tell them their warfare is
accomplished. And Isaiah said, well, where do I start? Tell
them they're grass. Tell them they're grass. Tell
them they don't have anything, they can't do anything, they
don't know anything. Tell them they have no righteousness. Tell
them they're sinners. And they'll find themselves fleeing
to Christ. Again, and again, and again,
and again, to whom coming? It is that old man, that sinful
old man that drives us to Christ. All flesh is as grass, and all
the glory of man is the flower of grass. Oh, we can glory in
a lot of things, can't we? We love to glory in our accomplishments,
and glory in our abilities, and the Lord says, all the glory
of man is as grass. The grass withereth, the flower
thereof falleth away. It just falls away. Life is a vapor. It really is. Not here very long, are we? That's
our flesh. But, but, the word of the Lord,
the written word of God, the living word of God, Person of
the Lord Jesus Christ, who himself is the word of God, liveth forever. Here's our life. Being born,
not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, which liveth
and abideth forever. The word of God endureth forever. And I love the last part of this
verse, because there's a lot of people including the men that
I've been talking to recently, who would consider themselves
fundamentalist. They would say this Bible is
the inerrant, inspired word of God. And yet when you tell them
what the Bible says, they deny it. But this is the word. This is the word, which by the
gospel is preached unto you. So if the gospel of God's free
grace and the accomplished work and glorious person of the Lord
Jesus Christ is not being preached, then it doesn't matter how fundamental
you might be or how much you might insist that the Bible is
the word of God. If you're not preaching Christ,
you're not preaching the word of God. The Bible is turned into
nothing more than a book of rules and regulations and religious
precepts and moralisms Now the Bible is a revelation of Christ,
isn't it? Let's close with 1 Corinthians
chapter 15. 1 Corinthians 15. We'll begin reading in verse
42. So also is the resurrection of
the dead. This body, this flesh, this corruptible
seed is sown in corruption. It is raised in incorruption. It is sown in dishonor. It is
raised in glory. It is sown in weakness. It is
raised in power. It is sown a natural body. It
is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body and there's
a spiritual body. And so it is written, the first
man, Adam, was made a living soul, and the last Adam was made
a quickening spirit. How be it? That was not first,
which is spiritual, but that which is natural, and after that,
which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth.
earthy, the second man is the Lord from heaven. As is the earthy,
such are they also that are earthy. And as is the heavenly, such
are they also that are heavenly. And as we have borne the image
of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly. Again, not of corruptible seed,
but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. And this is the word, which by
the gospel is preached unto you. Let's pray. Our heavenly father. We feel the coldness and deadness
of our flesh continually and how needful we are to have a
new birth, a new seed, a new life continually
working in us. And Father, we pray that that
you would give to us the faith to believe all that you've said
and to believe on Christ and to rest in him and look to him,
Lord, that we might have his life. For it's in his name we pray,
amen. 239, let's stand together, number
239. Art thou weary, art thou languid,
art thou sore distressed? Come to me, saith one, and calmingly
at rest. Have ye marks to lead me to him,
if he be my guide? In his feet and hands are blueprints
at his side. Is there die a death as monarch
that his crown adorns? Gave a crown in very shorty but
a If I still hold closely to Him,
what hath He at last? Sorrow, anguish, labor, and death,
Jordan passed. If I ask Him to receive me, will
He save me? Not till earth and not till heaven
pass away. Finding, following, keeping,
strongly, is he sure to bless? Saints, apostles, prophets, martyrs,
answer yes.