If we're not careful, we can
get stuck. We get stuck on a particular
doctrine and a particular angle of a particular point of a particular
doctrine that bogs us down in that understanding of that doctrine.
So it's sort of like a recipe, it's a bad analogy, but it'll
work. It's sort of like a recipe and there's 15 ingredients of
the recipe. And part of that ingredient or one of the ingredients
happens to be vanilla extract. But what we're making is a loaf
of bread that's not vanilla bread. But we so put our focus on that
small little half a teaspoon of vanilla extract in that recipe
that it becomes, well, how do you like my vanilla bread? Does
it taste like vanilla? Or how do you like, maybe we're just
making dough that we put the, why is it even in there? I don't
know. It could affect the taste, but it's not going to. So we could
crumble up the bread and make croutons. Or maybe the dough
is just a base for something else we're going to build on
top of it, or maybe we're just going to throw it outside for
the birds. The point I want you to see is
that if we're not careful, if we if we hone in too much on
every nuance in regard to this doctrine. We'd be so frustrated
with it. That we would not we would not
enjoy the idea of learning that every day. At the same time,
if we ignore the vastness of it and just focus on such small,
small little piece to make it so big that it overwhelms the
entire picture, we end up becoming a heretic. We end up making a
major out of a major doctrine to the detriment of others. So I'm preaching today in this
series. And I want to talk to you about
the reality of regeneration. Just in word study alone, this
doctrine would be aggravating, it would take 30 minutes or so
to show you all the different words, not just the words that
are translated two times in the New Testament regeneration, but
then also the new birth, the renewal of the spirit, the washing
of the spirit. I mean, there's several different
phrases. We'd have to go through different texts, look at the
idea that comes out of being born again, being born from above,
being born anew, being born of God. All those phrases are dealing
with regeneration. So you can see just from a contextual
point of view, where do you go? What do you do? But in the context
of what we're preaching here through this series, the devil
in the pulpit, I want to focus on an error or so, a few errors
in regards to this doctrine. that I did not even know was
a big deal until recently. And now that it has come to my
attention, I think it's it's interesting how the Lord works.
He's brought to a lot of people's attention about the same time.
And now it's in the circles of people who have a national platform.
And now they're talking about the errors of people preaching
incorrectly about regeneration to the detriment of the church,
the detriment of the gospel. And it would be wrong of us to
say, OK, anybody who calls themselves this label are also in that point
the same way it would be wrong for anybody to say whoever's
reformed is in this part, whoever's Calvinist in this part, whoever's
in this part is Armenian or these people are this, that. You see,
the labels, what it does is it just separates people wrongly.
It's sort of like the, it's like the forms that you fill out sometimes.
And it's got ethnicity, African-American, American Indian. Latin American,
Spanish American, Mexican American, Hispanic American or whatever,
Asian, white, other. Well, I got to be white. How
come I can't be European? All my family's, you know, so
I mean, what do you do if you come from? It's just a weird,
but we got to break it down somehow. And now not only does it say,
In some forms, especially federal forms, you see those differentiations.
And then you see another classification that you have to answer that
says not Hispanic or Hispanic. So you can be any of these Hispanic. You can be white, Hispanic, Latin
American, Hispanic. American Indian, Hispanic. Black,
Hispanic. So now there's just so it's not
really a full. Classification system, the same
thing will be true in regeneration. If we care, if we're not careful,
we'll throw everybody who's ever sounded like some of these things
into a pile that's unfairly judging them. So how do we deal with
it? How do we deal with the same
way we deal with the people who have been trying to deal with us?
They call us hyper Calvinist. They call us hyper grace. They
call us hyper this, hyper that. I'm just hyper about the gospel. I'm hyper about preaching the
gospel to a dying world who, if they don't hear it's going
to go to hell and stand in judgment. And it's not going to be my fault.
Because I'm not going to be scared to share my faith because the
world wants to press. But it's your fault. It's the
fault of the people who like to always be in the polemic corner
to say bad, bad, bad, you're wrong, this is bad, I hate you,
you're the evil guy, but they're not doing anything in obedience
to scripture. What's worse, to have a hyper view of grace? or
a sorry view of the gospel. What's worse, to actually say
you've got a church of a thousand and nobody loves Jesus? Or that
you get out and tell a thousand people that there's no hope for
them unless they believe the gospel and they hate you for it? There are several places I want
to go today in the Word of God. Specifically, I'm going to touch
in Ephesians, I'm going to touch in Romans, I'm going to touch
in Hebrews. But I want to look at Hebrew, I mean, at Romans
chapter 15, and then I want to land in Hebrews chapter 12. I'm going to look in Romans chapter
15, I'm going to land in Hebrews chapter 12. Now, let me tell
you what's going to happen today. You're going to get a mouthful
of exposition that would take several hours to show you. And
you're going to have to be a student and go back through in the next
few weeks to actually divide this out for yourself. Regeneration. There's some errors,
I want to say them, and then I want to give you a so, which
would refer to the truth, and then I'm going to break it down
in scripture. There's an error when people
talk about regeneration, when they say that is God making us
right before him. That's wrong. That's justification. Justification is God's legal
declaration that you are just before him, even though you are
not just. Because you're. Unrighteousness
has been put on the back of the righteous one. Therefore, God
killed the righteous one in judgment so that he could forgive you
of your unrighteousness. So it gives you the righteousness
of Christ that you might become the righteousness of God. The legal declaration of rightness
is not regeneration. That is God's decree, and it
is the foundation of salvation. It is the beginning of the work
of God, and that before there was time, God decreed to justify
people legally. And all of those, Adam and Eve,
were justified before God legally, though they sinned before him. Abel, justified before God legally,
though he was murdered by our sinful, hateful brother, but
he was still a sinner because his mom and dad were sinners. Abram, Joseph, Jacob, David, Daniel, Ruth, all of them
justified before God before there was even a sacrifice for their
sins and a satisfaction of God of his wrath against them for
their sins, because that did not take place until Jesus hanged
on the cross. So that's when we looked at Romans
three last week when it says that God put forth Christ's propitiation
to be received by faith. And it goes to say that that
he would be righteous in order to display his righteousness
because he did it, he let a lot of people into his heaven way
before Christ came to earth. God saved a lot of the Old Testament
saints because he declared them innocent before him, way before
his wrath against them was satisfied in reality. It was a faith in
the one who was to come to satisfy the judgment of God against them,
Jesus Christ. And they did not understand that.
They just trusted that God had it. And that's the mystery that's
revealed through the apostle Paul and through the apostles
in the New Testament. That's because God had already
forgiven the sins of old, and so if he had not crucified Christ,
he would be a wicked God. So let that go. That's justification
and justification has nothing to do with what happens after
justification. In other words. What happens
after God has justified us is the work of God on top of that.
Justification is the foundation for it. And I will tell you this,
that these things are all processes except for justification. Justification
is not even a process. And I hate to say that it's even
a position. It's an absolute promise. God has reconciled your
sin against him through the life and death and resurrection of
his son. You are just before him. Therefore, now there is no condemnation
for those who are in Christ Jesus. Understand the difference in
justification and the rest of these things that we learn. Regeneration,
the new birth, being born again is not God's declaration of you
being righteous. It's actually God's transformation
of you toward righteousness in your flesh. Oh, that's not sanctification. No, that's what happens because
you've been born again. You be you're more and more sanctified. Regeneration is all inward and
it gives birth to sanctification. It gives birth to the pressing,
it gives birth to the fighting, it gives birth to the resting,
it gives birth to the faith, it gives birth to the hope. Justification
is the finished work. Regeneration is the active work
of God in you. Another error when it comes to
being born again or regeneration. As if people would say being
born anew means that all we have to do now is live because everything
we do is out of the new nature. We're new creatures. They're
right and wrong. They're right. The scripture
teaches, Paul says it. We who are made alive in Christ,
we're new creatures in Christ. We are a new creation. That's
been, that's regeneration. We've been created differently.
We've been transformed. The old has been killed. The
new is made alive. And out of that newness comes
life and life and life through grace, by grace, through grace. But we just don't live and exist
however we want to go. That is a hyper grace position.
You do whatever you want to do. I will concede to this, though,
and say to you that in the context of being justified and regenerate
before the Lord. You will do only that you should
do only that which makes you happy. Because if you are truly born
again, that which makes you happy is to obey God. That which makes
you happy. is to please the Lord. That would
make you happy is affection for holiness. And we have a different
relationship. The idea of repentance, which I'm not sure if we're going
to preach on it specifically or not. Repentance is a change
of heart, a change of mind. That produces the work of regeneration
or the actual regeneration produces the heart of repentance, which
produces the fruit of sanctification. We don't just live out our life.
The Scripture teaches that regeneration is the work of the Holy Spirit
that bears fruit, not unto salvation, but the cause of the newness
of life in Christ. Another error that we hear in
terms of learning regeneration. Is that being born again means
we no longer have to confess our sins before God and no longer
be concerned with our sin, we feel guilty with our sins, we
need to sort of rebuke that guilt. That's what some people teach.
That's an error before Scripture. Now, it's an interesting place.
When we sin against God and we feel convicted over that sin,
Scripture says we come bold before the throne of God, not shirk
back, not shrink back, not hide, not in fear, not in distress,
boldly. I'm a child, Father. That's our
justified right. We're justified, but because
we're regenerated when we sin against the gift of God in Christ
Jesus, we are grieving the spirit of God in us. Oh, we do not love
sin anymore. So because of that, we no longer
we no longer desire darkness. Jesus came to take away the works,
to destroy the works of the devil. Jesus came to take away the deadness,
to give life. Jesus tells Nicodemus in John
3 that the judgment has come, that people love the darkness
rather than the light because it works for evil. That those
who come to the light come so that it may be clearly seen that
their works, that their righteousness, that their good works and striving
and heart and affection and worship and all of those things have
been carried out by God. We must take care, lest the light
in us be darkness. We must not have love for the
world of the things in the world. We must not love the flesh, but
set our mind on not the flesh, but the things of heaven. We
must have a hatred of things that are wicked and a love for
things that are holy. The Baptist faith and message
has this phrase at the end of their clause about regeneration,
and it says faith and repentance are inseparable experiences of
grace. Oh, how the Lord works for men
to write that and hold that in their arms while they debate
the sovereignty of God and salvation against it. This is not a hand. Let's review a few things about
regeneration. We're going to have to go to
1 Peter 2. In John chapter 3, Jesus talks
to Nicodemus. I just want to paint a picture.
There's a lot of text here. I'm not going to read it or turn to it. I will
turn to 1 Peter in a minute. And Jesus says to Nicodemus,
when Nicodemus makes a confession of him, he said, Oh, Nicodemus,
you must be born again. That which you confessed is great.
But you must be born again. The imperative. You must be born
again. You have to be born, not of the
flesh, but of the Spirit. You have to be born of God. You
have to be born of heaven in order to see the kingdom, in
order to enter the kingdom. You must be of the Father. and
of the work of the Father, you must be of the work of the Son
of God. You must be born again. This
is the must. You must. You must. You see that? How am I to be born again? Repentance and believing by faith
comes from being born again. Being born again, according to
Romans 10, 17, is only through the words of Christ. In the prologue of John, John
writes in the narrative, he narrates this and he says that he came
to his own, but his own did not receive him. But to all who did
receive him, who believed on his name, he gave the right to
become the children of God, not for the will of man, nor drops
of blood, nor this, nor that, nor decision of the mind, but
by the will of the Father. You must be born of God. You
must be regenerated by God. And John continues that same
type of mindset in his instruction, in his epistles, in 1 John chapter
five. I won't go there a whole lot because we're there on Wednesday
nights, not five yet, but we're in three. And 1 John chapter
five, verse 18, it teaches us that anyone born of God does
not continue in sin. What's that mean? That means
there is an absolute evidence of a new life, that the old has
gone. Behold! You know what that word
means? Look and see! The new has come! Friends, this is not ambiguous
statements of blind references to an underscored mystery and
we say, oh, it means Jesus. No, it means you! We can't paint those pictures
in any other way. God has saved you unto righteousness
that you can't obtain, but Christ has already completed. Yes and
amen. However, if you don't desire
to live this life for the sake of His glory and you just walk
around freely in your sin as though there's no big deal, you
are defaming the very one who saved you. Peter says it a little strongly. But they basically reject the
one who paid for them. You say you've been paid for
by the blood of Christ, yet you reject it by your words, your
mouths honor me, but your hearts are far from me. Jesus say those
things. We also need to understand in
that context that it's not these good words that put you in right
graces. And I'm talking about words, I'm just talking about
new attitudes, new hearts, new minds, new soul, new desires,
new affections. That's what rebirth does. Entitus.
We saw Titus chapter three, verses four, five, six, and seven, where
it says we saved us through the washing, the rebirth and the
renewal of the spirit. Same thing, one of the same.
He saved us through these things. Regeneration has brought us,
not only has he saved us in justification, he's declared us just and therefore
we are because our sins are on Christ and therefore we are positionally
saved and permanently saved and promised to be saved. But also
he saved us from the power and the presence of sin today. He
says that we now are able to strive and therefore we do not
stay mired in wickedness. Same thing that Paul teaches
him to the Romans. We're no longer slaves of sin,
but slaves of righteousness. We're not controlled by the flesh,
but we're dead to the flesh and the things of the flesh are dead
in enmity with God, he says. So we then walk in the what?
The newness of the spirit, the newness of life. What is it talking
about if it's not talking about being transformed? Romans 12.
Rebirth is fruitful. Rebirth is is very fruitful.
Go to first Peter real quick. First Peter, chapter one, just
a few, just three verses. Well, a little more. First Peter,
chapter one, the fruit of rebirth. Let's look at verses three through
five. Blessed be the Godfather of our Lord Jesus Christ according
to His great mercy. He has caused us to be born again
to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ
from the dead to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled,
and unfading, kept in heaven for you. Verse 5 is key. Who, by God's power, are currently
now being guarded through faith for salvation, ready to be revealed
in the last time? How are we guarded by God if
we just walk away from righteousness? We're not. How are we sealed
by the Holy Spirit if we just dump the righteousness of Christ
as this elixir that we've taken, but we live in darkness? What
does it mean when 1 John says, if you say you walk in the light,
but you walk in the darkness, you're a liar and you don't practice
the truth? What do we see about the scripture when it teaches
in numerous places in the book of Ephesians and all the way
through Corinthians and other places where the apostles teach
the effect of outcome of the new birth? You're being justified.
You've been born again. You'll be generated by the Holy
Spirit. And one of the key indicators of your sanctification that you
are indeed new in Christ is that you have a love for the brethren
that surpasses all understanding because the love of Christ surpasses
all understanding and that love covers a multitude of sins. Jesus says that they'll know
you're my disciples, that you have love for one another. Jesus says
that there is no greater love than this, that a man would lay
down his life for the brother. Jesus says that you cannot what? Love the Lord your God with all
your heart and hate your neighbor. If you obey the law, if the law
is in you, if the righteousness of Christ is in you, then you
love your neighbor. So to take a hyper grace position
on regeneration says I'm a new person, but I hate my neighbor.
He stinks. But God loves me anyway. He may. But don't call that right. Grieve over your sin. Because
you've been set free from it. And then we rejoice because we've
been set free from it. And nothing we do will put us
joy. It's everything Christ has already done. So that reveals
the mercy of God and regeneration. It's by God's mercy. Look on
down to verse 23. Verse 22, having purified your
souls by your obedience to the truth for a sincere brotherly
love, love one another earnestly from a pure heart since you have
been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through
the living and abiding word of God. We've been made alive in
Christ, and this, what we saw earlier, teaches and reveals
the mercy of God in regeneration. What we see here in 1 Peter 1.23
reveals the eternality of God in regeneration, that we are
set forever as a new being to be closer to the way Christ is,
but it's still so far off. But then when we're glorified,
we're perfectly like him. He fills up the gap forever. And then finally, look at chapter
two, verses two through three. I want you to see this. Well,
look at verse one. So put away all malice. Put it away. Well, God understands
my malice. God just said, put it away. Put
away all deceit. Put away all hypocrisy. Put away
all envy. Put away all slanders. Slander
like newborn babies. Look at this. Look at the action.
Long for the pure spiritual milk. Why? That by it you may grow
up into salvation, if indeed you have tasted that the Lord
is good. This reveals the sanctification of God. How does that work? We're
made new. We're born again. See, justification
yields the evidence of regeneration. Regeneration yields the evidence
of sanctification. The Baptist faith, the message
says it this way. New birth or regeneration is the new birth,
which is a work of God's grace. whereby believers become new
creatures in Christ Jesus. It is a change of heart wrought
by the Holy Spirit through the conviction of sin to which the
sinner responds in repentance toward God and faith in the Lord
Jesus Christ. Repentance and faith are inseparable
experiences of grace. Regeneration is the reality of
all who are justified. It's how we're set apart while
we live in a dark world, we shine light. Our hope is not in that, our
hope is not in our good works, our salvation doesn't come through
it. God's pleasure with us has nothing to do with it. But God's
work is evident in it. We see Christ and then we see
Christ in each other. In Ephesians chapter two, we've
been there a long time, we looked at it and we know what it says. We once were, what, dead in our
trespasses and sins, just like the world, but now we've been
made alive in Christ. We're no longer dead, we're made
alive. The old man is gone, the new
man has come. The dividing wall has been put
down, the hostility in the flesh, through the flesh of Jesus Christ.
In Romans chapter 3, we see regeneration as the work of God to give us
a new heart. And that new heart means that we have new affections.
We love different things. We have a new understanding that
we can understand the breadth and the depth and the height
and the magnitude and the majesty of the love of God through Christ
for us. We have new ways of thinking. We transform our mind through
renewal of the Holy Spirit by looking to the things of heaven,
not the things of this world, because we do not love the things
of this world. Therefore, we have new passions
because we've been given a new heart and because we have new
passions and new power, a new person. We have new abilities. We have the ability, as Roman
3 tells us, no one seeks after God. No, not one. All have fallen,
all have sinned, but are justified by His grace as a gift. And this new ability is a desire
to seek God and an ability to seek after God, not just to seek
Him, but to find Him, because He found us to know Him and to
love Him and to strive after God, not trying to catch Him,
but being intimate with Him in the midst of our walk until the
day He makes us like Him. And we do all of this in Christ
alone. Striving is not for a measure
before God to say, look what we've done, God. But it's only
because Christ has changed us that we might walk in the light
of Christ, we might walk in the light of righteousness. Turn
to Romans 15 quickly. Like I said, I'm not going to
be able to exposit all of this, I want you to see the examples
here and then we'll look at 15 and then we'll land in Hebrews. Romans 15, 14 through 21, Paul
is talking to the Romans and he says these words are so much
before this church. Oh, there's so much. He says,
I myself am satisfied about you, my brothers, that you yourselves
are full of goodness, filled with all knowledge and able to
instruct one another. On some points I have written
to you very boldly by way of reminder. Now look, you're good. The Lord is good. You're great. The Lord is great. His power
is affected in you. His righteousness is affected
in you. I'm proud to know that you are in Him and it is proven
to me But I'm writing to you as boldly I've already done as
a way of reminder, because there's some things you need to make
note of that aren't nice. There's some there's some fleshly
things that you still need to take note of that Christ has
paid for, that you're able to walk without. So take note of
that. And I remind you boldly because
of the grace of God given to me to be a minister of Christ
to the Gentiles in the priesthood service of the gospel of God,
so that the offering of the Gentiles may be acceptable, sanctified
by the Holy Spirit. So he's not taking any position
of them doing a bunch of good stuff that please God. He's saying,
I want you, the Gentiles, to be acceptable to God through
the work of the Holy Spirit, that you're sanctified before him
because you're justified before God through faith in Jesus Christ
because you've been made new. Not perfect. You're going to
deal with it. That's why I boldly tell you, you need to work on
some things. But you're right before God. But you ought to
know also, verse 16, in Christ Jesus, then I have reason to
be proud of my work for God. Now we're starting to see something
that might be a little contradictory here. Paul's saying he's working
for God. But then in verse 18, he says
for. I will not venture to speak of
anything except what Christ has accomplished through me to bring
you to obedience by word and deed, by the power of signs and
wonders, by the power of the Spirit of God, so that from Jerusalem
and all the way around to Lycraeum, where in the world? Yes. It hyphenated in my Bible, I'm
so sorry. I have fulfilled the ministry of the gospel of Christ,
and thus I make it my ambition to preach the gospel, not where
Christ has already been named, lest I build on someone else's
foundation. So Paul now is saying, I Know that you're justified and
I know that you're born again and I'm thankful and I'm proud,
but I'm proud and I'm satisfied because of the fullness of God's
goodness in you. And I want to remind you of the things that
I've reminded you of. But most importantly, I will
remind you boldly of the grace of God that has been given to
me in Christ Jesus so that I strive to preach Christ for it is the
work of Christ in me that has worked this in you. So therefore, Christ is glorified
in his work and you are his work. How is Christ glorified in his
work when his work was like dark? How is Christ glorified in the
light of righteousness when the work that he's done is an unforgiving,
unrepentant, unloving, unworshipping people? They're not. The work of Christ is the work
of God, and the work of God is us. The church. We're the fruit of the labor
of atoning. We're the fruit of the labor
of redemption. God killed the Son to buy us. Starting in verse 7. For those of you who come to
Easy Night, we're going to deal with this text. There's a question on the table
about this, and we're going to deal with this text 7 through
11 specifically. Listen to the Word of God. Chapter 12, verse 7. It is for
discipline that you have to endure. God is treating you as sons.
For what son is there whom the father does not discipline? Now,
let me help you understand something really quickly. I don't have
time to deal with. Discipline is not punitive. Discipline is transforming. Discipline is correcting. Discipline
is putting back on track. Discipline is pressing and molding
into better. Regeneration means that one will
be sanctified. Little by little by little. If you are a child of God, you
will be pressed into letting the flesh go. If you're left without discipline
in which all have participated, then you are illegitimate children
and not sons. Besides this, we have had earthly
fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not
much more be subject to the Father's spirits and live? For they disciplined
us for a short time as it seemed best to them, but he disciplines
us for our good, that we may share his holiness. For the moment, all discipline
seems painful rather than pleasant, but later it yields the peaceful
fruit of righteousness to those who have been trained by it.
Let me stop and let me tell you something. Jesus. It says, learned obedience
through discipline. Jesus never sinned, never disobeyed,
never walked away, never looked away, never wanted to look away,
and never tried to look away. Jesus perfectly fulfilled the
righteousness of God as a human being, absolutely. And yet he
was disciplined by the Father to be transformed in obedience
as a human being into the holiness of God. Now, we don't grasp all
that in just this moment. In the same way as Jesus the
God-man was disciplined, so are the children of God, who are
the children of Adam, disciplined that they may share in the holiness
of God for good. Verse 12 is where I want to start
and really focus on as we close out this time. It'll take that long. Therefore,
lift up your drooping hands. Therefore, strengthen your weak
knees. Make straight the path for your
feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint, but
rather be healed. Strive for peace with everyone.
Strive for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord.
See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. See
to it that no root of bitterness springs up and causes trouble.
that it may become defiled. See to it that no one is sexually
immoral. See to it that no one is unholy
like Esau, who sold his birthright for some food. For you know that
afterward, when Esau desired to inherit the blessing, he was
rejected, for he had no chance to repent, though he sought it
with tears." Now there's so... Oh my gosh, I look back, and
I think I preached five sermons out of just twelve through seventeen. It would take forever for us
to really do that for the purpose of today. I want you to see what
he's saying. We see that regeneration is an
imperative. We see the regeneration is a
promise. Through Christ, we see the regeneration is the work
of the spirit of God, the word of God. We see the regeneration
is indeed shown in the examples of the teaching of the apostles, that it is by the grace of God
alone. We see that regeneration changes our hearts, brings repentance,
brings faith, brings all of these things. Regeneration is what
puts active our standing of justification. Regeneration gives birth and
fire and life and feet to our faith. And right here, there's too much.
But one thing I want you to see for the first seven or so verses
is that discipline by God, that means transformation by God,
sanctification by God, is the pressing act of God for His children
alone. That's it. And so if we are born
again, there is evidence of that in that our relationship with
sin is different. Because as we strive to live
out the new life, not by our own efforts, but by God's promise,
even sometimes when it means we rest in the promise of God,
Lord, lead us not in temptation because we cannot affect fighting
temptation except God do it. But it doesn't mean that we don't
have a concern to pray that way. God's spirit puts in our heart
to pray that way. Because if we're not there, we're
not shared in the wholeness of God, we're not adopted as children. Regeneration of strengths of
striving, I want you to see that's what the striving in Hebrews,
the warning passages in Hebrews chapter six and ten are horrifying.
And the hope in that is that there's a gospel and it says
Jesus has done it. Rest in him. That's good. But
we don't rest in him that grace may abound. For someone to say
that, they actually take Paul's words in Romans and they throw
them away. Grace does abound where the law
lives. But sin abounds more. So we're
not striving to be obedient to the law of commands, we're striving
because we have been made right through the law of faith. And regenerate and be reborn
again. It affects this striving, this obedience, this attitude,
this desire. Look at these verses. Verse 12. Lift your drooping hands. Lift
your hands. Don't be like the sluggard and
just lay there and forget about it. Get your hands up. Get ready. Stop laying around in pity. Stand
up. Strengthen your weakness. They're
weak. Your hands are weak. Moses could barely hold his hands
up. Remember that? And they had to
come alongside Moses and hold his hands up for him. The Gospel
holds us up. The Scripture is telling us to
lift up our drooping hands, strengthen our weak knees and make straight
the paths of our feet. Christ is affected at all. We
are not working to salvation. We are not working to please
God. We are not working for greater treasure. We are not working
for greater glory. We are doing that which we do
naturally because supernaturally we have been made new. We don't
quit, we fight the good fight of faith, we finish the race,
we follow after Christ, we run, we fight, we form, we compete
or we don't get the prize. Because it shows we never were
made in the likeness of Christ. What are some of these things?
Strive for peace. Strive for peace with everyone. How do we do that? Well, that's
not the point of the sermon. The point of the sermon is to
show you that the writer here is commanding us to do that which
God has called us and equipped us to do. Not for the outcome
of sanctification or glorification or justification or anything,
not for the sake of salvation, because we are new. We have a
heart that is discouraged when there's when there's something
that comes between someone and us. We strive for peace because
we've been made humble, for we have the mind of Christ, as Paul
tells the Philippians. Have this mind among you, which
is yours in Christ Jesus, who, being in the very likeness God,
did not take in quality with God something to be grasped,
but made himself nothing, a servant, obedient unto death. Yes, even
death on a cross. Therefore, God exalted him. It's yours. It's ours. It's our
mind. The mind of Christ is ours. Let's
live in it. Let's walk in it. Let's hope
in it. Let's rest in it. Let's think
in it. Strive for peace. Strive for
the holiness. Without which no one will see
the Lord. If we're not holy, we won't see the Lord. Not in
perfection. Not even in direction. If we're
sanctified, if we're justified, we're holy. Period. It's over. But we cannot live in unmerited
or unchecked sin and say we're justified. It's a grievous place
for the Christian. And it's an act of unbelief. And friends, there is a right
balance in this understanding. We don't live our lives fighting
to live right. But we don't live our lives living
wrong without a fight. If we're in Christ. No one will see the Lord. Fifteen,
see to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God. That's
a that's a tough one. You know what Paul's saying there?
Minister to people. The grace of God affected in
you gives you a heart to love people. It scares me when people
who call themselves Christians are merciless. They're liars. It scares me when
they're not empathetic. Yes, our temperaments are different.
Some of us can watch a commercial about a puppy and we cry for
days, and some of us are really calm when we see people dying,
but we are grieved on the inside. I'm not talking about our personalities
and temperaments. I'm talking about Our souls. Do we hurt when
people hurt? Are we rejoicing when people
rejoice? Do we take each other's burdens? No one should fail to see the
grace of God. See the no root of bitterness springs up. See that no root of bitterness.
How do we not have a root of bitterness? Because we've been
forgiven much. So how come it would be bitter? That's selfishness.
Don't be selfish. Because that causes trouble.
Bitterness causes trouble, it causes division, it causes things
to come between the brethren, it causes the greatness of the
gospel of the glory of God, of Christ. It causes this to be
defiled. It causes the image of Jesus,
the display of the metaphor wisdom of God in the church and through
the church to be a mockery of the work of Christ. So we've got to live perfectly.
No, we don't. We've got to live knowing that
Christ has perfected our righteousness. And when we sin, we have an advocate.
So we rest in him. We trust in him. We hope in him. But we work to be obedient to
the call. Because Christ works in us to
answer the call. See to it that no one is sexually
immoral. We don't think wrongly about
sex. We don't defile the marriage. We don't defile the marriage
bed. We don't look at things that are not in the context of
our marriage. We don't think of things. We don't hope for
things. We don't talk of things. As Paul says in Ephesians, we
don't talk about sexual things in a wrong way. We do not make
a joke about that which God says is a picture of Christ and his
church, which is the sex of marriage. We've made filthy in the world.
The world makes filthy that which God calls holy. Don't be sexually
immoral. What does he mean there? But
if you are, it's alright. He doesn't say that. Don't be unholy. Like Esau. He sold his entire birthright
for a single meal. And then he felt bad. He gave it up. And he said, I want
it back. And he wept. It's too late. It's over. He can't have it back. You take that and you put it
into the chamber of chapter 10, verse 26. But if we go on sinning deliberately
after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer
remains a sacrifice for sins, but a fearful expectation of
judgment and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries.
Anyone who's set aside the law of Moses dies without mercy.
This is an exclamation of example. Just on the evidence of two or
three witnesses, how much more do you think worse the punishment
will be? Well, that's not exactly what
your text says, but it's the same thing is deserved by the one
who spurned the son of God and profaned the blood of the covenant
by which he was sanctified and has outraged the spirit of grace. I suppose it may be people who
teach regeneration incorrectly have ripped this out of their
Bible. We strive for these things. We've been made new. He goes on to teach in chapter
12 all the way through chapter 13. Let brotherly love continue.
Do not neglect to show hospitality. Remember those who are in prison,
those who are mistreated, let marriage be held in high honor,
the marriage bed be undefiled, for God will judge the sexually
immoral and adulterous. Keep your life free from the
love of money. Be content with what you have.
For God has said, I will never leave you nor forsake you. So we can confidently say the
Lord is my helper. I will not fear. What can man do to me?
Remember your leaders and those who give a watch of care of your
soul. Look at all the things that we are supposed to strive
for. How? For we've been made alive in
Christ, we've been born anew, we've been born again. I squeeze all the way back to John
3. Because I'd be wrong if I didn't
answer this question, how is one regenerated? It's not through confession.
It's not through righteous acts, it's not through striving to
want to be right, striving to want to be saved, striving to
want to please God. It's not through any of those
things. It's not through an unresolved commitment to Christ. It's not
through any of those things. It's not through a decision to
really want to live for Jesus. One is born again by the work
of the Spirit of God. Truly, I say to you that unless
one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus
said, how can one be born when he is old? Can he enter a second
time into his mother's womb and be born? Truly, truly, I say
to you, unless one is born of the water, excuse me, of water
and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. That which
is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born of the spirit
is spirit. Tomorrow that I say to you must
be born again. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear
it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where
it goes. So it is with everyone who is
born of the Spirit. And Jesus has already said it's
the work of God, the Holy Spirit, to bring life, new birth, regeneration
to the believer. To the one, to the sinner who
will then be a believer. Not only is it a work of the
Spirit, it is a work of the Spirit alone. By the mercy of God, First
Peter. Because of the kindness and love
of God toward us, Ephesians chapter two. We've been made alive, we've
been born again, we've been transferred out of darkness into light. We've been given a new heart. And he asked Nicodemus, are you
not the teacher of Israel? You do not understand these things.
So it's not a knowledge of theology that creates new life. You're
not born again because you get it. Oh, I see, I'm born again.
You're not born again because you know the right doctrine. Though being taught the wrong
doctrine won't bring you to life either. Yet you truly do not understand
these things because we know and bear witness that we have
seen." Remember what he told him? That which is born of the
flesh is flesh and they cannot understand, he says, heavenly
things. I've told you things of your
own birth and you cannot grasp it. How can you not grasp heaven? How can you not grasp earthly
things and then ask me to explain heavenly things to you? Because
don't you get it, church? the earthly thing of the wind. You've seen wind. You can hear
it. You see what it blows, but you cannot see the wind. You
don't know where it starts and ends or where it's going and
where it goes. All of a sudden it's gone. We get it. Such is it with the Spirit of
God. It blows where it wishes. We understand it in the flesh.
And because the wind of the Spirit of God is blown in us through
the hearings of the words of Christ, we understand it in the
spiritual sense. We bear witness to what we have
seen, the glory of God in heaven. But you do not believe our testimony. If I told you earthly things
and you do not believe, how can you believe when I tell you heavenly
things? No one has ascended into heaven
except he who descended from heaven, the son of man. And as Moses lifted up the serpent. in the wilderness, so must the
Son of Man be lifted up, that whoever, I'll even put it in
there, soever believes in Him may have eternal life." Whoever
so believes in Christ has eternal life, and only those who hear
the words of Christ, the true words of Christ, that they must
be born again, that Christ is their only hope. Only then will
God give them ears to hear and believe. Are you born again? Or are you continuing to rest
in everything you've done to prove your hope in Christ? Don't put your faith in your
faith. Don't put your faith in your faithfulness. Don't put
your faith in the fruit of your rebirth. Don't put your faith
in what you've done or what you've said or what you think. Put your
faith in the finished work of Christ who has set you free and
made you alive in Him. Believe the Gospel. And don't
listen to false teaching that's halfway true that puts you in
a place of really laziness when God affects
zeal in the hearts of his people. Zeal. Zeal. To worship in spirit and in truth.
To walk, and I almost went to 1 John 5, where John writes,
and the law is not burdensome, but I'd have to stretch it. But
it's not. We delight in obedience, the
law of grace. And we long that one day we will
not have to worry about temptation. But until that day, we rest in
the perfect grace of Jesus Christ. And in that grace, we put away
sin when it comes. We don't have the power. Christ
has it. We don't have the strength. God is our strength. How is it
done? How is it affected? No, it's
not really, Todd, but it's affected through grace. How do we get
grace? Read, study and hear the words
of Christ that you may live. Let's pray. Lord, we thank you that you have
birthed us anew. That you've made us alive in
Christ. and that we are not guilty before
You, even when we sin, that sin has been paid by the blood of
Christ. Oh Lord, that beautiful Good
News, that new man and new mind and new heart that You've put
in us, causes us to fall and rejoice Not pleading for salvation, but
praising for salvation. We praise you for forgiveness
when we see sin in our lives. And Lord, through this process,
we will sin in some seasons of our life and we will come to
a place where we don't know if we'll ever climb out of it. Lord,
we're already out of it. But let us not ever hear the
lie that it's OK to walk in it. and spurn the grace that you've
given. Help us to strive, to trust,
to hope in the blood of Christ who covers us, who buys us, sanctifies
us. In Jesus' name we pray, Amen.