If I break this mic, Dwayne might
not want me to come back again so soon, I don't know. I don't
think I broke it. Well, it's good to see all of
you again this evening, how much I've looked forward to coming
and pray the Lord enable us to worship together. If you would,
open your Bibles with me to 1 Kings chapter 17. In the interest of full disclosure,
I had prepared another message to preach this evening, but this
is the text I preached from this morning at home, and I just had
such a good time with it, I thought I wanted to preach this again
to you all this evening. The title of the message is Regeneration,
a very, very important topic. Regeneration, the new birth.
You hear that used as a catchphrase in religion, the new birth, a
born-again Christian. Well, what does that mean? What
does the new birth mean? What is it? And how does it happen? That's what I hope for us to
learn this evening. Now here in 1 Kings chapter 17,
the Lord had sent a famine in the land for three years. And
during that time, the Lord sent Elijah to this city to live with
a Gentile woman and her son. And you know the story, how the
Lord miraculously fed them for a year, this woman's The barrel
of meal and her cruise of oil didn't run out for a whole year.
The Lord miraculously fed them. And while Elijah was staying
with this woman, her son died. Look at verse 17, 1 Kings chapter
17. And it came to pass after these
things that the son of the woman, the mistress of the house, fell
sick. And his sickness was so sore that there was no breath
left in him. And she said unto Elijah, what
have I to do with thee, O thou man of God? Art thou coming to
me to call my sin to remembrance and to slay my son? I tell you
what we're gonna do with this, with what this mother says. We're
gonna quickly forgive her. I just think we probably should
give a free pass to anything a mother says immediately after
one of her children dies, probably especially if it's her only child. But this is what she's saying.
She's saying, it had been better for me, Elijah, if I'd never
met you at all. Now, you know that's not so.
Really, her son would have already starved to death if Elijah hadn't
come and been there, and the Lord miraculously fed them. But she's speaking here out of
grief. It could be she's saying, what good did it do me to know
you? I mean, you're the man of God,
but you didn't intercede for me and stop my son from dying. After it seemed like you came
to give me a blessing, I think what you've really done is you've
come here to this Gentile woman. You're a Jew. The gospel is sent
to the Jew. You come to me, a Gentile woman,
to uncover all my past sin, and really you've come to punish
me for all my past sin. You've not come to bring me mercy
from God at all. You've come to bring me judgment.
Now, she ought not have said that, but like I said, we're
going to forgive her quickly, understanding circumstances that
she's in. And if you want to be hard on
her, let me ask you a question. How many times have you thought,
oh, the Lord's punishing me for my sin. Now, if I had lived better,
if I've been acting right, if I've been keeping the law better,
the Lord would be blessing me, but he punished me now for my
sin. After he sent the gospel to me, after he gave me the free
forgiveness of my sin and the Lord Jesus Christ, After He saved
me from my sin and the sacrifice of Christ, what the Lord is really
doing, now He's punishing me, now He's gonna get me. Thinking that way is far, far
worse than what this poor mother said. Calling into question God's
mercy and salvation for the sins of His people. Now this death
is given to us as a picture of spiritual death. This is a true
story, but it is given to us as a picture of spiritual death.
This woman's son was dead. And there was not one thing she
could do about it. Not one. There's nothing she
could do to make him start breathing again. She was powerless to put
life back into the dead body of her son. And that's a picture
of you and me. We're born in this world dead
in sin. Dead, spiritually dead. And there's
not one thing we can do about it. We lost our life when Adam
sinned. When Adam sinned, you and I sinned
in him. And when Adam died because of
his sin, you and I died in him. The apostle Paul said, by one
man, sin entered into the world and death by sin. So death passed
upon all men for that all have sinned. And the translation of
that, all sinned in Adam. We all sinned in Adam, and we
all died in Adam. And we are completely powerless
to give ourselves life again. There's nothing we can do to
make ourselves alive spiritually. The only hope we have is my subject
this evening, life from above, the new birth, that God in his
mercy and his grace would regenerate us. That's our only hope. And
I'm gonna give you a few lessons this evening on the new birth.
Number one is this. Regeneration happens when a sinner
is alone with God. Look here at verse 19. And he
said unto her, Give me thy son. And he took him out of her bosom
and carried him up into a loft where he abode and laid him upon
his own bed. Now this boy was dead. He dead. If Elijah had said,
Son, I'm going to give you life if you'll just take the first
step toward entering my room. If you'll just do that, I'll
give you life. If Elijah said that, next day
the mother's gonna bury that boy. He's gonna stay dead. He
couldn't get up and take the first step, could he? He's dead,
he's dead. If Elijah had said, son, don't
you hear your mother's broken heart? If he had said, don't
you wanna meet your mama in heaven? Won't you just make this commitment? If he said that, That boy will
stay dead. He's dead. He can't hear. He's
completely unaffected by anything his mother says. He's completely
unaffected by her tears because he's dead. He didn't know what's
going on. If this boy is going to get to
the next room, how is he going to get there? He's not walking. Elijah is going to have to carry
him every step of the way because he's dead. He can't move. Now that's you and me spiritually.
We're dead. And if some false prophet comes
and says, now God promised to save you if you'll just take
the first step toward him. If that's so, we're going to
stay dead and go to hell. Because we're dead. We can't
take the first step. If some false prophet comes to
us and says, now if you'll just say this sinner's prayer, repeat
after me, and you'll just repent, and you'll just say you believe,
then God will save you. If that's so, you're not going
to stay dead and go to hell. We don't have the capacity. We
have the ability to repent. We have the ability to believe
we're dead. We're dead. Now, you're alive
physically. You hear the gospel with these
ears. But we do not have the power to make ourselves believe
it. We cannot do it. Can't do it
because we're dead. Now, this boy needs someone else
to give him life because he can't give it to himself. That's what
you and I need. We need somebody else to give
us life from above. And the only way that's going
to happen is if we're alone with God. Now, by that, I don't mean
you all got to run home and get in a room by yourself and lock
the door and nobody else can come in. That's not what I mean.
You can be alone with God in an auditorium full of people,
can't you? Being alone with God is when
God speaks to my heart. When God is dealing directly
with me, it's like He's talking to me and only me. That's being alone with God.
And I can tell that I've been alone with God. I can tell that
God's spoken to my heart. When the gospel of Christ stops
being a doctrine that differentiates us from all these other so-called
churches in town, all these other denominations, and the gospel
of Christ starts to be what I need. This is not a message somebody
else needs to hear. This is a message I need to hear. And I find myself
craving it. I've got to have it. Somebody said earlier tonight,
this long week, oh, we need a refreshing from God. We're starting a long
week. I crave it. I must have it. I can tell I've
been along with God. When the gospel of Christ, which
being a set of doctrines, you know, check off, I believe this,
this, this, and this, and Christ becomes my life. I mean, He is
my life. When the gospel quits being about
Christ and starts being Christ my righteousness, Christ my Savior,
Christ my life, then I know I've been alone with God and God's
spoken to my heart. Now, nothing in creation is left
up to chance, nothing. And that is certainly true of
the salvation of God's elect. elected a people. He sent his
son to die for those people, but those people must believe.
How are they going to get to the place where they hear the
gospel? How's that going to happen? God's
going to carry them. God will take them there. When
I first graduated from college, Jan and I moved down to South
Carolina. I had a job offer down there.
I went down there and worked for a few months. I worked with
this man. He's from that area. And he'd
all the time be asking me, Frank, would you carry me to such and
such a city? You know, we've got this job out here. Would
you carry me out to the job? And that sounds so strange to
me. And I was able to figure out what he meant, but it still
sounds strange to me. What he meant was, would you
give me a ride there? Would you take me there? That's
what God does for his people. He carries them. He carries them
where they need to be so they hear the gospel. And when God's
the one that takes the merit, you know, I grew up, you know,
since I understood language, the only thing I ever heard was
the gospel. And I'm telling you, I don't care what was going on
on Sunday morning, Sunday night, Wednesday, I mean, I don't care.
My family was going to go to the worship service. We had a
blizzard one time, two feet of snow. And Henry called my dad,
we lived about 35 minutes from the building, and Henry said,
to come to the service, it's too dangerous. My dad said, pfft,
off we went. I mean, mama and daddy can take
you to hear the gospel. They can insist you sit there
in that pew and hear it. Nothing may happen. But when
God carries you to hear the gospel, you know what he does? He gives
you an ear to hear it. He gives you a heart to believe
it. Almighty God commands us to come to Christ. I'm telling
you right now, right where you sit, you come to Christ. Right now, you come to Him. That's
God's command. This is not a good idea from
God. This is not just a sweet thing.
No, this is a commandment from Almighty God. God commands His
people to come to Christ and then He carries them to Christ
and gives them a heart to believe Him. is being alone with God because
regeneration, the new birth, is a work that only God can do
in us. All right, number two, regeneration
is the result of Christ interceding for me. Verse 20, and he cried
unto the Lord and said, O Lord my God, hast thou also brought
evil upon the widow with whom I sojourned by slaying her son?
Now, Elijah, here's a picture of Christ, our great high priest,
interceding for his people. Elijah is interceding for this
boy, this particular boy. He's not interceding for every
boy around this area. I would imagine at this time
there are lots of boys dying of starvation during this famine.
He's not interceding for them. He's interceding for this boy.
Look over at John chapter 17. That is exactly what our Lord
is doing in John chapter 17. We hear people talk about the
Lord's Prayer. John 17 is the Lord's Prayer. This is His prayer of intercession
for His people and as He prays, He's not praying for the whole
wide world. He's praying for His people. He's praying for
His elect and only His elect. Look at verse 2. He says, "...as
Thou hast given Him power over all flesh, that He should give
eternal life." To who? as thou hast given him. Christ
is gonna give life to somebody. Can we tell you who it is? It's
all those the Father elected and gave to him. That's who he's
gonna give life to. Verse three, he says, and this
is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true God and
Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent. Now, salvation is a person. Salvation is knowing and loving
and believing a person. It's not knowing the right doctrine,
it's not keeping the law, it's not living the life of the correct
amount of morality. Salvation is knowing Christ.
Well, who's going to know Him? Who will know Him? Our Lord says,
they, they, all those that the Father elected and gave to Christ,
they're going to come to know Christ. He's going to carry them
to Christ so they know Him. He's going to give them a heart
to believe Him. And when he does, it'll only
be right that God gives them life. The Lord Jesus Christ came
and he obeyed the law for his people. He earned a righteousness. He didn't have to earn that for
himself. He's already holy. Why did he come keep the law?
So that he could earn a righteousness that he'd give to his people.
And Christ suffered the penalty. of the broken law, and he died
for those people as their substitute. He died to pay for their sin. Then there's no reason for them
to stay dead, is there? Sin's what brings death. If Christ
took their sin away, there's no reason for them to die. Christ
made them righteous. He satisfied justice for them.
Justice is not looking for them. Justice doesn't have a claim
on them any longer. As a matter of fact, God's justice demands
that they live. that they have eternal life.
And that happens when Christ makes intercession for his people. When Christ makes intercession
for his people, he's not asking his Father for a favor. He's
not saying, now Father, I know, but give them life anyway. He's
not saying that. He's not asking for a favor.
He's asking for justice. When Christ makes intercession
for his people, he's pleading his sacrifice, his blood that
was shed for his people, And if that's the plea, the Father
will always give Him what He asked for. The new birth, regeneration,
is the result of Christ interceding for His people. Thirdly, regeneration is the
work of the Holy Spirit in us. Back in our text, 1 Kings 17,
verse 21, and He stretched Himself upon the child three times and
cried unto the Lord and said, I pray thee, let this child's
soul come into him again. Now Elijah stretched himself
out on this boy. That word stretched is measured. He measured himself out upon
this boy. Put his face to his face, his
hands to his hands, his heart to his heart, his feet to his
feet. He measured him, made himself exactly out on this boy. Tell
you what that's a picture of. That's a picture of God the Son. making himself to be exactly
what his people need. The Son of God was made flesh. How could you make such a statement?
I mean, you think the Son of God was made flesh. Why? So he'd be just like us. So he'd be just like his people
who are in the flesh so he can be their representative. And
Christ was made sinless flesh, perfect flesh, so that he could
be the substitute for his people, who could take their sin away
from them. If Christ had any sin of his
own, he can't take mine away from me. He's sinless flesh. That makes him able to be the
substitute who can take away the sin of his people. He obeyed
the law as a man. so he could give that righteousness
to his people. And then his hour finally came. How many times did the Savior
say, or do we read that people tried to take him, but they couldn't?
His hour was not yet come. But then his hour came, and he
stretched himself. He measured himself out upon
his people to be exactly what they need. He was made sin for
his people. He took all of the sin, all of
the iniquity, all of the vileness of the sin of His people. He
took it away from them and He took it into His own body on
the tree and He sacrificed Himself as the only sacrifice that the
Father would accept. The only sinless, perfect sacrifice. The Lord Jesus Christ made Himself
everything His people need so that they would have eternal
life. In the fullness of time, the Holy Spirit comes and He
reveals Christ. He reveals, that's what the Savior
said, the Spirit will come and take the things of mine and show
them to you. He's going to reveal Christ to His people. He comes
and He breathes life into God's elect. Just like when God created
Adam, He breathed the breath of life into Adam. Adam became
a living soul. When the Spirit of Christ comes
and He breathes life into us, we become spiritually alive. It's the work of the Holy Spirit
in us. He takes the work of Christ for us and He applies it in us. That's what the Holy Spirit does.
All right. Fourthly, regeneration in this
life must lead to eternal life in glory. Verse 23. And Elijah
took the child and brought him out of the chamber into the house
and delivered him unto his mother, and Elijah said, See, thy son
liveth. Elijah carried that dead body,
that son, into his room, and that mother sat out there. You
know she's wondering what's going on in there. Well, nothing would
have satisfied that mother, nothing would have, other than a living
son, her son. Elijah's concern and Elijah's
prayers for her, she might have thought that's nice, but it wouldn't
have satisfied her if her son stayed dead. The only thing that
would satisfy her broken heart is for her son to be given back
to her alive so she can enjoy his company. And we can't really
imagine, we can kind of think about it, but we can't imagine
how satisfied How filled with joy this widow woman was. She's a widow. Nobody at this
time was more helpless than a widow or an orphan. Had nobody to provide
for them. Can you imagine how thrilled,
how filled with joy she was when she received her dead son back
to life again? Look what she said, verse 24.
And the woman said to Elijah, now by this I know that thou
art a man of God. And the word of the Lord in thy
mouth is truth. She certainly changed her tune
from a few verses ago, didn't she? We're going to get to this
in just a minute, but you know why that is? God gave her a new
message. When God gives life to his people,
everything's new. When God gives life from the
dead, everything's new. Now she's got a new message.
Now she's got something to talk about. So here's the picture. God the Father loved a people
in eternity. He set His purpose to save those
people from their sins. And nothing but their eternal
life will satisfy Him. The Father elected a people to
save. And I say this very carefully and reverently, but this is so.
More than election is required for the salvation of a sinner.
Now, it's got to start there. All of the gospels spring from
God's electing love. It all starts there. But more
than election is required for the salvation of a sinner. The
Son must come in the flesh, and He must die for those sinners
that the Father elected. And again, I say this carefully
and reverently, but this is so. More than a sacrifice is required
for the salvation of a sinner. That's true. Redemption, that
changed our legal standing before God, didn't it? But it didn't
change us. It didn't change us. If we would
have eternal life, we must be changed. Something must be done
in us. Something must be done for us,
absolutely. And something must be done in
us. We must be given life from above. So the Holy Spirit must
come. And he must give spiritual, holy,
eternal life to God's elect. And if he doesn't, the father
will never be satisfied. The Holy Spirit must come and
apply the blood of Christ's sacrifice and give life in the new birth.
See, this is why I said more than a sacrifice is required.
You think about the day of the Passover. That father had that
lamb. He selected it. watched it for
14 days, made sure it didn't have any spot. At just the right
moment, he took that lamb and he killed it. He slit its throat,
he caught its blood in the basin, he roasted its body with fire. If that father would have took
that lamb and went in the house and shut the door, what would
have happened? His firstborn is going to die. The blood has
got to be applied to the doorpost, above the door and to the two
sides. The blood's got to be applied or the firstborn's gonna
die. The Holy Spirit must come and
apply the blood and give life in the new birth. See, salvation
requires the work of all three. You can't set God above God.
God to Father, God to Son, and God to Holy Spirit. They're all
three equal. And you take the work of one
of them away, all of salvation falls down. And the Spirit comes
to apply the blood and give life to God's elect. And the Father,
the Son, and the Holy Spirit will only be satisfied when all
of God's elect are finally presented before the Father with exceeding
joy. The Father is gonna be satisfied when God the Son, the Lord Jesus
Christ says to him, behold, I and the children that God hath given
me, here they are. I brought them to you. Not one's
missing. And then the Father is gonna
be satisfied. His work, His purpose of redemption
will all be brought to pass and He's going to be satisfied in
His perfection. And might I add then, we who
believe are going to be completely satisfied too, aren't we? See,
that's the end, the result of the new birth. Regeneration in
this life will lead to eternal life in glory. Now that's the
picture of regeneration in this passage. And I want to give you a few
other scriptures that describe this miracle of the new birth. The new birth is a miraculous
work. It's a greater work than human
language can express. It's a work, a miracle of God's
grace that can only be done in us by Almighty God. Remember
when our Lord was talking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus started
out. This man's had some political background. He started out his
conversation buttering up the master, didn't he? Oh, now we
know your man come from God. Nobody could do these miracles
you do, except you come from God. And the Lord just completely
ignored that. He got right to the heart of
the issue. Nicodemus, you must be born again. You must be born
again. The Savior didn't tell Nicodemus,
you gotta get saved. He didn't say that, did he? You
must be born again. When you were born the first
time, how much input did you have in that? None whatsoever. None. Same thing is true spiritually. You must be born again by the
will and the power and the work of somebody else. God the Holy
Spirit. We won't turn to all these scriptures,
but turn to this one, Ephesians chapter 2. Let's see what God's
word has to say about being born again. To be born again is to
be spiritually raised from the dead. It's to be dead and then
to be given life. Ephesians 2 verse 1, and you
hath he quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins. wherein
in time past ye walked according to the course of this world,
according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit
that now worketh in the children of disobedience, among whom also
we all had our conversation in times past, in the lust of our
flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind,
and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others." Now,
the apostle here says you were dead in trespasses and sins.
In our modern civilized society, when we think of someone who's
dead, what goes through your mind? A corpse down at the funeral
home. That's what we think. That's
not the dead he's talking about here. This woman's son who died,
he was freshly dead. He just died. This dead that
Paul's talking about here is somebody that's been dead a long
time. They're stinky. rotting from their decay. This
is the offensiveness of sin. It's dead, rotting flesh. It's
a stench in God's nostrils. Would God really give life to
somebody like that? Look at verse 4. 4. But God,
who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together
with Christ, by grace here saved, hath raised us up together and
made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that
in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of
his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus." Regeneration,
the new birth, is where God gives life to the dead. Now why would God do something
so incredibly wonderful for somebody like me? so that God would get the glory,
so that He'd be praised. See, God, He doesn't save, eh,
you know, sinners that kind of, eh, you know, they've broken
some laws, eh, well, they're pretty, no. He saves sinners
who are dead in trespasses and sins, who have no hope but in
Him, so that He will get the praise for eternity. Then a pretty
good cry for you and me would be, Lord, Get glory to yourself
by saving someone as awful as I am. Save me. To be born again
is to be made a brand new creature, is to be made a spiritual man
who never existed before. 2 Corinthians 5.17, therefore,
if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature, a new creation.
And to that new man, everything is new. He's got new motives
because he's got a new heart. Now, he serves God out of love
and thanksgiving, not out of fear of punishment and not because
he wants a reward. He serves out of love. You serve
out of love because God's given you a heart that loves Christ. Everything's new to this man,
to the new man, the new creature. Now you've got new eyes to see
what you couldn't see before. I remember thinking, I see that. I see. Now, I mean, there's a sense
in which I always saw that, but now I see it. I can't explain
that difference. If you see, you know exactly
what I'm talking about. I see. I've always heard the gospel,
but now God's given me new ears. Now I hear. Now I hear like I've
never heard before. Now I love what I once hated
because God's given me a new heart. All things have been made
new. All right, get a hold of your
seat. To be born again. is to have Christ formed in us. I would not dare say such a thing,
except God's Word said it. The Apostle Paul said, I'm crucified
with Christ. Nevertheless I live, yet not
I, but Christ liveth in me. In me. And he went on to tell
that church at Galatia why he's so concerned with them. Why is
it that he is willing to sacrifice everything to come preach the
gospel to them? Because in chapter four, verse 19, it's the way
he said, my little children of whom I travail in birth again
until what? Christ be formed in you. That's the new birth. When Christ,
the spirit of Christ is formed in us. Then to be born again is to receive
a brand new nature. When God saves a sinner, he doesn't
fix up the old nature. He doesn't fix up that flesh.
The flesh cannot, cannot be improved. That's why the Lord told Nicodemus,
he said, Nicodemus, it's no wonder you don't understand these things.
That which is born of the flesh is flesh. That which is born
of the flesh can only and will always be dead sinful flesh.
So there's got to be a new birth. not fixing up a new birth. And when God saves a sinner,
he gives that sinner a brand new nature. And that nature is
born of our heavenly father. It's the nature of Christ. When
I was born the first time, I received the nature of my father. My dear
wife occasionally will tell me, that's just what your dad would
say. That's just what your dad would do, and I always say thank
you, because he's just my hero. I always did want to be just
like him. But it's the only nature that he had to pass on to me,
and the nature he passed on to me was Adam's dead, sinful nature,
because it's the only nature that he had. Well, when we're
born again, we're born of a new father, and we receive his nature
in the new birth. That's why Peter said in 2 Peter
1 verse 4, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious
promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature."
Now, that's another thing. Aaron, I wouldn't dare say that
if God's Word didn't say it, but since God's Word said it,
we better say it. To be born again is to receive the nature
of our new heavenly Father. It's to be born in His image.
To be born again is to have the seed of God planted in us, so
that we cannot sin, so that we cannot not believe. 1 John 3,
verse 9. Whosoever is born of God doth
not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him, and he cannot
sin, because he's born of God. Right now, look at the book of
James. James, I've told you this several times, but I want you
to see it in God's Word, read it, for yourself. The new birth
is a work that only God can do. James 1, verse 17. Every good gift and every perfect
gift is from above. That's the new birth, isn't it?
It's a good and perfect gift. It must be given to us from above.
It cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness,
neither shadow of turning. of His own will begat He us with
the word of truth, that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His
creatures. God Almighty does this gracious
work in the hearts of all of His poor, insignificant people
by His will, not because we earned it, not because we did something
to catch His eye, not by our will, by His will, His sovereign
will. One more scripture, John chapter
one. Gospel of John chapter one. If any sinful son of Adam is
going to become a son of God, something monumental is going
to have to happen. We're going to have to be born
again with a new nature, a new father into a new family. And
it is the power of God He gives a sinner the right, the privilege,
to be born a son of God. John chapter 1, verse 11. He came unto his own, and his
own received him not. But as many as received him,
to them gave he power, the right, or the privilege, to become sons
of God, even to them that believed on his name. Now, who is it here
that received Christ? Who is it that believed Christ?
Who is it that believes Christ today? Is it people that got
some sort of ability on their own to make themselves believe
when pretty much everybody else doesn't have it? Is that it? No, not at all. The people who
received Christ, the people who believed Him, were the ones that
received a new want to. They received a new nature when
they were born as a son of God. There's not a period there at
the end of verse 12. Verse 13 tells us who they were.
which were born, not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor
the will of man, but they are born of God. Those who believed
didn't believe because of their own strength. They believed God,
because God the Holy Spirit caused them to be born again with a
nature that believes God. This is all the work of God,
isn't it? Salvation is of the Lord. It's all of Him. That's the new birth. That's
what God's word has to say about the new birth. You know what? I sure would like
to know if I'd been born again. Wouldn't you? I'd like for you,
right now, to know whether or not you've been born again. You're
the gospel. It's the most majestic. It is so majestic that the greatest
human minds cannot comprehend it. They just can't. It's eternal. The gospel is eternal. But be sure, don't overcomplicate
things. Now, well, that's true. The gospel
is eternal. The gospel is something the human
mind cannot comprehend, but don't overcomplicate things. Now, the
simplest child can understand and believe the gospel. How can
I tell if I've been born again? People write great big old books
about it. If you're reading a book that
big on being born again, you missed it. The answer is so simple. The answer is so simple. Do you believe God? Do you believe
Christ? Do you believe that the Lord
Jesus Christ is your only hope of life? He's your only hope.
The only way you could ever be forgiven of your sin is the Lord
Jesus Christ. The only way you could ever be
righteous is in Christ. Do you believe that? Then you've
been born of God. It's a question of the whole
gospel. What think ye of Christ? What think ye of Christ? Oh, may God have mercy on us
and cause us to be born again. Let's bow together in prayer. Our Father, oh, we bow humbly
in your presence, knowing we're nothing. but yet so thankful
that we can come boldly before your throne of grace in the person
of our Lord Jesus Christ. And Father, I beg of thee that
you take your word and cause it to bring glory to your name. Cause your word to go forth in
power, to take root in the hearts of your people. to give life,
to encourage and comfort and edify your people, to cause us
to be able to feed on Christ and sustain our life, cause us
to leave here tonight looking to and trusting the Lord Jesus
Christ and Him alone. Father, how we beg you for mercy,
how we beg you for grace. Would you be pleased to be merciful
and gracious to sinners like we are? and give us life, give
us faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Father, we ask that you do this
for your glory. Get glory to your name in saving
sinners here tonight. It's in the matchless name of
our Lord Jesus Christ. For his glory, we pray and give
thanks. Amen.