Monthly Archives: August 2013

Physical Birth – Spiritual Birth

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your situation, your sex or your country?

No, you did not. Your parents (by their activity alone) made the choice to cause your birth.

Spiritual birth: What was it that triggered the new birth?

The Apostle John lists three things that were non factors:

John 1:12 But to all who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, 13 who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.

1. It was NOT because of blood (not because of human ancestry).
2. It was NOT because of the will of the flesh.
3. It was NOT because of human will.

Question: So what caused the new birth?

Answer: GOD!

God did it! The new birth is the work of God alone, all of grace.

The First Cause

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sedona-arizona02“Applying the principles of cause and effect, it is clear that scientific logic indicates that the Cause for the universe in which we live must trace back to an infinite First Cause of all things. Random motion or primeval particles cannot produce intelligent thought, nor can inert molecules generate spiritual worship.

The First Cause of limitless space must be infinite.
The First Cause of endless time must be eternal.
The First Cause of boundless energy must be omnipotent.
The First Cause of universal inter-relationships must be omnipresent.
The First Cause of infinite complexity must be omniscient.
The First Cause of spiritual values must be spiritual.
The First Cause of human responsibility must be volitional.
The First Cause of human integrity must be truthful.
The First Cause of human love must be loving.
The First Cause of life must be living.

We would conclude from the law of cause-and-effect that the First Cause of all things must be an infinite, eternal, omnipotent, omnipresent, omniscient, spiritual, volitional, truthful, loving, living Being!”

– Institute for Creation Research: http://www.icr.org/transcendent/

Man’s Natural Inability

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no-abilityJohn 3:

Nicodemus:2 ‘We know that you are a teacher having come from God. For no one is able [dunatai] to do these signs that you do unless God is with him.’

Jesus:3 ‘Truly, I say to you, unless one is born again he cannot [dunatai] see the kingdom of God.’

Nicodemus:4 ‘How can [dunatai] a man be born when he is old old? Can [dunatai] he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?’

Jesus:5 ‘Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot [dunatai] enter the kingdom of God. . . . The wind blows where it wishes…’

Nicodemus:9 ‘How can [dunatai] these things be?’

* * * * *

John 6:44
Jesus: No one can [dunatai] come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day.

65 Jesus: And he said, “This is why I told you that no one can [dunatai] come to me unless it is granted him by the Father.”

* * * * *

Romans 8:
Paul: 7 For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot [dunatai]. 8 Those who are in the flesh cannot [dunatai] please God.

* * * * *

1 Cor 2:
14 The natural person does not accept the things of the Spirit of God, for they are folly to him, and he is not able [dunatai] to understand them because they are spiritually discerned.

* * * * *

In contrast:

1 John 5:1: “Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God.”

Comment: In the original Greek, the verb tenses in this verse are very revealing. A literal translation reads as follows: “All the ones going on believing (pisteuon, a present tense, continuous action) that Jesus is the Christ has been born (gennesanta, perfect tense – an action already complete with abiding effects) of God.”

The fact that someone is presently going on believing in Christ shows that they have first been born again. Faith is the evidence of regeneration, not the cause of it. Since both repentance and faith are possible only because of the work of God (regeneration), both are called the gift of God in Scripture (Eph. 2:8, 9; Phil. 1:29; 2 Tim 2:24-26).

Why Heaven?

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So why John would you think you are fit to enter heaven after death?

In and of myself, I have no hope WHATSOEVER of entrance into God’s heaven. My only hope is found in the word SUBSTITUTION – that there was One who stood in my place, that my very own sins were transferred to Him as He hung on the tree, that He bore the punishment that was mine, that He died in my place, that He drank the bitter cup of Divine wrath for me; and that grace upon grace, the righteous life of that One was credited to my account when I trusted in Him, and that I stand in His righteousness alone. I have no other plea but this: that based on the sure foundation of SCRIPTURE ALONE, that CHRIST ALONE the Perfect Savior is my Subsitute, and that He is mine by GRACE ALONE, through FAITH ALONE, to the GLORY OF GOD ALONE.

Miscellaneous Quotes (86)

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quotes“As to myself, I think I should have no more hope of success in preaching to men, than to horses or cows.” – John Newton in a letter to Rev. Thomas Jones (October 20, 1767)

“It is the Father who, as the divine Gardener, has grafted us into Christ.” – Sinclair Ferguson

“The Holy Spirit produces the new birth, not the lost sinner.” – Steven Lawson

“The excellence of the church does not consist in multitude but in purity.” – John Calvin

“Burning hearts are not nourished by empty heads” – R.C. Sproul

“The fear of punishment, the desire of reward, the sense of duty, are all useful arguments, in their way, to persuade people to holiness. But they are all weak and powerless, until a person loves Christ.” – J.C. Ryle

“If the natural man has a free will to believe the gospel, then why does he need grace? If his will is naturally free then it would do away with the need for grace altogether…Therefore, to teach that the natural man has a free will overthrows the gospel … it is precisely because man is in bondage to sin that he needs Christ to set him free.” (John 8:34, 36) – John Hendryx

“There is tremendous relief in knowing that His love to me is utterly realistic, based on prior knowledge of the worst about me.” J.I. Packer

“We conclude that man, without the Holy Ghost and God’s grace, can do nothing but sin. Augustine has written, ‘without God’s grace and the Holy Ghost, man can do nothing but sin.’ A man without the Spirit of God does not do evil against his will, under pressure, as though he were taken by the scruff of the neck and dragged into it but he does it spontaneously and voluntarily. And this willingness of volition is something which he cannot in his own strength eliminate, restrain or alter. He goes on willing and desiring to do evil; and if external pressure forces him to act otherwise, nevertheless his will within remains averse to so doing and chafes under such constraint and opposition.” – Martin Luther

“Faith is nothing but the instrument of our salvation. Nowhere in Scripture will you find that we are justified because of our faith; nowhere in Scripture will you find that we are justified on account of our faith. The Scripture says that we are justified by faith or through faith. Faith is nothing but the instrument or the channel by which this righteousness of God in Christ becomes ours. It is not faith that saves us. What saves us is the Lord Jesus Christ and His perfect work. It is the death of Christ upon Calvary’s Cross that saves us. It is His perfect life that saves us. It is His appealing on our behalf in the presence of God that saves us. It is God putting Christ’s righteousness to our account that saves us. That is the righteousness that saves; faith is but the channel and the instrument by which His righteousness becomes mine. The righteousness is entirely Christ’s. My faith is not my righteousness and I must never think of faith as righteousness. Faith is nothing but that which links us to the Lord Jesus Christ and His righteousness.” – D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones

“He who looks sinward has his back to God—he who looks Godward has his back to sin.” – C. H. Spurgeon

“The New Testament preaches a Christ who was dead and is alive, not a Christ who was alive and is dead.” – James Denney

“The enjoyment of God is the only happiness with which our souls can be satisfied. To go to heaven, fully to enjoy God, is infinitely better than the most pleasant accommodations here. Fathers and mothers, husbands, wives, or children, or the company of earthly friends, are but shadows; but God is the substance. These are but scattered beams, but God is the sun. These are but streams, but God is the ocean.” (Jonathan Edwards, Heaven is a World of Love).

“If you do not desire to be holy I do not see that you have any right to think that you are a Christian.” – D. Martyn Lloyd Jones

“Has it never dawned upon us that God is valuable for His own sake, that just as personal communion is the highest thing that we know on earth, so personal communion with God is the sublimest height of all?” – The God-centered legacy of J. Gresham Machen.

“God does not crave your adulation, he offers it as your greatest pleasure.” – John Piper

“Men without Christ are death walking. The beauties of holiness do not attract man is his moral insensibility, nor do the miseries of Hell deter him”. – John Edie, 19th Century Scottish preacher

“I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.” – Michael Jordan

“You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” – Wayne Gretzky

The Preacher’s Job

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“I just want you to know, Mr. Washer, 22 people, I believe it was are on their way to heaven now because last night they prayed that little prayer that you are always speaking against.”

And I wrote him back and I said, “I had no idea you were that charismatic.”

And he wrote me back, “Well, I am not charismatic. Why did you say that?”

I said, “Because apart from a supernatural revelation from God, explain to me how you know they were converted.”

And he said, “Well, that is not my job.”

I said, “Then what is your job, sir? Your job is that when you have properly preached the gospel and you have called men to repentance and faith that even though you have surveyed their life for a few hours in counseling, deep counseling, you depart from them with both promises and warnings. Promises that if God truly continues this work, it is evidence that he began it; and warnings that if after this night or after a short period of seeming to walk with Christ they fall away or turn away, it is evidence that nothing happened to them that night.”