Three Streams

Apologies for not promoting this sooner! The City was launched sometime in May (I think). I’ve been so busy I have only briefly managed to used on several occasions.

The City was designed by the guys at Mars Hill and is flying under the banner of The Gospel Coalition. which are two very God honoring cutting edge movements if you want my opinion!

For more info or to join click the link or the logo and you will be directed to Adrian Warnock’s Blog post on it which has lots of info and links.

Mark Driscoll does such a good job dispelling this popular Christian myth that I’ll let him do the talking!

The Blogosphere is ever expanding! Two blogs I would like to recommend are firstly my wife Laura’s Blog (who by the way has a far superior writing style than I have). She is very gifted. Her Blog is called Journey to the Father’s Heart In her blog you will find a mixture of poetry, creative thoughts, life stuff and spiritual reflection. She has a wicked sense of humour and is far less serious than I am! Check it out, I’m sure you will be blessed.

The second blog I wish to recommend is that of my good friend Ross Murphy. His blog is called That which Thundered. Ross is the minister at Airdrie Baptist Church, he also has a wicked sense of humour but he is even more serious than I am! Ross is an articulate writer (and speaker) who has a heart for the Glory of God and the Gospel of God! Check him out I’m sure you will be blessed and challenged.

I was preaching at Johnstone Baptist Church again this morning, today’s Message was on The New Birth.

1 Peter 1:3-9 (New International Version)

Praise to God for a Living Hope

 ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, ⁴and into an inheritance that can never perish, spoil or fade-kept in heaven for you, ⁵who through faith are shielded by God’s power until the coming of the salvation that is ready to be revealed in the last time. ⁶In this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. ⁸Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, ⁹for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Opening

Imagine trying to

• Bake a cake without flour
• Build a house without a solid foundation
• Drive a car with no engine

Foolish and meaningless

 Point: Christianity without the new birth is just as foolish and meaningless

 So essential to Christianity is the New Birth that you would think

• They would never be separated
• Never confused
• Teaching would remain clear

 Sadly, this is not the case.

 Example 

• N.T continually explains it, defends it against false versions and shows the marks of those who truly have experienced it.
• Church History-Constantine/Rome/Luther/ Wesley/Whitefield
• Today-Doctrinal, moral, and spiritual decline

Many are confused over 

• What the New Birth is
• How it takes place
• What evidence can be expected in those who have genuinely experienced it

 Confusion over the New Birth has drastic consequences 

1. Mission Suffers

A) Believers are hindered in their communication of the gospel (what is it they are to share with unbelievers?)

B) Hearers and responders suffer 

• False converts (at the very worst)
• True converts with shaky foundations (unable to build a strong Christian life)

•  
  1. The Christian Church Suffers

A) Discipleship is hindered (understanding what God has done for us in Christ is the key to fruitfulness) the gospel is also for the church. 

B) Worship is tainted (How we understand the new birth affects how we understand 

• Ourselves
• God

C) Fellowship is broken down (or lost) Understanding and living in the realities of the New Birth affect 

• Our attitude to each other
• Our behaviour towards one another

N.T Fellowship is 1) ‘of the Spirit’ 2) The Spirit produces love

Lose the concept of the New Birth and the church becomes a religious club- no different from people in the world.

D) We have already noted that the churches evangelism will suffer

 The New Birth is Central to God’s Purposes

  The New Birth was foretold in the Old Testament

  Ezekiel 36:25-27 (New International Version)

²⁵ I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your impurities and from all your idols. ²⁶ I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. ²⁷ And I will put my Spirit in you and move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws. v27

4 Aspects of the New Birth 

• Cleansing from sin v25
• A new heart (a change of heart) v26
• A personal receiving of God’s Spirit v27
• “Moved” by God to keep his decrees and laws

 This is why Jesus rebuked Nicodemus for spiritual ignorance. As ‘Israel’s teacher’ he should have known these texts.

 Jesus spoke of the essential nature of the new birth

 John 3:1-8 (New International Version)

John 3

Jesus Teaches Nicodemus

 ¹Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a member of the Jewish ruling council. ²He came to Jesus at night and said, “Rabbi, we know you are a teacher who has come from God. For no one could perform the miraculous signs you are doing if God were not with him.”

 ³In reply Jesus declared, “I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again.^[a]”

 ⁴“How can a man be born when he is old?” Nicodemus asked. “Surely he cannot enter a second time into his mother’s womb to be born!”

 ⁵Jesus answered, “I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. ⁶Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit^[b] gives birth to spirit. ⁷You should not be surprised at my saying, ‘You^[c] must be born again.’ ⁸The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.”

1. No one can ‘see the Kingdom of God‘ without it

• This is speaking about discernment
• The Kingdom is here now
• People are blind to it

 It is not that Christianity is irrelevant to the world it is simply that the world is blind to the relevance of Christianity.

Luke 17:20-21 (New International Version)

The Coming of the Kingdom of God

 ²⁰Once, having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God would come, Jesus replied, “The kingdom of God does not come with your careful observation, ²¹nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is within^[a] you.”

• Religious people always look for externals
• Kingdom cannot be observed with the natural eye
• Kingdom is related to the inner spiritual life

 1 Corinthians 2:12-14 (New International Version)

¹²We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. ¹³This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.^{[a] 14}The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned.

• God’s Spirit is in direct conflict/contrast with the world
• Spirit gives believers understanding
• The person without the Spirit does not understand

 2. No one can enter the Kingdom of God without it

• The person who is not born again, is not a Christian

  Romans 8:9 (New International Version)

 ⁹You, however, are controlled not by the sinful nature but by the Spirit, if the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Christ.

The person who is not born again

•  
  1. Has not been cleansed from sin (false sense of peace with God)
  2. Does not have a new heart (his religion is external)
  3. Does not have the Holy Spirit (spiritually dead)
  4. Is not moved by God towards obedience (like Blackpool rock, cut them in half and you will only find selfish desires and ambitions)

Moving through the passage in 1 Peter 1: 3-9 

1. Has not received mercy v3
2. Does not have an eternal inheritance v4
3. Has no real hope of the coming salvation v5
4. Does not have a genuine faith v7
5. Does not bring God praise, glory and honour v 7
6. Does not love Jesus v8 (cut the elect in half and you will find love for God) New Birth produces love for God within us
7.  Knows nothing of the inexpressible and glorious joy of salvation

This is why the New Birth is so important!

How Does the New Birth Happen?

First we need to answer ‘Why does it need to happen?’

Why can’t a person be saved by

• Church Membership?
• Trying to live a good life?
• Religion?
• Being baptised as a child?

The answers are connected to 1) Who God is and 2) Who we are

Ephesians 2:1-3 (New International Version)

Ephesians 2

Made Alive in Christ

 ¹As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, ²in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. ³All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying the cravings of our sinful nature^[a] and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath.

1. We are sinners by nature (Culture says human nature is good) - We need to be delivered from the snare of sin
2. This causes us to sin with our actions- (Culture down plays what the bible calls sin) we need mercy and forgiveness
3. We are spiritually dead (a lot of people who believe in God- think He lives within us all- (we are estranged from God)
4. We are bound over to disobedience (fallen nature thinks it can please God) we cannot fulfil the law while in our fallen condition.

 Because of this

1. All people are by nature under God’s wrath (This is relating to the future judgement and eternal condemnation of the wicked)
2. God is perfectly good, righteous and holy- he will not overlook sin- if he did he would not be perfectly good, righteous and holy- he would be a compromiser.

 The New Birth is directly linked to 1) God’s Mercy 2) The Work of Christ

1. The New Birth is given on the basis of God’s mercy

^{1 Peter 1:”3}Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,”

• God does not have to save anyone
• He could judge the world, condemn all for their sin and still be perfectly just
• In mercy- he chooses to save some

Romans 9:14-18 (New International Version)

 ¹⁴What then shall we say? Is God unjust? Not at all! ¹⁵For he says to Moses,
   ”I will have mercy on whom I have mercy,
      and I will have compassion on whom I have compassion.”^{[a] 16}It does not, therefore, depend on man’s desire or effort, but on God’s mercy. ¹⁷For the Scripture says to Pharaoh: “I raised you up for this very purpose, that I might display my power in you and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth.”^{[b] 18}Therefore God has mercy on whom he wants to have mercy, and he hardens whom he wants to harden.

• God’s mercy and grace are the foundation in our salvation- nothing else
• Because of this He gets all the glory

2. The New Birth is directly connected to the work of Christ

   ³Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead,

• A) Through his death
• We are forgiven (delivered from sins penalty)
• We can know deliverance from sins power

 B) Through his resurrection

• We are made alive
• Empowered to obey

 The Holy Spirit is the one who applies the work of God in Christ to the believer.

 John 16:12-14 (New International Version)

 ¹²“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. ¹³But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. ¹⁴He will bring glory to me by taking from what is mine and making it known to you.

This is the new birth.

 Conclusion

• The New Birth is central to God’s purposes
• It was foretold in the O.T
• Understanding the New Birth is essential for the life of the church
• Understanding the New Birth is essential for mission to be effective
• No one is a Christian who has not been born again
• We cannot produce the new birth ourselves
• The New Birth is the gift of God
• The New Birth is the Holy Spirit coming to live within us and applying the work of Christ to us

These are my notes from a message I preached at Johnstone Baptist last month.

Faith To Soar Higher, When Tested By Fire

  1 Peter 1:1-2

 ¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
      To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ²who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
      Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

What words of encouragement would you offer someone who was going through a really hard time?

Or

Have you ever been in a situation were someone has made you aware of some particular difficulty they were facing and you have struggled for the ‘right words’ to offer?

Various responses to peoples difficult circumstances

• Flippant/naïve/shallow ‘Don’t worry, it will be ok’.
• The Optimist- looks for something positive (woman in docs)
• Pessimist- admits how awful- and tells you even worse things!
• ‘I’ve been there response’
• Agony Aunt Response- the person with the ‘one size fits all’ answers
• The Empathetic Response- the silent head nodding ‘mmmm’

What Job’s comforters’ people can be!

Purpose of 1 Peter

• 1 Peter is written to Christians who are experiencing various types of trials and suffering.
• Many were facing hostility, rejection and persecution on account of their faith.

Suffering is a reality which all Christians experience and need to face up to.

3 examples of suffering

• Suffering and evil exist in the world because of the curse of the fall (Gen 3) everyone is affected by it.
• There is a suffering that comes as a direct result of our faith and obedience
• There is a suffering which tests our faith- sometimes we do not understand the reason why it is happening.

1 Peter 4:12

 ¹²Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you.

1 Peter 1:4-7

6though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷These have come so that your faith-of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire-may be proved genuine and may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed.

“A clay pot sitting in the sun will always be a clay pot. It has  to go through the white heat of the furnace to become porcelain.”

Various Types/levels of Suffering

• Suffering caused by others
• Caused by Circumstances
• Ourselves

Various Responses to Suffering

• The atheist sees suffering as evidence that God does not exist

• Some who profess faith struggle to reconcile suffering- with God’s love

Example

You believe God is good

Something awful happens

You cant understand ‘how God could let this happen’

• Trials can floor us ‘Not In Service’ gets written over our Christian life
• They can stunt our development (child development example)

Peter is writing to these Christians who are facing difficulty and trials in order to

• Encourage and strengthen them
• To help them stand firm in their faith
• To remind them to live Christ-like lives in the midst of unbelievers

Unlike the poor advisors mentioned at the start- Peter writes to

• Give these believers a Rock under their feet
• Give them an anchor in the midst of their storm

The keys: for ‘faith to soar higher- when being tested by fire’

• Peter does this by strengthening their faith
• He does not encourage them to ‘have faith’ - (hopeless advise!)- Where do you find faith in the midst of despair?
• He fixes their gaze upon God- and what God has done for them

“Some of you seek for faith much in the same way as you would dig for a well. You turn the eye inward upon yourself and search admidst the depths of your polluted heart to find if faith is there; you search admid all your feelings at sermons and sacraments to see if faith is there; and still you find nothing but sin and disappointment… Look full in the face of Jesus… Drink in His Word… Faith comes by hearing the voice of Jesus.” Robert Murray McCheyne

• ‘Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God
• Peter fixes their gaze upon the triune God

1 Peter 1:1-2

¹Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ,
      To God’s elect, strangers in the world, scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia, ²who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, for obedience to Jesus Christ and sprinkling by his blood:
      Grace and peace be yours in abundance.

• 1) He fixes their eyes upon the Sovereign God who chose them

• They are God’s elect
• Chosen according to God’s foreknowledge

• A) They are not chosen on the basis that there is anything good in them or in what they have done.

• B) Foreknowledge is not God looking into the future and seeing who will choose him and then electing them in response.

• C) When God looked into the future what he saw in all people was a ‘love of sin and hatred of himself’

• D) His choosing of the elect is based upon

• His Sovereign choice
• His great mercy and love
• His own good pleasure and purpose

Sadly the doctrine of election has been turned into a negative and controversial doctrine.

Yet in scripture the doctrine of election is intended to

• Cause us to praise and glorify God!
• Be a source of comfort for the elect
• Enable Christians to walk in confidence and assurance

“The secret formula of the saints: When I am in the cellar of affliction, I look for the Lord’s choicest wines.”
~ Samuel Rutherford

The doctrine of election is one of the Lords choicest wines

2) Election explains our alienation

“To God’s elect, strangers in the world”

• This world is not our home- we walk contrary

John 15:18-21 

 ¹⁸“If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. ¹⁹If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world. That is why the world hates you. ²⁰Remember the words I spoke to you: ‘No servant is greater than his master.’^[a] If they persecuted me, they will persecute you also. If they obeyed my teaching, they will obey yours also. ²¹They will treat you this way because of my name, for they do not know the One who sent me.

• Hebrews 11 speaks not only of the walk of faith but the cost of faith
• Abraham’s heart tested to give up his son
• Moses chooses to be mistreated with God’s people rather than enjoy the ‘pleasures of sin for a season’
• Others are martyred and persecuted for their faith

Hebrews 11:13-16

¹³All these people were still living by faith when they died. They did not receive the things promised; they only saw them and welcomed them from a distance. And they admitted that they were aliens and strangers on earth. ¹⁴People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. ¹⁵If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return. ¹⁶Instead, they were longing for a better country-a heavenly one. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them.

The calling and election of God come with a cost

• 2) The Spirit who sanctifies us-

Sanctification is both positional and progressive- Peter is dealing with the positional aspect here.

• A) Set apart for God’s special purpose - through regeneration (new birth)

• Sanctified = Set apart your toothbrush is ‘sanctified’ it is set apart for you

Scriptures which speak of positional sanctification

Hebrews 10:10

¹⁰And by that will, we have been made holy through the sacrifice of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:14

¹⁴because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.

• We are set apart from the world for God
• From Sin to Righteousness
• Darkness to light
• Death to Life

B) We are sanctified (set apart) for “obedience to Jesus Christ”

Peter is possibly referring to the ‘obedience of faith’

Romans 1:5 (English Standard Version

⁵through whom^(A) we have received grace and^(B) apostleship^(C) to bring about the obedience of faith for the sake of his name^(D) among all the nations,

Order of Salvation

• Father elects
• Sends the Spirit to set us apart (sanctify us)
• Spirit quickens faith to our hearts
• Faith receives the benefits of Christ on the basis of his blood (justified by faith)

• 3) Peter Reminds us of the Son who saves us

The “sprinkling by his blood” Speaks of

A) God’s Covenant (His faithfulness)

Exodus 24:8 (New International Version)

 ⁸ Moses then took the blood, sprinkled it on the people and said, “This is the blood of the covenant that the LORD has made with you in accordance with all these words.”

O.T Moses Sprinkled the Blood over the people to seal the covenant

N.T Believers are sprinkled by the blood of Jesus

• When going through a trial we often feel abandoned by God
• The Sprinkled blood speaks of the covenant which says “NEVER WILL I LEAVE YOU, NEVER WILL I FORSAKE YOU”
• When facing difficulties its easy to wonder ‘Have I done something wrong?’ ‘Is God punishing me?’
• The Sprinkled Blood of the Covenant says “IT IS FINISHED”, “AS FAR AS THE EAST IS FROM THE WEST, SO FAR HAVE I REMOVED YOUR SINS FROM YOU.

The “sprinkling by his blood” Speaks of

B) God’s Love

God’s love is manifested through the cross which joins us to Christ forever

Romans 8:35-39 (New International Version)

³⁵Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? ³⁶As it is written:
   ”For your sake we face death all day long;
      we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”^{[c] 37}No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. ³⁸For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,^[d] neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, ³⁹neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

Closing

• All of us have encountered various trials in our walk
• Some may be going through a season of testing right now
• Are you soaring or sinking?

Allow the great truths of what God has done for you in Christ to lift your heart to higher ground.

In the midst of storm you need an anchor lift your eyes to

• The God who choose you
• The Spirit who set you apart
• The Son who shed his blood for you

“Grace and peace be yours in abundance”