May 12^th 2024

9:30 am --------------------------------------- Bible Study by Brady Floyd

10:00 am-- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- ----- -- Message by Eric Floyd

An Imperative -- “Ye Must Be Born Again”

The renowned Puritan, John Owen, once said that the two greatest soul -damning delusions in the world are: 1. “Men think they can be saved without being born again, born of God;” 2. “Men think they can be born again, born of God, and not be a new creation.”

Rituals and ceremonies like infant baptism and confirmation, and easy believism and natural decisionism with their “Carnal Christian” doctrine, show quite plainly that Owen’s words are quite true in our day. However, written forever before the entrance to the kingdom of God, with the finger of God, are the prohibitive or qualifying words, “Except a man be born again he cannot see the kingdom of God” (John 3:3). ”Ye MUST be born again” (John 3:7). Just as clearly are these words from the Lord God, “If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). If any man be in Christ he is born of God and has a new, divine nature. He now lives by faith, under the influence of spiritual, invisible, eternal things (II Corinthians 4:18; Hebrews 11:13). The world is crucified unto him and he is crucified unto the world (Galatians 6:14, 15). Their lives are governed by the Spirit of God, through the Word of God. -- Maurice Montgomery

Natural to Spiritual -- “That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit” (John 3:6).

We are born into this world as natural, fleshly worldly men and women, “mindful of fleshly things;” but those of us who are born again, born of God, born of the Spirit, have a new nature, a spiritual nature, and are “mindful of spiritual, eternal things” (Rom. 8: 5). To us, “old things have passed away and all things are become new” (II Cor. 5: 17). We now “look not at things which are seen, but at things which are not seen” (II Cor. 4: 18), spiritual eternal things.

Though the natural and spiritual are contrasted, being two different worlds, yet our Lord Jesus Christ often used natural things to teach spiritual truths; and the longer I live, the more aware I am becoming of what a wise, wonderful and precious method of teaching that was – and is. Though we live in the Spirit and are led by the Spirit, and our chief interests are spiritual, yet we still dwell in the flesh in this natural carnal world; and we stand in need of constant reminders of spiritual things. Natural, fleshly perishing things are the constant experience of our natural senses, but rather than permit these things to be DISTRACTIONS, why not use them – as they were intended to be used – as REMINDERS of precious, spiritual eternal things? Thus we could turn those things which might be the enemies of our souls into helpful friends.

And what is there in this whole natural arena which we might not use to elevate our thoughts into the spiritual sphere? Nothing that I can think of! When we are putting on our clothes in the morning to go out before the world, might we not use this to cause us to consider how we are clothed as we stand before God? Are we clothed in “fig leaves” of our own making or has God clothed us with the garments of salvation and covered us with the robe of righteousness which HE PREPARED, the righteousness of Jesus Christ, that righteousness which is of God by faith? (Isa. 61: 10; I Cor. 1: 30; Phil. 3: 9).

We consider it important to clothe ourselves before we leave our homes and stand before men, but it far more important that we be properly clothed before we leave this world to stand before God! We feel a NEED to cover our physical nakedness before we face the world, BUT HOW MUCH GREATER THE NEED that we do not face God in our spiritual nakedness; that is, without the righteousness of Jesus Christ to cover our sinful souls!