Grace Baptist Church of Danville September 20, 2009
It is not Christ living for you, or dying for you, or risen for you, or interceding for you that is the believer’s hope of glory, but “Christ in you” (Colossians 1:27). Until Christ is in you, until you are made “partakers of the divine nature” (2 Peter 1:4), you have no hope.
Christ in You — Don Fortner (Tune: The Doxology — LM)
This is that glorious better part, Most dear to each believer’s heart; Christ Jesus dwelling in the soul, The sov’reign Monarch, Lord of all.
Pursuing His to eternal love, Christ comes in mercy from above, And enters by all-conqu’ring grace, The hearts of all His chosen race.
There He subdues the pow’r of sin, Brings all His Spirit’s graces in; Renews, transforms and stores it well, And there He shall forever dwell.
Does Christ, the Savior, dwell in me? Then I shall endless glory see. He is my hope, in Him I rest, In Christ I am forever blest!
The hope of glory! Oh, how bright, The realms of unbeclouded light; The full fruition of my God! Revealed and promised in His Word.
“Our Substitute so delighted to magnify the law of God, that he was willingly made sin, cut off out of the land of the living under the fierce wrath of God, because it was profitable in honoring the righteousness of God that one member of the body should perish, and not the whole body should be cast into hell.” — Pastor Clay Curtis
Christ Makes All Things New!
“Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)
In regeneration the Lord Jesus Christ makes chosen, redeemed sinners new creatures. Regeneration is commonly called the new birth. In fact, the Holy Spirit tells us plainly in Titus 3:5 that the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit are the same thing. That which is produced in regeneration is called the new creature and the new man. Those who are born again are said to be newborn babes (2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 4:24; 1 Peter 2:2).
New Creation — New Life
That new creature in Christ is given a new heart and a new spirit, a new understanding to know and understand things never known nor understood before. The regenerate soul has a new heart that knows God, not as the God of nature and providence, but as the God of grace. The believer knows God in Christ the Mediator. He is made to know the love of God in Christ, the covenant of grace and the blessings of it, that were given to him in Christ before the world was created.
Our Lord Jesus tells us that this knowledge of God in him is eternal life (John 17:3). Those who have eternal life, those who are made new creatures in Christ by the new birth know Christ and the fulness of God’s grace in him. They know and enjoy the pardon of sin through his blood, justification by his righteousness, atonement by his sacrifice and acceptance with God through him. They know and enjoy complete salvation in and by Christ.
In this new heart are new desires after heavenly things. The regenerate soul has new affections, which are set upon things above, new delights in them, and new joys, which arise from them (Ezekiel 36:26 1 John 5:20 1 Corinthians 2:9). In this new man are new eyes with which to see the kingdom of God. To some God does not give eyes to see divine and spiritual things, but to regenerate souls he does. They have seeing eyes, made by the Lord (Deuteronomy 29:4; Proverbs 20:12). They see their lost state and condition by nature, the exceeding sinfulness of sin and their utter inability to make atonement by anything they can do. We see the insufficiency of our righteousness, our impotence to every good work and our complete inability to change our condition.
Regenerate souls are made to see their need of the blood, righteousness and sacrifice of Christ and of salvation by him. They have the eye of faith, by which they behold the glories of Christ's Person, the fulness of his grace, the excellence of his righteousness, the virtue of his blood and sacrifice, and the suitableness and completeness of his salvation.
New Creation — New Faculties
Moreover, in the new man are new ears to hear the good Shepherd’s voice. They have them from the Lord, and blessed are they (Revelation 2:11; Deuteronomy 29:4; Proverbs 20:12; Matthew 13:16, 17). They hear the Word in a manner they never heard before; they so hear it as to understand it and receive the love of it. Now we are able to distinguish the voice of Christ from the voice of a stranger. We know the joyful sound of the gospel, and rejoice to hear it.
The new man has new hands with which to work and serve his Master. We have the hand of faith, to receive Christ as our Savior and Redeemer, to lay hold on him for life and salvation, to embrace him, hold him fast, and not let him go. With the hand of fait, we are now able to handle him, the Word of life, and receive from him grace for grace. We have hands to work with, and do our work from better principles and for better purposes than before.
Those who are born of God have new feet with which to walk, with which to flee to Christ, the City of refuge. We walk to Christ on the feet of faith, and walk on in him all our days just as we received him in the beginning (Colossians 2:6). God’s children never outgrow the simplicity of faith. With these new feet of faith we run with cheerfulness in the way of his commandments, following hard after him, and follow on to know him. By the grace of God the heaven born soul runs and is not weary. He walks and does not faint.
New Creation — God’s Work
If the regenerate soul is a new creature in Christ, if regeneration is a resurrection from the dead, as the Word of God everywhere declares that it is, then it is utterly absurd to imagine that man has anything to do with the work. Can man create? Can man raise the dead? What nonsense it is to talk about people being born again by their free will, their decision for Jesus, saying the sinners’ prayer, walking a church aisle, being baptized, or going through some religious ceremony! The new birth is God’s work. Our Lord does not say you must do something to get born again. He says, “Ye must BE born again!” The new birth is God’s work and God’s work alone! It is he and he alone who makes chosen, redeemed sinners new creatures. The new creation is his work of grace, for which he shall have all praise.
The Distinction Between Doctrinal Knowledge and Experimental Knowledge
Isaac Backus
A person may truly be slain by the law and made alive by the gospel, and yet not know, perhaps not have a thought, that what he has experienced is the change called conversion. But doctrinal teaching may be a means of opening clearly to him that it is the very change described in Scripture by that name. Christ’s disciples had experienced the way of access to the Father. Yet, they denied that they knew it when he mentioned it under that name (John 14:4-5). On the other hand, men may learn to talk orthodoxly or critically concerning these things, while they do not truly know them.
Grace Bulletin September 20, 2009 Grace Baptist Church of Danville 2734 Old Stanford Road-Danville, Kentucky 40422-9438 Telephone (859) 236-8235 - E-Mail don@donfortner.com Donald S. Fortner, Pastor
Schedule of Regular Services Sunday 10:00 A.M. Bible Classes 10:30 A.M. Morning Worship Service 6:30 P.M. Evening Worship Service
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