Regeneration with John Piper, “Born Again Through the Living and Abiding Word”, 9

One of the unsettling things about the new birth is that It's not in our control to make happen.

We don't control it We don't decide

To make it happen any more than a baby

Decides to be conceived or Decides to be born

Or to be more accurate We don't any more decide to be born again

Than a dead man decides to come to life That's very unsettling for people

It's unsettling for me the very reason That we need to be born again

Is that we can't make ourselves be born again. That's the reason We need to be born again if we could make ourselves new

We'd be alive We wouldn't need to be born again The reason we need the new birth is because we're dead

In our trespasses and sins our condition apart from the new birth is

That if you're not born again test yourself see if this is not the case And if you are born again think back and test yourself to see if this was not the case

Our condition before we were born again was that we treasured sin and self exaltation so much

We could not treasure Christ supremely Could not in other words.

We were so rebellious at the root of our fallen human nature that we couldn't find it within ourselves to humbly see him and Savor him as the infinite treasure that he is

We couldn't we just loved other things more and we were guilty for this

It was and it is a real evil in us this inability is blameworthy

We were so hard and so dead that we couldn't see him for who he is

Love him for who he is trust him for who he is embrace him for who he is we had all kinds of names for him and all kinds of Feelings about him, but they were not of him as our supremely valuable

Savior and Lord treasure our consciences

Did not excuse us in that condition. We knew we were guilty

We felt it late at night or early in the morning Or after the hangover we knew we were guilty in our resistance to Christ as our supreme treasure our hardness was not an excusing hardness it was a

Convicting hardness in our best moments we knew we were rejecting and pushing and resisting and walking away and we felt guilty for it because we

Were guilty for it So this kind of deadness and inability is not an excusing one.

It's a heightening of our guilt not a lessening of our guilt something had to happen to us and The Bible has many names for it.

We just happen to be talking about one of them namely The new birth we needed to be born again

The Holy Spirit has to work in our hearts to give us new

Spiritual life we were dead. We needed to be made alive About 220 of our teenagers are away right now and perhaps

Not sure the timing of it, but within the next hour or so will probably sitting under the preaching of the word by Kempton Turner One of those kids was stone drunk on her parents kitchen floor that's weekend one of those kids

Hates his dad And will say it to his face One of those kids doesn't want to be in this church because his parents recently came here and drug him for another church the needs at that meeting right now are

Extraordinary. So while I'm preaching and through the rest of this evening ask that God would show up God would show up at these teenagers come back a flame for God In other words, there's dozens of them that need to be born again

The church kids have grown up lots of them in this church. They need to be born again Going to church doesn't make anybody a

Christian the Holy Spirit has to come down and take a heart and break it and heal it and open it and give it eyes and Give it ears

So the spiritual things are precious now and not boring like they have been all these kids lots the way

This happens we saw in the last seven messages on the new birth was that the

Spirit of God? Supernaturally gives us new spiritual life by connecting us to the

Living Christ through faith The Spirit of God gives us new life

By connecting us with the source of life Jesus Christ through faith

There is no separating new birth and Christ and new birth and faith

Where there is new birth there is faith And where there is new birth there is union with Jesus There is no temporal

Distinction when you light a match and fire happens heat is there

Heat doesn't wait a few seconds and then show up Neither does

Faith wait a few seconds and then show up in new life

The way we experience new life is I believe that's the sign

God's done something Before I wasn't believing I wasn't treasuring.

I wasn't loving I wasn't embracing I wasn't receiving and now I am something happened, and it was

God that happened God showed up God changed something and now you know

It's of him One of the evidences of new birth is that you give him glory

That you're a believer You don't have any final explanation for it in yourself all those years.

He meant little or nothing to you and then one day Might be very slowly that you discovered it might be instantaneous that you discovered it he's true and he's real and he's precious and he's necessary and We're on our faces thanking

God that we've been Born again, we have spent seven weeks posing two questions

Number one. What is it? and number two Why is it so needed now?

We're coming as I said, we would last week to the third question We'll be here this and then we're gonna take a break to do

Martin Luther King weekend and sanctity of life weekend And then we'll come back to this but we're starting the question

How does it happen? How what's the way?

That it comes about this miracle of the new birth And if you think about it, there are there two questions in that question one is

How does it happen from God's side? That is what's the way God? Acts in doing it and the other is how does it happen from my side?

What's the way I do it knows the two questions we're going to to pose

You might think Having heard me say that we don't

Control this thing God does and we're dead and we can't make it happen. We're absolutely dependent on his free and Sovereign mercy and grace and love you might think

I wouldn't ask that second question What is the way

I do it or How am I involved in my

New birth, but I am going to ask that question and I'll give you a heads up It's not the focus in this message, but it will be in three weeks.

I Pose that question because even though I don't make it happen

It happens to me and I act in it and give you an example of what

I mean Lazarus was dead How many days? before Jesus came

Four days before Jesus showed up. That's intentional. Jesus waited a couple of days to make sure he was manifestly clearly dead and buried and impossible to save And so he's in the grave.

He's dead four days and Jesus according to John 11 43 says this

Lazarus come out That's ridiculous, right

Until you see Lazarus come out and he came out now what happened

Lazarus did not decide to make himself alive

The word spoken by Jesus Created what it commanded It commanded come out and in the speaking.

This is the way God works in the speaking God Makes what he commands which is why

I prayed for some of you as I began If there is any not born again here as you walk by their grave

In this service, would you pause and say? Yeah So he said that to Lazarus live and he lived however

Lazarus got up Jesus didn't get up for Lazarus.

Jesus didn't walk for Lazarus. Jesus didn't breathe for Lazarus He just said live

And he lived and after that it's Lazarus walking living breathing acting

So the way to say it I think is that Christ causes it and Lazarus does it

Christ brings it about Lazarus acts it out Christ doesn't take our place in believing loving treasuring delighting living leaping he just awakens from the dead

Gives us everything it takes to do that The instant

Christ commands Lazarus to rise Lazarus does the rising the instant

God gives life we do the living So we've got questions before us

This question in this service is what's God do? How does

God do this and then three weeks? Will take up What do

I do? so In this text first Peter 1.

I'm gonna go back to verse 3 and include that. I See three answers to the question.

How does God do this? What does he do to cause us to be born again?

and if you're not born again, you should listen to this because This is the way

God makes it happen Listening to the gospel. We'll hear this in just a few minutes listening to the gospel listening to this message is

The way God causes people to be born again So it says in verse 23 You're born again through the living and abiding

Word of God. This is the gospel which we preach that's clears bail There are people who tonight today for those

Hearing this and watching it Will be born again and those of you who already born again you listen to Because my my deep concern for this series of messages is that Christians Awakened to what has happened to you and who you are

Because the level of life in Christ will rise remarkably if this church could

See and hear and know at the roots of our beings what has happened to us

What God has done in history and in our hearts to bring us to the point where we are in the new birth

So here are the three things that I see and then we'll take them one at a time number one verse three

God caused us to be born again through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead

That's number one number two verse 23 God caused us to be born again through the living and abiding

Word of God or as verse 15 says God called us

John Piper live number three verse 18

God ransomed us From the futile ways inherited from our

Forefathers by The blood of Jesus So those are the three ways that I see

And before we look at them in some detail Let me show you why

I think they're linked together Because you may wonder why I would include that third one because the new birth isn't mentioned

Why are you including ransom here? So let me show you how these three things are linked start with verses 3 & 4

Blessed Be the God and father of our Lord Jesus Christ according to his great mercy

He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance that is

Imperishable I'm going to stop right there and just fasten on to that word imperishable the point of these two verses is that the

Effect of the new birth is a living hope and so what you get

Mentioned in the verses then is a is a support for living hope and One support is the resurrection of Jesus and another support is this

Imperishable inheritance if it were perishable We wouldn't have a living hope we'd have a hope that's gonna run out

Gonna perish so it's not living. Hope it's gonna perish gonna leave us high and dry someday

And so he's underlining you're getting started with the resurrection of Jesus life

Indomitable conquering death and the hope the inheritance that you have out there will never perish

That's what you are born again to enjoy It's like saying the life we receive in the new birth is not just new life

It's forever life. It's eternal life That's what we get in the new birth.

If you're born again, you have a life and an inheritance imperishable

Should make you the most bold courageous risk -taking people on the planet So that's number one and I'm drawing attention to the imperishable word and Hope and eternal life as the fruit of the new birth.

Now, let's go to verses 18 and 19 Knowing that you were ransomed from the futile ways

Inherited from your forefathers Something's changed here. Something's happened. He doesn't call it the new birth, but he's talking about the new birth in verse 3 he's talking about the new birth in verse 23 and here something happened and all my old ways that I got from my

Tradition they're gone and I'm different let's start over again knowing that you were ransomed

From the futile ways inherited from your forefathers. Now, here's how it happened not with Perishable now,

I'm fastened on to that word again Because it's showing up three times in this chapter and it's not an accident not with perishable things

Such as silver and gold, you know mere silver and gold but with the precious blood of Christ like that of a lamb without spot so the ransom price

That Is paid for what happened to liberate you from the old ways

Was the blood of Jesus and it's way more valuable than gold and way more valuable than silver

They can be burned up you get a fire hot enough. They're gone But the blood of Jesus so infinitely valuable way better than gold way better than silver

They will never perish and therefore what do they guarantee life forever this change that has happened

Never goes bad Never goes bad It'll always be there and you will live forever in him because of the ransom that was paid for you

So now we got resurrection of Jesus in verse 3 Underneath this living hope that we get by the new birth and here we've got

Ransom by the blood of Jesus underneath this change that frees us from all these old destructive ways

Now number three verse 23 since you have been born again not of Perishable third time you got it now.

That's what in my mind. That's what's holding That's why this sermon is structured the way it is.

That's why I picked these three things Verse 3 verse 18 verse 23 all have this parent not perishable idea

He just keeps coming back to it. Why because we're born again to a living. Hope we're born again by resurrection

We're born again with with blood that's so valuable. It'll never let us down and here now in verse 23.

We're born again not of perishable seed In his mind,

I think is the sexual act and the seed deposited and a Conception happens and a new being comes into existence new creature in Christ.

No. No, what is that? What's this seed? How is it put in us? through the living and abiding

Word of God Through the living and abiding Word of God then he quotes Isaiah 40 verses 6 and 8

Verses 24 and 25 in first Peter 1 For all flesh is like grass all this glory like the flower of grass the grass withers and the flower falls

So he's drawing the contrast between What you don't want I? Don't want to be born to a life.

That's gonna be like a flower Flowers are pretty and they die. I Don't want that beauty.

That's the beauty everybody in the world is after Thank you very much. I Don't want it.

I want to live with him forever Have you got news for me

Peter? And so he's drawing a contrast between all the beauties and the glories of the world and he's saying they're just like flowers

They fall but verse 25, but the Word of God the

Word of the Lord remains Forever and remember he just said it was through that that you were born again

So we got the same point in verse 3 the same point in verse 18 the same point in verses 23 and 25

Namely the new birth is undergirded by realities that don't let you down Ever Resurrection of Jesus Ransom blood infinitely valuable

Word of God that never falls these are the foundations through which the new birth came to us

So if you ask the question, how did God do this? Now you got three answers.

So let's go back now All that was just to show you why'd you choose these three and the answer was because they're all this imperishable idea

That's just holding these three together. That's just holding this chapter together The gifts

God has for us in the new birth are Irrevocable gifts, they will not let you down.

It's not like your first birth. I'm so thankful I'm getting old. I can't hear as well.

I can't see as well. My hair is falling out my back aches. I am getting old

But my new life in Christ is being renewed Every day

I am ripening to be plucked and put in heaven for infinite and ever -increasing

Joy, and I feel so bad People in my neighborhood and the people who come to this church who are also getting old and they have no hope

They're trying to cover their age in every possible way and find the fountain of youth to just stretch it out another decade and I'm saying