Message In 1peter – Number 4 – Born Again Through That Which Is Imperishable, But What Is It? – 1peter 1:23 Series

MESSAGE IN 1PETER – NUMBER 4 – BORN AGAIN THROUGH THAT WHICH IS IMPERISHABLE, BUT WHAT IS IT? – 1Peter 1:23

[A]. INTRODUCTION – BIRTH AND DEVELOPMENT

Some people are so delighted when they become grandparents for the first time. They are seeing the continuation of their imprint on human life, and have you not noticed how the grandchildren are so often like the grandparents? I find that impressive. Birth is a remarkable culmination of months of development and often referred to a miracle. Some may have seen the excellent documentaries now available showing the foetal development from conception to birth, that very aspect of creation abortionists want to destroy. What a glorious testimony to the great power of God the creation of human life is. Birth in the physical sense indeed is profound, but so too is the new birth in a reprobate life.

Birth is a continuous cycle according to the great master design of God. It is also according to His command given here – {{Genesis 1:24-25 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures after their kind: cattle and creeping things and beasts of the earth after their kind,” and it was so. God made the beasts of the earth after their kind, and the cattle after their kind, and everything that creeps on the ground after its kind, and God saw that it was good.}} However when man was created God said to our original fore parents – {{Genesis 1:28 God blessed them and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth and subdue it and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”}}

God never intended death to be the master in His creation. That came about through man’s acceptance of sin and is the reason creation is filled with such sorrow. We see as the result of that, birth and death; birth and death constantly. Mankind loves its sin and repentance is the last thing a natural man will ever pursue. If it was not for the intervention of God, man would have continued his downward rush into chaos.

We can not go back into our mothers’ wombs and be reborn in the hope that we turn out to be better people because we would come out the same way – born in sins and iniquity, no better than the first time. Therefore there has to be a better way, a completely new birth of a supernatural origin. We know our physical incapability to do that so we have to recognise and accept the means God has to do such a thing. He has done it and at great cost.

[B]. EXAMINATION OF THE NEW BIRTH

The Lord Jesus in no uncertain way spoke of the necessity of a new birth for every human being when discoursing one night with Nicodemus. Then He stated that this regeneration has its origins from above, but without it, no one would enter heaven. John chapter 3 is so vitally important in explaining what this new birth is. The regeneration through the new birth is in the spiritual arena, and spiritual people understand it. The unconverted think it is silly, stupid, foolishness, but God knew they would say that – {{1Corinthians 1:18 “The word of the cross is to those who are perishing foolishness, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”}} {{1Corinthians 1:23 “but we preach Christ crucified, to Jews a stumbling block, and to Gentiles foolishness”}}

All of us were born with spirits dead to God but alive to wickedness. Only God can change that. It is necessary we understand it, for the confusion that reigns today in church circles is partly caused by the neglect to teach what the new birth is. Most conservative Christians speak about being born again but so many churches neglect that or don’t believe in it, and think church rituals and programs and constitutions are what the faith is all about. We can not dismiss even for a minute, the whole truth of the bible.

That is a betrayal of the word of God and it is the bible that will be our judge in the coming day. How dreadful to hear the words – {{Matthew 7:22-23 Many will say to Me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Depart from Me, you who practise lawlessness’.”}}

Born again means to be born into God’s family, to have the rights of sonship and inheritance. It is not living in the servants’ quarters or in some father’s house. Born again Christians live in the Father’s house as His own very sons and daughters. That is a privilege we must never take for granted, but all the time, consider the cost of our salvation that was the suffering and death of the Son of God who loved me and gave Himself for me.