New Beginnings Start With the New Birth

Coral Ridge Ministries

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New Beginnings Start With the New Birth

John 3:3

October 20, 2024

“Jesus answered him, ‘Truly, truly I say to you, unless a man is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.’”

— John 3:3

The spiritual life is in some ways analogous to the physical. In our physical lives, we are born, we grow, and we die. In the spiritual world, it is also necessary for us to be born and to grow, but we never die. Jesus said, “…whoever believes in Me has eternal life” (John 6:47).

The Christian life begins with a new birth. Jesus declared it as the great imperative. He said, “You must be born again” (John 3:7). I think of an evangelist who came to a town and preached on that very text, and he said, “You must be born again.” The next night the crowd regathered and he preached “You must be born again.” And the third day again, “You must be born again.”

Finally, one of the elders said to him, “Sir, why do you keep preaching on the text “you must be born again”?

He replied, “Because you must be born again.”

Have you? Have you experienced that life-transforming change that only God by His Spirit, through faith in Jesus Christ can bring about? As the Bible says, “Therefore, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things have passed away. Look, all things have become new” (2 Corinthians 5:17). That is what is meant by the “new birth.” That is the new beginning of the Christian life.

Dear Lord, it is such a privilege to be born again, to know that although I have messed up, I can be forgiven and can start afresh. Thank You that the old is gone and the new has come...

BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN SEE THE KINGDOM OF GOD.

Don’t Get the Buggy Before the Horse

October 31, 2024

“For by grace you have been saved through faith…not of works…For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works…” — Ephesians 2:8-10 Suppose that you lived in the country 100 years ago, when horses and buggies were common. One day you came into the city and discovered that most people were putting the buggy in front of the horse and saying, “Giddy-ap, horse. Push, push,” and somehow they couldn’t get the horse to push the buggy at all. You would think to yourself, “How incredibly stupid can these city folk be?” And you would be right. Yet the vast majority of people in America today have the Gospel just that backward. The Bible contains two basic elements, like a horse and a buggy. It contains the law and the Gospel, and unless we get these in the proper relationship it never will work. The proper relationship between the two—as taught by the early church and by Augustine—is the great rediscovery that Martin Luther made and proclaimed to the world on October 31, 1517. It has dramatically changed the world. D.T. Niles said that in all other religions, good works are “in order to,” whereas, in Christianity, good works are, “therefore.” We’re not saved by good works. But when we’re truly saved, good works will naturally follow. Even in the Ten Commandments, God said, “I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.” Therefore, He decrees, “…you shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:2 3). Having first been brought up and brought into God, therefore, we do good works. Lord, You are our righteousness. Thank You for raising up people throughout the centuries who shine the light on the true Gospel for all to see. Thank You for the clarity of salvation by faith, with works of gratitude to follow… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, HE SAVES US IN HIS STRENGTH WE DO GOOD WORKS.

Satan Preys on Our Failures

October 30, 2024

“…as far as the east is from the west, so far has He removed our transgressions from us.” — Psalm 103:12 We need to avoid a trap of Satan—to so dwell on our failures that we can’t move forward. Our sins can disable us because every time we sin Satan has the same message for us, “Ah hah! Now you’ve done it. You’ve blown the whole thing. Certainly, Christ has no more need and use for you!” We need to forget those failures. We need to forget those sins, which are buried in the depths of the sea never to be remembered against us anymore. We need to forget the hurts of the past. In the Christian life—and especially, I can also say, in the Christian ministry—though it is filled with many blessings, it is also filled with many hurts. I think sometimes people must suppose that ministers have the hide of an elephant and nothing that they can do or say to them is going to hurt them. That is not true. I feel sometimes as if I have a thousand cuts where my brethren have cut me, from which I am bleeding. If I were to believe some of the messages, then I would certainly conclude I have never done anything worth any value at all in the ministry and I ought to give it up. Well, those things can hurt and those things can cut and those things can distract us, but Paul says those are the kinds of things that we are to forget. Let’s move forward, forgetting what lies behind and pressing on, in Christ. Jesus Christ, I come to You with my hurts today. Let me lay them at the foot of the cross… BY HIS STRENGTH, WE CAN RELEASE OUR HURTS TO JESUS.

Daniel and the Four Beasts

October 29, 2024

“These great beasts, which are four, are four kings which shall arise out of the earth.” — Daniel 7:17 Daniel had a vision of four beasts that succeeded each other. They represented four worldly kingdoms—each one being brutal in its own way. They are not lifting up their eyes to God, but they are looking downward as the beast does. This is always true of godless politics. It always acts in a beastlike manner and, therefore, it is destructive of human life. It tramps and stomps on people; it devours much flesh; it kills millions of human beings. We think of the Persian Empire (the second kingdom prophetically described by Daniel), which later sent an army of two million men to attack Greece. History shows us that some of the battles of antiquity in which these nations engaged, were enormous battles with armies that included two, three, and four million soldiers, and the number of the people that were killed was absolutely astronomical. These beast-like kingdoms are all different from each other, whereas the kingdom of Christ, which arises in the days of the last of them (the Roman Empire), is the same, and it continues on from generation to generation and still remains the same. The truth is much simpler than error; goodness is simpler than evil. If you want to see something that is extraordinarily complex, try to follow the plot line of a soap opera. Evil is quite contorted and convoluted and extremely complex, but God offers something that is so much simpler: Good triumphs over evil. Lord, give me strength to live in the simplicity of the Gospel, to crave Your simple truths, and to live by them. You know, Jesus, that simple is not the same as easy, but Your grace is all-sufficient… BY GOD’S STRENGTH, WE CAN RECOGNIZE THAT HE RULES THE NATIONS.