Open the Bible

Colin Smith: It's very important to know how temptation works. What Satan does is he invites you to go back to your old sins. He holds an enticement before you. And he says, "This is what you want. This is what you enjoy. This is where you belong. This is who you are."

Guest (Male): Welcome to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith. And Colin, all of us can relate to that temptation. So, when it comes, how do we respond to that?

Colin Smith: Well, we remind Satan that he's a liar. This is not who I am. See, there are two truths that are really important to get a hold of in the scripture. One is that God is changing me. That's the truth of sanctification. The other is that God has changed me. That's the truth of regeneration, which is what we're talking about in this series.

Really important to be able to grasp both. I'm not yet the person that I'm going to be, but I'm not the person that I used to be either. And where Satan tells me that I am defined by my own sin, he lies because I'm a new creation in Jesus Christ.

Guest (Male): And so, when we get that temptation that comes to mind and Satan is whispering that in our ear. You're saying we need to, in a sense, fight back with scripture.

Colin Smith: That's right. We answer back. We say, "No, that is not who I am. I am a new creation in Jesus Christ. I'm a child of God."

And you may tempt me with these particular temptations, but who I am is someone who's living to please God. And that's the pushback that's really important in facing temptation.

Guest (Male): Well, let's continue to look at this from the book of Second Corinthians. We're in chapter five today, as we continue the message, Knowing Who You Are. Here's Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Regeneration is the completed transformation, the work of God's spirit that begins the continuing process that we call sanctification.

The great truth of sanctification that many Christians understand well is that God is changing me. Thank God for that.

The great truth of regeneration that most Christians do not understand well is that Christ has changed me. And we need both these truths.

And I want to show you in just a moment what happens if you grasp the one and not the other. And the answer is, you become spiritually exhausted.

We'll see how.

Now, that's the learning bit. Now we've got to get down to some practice.

I want you to see how the wonderful truth of regeneration functions in the life of a Christian believer.

We spent early 20 minutes thinking about this, what's the point? What's the use? What's the value of me knowing this?

How does this truth work in the life of an ordinary Christian person like me?

Well, I want to point you to three ways in which this wonderful truth functions in the life of a believer. Three ways in which it's really useful to you.

Here's the first. Regeneration is the root of all growth in your Christian life.

It is the root of all growth in your Christian life.

Very simply, if you want to grow, you have to start with life.

Dead things don't grow. Put a stone in the ground, it's a stone in the ground. Put a seed in the ground, different thing.

So regeneration, because it is God bringing us to spiritual life by the Holy Spirit, is the root of all growth in the Christian life.

Regeneration is the life that grows in sanctification, or to use a different kind of analogy, regeneration is the engine that drives all progress in the Christian life.

Regeneration is what makes you want to be more holy than you are. It is the root, it is the beginning of all Christian progress. It is the life that grows in what we call sanctification.

What that means is simply this. Since regeneration is becoming a new person in Jesus Christ, all progress in the Christian life begins with you knowing clearly who you are in Jesus Christ.

And that's the first way in which regeneration is not only useful, but absolutely critical to every one of us.

Let me boil it down for you.

Have you ever come to a place in your life when you've said to yourself, "You know, I think I am the most useless, miserable, failed, pathetic, weak apology for a Christian that ever has been or ever will be?" Have you ever come to a place in your life when you've kind of said that or thought that about yourself?

A lot of heads nodding. And I have too.

Maybe you fell into some sin.

Maybe the progress of other Christians just made you think, "What in the world's happened to me?"

Maybe you were ashamed of thoughts that went through your mind, you thought, "If I thought that, can I even be a Christian at all?"

Let God tell you who you are at that moment.

Listen. You are a new creation in Christ.

You have been crucified with Christ. You have been raised to new life.

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. You have been set free from sin. You are light in a dark world. You have been born again and for that reason you are a child of God.

That's the only way to address the miserable failure thing that every Christian experiences at some point in our lives.

You have to let God tell you who you are in Christ, and when you lay hold of that again, you will find the strength to move forward.

Once you know who you are, you will find that the rest of your growth in the Christian life is simply a matter of being who you are.

Which is why we're saying that the root of all growth in the Christian life is regeneration to know who you are now as a new person in Jesus Christ.

Now, think through the seven scriptures that we looked at together. You might like to review them again later, but let me just show you how knowing who you are in Christ, that's regeneration, drives the new life in which you grow in Christ. Regeneration drives sanctification.

Listen. You are light, Ephesians 5:8, so live as light. See, there's regeneration. What God's done for you, He's given you a new nature, you are light.

Now when you know that you are light, what are you going to do? Paul says, "Well, live as light."

When you know that you are light, then you will find that by God's grace you are moved to be who you are.

You are free from sin, Paul says, so do not let sin be your master.

Don't let Satan tell you that you have to do this thing that he's tempting you to do. You're a free man, you're a free woman, so don't let sin be your master.

Christ lives in you. Been crucified with Christ. I no longer live, but Christ lives in me. So, what is my response to that? The life I live, I live by faith in the Son of God.

If Christ lives in me, then I have to live by faith.

When I know who I am, I find how I move forward.

Your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. There's the regeneration statement. What's the next thing that comes in 1 Corinthians 6? Therefore, flee from sexual immorality.

See, you will not flee sexual immorality until you really know that in Christ, your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. When you've really laid hold of that and that is true of you in Christ, you'll say, "I have to live differently."

If my body really is a temple of the Holy Spirit, it changes the whole way in which I think about that stuff.

You have been raised with Christ.

So set your minds on things above. See, if you already belong to heaven, then get your mind where you already belong.

You are a new creation in Christ, so live for Christ and not for yourself. 2 Corinthians 5 and verse 17.

You have been born again, 1st Peter, so love one another deeply.

So, in all of these scriptures, they work the same way. Discover who you are, and then you'll know how to move forward.

Regeneration is the root, the beginning of all progress in the Christian life.

And one reason why many Christians don't make a lot of progress is that we don't think deeply about who we are in Jesus Christ and what God has already done for us in Jesus Christ.

When you go out into this week saying, "My body is a temple of the Holy Spirit," and that's already true, you'll think differently about the way that you live.

Do you know who you are in Christ?

A lady in the congregation just recently said to me, she said, "It's really helped me to know that the flesh is not who I am. It's what I'm fighting against."

Isn't that good?

She'd grasped regeneration, you see. She'd grasped that she really is a new person and that the temptations that were coming to her and that she was battling against, "That's not who I am." And that was strengthening her therefore to fight against that stuff.

How's this useful? Regeneration, it is the life that grows in sanctification, and knowing who you are is the beginning of becoming who you are, which is the whole process of growth in the Christian life.

Guest (Male): You're listening to Open the Bible with Pastor Colin Smith and a message called Knowing Who You Are.

Now, we're going to pause here, but we'll get back to the message in just a moment.

If you ever miss a broadcast, you can always come and listen online. Our website is openthebible.org. There you can stream the program or download an MP3 for free.

Again, that's at openthebible.org.

Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Here's the second thing.

Regeneration, perhaps more than any other truth in the Bible, will help you to overcome discouragement, and particularly to overcome discouragement in regards to progress in the Christian life.

Now, let me describe the issue and see if you relate to this.

Some Christians have a genuine longing to be more like Christ. It runs so deep within them, but they are always discouraged about it.

They have an air of defeat about them.

They say, "I want to be a better Christian, but I'm not there yet. I'm not the person that I want to be, but I'm praying that God will do a new work in me."

And there's this sense of defeat that hangs over them year after year after year. There's a desire, there's a longing, there's no joy, no real sense of progress, just "I wish I was better than I am."

The longing is good, but the sense of defeat is surely not what we find in the New Testament.

The great strength of these Christians is that they have a passionate longing for holiness. You can't have that too much.

They want to be better. They're stretching themselves out in the pursuit of a more godly life.

In other words, they've really grasped onto the doctrine of sanctification, which promotes humility and it promotes effort, and it says you haven't arrived there yet, you have a long way still to go, so press on.

These Christians will really relate to a wonderful verse that we all need, like Philippians 3:10, "Not that I have already obtained this or have already been made perfect, but I press on." That's sanctification.

All right? The continuing process.

Now we need all the truth of the Bible. That's the whole point of why we're here for this series.

And that includes, I need this truth of sanctification. Boy, I do.

I need to apply myself to becoming more holy than I am on a continuing basis.

With God's help, I need to work on being less selfish and less critical and less a whole lot of things.

I said to my wife, "What else should I put in that list?" She said, "Just put a whole lot of things."

I need to be more generous, more thankful, more patient, more understanding, and by God's grace, I really want to do that.

Because His spirit lives in me, as in you if you're a Christian believer.

But let me ask you honestly this question, who in this congregation honestly is satisfied with his own sanctification or her own sanctification?

Is there anyone here who is as holy as he or she wants to be?

Not one of us. In fact, the first mark of genuine holiness is that we want to be more holy than we are.

So, the problem that we face, and you're not alone in this, the problem that we face in sanctification, number one problem, is discouragement, because we never get there. It's always beyond, we're always pressing on.

And if sanctification is the only truth you have grasped, then the Christian life will always seem beyond you, and you will live your Christian life like it's always beyond you until the day you die.

That is why beside the great truth of sanctification, every one of us needs the truth of regeneration. And what God has brought together, let no man nor woman separate.

Because beside sanctification, which is what God is still doing in you, there is this wonderful truth of regeneration, which is what God has done in you, and that is what will give you joy and strength to continue on the journey of sanctification.

That'll keep you going. That'll deliver you from discouragement, what God has done in you. Thank Him for it. Find joy in it.

Let me give you just a little picture, because I want you to think about this.

Imagine with me a man who's going on a journey through the desert. Okay? He's got a pack on his back, he's got a cloth over his head, he trudges through miles and miles and miles of sand.

And he's carrying water that sustains him, and when he drinks the water, he knows he's got to find an oasis to get more water, otherwise he's going to do what? Going to die in the desert, right?

Regeneration is the oasis for your soul.

It tells you that beside the work that Christ continues to do in you, there is the work that He has already done.

And that is water to a thirsty soul.

Now imagine our man in the desert, on his journey, running out of water. His flask is empty, he's getting tired and exhausted, and a mile ahead of him, there is an oasis. And all of us are in the oasis there and we're grateful to be there before we continue on our journey.

And here we see this man who's coming towards the oasis. He looks absolutely exhausted. But in this oasis there is a spring of water, ahead of him there is a blue lagoon into which he can plunge his dried-out body.

And as we see him coming up, we go out to welcome him and we say, "Brother, come on in here and be refreshed and be renewed before you go on the next stage of your journey."

But he says, "I must press on."

And we say to him, "You're going to die in the desert if you don't come here and fill your bottles of water."

"Oh no, no, no, this journey is long," he says, "I must press on." And off he goes.

Listen. A lot of Christians are like that, and it's happening even in our life groups, I believe, in some of our discussions, we can't get into our minds what God has done for us.

We keep bypassing the oasis and going back on into the journey of sanctification and what we still to do and what we still to achieve and what we're still working on. So,

God says, "You are a new creation in Christ." That is water to a thirsty soul.

But you rush past it. You don't take it in. You say, "New creation? Well, I'm not as new as I want to be, so I must press on."

God says, "You are the temple of the Holy Spirit." Your body's a temple of the Holy Spirit. There's life in that.

You come in and drink of that deeply. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. That's what God says to you. But you see, some of us are like that man in the desert. We say, "Oh no, no, no, we've no time to stop there. We've got to press on. You see, I need to be more filled with the spirit than I am." I'm sure that's true. I just want you to stop and hear this.

Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit.

Stay there for a moment. Drink in this truth, because it will be the water that sustains you on the journey.

God has said, hear it. Hear it. You have been set free from sin.

And there's power in that to drive you forward in living the Christian life.

But you rush past this and you say, "Oh, you don't understand, there are many besetting sins in my life, and I really need to work very hard at conquering them."

You are so passionate about sanctification, and that's great, that you rush past regeneration, which is very bad.

Because then, like the man without the water in the desert, eventually, you know what happens? You fall down in your pursuit of the Christian life, exhausted, exhausted, exhausted.

That's what happens again and again in every generation to people who grasp sanctification and not regeneration.

Drink deeply of this water.

It will sustain you on the journey of sanctification. That's what it's for.

Let Christ tell you who you are.

Take in the miracle of God's grace that He has already done.

Stop for one moment fretting about what you are not yet, and take in who you already are in Jesus Christ. It's water to your soul.

In Christ, you're a new creation. In Christ, the old has gone and in Christ the new has come.

Drink this water, it will be life to you.

It will help you overcome discouragement and it will sustain you on the journey of the Christian life.

You see how important this truth is, why we'd want to take these weeks so that we get it into our minds and hearts, because that's how it works in the Christian life.

And here's the last thing, and it's just very brief. Regeneration will help you stand up against temptation.

See, it's very important to know how temptation works. What Satan does is he invites you to go back to your old sins. And because he's a liar and he's the father of lies, what he does is he tempts you with some enticement.

And what he does by putting these thoughts into your mind is something like this. He holds an enticement before you. And he says, "This is what you want. This is what you enjoy. This is where you belong. And wait for it, this is who you are."

And remember then in that moment of temptation that he is the father of lies.

And the spirit of truth would come to you and say, "No." "This is who you were. It is not who you are."

For you have been bought, you have been cleansed, you are a new creation, you're a temple of the Holy Spirit, you are light in this dark world. Now, be who you are.

Guest (Male): Pastor Colin Smith, wrapping up our message, Knowing Who You Are today on Open the Bible.

And if you joined us late or you want to go back and listen to any broadcast that you may have missed recently, or just listen to it again, you can do that when you come to our website, openthebible.org.

Again, that's at openthebible.org.

Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Here's the second thing. Regeneration, perhaps more than any other truth in the Bible, will help you to overcome discouragement, and particularly to overcome discouragement in regards to progress in the Christian life. Now, let me describe the issue and see if you relate to this. Some Christians have a genuine longing to be more like Christ. It runs so deep within them, but they are always discouraged about it. They have an air of defeat about them. They say, "I want to be a better Christian, but I'm not there yet. I'm not the person that I want to be, but I'm praying that God will do a new work in me." And there's this sense of defeat that hangs over them year after year after year. There's a desire, there's a longing, there's no joy, no real sense of progress, just "I wish I was better than I am." The longing is good, but the sense of defeat is surely not what we find in the New Testament. The great strength of these Christians is that they have a passionate longing for holiness. You can't have that too much. They want to be better. They're stretching themselves out in the pursuit of a more godly life. In other words, they've really grasped onto the doctrine of sanctification, which promotes humility and it promotes effort, and it says you haven't arrived there yet, you have a long way still to go, so press on. These Christians will really relate to a wonderful verse that we all need, like Philippians 3:10, "Not that I have already obtained this or have already been made perfect, but I press on." That's sanctification. All right? The continuing process. Now we need all the truth of the Bible. That's the whole point of why we're here for this series. And that includes, I need this truth of sanctification. Boy, I do. I need to apply myself to becoming more holy than I am on a continuing basis. With God's help, I need to work on being less selfish and less critical and less a whole lot of things. I said to my wife, "What else should I put in that list?" She said, "Just put a whole lot of things." I need to be more generous, more thankful, more patient, more understanding, and by God's grace, I really want to do that. Because His spirit lives in me, as in you if you're a Christian believer. But let me ask you honestly this question, who in this congregation honestly is satisfied with his own sanctification or her own sanctification? Is there anyone here who is as holy as he or she wants to be? Not one of us. In fact, the first mark of genuine holiness is that we want to be more holy than we are. So, the problem that we face, and you're not alone in this, the problem that we face in sanctification, number one problem, is discouragement, because we never get there. It's always beyond, we're always pressing on. And if sanctification is the only truth you have grasped, then the Christian life will always seem beyond you, and you will live your Christian life like it's always beyond you until the day you die. That is why beside the great truth of sanctification, every one of us needs the truth of regeneration. And what God has brought together, let no man nor woman separate. Because beside sanctification, which is what God is still doing in you, there is this wonderful truth of regeneration, which is what God has done in you, and that is what will give you joy and strength to continue on the journey of sanctification. That'll keep you going. That'll deliver you from discouragement, what God has done in you. Thank Him for it. Find joy in it. Let me give you just a little picture, because I want you to think about this. Imagine with me a man who's going on a journey through the desert. Okay? He's got a pack on his back, he's got a cloth over his head, he trudges through miles and miles and miles of sand. And he's carrying water that sustains him, and when he drinks the water, he knows he's got to find an oasis to get more water, otherwise he's going to do what? Going to die in the desert, right? Regeneration is the oasis for your soul. It tells you that beside the work that Christ continues to do in you, there is the work that He has already done. And that is water to a thirsty soul. Now imagine our man in the desert, on his journey, running out of water. His flask is empty, he's getting tired and exhausted, and a mile ahead of him, there is an oasis. And all of us are in the oasis there and we're grateful to be there before we continue on our journey. And here we see this man who's coming towards the oasis. He looks absolutely exhausted. But in this oasis there is a spring of water, ahead of him there is a blue lagoon into which he can plunge his dried-out body. And as we see him coming up, we go out to welcome him and we say, "Brother, come on in here and be refreshed and be renewed before you go on the next stage of your journey." But he says, "I must press on." And we say to him, "You're going to die in the desert if you don't come here and fill your bottles of water." "Oh no, no, no, this journey is long," he says, "I must press on." And off he goes. Listen. A lot of Christians are like that, and it's happening even in our life groups, I believe, in some of our discussions, we can't get into our minds what God has done for us. We keep bypassing the oasis and going back on into the journey of sanctification and what we still to do and what we still to achieve and what we're still working on. So, God says, "You are a new creation in Christ." That is water to a thirsty soul. But you rush past it. You don't take it in. You say, "New creation? Well, I'm not as new as I want to be, so I must press on." God says, "You are the temple of the Holy Spirit." Your body's a temple of the Holy Spirit. There's life in that. You come in and drink of that deeply. You are a temple of the Holy Spirit. That's what God says to you. But you see, some of us are like that man in the desert. We say, "Oh no, no, no, we've no time to stop there. We've got to press on. You see, I need to be more filled with the spirit than I am." I'm sure that's true. I just want you to stop and hear this. Your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit. Stay there for a moment. Drink in this truth, because it will be the water that sustains you on the journey. God has said, hear it. Hear it. You have been set free from sin. And there's power in that to drive you forward in living the Christian life. But you rush past this and you say, "Oh, you don't understand, there are many besetting sins in my life, and I really need to work very hard at conquering them." You are so passionate about sanctification, and that's great, that you rush past regeneration, which is very bad. Because then, like the man without the water in the desert, eventually, you know what happens? You fall down in your pursuit of the Christian life, exhausted, exhausted, exhausted. That's what happens again and again in every generation to people who grasp sanctification and not regeneration. Drink deeply of this water. It will sustain you on the journey of sanctification. That's what it's for. Let Christ tell you who you are. Take in the miracle of God's grace that He has already done. Stop for one moment fretting about what you are not yet, and take in who you already are in Jesus Christ. It's water to your soul. In Christ, you're a new creation. In Christ, the old has gone and in Christ the new has come. Drink this water, it will be life to you. It will help you overcome discouragement and it will sustain you on the journey of the Christian life. You see how important this truth is, why we'd want to take these weeks so that we get it into our minds and hearts, because that's how it works in the Christian life. And here's the last thing, and it's just very brief. Regeneration will help you stand up against temptation. See, it's very important to know how temptation works. What Satan does is he invites you to go back to your old sins. And because he's a liar and he's the father of lies, what he does is he tempts you with some enticement. And what he does by putting these thoughts into your mind is something like this. He holds an enticement before you. And he says, "This is what you want. This is what you enjoy. This is where you belong. And wait for it, this is who you are." And remember then in that moment of temptation that he is the father of lies. And the spirit of truth would come to you and say, "No." "This is who you were. It is not who you are." For you have been bought, you have been cleansed, you are a new creation, you're a temple of the Holy Spirit, you are light in this dark world. Now, be who you are.

Guest (Male): Pastor Colin Smith, wrapping up our message, Knowing Who You Are today on Open the Bible.

And if you joined us late or you want to go back and listen to any broadcast that you may have missed recently, or just listen to it again, you can do that when you come to our website, openthebible.org.

Again, that's at openthebible.org.

Back to the message. Here is Pastor Colin.

Colin Smith: Well, I've often said that we should choose books not by the title, but by the author. And the reason for that, of course, is that when you read a book, you're actually reading a person, you're reading what has come out of that person. So, who has written a book is really very, very important.

And I'm just so glad to have the opportunity to introduce Brad Wetherell. His name may not be widely known. He is my successor as the senior pastor of the Orchard Evangelical Free Church.

I served that church for 30 years. I've worked with Brad for more than 15. I stepped down from being the senior pastor just over a year ago to focus full-time on the ministry of Open the Bible.

And so Brad is someone that I feel very, very close to and very, very confident in. He has a deep, authentic walk with the Lord. That's always the first thing you want to know about someone who you're going to read.

He has a wonderful gift of preaching and a wonderful gift of writing. This is his first book, and he's chosen to write on a subject that he's studied very deeply, and it's this wonderful truth of union with Christ.

I think this, Steve, may be the most important and least understood doctrine in all of the Bible. People often kind of look a bit quizzical, "Union with Christ? What's that?"

Well, folks are going to love this compelling and clear introduction to what I think is one of the most encouraging truths in all of the Christian life.

Guest (Male): Well, the book is called Saved to Sin No More, how union with Christ empowers a life of holiness. And we want to send you a copy as our way of saying thank you for financially supporting Open the Bible this month.

You can call and give over the phone. Our number is 1-877-OPEN365. Or give online at openthebible.org.

Again, our phone number is 1-877-663-6365, and the website is openthebible.org.

For Pastor Colin Smith, I'm Steve Hiller. Thanks for listening, and I hope you'll join us next time.

Guest (Male): This program is a listener-supported production of Open the Bible.

Colin Smith: This is Pastor Colin, and I love the story of the thief on the cross because it's the best story we have to help people understand grace.

Many people have the idea that if a person was to get into heaven, they'd get there by living a good enough life. Well, the thief on the cross hadn't lived a good life, and he wasn't in a position to start living a good life either. But Jesus said to him, "Today you will be with me in paradise."

Well, if the thief could get into heaven, so can everyone you know and will ever meet.

Heaven, How I Got Here is a compelling 60-minute film in which Stephen Baldwin portrays the thief on the cross in a one-person play.

We've seen God use this film to help many trust in Jesus as the thief did. So, who is there in your life who needs to understand grace?

For more information or to watch this film for free, visit openthebible.org/heaven. That's openthebible.org/heaven.