Amen Brother Piper!

"Today we end our series on regeneration—the biblical teaching about the reality of being born again. We’re ending on the ground. On the street. In the car. At Dunn Brothers. In the back yard. In school. At work. Over lunch. On the phone. On Facebook and My Space. And text messaging. And Skyping. And blogging. And airplanes. And a hundred ordinary conversations. We’re ending with personal evangelism—an old-fashioned commitment in new contexts for the sake of new birth in thousands of spiritually dead people for the glory of Jesus Christ."

"Born Again Through the Gospel"

"Last week we reaffirmed the biblical truth of 1 Peter 1:23, “You have been born again...through the living and abiding word of God”—followed by the explanation in verse 25: “This word is the good news that was preached to you.” In other words, God brings about the new birth through the gospel—the good news that God sent his Son into the world to live a perfect life, die for sinners, absorb the wrath of God, take away our guilt, provide the gift of righteousness, and give eternal joy through faith alone apart from works of the law.

People are born again through hearing that news, and never born again without it. “Faith comes from hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ” (Romans 10:17). So when we asked, what should we do to help people be born again, the biblical answer was plain: Tell people the good news from a heart of love and a life of service.

Now today what I hope to do is underline that main point with a couple new texts and then give you a collection of encouragements and practical helps."

"Then look at the solution to this condition of blindness and perishing. Verse 6: “For God, who said, ‘Let light shine out of darkness,’ has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” This is a description of the new birth, even though that term is not used. The God who created light in the beginning does the same thing in the human heart. Only the light this time is not physical light, but “the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.” Or as verse 4 calls it “the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ who is the image of God.”

He causes the human heart to see the truth and beauty and worth of Christ—the glory of Christ. And when we see him for who he really is, we receive him for who he is. And to as many as received him he gave power to become the children of God (John 1:12). That’s what we want for our children—at six or sixteen or twenty-six—and for our parents and our spouses and our neighbors and colleagues and our friends at school. We want the light to shine in their hearts so they see and receive Christ. We want them to be born again.

Then, third, look at the human means God uses to make this happen. Verse 5: “What we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus’ sake.” Paul’s role was to proclaim Christ from a heart of love and a life of service. That proclamation is called the gospel in verse 3: “Even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled only to those who are perishing.” It’s the gospel that spiritually blind people can’t see and spiritually deaf people can’t hear. So our answer to the question, “What should we do to help people be born again?” is: Tell them the good news of Christ from a heart of love and a life of service." (desiringgod.org)

I have immensely enjoyed this series by Brother Piper! He certainly is a true Calvinist, albeit not of the Hyperist variety! My "Reformed" and Hardshell brethren would do well to listen to Piper!