Phil Beach Jr. emphasizes the transformative power of the new birth in Christ, urging believers to meditate on the Word of God rather than becoming overly reliant on human teachings. He highlights the importance of understanding our identity as new creations in Christ, where our spirits are united with His, enabling us to live righteously. Beach warns against the subtle traps of relying on teachings that distract from the Word itself, advocating for a personal relationship with Scripture to foster spiritual growth. He encourages believers to yield to the Holy Spirit, allowing Christ's life to manifest through them, thus reflecting His character in their daily lives. Ultimately, he calls for a revival of understanding the miracle of the new birth as the foundation of Christian life.

Number 22, Ephesians chapter 5, beginning in verse number 22. Here's some instruction for husbands and wives. Now friends, I want to encourage you to do something. I want to encourage you to meditate on the Word of God. I want to encourage you to discover the joy of having the shepherd himself teach you about what has happened and occurred and what is happening and what is occurring in you now that you are a believer. After talking with our dear friend yesterday, we came to the conclusion that oftentimes we get so entangled in the teachings of men, in the ministries of people, and in the theologies of various different teachers that our minds become so preoccupied with those things that we really never learn the Word itself. We never really learn the Word of God. And this is a very, very subtle trick of the enemy. I believe in the teaching gift and the pastoral gift, but I believe that when the teaching gift captivates the people to such an extent that their minds are so stirred by the teaching that their minds are taken away from the Word itself. We have to use everything that we are as Christians to bring men and women to the knowledge of Jesus and to the knowledge of His Word. We must be careful that we don't create what the Reformers came to destroy. You remember what the cry of the Reformation was? Sola Scriptura, Scripture only. That's what the cry of the Reformation was. Before the Reformers raised up, the church was in captivity to what? They were in captivity to men who set themselves up as teachers of God's Word. And they alienated the people from the Word itself and only let them learn their teaching about the Word. Now don't misunderstand me, there's a place for teaching. But the place of teaching has to be very cautious. The teaching of the Word must always be a means to an end and not an end within itself. It's got to lead you to the Word itself. If I teach and preach and don't stir you to hunger after God's Word, I have failed. If I stir you to learn how I can understand the Bible, I have failed. If I captivate you so that you feel dependent on my ministry, I have failed. But if I can use my gift to stir you to see Jesus and to stir you to want to sit down and say, Wow, this is God's Word and He'll teach me, then I have succeeded. That's what we want to do. Stir you to know God's Word for yourself. Ephesians chapter 5 verse 22, Wives be subject to your own husbands as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ also is the head of the church. He himself being the Savior of the body. But as the church is subject to Christ, so also the wives ought to be to their husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives. Of course, we're not going to get into these here. We're just reading the context so that we can bring you down to a statement that Paul made that is in direct relation to this little illustration up here on the board. Husbands, love your wives just as Christ also loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the Word, that he might present to himself the church in all her glory, having no spot or wrinkle or any such thing, but that she should be holy and blameless. So husbands ought also to love their own wives as their own bodies. Now here's where we start getting into the mystery. Husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church. Wow! Because we are members of his body. For this cause a man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh. Now verse 32 is the revelation of the church that so transformed the Apostle Paul and he preached it till the day he got his head chopped off. This mystery is great, but I'm speaking with reference to Christ and the church. What mystery? Verse number 28. Husbands ought to love their own wives as their own bodies. He who loves his own wife loves himself. For no one ever hated his own flesh, but nourishes and cherishes it, just as Christ also does the church. The church in Christ's eyes, say that again, the church in Christ's eyes is his own flesh and blood. Why? Where does he dwell? He dwells in us. Remember what it says in 1 Corinthians chapter 6? Ye are not your own. You have been bought with a price. Therefore, glorify God in both your body and your spirit, which are God's possession. We need a divine revelation of the reality of God in us, Emmanuel. Let me tell you something. When you properly understand what it is, turn your Bibles to 2 Corinthians chapter 5. When you can properly get a revelation of the miracle of the new birth, your life will radically be transformed. 2 Corinthians chapter 5, beginning with verse 14. For the love of Christ controls us, having concluded this, that one died for all, therefore all died. And he died for all, that they who live should no longer live for themselves. Now listen, they should no longer live by the life, the old life of self, because now as Christians, let's read on, no longer live for themselves, but for him who died and rose again on their behalf. Therefore, from now on we recognize no man according to the flesh, even though we have known Christ according to the flesh, yet now we know him thus no longer. Therefore, or consequently, if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature. The old things passed away, behold, new things have come. You are a new creature, a new creation in that God has planted in your spirit, his spirit, so that your spirit and his spirit become one spirit. 1st Corinthians chapter 6. 1st Corinthians chapter 6. Let's begin reading with verse number 12. 1st Corinthians chapter 6, verse number 12. All things are lawful for me, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful for me, but I will not be mastered by anything. That's what governs Christian liberty. See? Sure, in Christ you have been set free, but you shouldn't be governed by anything but love. Food is for the stomach, and the stomach is for food, but God will do away with both of them. Yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord, and the Lord is for the body. You see, before the Lord came into our lives, our body was used to express, listen, the desires of sin. See, sin starts in the heart, and then it's expressed through the members of the body, correct? See, that's what the sinful heart is. In Adam, our heart was laden with sin. Therefore, our hands expressed the sin desire that was in. Our feet expressed the sin desire. Our eyes expressed the sin desire. Everything that we were, our members yielded and expressed and afforded sin the opportunity to express itself. We were slaves, slaves to sin. We had no life outside of the life of sin. So therefore, we were bound, our body was bound to express the wishes of sin. That's what Paul talks about when he says we're slaves to sin in Adam. But now, verse 13, the body is not for immorality. You see, Jesus said, it's not what comes out, but it's what's inside. The heart is full of what? Adulteries and fornication, envy and strife and backbiting and hypocrisies. And that's the works of the flesh, Paul says in Galatians chapter 5. Now, before you became a new creation in Christ, before you were regenerated and given a new heart, which is the heart of Jesus, you were a slave to the sin in you. You had no choice. You were bound to it. It expressed itself through everything you did. And what religion is, religion pretends that the sin isn't there. And we cover it through good works, and we cover it through deeds, and we cover it through all the things we do, but the sin still lies within the heart. The problem is the heart. See? The problem is the heart. That's where the heart problem is. That's where the sin problem is. But in Christ, the Bible says, yet the body is not for immorality, but for the Lord. And the Lord is for the body. Now, God has not only raised the Lord, but will also raise us up through His power. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Do you not know that now your bodies are indwelt by Christ? And that they are now not to be used to express sin as you did in your former life, before you were illuminated and saved, but now your bodies are to be used to express Him. Righteousness, joy, peace, and long-suffering. Let's read on. Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take the members of Christ and make them members to a harlot? See, here Paul is showing how awful it is when a believer becomes involved in an impure sexual relationship. May it never be. Do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For he says the two will become one flesh. Verse 17, but the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. We're one spirit with Him. That is what constitutes the miracle of the new birth. Now listen, the entire, the entire plea in the New Testament for us to grow in the grace and in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ is this, very simply. And it takes a lifetime, but here's what we're called to do. Now that you are a new creation, now that you have been given the very life of the Son of God that's joined to your spirit, Paul says now we have to be renewed in our mind. In other words, we must now learn on a daily basis how to draw from Christ and His life in us rather than draw from the old life and the sin that is in it. See, before we didn't have a choice. Before we were slaves. Before we had no alternative. Now we've become new creations and we who were dead in sins and trespasses have been made alive in Christ. The very God Himself through the Holy Spirit has come and has joined Himself to your spirit and the two have become one now. So when the Bible says work out your salvation, let's turn to Philippians chapter 2. We'll turn to these scriptures so you can read them. Philippians chapter 2, beginning in verse number 12. So then my beloved, just as you have always obeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence, work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Now what's the very next verse? For it is God who is at work in you both to will and to work for His good pleasure. Now do you see what the scriptures say? To work out your salvation with fear and trembling is to learn how to allow this new Christ life that's in you to express itself through your members, to express itself in order to build your character and to change your character so that you will become like Jesus in His character, in His moral excellence, in His holiness, and in His righteousness. See you work out what God has put in you when you believed. See when you believed you received the fullness of Christ. The moment you believed you are complete in Him. The scripture says you are in Him. You're complete in Him. So when Paul exhorts the Philippians work out your salvation with fear and trembling, he's not saying work for your salvation, he's not saying earn your salvation, he's saying understand that when you became a Christian you became a new creature and that Christ Himself by the Holy Spirit joined His Spirit with your spirit so that the two have become one. Now work out that which God wrought in the moment you believed. Allow it to be worked out. Here's the question now. How do we work out our salvation with fear and trembling knowing that it is God who is working in us? Very simply, we've preached it and taught it many times, you work out your salvation by yielding yourselves therefore unto God. By yielding yourself to that power that now mightily works within you. This is the entire revelation that Paul had in Romans 5, 6, 7 and 8. Being justified by faith we become a new creation. God comes and joins His Spirit to our spirit. The miracle of divine birth takes place. Titus chapter 3 verse 5. Not by works of righteousness which we have done but according to His mercy He has saved us by the washing of regeneration and by the renewal of the Holy Ghost. Ephesians chapter 2. You who were dead in your sins and trespasses hath God made alive. He has quickened you. He has made you alive inside. He has given you new life, holy life, righteous life, the very person of Jesus Christ. So now that this great power is working in you, Paul says yield yourselves to it. Submit yourself to it. Listen, Paul used a simple analogy. Just like when you weren't saved and you felt like sinning, you did, right? When the desire of sin raised up, you yielded to it. Paul says, now yield yourselves to Christ and you'll become slaves to righteousness. It's not conjuring up something, it's yielding to what's already there. And as God unveils your mind, and that's where the Word of God comes in, the Word of God renews our mind, it transforms our mind, it quickens our mind as the Holy Spirit illuminates it to us. The Word of God quickens and renews and gives us fruitful understanding into what God has wrought in us through the new birth. And gives us the power and ability to yield to this great power that's working within us. Friends, you are impregnated with the very God Himself. You have His life flowing through you. You have His power residing in your inner man. That's why Paul said, though my outer man is decaying, my inner man is being renewed daily. Because deep within, the very power of Christ Himself is working, renewing me, producing the very character and image of Christ. And as the image of Christ is produced and realized more and more, it begins to reflect in the members of our body. It begins to manifest itself in practical ways. Now the Corinthians were babes, and they were believers. And they were new creatures in Christ, but you sure couldn't tell by looking at them. That's why Paul rebuked them, 1 Corinthians chapter 3. He called them babes. He called them worldly He called them carnal. And he said, you walk as mere men still. You haven't realized it. You haven't matured yet to understand that you're a new creation. You're still walking as men. Paul says, you know how I know that? Because you've got envy in your heart. You've got jealousy. You've got contentions. Didn't mean they weren't saved. Didn't mean they didn't love God. Didn't mean that God wasn't with them. It simply meant that they were spiritual babes. And Paul said, ye have need of milk and not strong meat. So see, a babe is characterized by one who, even though the miracle of the new birth has been wrong, the transition in being able to live in and by and through Christ has not been wrought yet in their actions. They're still carnal. Their mind has not yet been renewed. This is a process. This is why we have to be tender one with another and not critical. When we see our brother fall, we have to instruct and gently lead and teach so that we can all mature and grow in our salvation. So to understand the miracle of the new birth and to understand the miracle of your spirit and His spirit becoming one is the hub, the hub to all of our Christian experience. And then we can understand John's desire, I must decrease and He must increase. It is no longer I that liveth, but Christ who liveth in me. Oh, would to God that we can so yield ourselves unto God and so allow the divine Spirit of God to open our minds and fill our hearts with the Word so that we can walk, yielding ourselves, being prompted and inspired by the very presence of Christ Himself so that it's no longer I that liveth. The flesh and the deeds of the flesh are rendered inoperative in your life if you live by the Spirit. You do mortify the deeds of the Spirit. So to live by the Spirit is not some mystical experience where you walk around, hallelujah, hallelujah, glory to God, I'm spiritual. That's not a spiritual person. Usually it's a haughty person, someone that doesn't know what being spiritual is. So to live by the Spirit is to daily be transformed so that Christ is living His life through you and you are a servant who has yielded to Him so that the members of your body are expressing His desires and the temptations and lusts of the flesh are being ignored. You see, you kill the flesh not by wrestling with it. Listen, when you take on the flesh and start wrestling with it, you're gonna lose. You don't wrestle with the flesh. You overcome the flesh through living by Christ and the flesh just is ignored. You ignore it. Learn to ignore it. When the impulse is there, ignore it. Don't give it free course. Don't give it the right to express itself. When you're tempted to be jealous or be envious or tempted to lust, don't let that temptation find a place where you give your member, your mind or your eyes, an opportunity to express that temptation. Learn not to do that. It's not a sin to be tempted. Jesus was tempted, but yet without sin. So the believer can learn through the power of God's Word and by the power of God's Spirit, the believer can learn not to yield to sin. You'll never be free from the presence of sin. You'll never be free from the presence of temptation. But friends, you do not have to be a slave to yielding to it. That's what Christ come to do. He whom the Son sets free is free indeed. So when the desire comes to you, you have to learn to master it. Remember what the Lord said back in the very beginning with Cain and Abel? Sin knocks at your door and it wants to be your master. That's been the problem with the whole human race. But now through the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus, I have been set free from the law of sin and death. And if I do sin, and if I do yield, I have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. And He is faithful and just to forgive and to cleanse me of all my sins. So what is Christian growth? What is growing in grace? It's not becoming theologically secure, although you can become theologically secure in the Word of God. But growing in the grace and knowledge of Jesus Christ is daily learning how to yield yourself so that it is Christ who is expressing Himself through you. So that your body becomes, your mind becomes, your tongue becomes an avenue by which Christ expresses Himself through you to someone else. That's what being spiritual is all about. How you treat people. How you cope with pressure. What you do when somebody talks about you, lies about you, says something that hurts you. There's the acid test. When we can by, not by mental confession, I will love you, I will love you. You know, not that, but when the very outflow of Christ can flow through us in all circumstances, praise God, then Jesus is possessing this vessel. That's what we want. That's what revival is. Don't ever let anyone tell you that revival consists in emotionalism and all kinds of tongues and interpretation and gifts are going all over the place. Listen, those things do come in revival. But friends, they are the least important part of revival. And if not, if not watched, that can be the destruction of every revival. True revival is the awesome holy presence of Jesus Christ being renewed in our hearts, recognizing that He lives in us and He wants to express Himself through us. He wants to express Himself in us. He wants the preeminence in our lives. That's revival. And friends, we're experiencing it. And it's growing and growing. So, we can go on, but we won't. Because I want to give you an opportunity to think about this. Go into your Bible. Meditate on the Word. Go through the Scriptures and ask the Lord to show you the mystery of the new birth. Understand what has happened to you. Know beyond a shadow of a doubt. I am a new creation in Christ. I am washed in the blood. Bless God. I am in Christ. My spirit is joined to Him. The Almighty dwells within me. He is my God and my Father. Praise God. I don't have to be a slave to sin anymore. Praise God. I'm not the servant of anything but Christ. Let Him reveal His love and shed it abroad in your heart. And you'll be set afire, friend. Amen? The divine miracle of the new birth. Understand it. Meditate upon it. Read about it in the Bible. Thank God for it. Because it's the anchor of the soul. You know what we need an anchor for? When the storm comes. Huh? You want to be ready for the next storm? Learn about the anchor. Jesus Christ. In me, the hope of glory. Hallelujah. Throw out the anchor. He'll hold you. He'll hold you down. Amen? Amen.