Regeneration - Part 3 — Charles Leiter

Faithfulness Where the Battle Is Raging

Well, let's open our Bibles to Romans chapter 8. Before we look into this, there's another thing that I thought of that I wanted to say, and that is that one of the marks of a false prophet is what he does not say.

Now, you can be in a situation. I think Martin Luther, I wish I could quote it exactly, but he says, wherever the battle is raging, that's where the faithfulness of the soldier is tried. You can be faithful everywhere else except that one point, and if you don't go and take a stand on that one point, you are denying Christ.

And so, you can hear a man. A man can get up and give good sermons for a year and be a false prophet because he's not dealing with the one thing that needs to be said. And that's one thing that I've been blessed by these other men here in the sharing just, again, the desire to be true and to preach the gospel.

Biblical Pictures of Regeneration

Okay, we've been considering these days some of the scriptural representations of regeneration, and we've looked at six of these so far, and each one teaches us a great deal about the nature of what God has done in this work that He's done in our hearts.

The first one was that regeneration is described as a new creation. It's a creative work that God does. Supernatural thing out of nothing, just like the creation of the world. He creates in us a new creation.

And secondly, we saw that the Christian is described as a new man. Regeneration is the creating of a new man, and we are new men. We saw, thirdly, it's the giving of a new heart. I'll take this stony heart out, I'll put in a new heart in you.

I'll put my Spirit within you. I'll write my laws inside of you instead of on the outside. They'll be internal. And then we saw that regeneration is described as a new birth. Whenever a person becomes a Christian, when God regenerates him, he is born again.

He's born a second time in the spiritual realm. And he's actually born of God. God's seed remains in him. God's nature remains in him. And then we saw, fifthly, that regeneration is described as the giving of a new nature.

And in this, not the actual word nature is used, but the concept. And one of the brothers was talking to me about this during the lunch time. That, you know, this idea of the black dog and the white dog and the two natures and all that.

We've got to get down to what a nature really is. What is a nature? Well, Jesus comes the closest you'll ever get. He says there's a fig tree and there's a thorn bush. There's a grape vine and there's thistles.

You see, that's talking about two different kinds of trees. That's what we're talking about when we talk about a nature. The idea of a thing having two natures is an impossibility. It's like it's saying it's two things.

Again, it's like the idea of a heavenly devil. You don't have that, heavenly devils. There's just no such thing. And so your nature is who you are in the ultimate truth about you, in your innermost being, the deepest reality about you.

And that's your nature. God puts a new life into you, and it's his life. And then we saw, number six, we saw that regeneration is described as the crucifixion of the person that we used to be. The old man, who I was in Adam.

Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. You see that? The old Saul was gone, and now we've got Paul. And so the crucifixion of the old man, just another way of describing that God changed you. He made you new.

He raised you up to walk in newness of life. So there's a crucifixion and a resurrection. We come then this afternoon, Lord willing, to the last three of these that we'll be able to look at. And so number seven, regeneration is described in the Bible as a change of realms.

Regeneration as a Change from the Flesh to the Spirit

We move from the realm of the flesh into the realm of the Spirit. Now let's read it here in Romans 8, verses 5 to 9. Paul says, For those who are according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who are according to the Spirit, the things of the Spirit.

For the mind of the flesh is death, but the mind of the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind of the flesh is hostile toward God, for it does not subject itself to the law of God. It's not even able to do so.

Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. Now look at this. However, you are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If indeed, or if so be, the Spirit of God dwells in you. But if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, he does not belong to Him.

Now I need to say a word about the NIV. I don't know, maybe nobody here uses it. I know one brother here that was here the other day. But it says this. Instead of saying you are not in the flesh, it says you are not controlled by the sinful nature.

Isn't that incredible? In, the word in is changed to controlled by, and flesh is changed to sinful nature. Now you are going to have all kinds of confusion if that is the kind of thing you are trying to deal with.

You are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. Now what does it mean that I am not in the flesh anymore, but I am in the Spirit? Well, I think it has to do with this. In the flesh has to do with the realm or sphere in which your life is seated, where you live, where you are.

You are not in the flesh. You are not in the realm or sphere of the fleshly. The natural man lives there. That is where his life is. That is the source of his life. And so that is the thing that he is occupied with.

There is nothing spiritual, capital S, there is nothing spiritual about him. He lives entirely in the fleshly plane. He lives in the realm of motorcycles and computers and dresses and appearance and physical appetites and all of those things that have to do with the fleshly realm.

Now a lot of them may not be bad, but they are just on this plane, you see. That is all they are. They are just in this realm. They are on the horizontal. That is all there is to his life. He is fleshly.

He lives in the realm of the flesh. Now when you become a Christian, you no longer are in the flesh. You move over into a new realm. You are in the realm of the Spirit. There is a whole new dimension.

You are living in a whole new reality. You are walking in a whole new realm. Something has happened, you see. And now everything, the source of your life is in the Spirit. And you can look at this person.

Here are two men standing here side by side. They look the same outwardly maybe. They have got the same clothes, you know, basically everything about them. They are just two human beings. But one guy is in the flesh and the other guy is in the Spirit.

And you cannot understand the one guy unless you have some comprehension of this realm that he is now in, you see. So Paul says, I have been crucified with Christ. I am not here anymore. But he says, now the life that I live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God.

He means I am still in my mortal body, you see. But I am not here anymore. Now we are going to look at this more as we go along. But there is this matter of being in the flesh and there is a matter of being in the Spirit.

And sometimes Christians use terminology like this. Like maybe they act too quickly or, you know, without thought and make a decision. Or maybe you lose your temper or something and say, well, I kind of got in the flesh.

Well, actually, you never get in the flesh if you are a Christian. You might act like you are in the flesh, but you never get back in the flesh because you will never be anything but a spiritual being.

You are alive in the Spirit. That is where you are. That is the realm that you live in now. Now the natural man lives in the realm of the flesh. Again, I say there is nothing capital S spiritual about him.

Nothing about him. He has no dimension of the Holy Spirit in his life at all. He may have religion. Now think about this. Paul in 2 Corinthians 5 .16, he says, I knew Christ at one time after the flesh.

You know, he had, and I did too. Most of you did too. I mean, if you heard about Christ at all before you were converted, you knew Him according to the flesh. You had all these fleshly ideas of who He was.

For me, He was a little Jesus about that big that went around carrying lambs that live way back off in history. Now, whenever you come to know Him for real, you no longer know Him after the flesh. All of a sudden, He is God, and He is all around you, and He is omnipresent, and He is omnipotent, and He is God.

You see? You no longer know Him after the flesh. Now Paul goes on and he says, we don't know any man anymore after the flesh. When you become a Christian, when you enter into the spiritual realm, your whole values of everything, the way you appraise men and the way you appraise situations, everything changes totally.

And what's the very next verse? Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creation. Old things have passed away. The old realm is gone, you see. You've entered into a new realm. You're alive in the spirit and in the spiritual realm.

Worship in Spirit and Truth

Now, think about this. Remember what Jesus said to that Samaritan woman? She said, now, our fathers worshiped in this mountain. Now, you all say that over there in Jerusalem is a place where you're supposed to worship.

Which one is it? He says, woman, neither in this mountain, neither Mount Gerizim, nor in Jerusalem. But He says, the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Now, what does that mean?

Well, first of all, you can say, well, it means you can worship anywhere. You don't have to be in Jerusalem. You don't have to be in Mount Gerizim. You can worship God anywhere. But I'll tell you what else it means.

It means you worship God nowhere. That is, no physical place. It's in a different realm. It's in the realm of the spirit. All these people are coming to these physical buildings, doing these physical actions.

You see, they can't worship God because they're not in the sphere, the realm where God gets worshiped. The true worshipers worship God in spirit and in truth. So Paul says, we're the true circumcision who worship God in the spirit.

We're in a different realm. The natural man cannot figure that out at all. You remember, he says, back there in the Old Testament, with Pharaoh, he said, Moses said, what we're going to do in our worship is an abomination to the Egyptians.

It's going to be an abomination. Well, it's not that sacrificing these things, you know, it's not that this cow is an abomination as such. It's not that these different things are abominations to them.

It's that what we're going to do to that thing is an abomination. Because Christians in their worship take the very things that the world is worshiping and they sacrifice them to God. And that is an abomination.

That causes a lot of problems when you start doing that. That's in the spiritual realm. You begin to worship God in the spirit, you see. And Christians gladly sacrifice to God the very things that the world would give their eye teeth to get.

We begin to worship in the spirit. You remember what Paul says there concerning the Christian. He says, we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are unseen. Things that are seen are temporal.

The things that are unseen, they're eternal. We're living in a different realm. Moses, he endured suffering affliction with the people of God and so on. He endured as seeing Him who is invisible. This is the realm of true faith, saving faith.

Two Realms and Their Spiritual Mindsets

It's in the spiritual realm. Now, notice what Paul says here about these two realms. First thing is this. There are only two realms. That's the first thing to get. You're either in the flesh or you're in the spirit.

And here in Romans 8, he makes it absolutely clear. There's two realms. You're in one or the other. You're either in the flesh or you're in the spirit. Brother Mike talked a little bit about I Corinthians 3.

And beloved, this is the answer to that. He says, I couldn't talk to you as to men in the spiritual realm. I had to talk to you as to men of flesh. He says, when you're acting like this, doing these things and having this bickering stuff, aren't you acting like mere men?

You're just acting like men. Christians are more than just men. I mean, men are just in the flesh. Now, he says, in other words, he says, I couldn't treat you like Christians. I had to treat you like lost men.

Christians can act like lost men sometimes. In fact, every time you sin, you're acting out of character with who you are. That's a totally different thing than saying that there's this permanent third category of heavenly devils, so to speak.

You see, that's not possible. He said, I had to talk to you like men of flesh. But the fact is, there's only two realms. And you're either in the spirit or you're in the flesh. And so he's saying, grow up, realize who you are, be who you are, and walk where you are.

Okay? There's only two realms. Secondly, each realm is characterized by a certain type of mind. Notice what it says in verse 5. He says, those that are after the flesh, mind the things of the flesh. Those that are after the spirit, mind the things of the spirit.

Each realm is characterized by a certain type of mind. Now notice this. He doesn't say what it ought to be. It's not an exhortation. It's a statement of fact. It's a statement of reality. So he says, look, you can tell when a guy's in the flesh when he's just a natural lost man because he minds the things of the flesh.

You can tell when a man's life is in the realm of the spirit because he minds the things of the spirit. Well, here's a guy who says, I'm a Christian, but he doesn't mind the things of the spirit. All he thinks about is the things of the flesh.

What does that mean? He's a liar. That's what it means. They that are after the spirit, they're alive in that realm. They gravitate to that realm. That's where they live. They mind that realm. Just a statement of fact, you see.

All right? What else do we learn here? Well, each type of mind leads to its own destination. He says that the mind of the flesh is death. That's what's going to happen. And, beloved, the mind of the flesh, the things that you have your mind on, they're just down here in the horizontal realm.

They might be real pleasant, nice things. But in the end, they're going to end with decay and corruption and emptiness and misery and death. Even the nicest things. Why? Because God is the source of real life, and he's left out of the picture.

So anybody that lives in the fleshly realm, so-called good people, as well as outrageous sinners, it's all death and destruction and emptiness when you get to the end of it. You see that? But the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.

Now, think of this mind of the flesh. What's he say about the mind of the flesh? Well, he says it's enmity against God. Verse 7. It's hostile toward God. It does not subject itself to the law of God. It's not even able to do so.

In other words, there is a deep-seated hatred for God in the heart of every man who lives in the realm of the flesh. Every non-Christian has a deep-seated hatred for God. Now, the religious man keeps that covered up very well, and we might never see it.

But in the presence, in the right circumstances, it comes out, and it comes out viciously. And we see that with the Lord Jesus Christ. When those scribes and Pharisees got into the presence of goodness incarnate, I think even they were shocked by the stuff that they could say and do.

I mean, crucify Him! Crucify Him! We will not have this man to reign over us. You see, all those fig leaves came off, and all that enmity came out. It was down underneath there all along. And notice in this amazing verse 8, those who are in the flesh cannot please God.

It's an impossibility. They cannot do it. Well, let's look at another passage. I'm again trying to read several verses to give you a feel, and to help us to think on these things. In Galatians chapter 5, and we'll just begin at verse 16.

But I say, walk by or in the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh. For the flesh sets its desire against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh, for these are in opposition to one another, so that you may not do the things that you please.

Now, this idea of you can't do what you will, he's not saying you've got to live a life of miserable defeat. That's the way a lot of people take it. He's just said that you don't have to, because if you walk in the Spirit, you won't fulfill the desires of the flesh.

But he's saying, look, you can't just lay back and just do as you please either. It's not going to work that way, because the flesh is actively opposing your spiritual walk and your spiritual life. There's a battle going on.

So you can't just, you know, lay back and do nothing. You've got to gird up your mind, take up the shield of faith and so on, and walk in the Spirit. Alright? Next verse. But if you are led by the Spirit, verse 18, you are not under the law.

Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envies, drunkenness, carousings, things like these of which I forewarn you just as I have already said it.

You see, I have already forewarned you that those who practice such things are carnal Christians. No, they shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Against such things there is no law. Now those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. I think what he means there is every Christian has taken a definitive stand against the flesh and repented.

But look at verse 25, I read all this to get here. If we live in the Spirit, let us also walk in the Spirit. You see that? Two realms, you are in the flesh or you are in the Spirit. Now he says if you are living over here, walk over here.

Realize where your life is now and walk where you are. Realize where you are and walk where you are. Realize who you are and be who you are. That is Paul's way of teaching this whole thing again. There are two and only two realms and Christians are alive in the realm of the Spirit.

Romans 7 and the Believer's Realm

Now this has all kinds of implications for our understanding of the New Testament. I just want to look at one and I am just going to kind of open a can of worms here probably. But think about Romans 7.

All of us have dealt with this thing of Romans 7. And I can remember a time in my own life when if I was defeated, you know I would turn to Romans 7 and get comfort out of this passage in Romans 7. That is not at all why Romans 7 was written.

Now look at two realms. There is the realm of the flesh. There is the realm of the Spirit. Those who are after the flesh mind the things of the flesh and the mind of the flesh is death. Those who are in the Spirit mind the things of the Spirit and the mind of the Spirit is life and peace.

Now look at how Paul introduces Romans 7. Go to verses 5 and 6. Romans 7, 5 and 6. For while we were in the flesh, we are not anymore. While we were in the flesh, the sinful passions which were aroused by the law.

Now they authorize this as the motions of sin. That is fine if you understand Old English. Motions has to do like the word we have, emotion. Passion. Sinful passions which were by the law. They are aroused by the law.

Okay. We are at work. Where? In our members. What is he talking about? The members of our body. So he says, the condition of the man who is in the flesh, he has got these sinful passions being stirred up in his members and they are being stirred up by the law and they are at work in his members to bear fruit for death.

Now what about the Christian? Well he goes on and talks about him in verse 6. But now we have been released from the law, having died to that by which we were bound, so that we serve in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter.

Now let me ask you a question. Which one of those two do you think Romans 7 is a description of? Is it a man who has got sinful passions being stirred up by the law that are at work in his members to bear fruit for death?

Or is it a man who is serving in newness of the Spirit and not in the oldness of the letter? Now I just give you that for you to think about as you approach this. Once Paul gets done with Romans 7, he reiterates the same contrast again.

And he talks about the man who is in the Spirit and the man who is in the flesh. And he says, the righteousness of the law is fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit. What the law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, Romans 7, God did when He sent His Son, you see.

The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and death. You see that? Well, you can think about it. All right. Regeneration is a change of realms from the realm of the flesh to the realm of the Spirit.

Regeneration as a Change from Earthly to Heavenly Realms

Now let's go to number 8. How does the Bible represent regeneration? Well, it's a change of realms from the earthly sphere to the heavenly sphere. Everybody who becomes a Christian, they pass out of this world and they go up and they are seated in the heavenly places.

They are alive in heaven. Now let's look at it in Colossians chapter 2. Paul is dealing with these people that are submitting to all kinds of ordinances, don't touch this and don't handle that and so on, all these physical things.

And he treats this at length. As you get down to verse 20, he says, If you have died with Christ to the elementary principles of the world, why as if you were living in the world do you submit yourselves to decrees such as do not handle, do not taste, do not touch, which all refer to things destined to perish with the using, in accordance with the commandments and teachings of men.

Now here you've got this piece of meat, don't touch that, don't eat this, don't eat that. He says, why are you acting like you're still living down here in the world? You're not even living here anymore.

All those have to do with these material things that are just going to pass away. You're alive in heaven. Say, Paul, if I'm not here in the world anymore, and you're saying that I've passed out of this realm and I've died and passed out of this realm, where am I living?

Well, he goes on and tells you in Colossians 3, verse 1, If then you've been raised up with Christ, keep seeking the things above where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things above, not on the things of the earth.

Why? Because you've died and your life is hidden with Christ in God. You've passed out of this realm and you live up here in this realm. Now let's read on. When Christ, who is our life, is revealed, then you also will be revealed with Him in glory.

Christ is our life. Talked about the vine and the branches earlier. So you've got a new life and you're alive in the heavenly realm. You're seated with Christ in heavenly places. Now verse 5, Therefore, and I want to read the New American Standard, and somebody tell me what the authorized is here, I didn't get to look it up, but this is what the New American says, Consider the members of your earthly body as dead to immorality and so on.

What's the authorized say there in verse 5? Your members which are upon the earth. Alright, that's right on the money there. Mortify your members. Now look at this. Which are upon the earth. In other words, he's saying you are seated in heaven with Christ.

You've been raised up with Him, but your members are still down here on the earth. Isn't that something? Your body's still down here living in this world. Your real life is in heaven. You're seated in heavenly places.

But your body's still down here. So he says put to death this stuff that's still down here on the earth. Isn't that amazing? Mortify your members which are upon the earth. Immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, and so on.

He says on account of those things, God's going to put people in hell. In other words, there's no holy water legal view of justification. You know, God sprinkles the holy water on you, go ahead and live in sin, and God doesn't mind that anymore.

No, the whole reason that He justifies you is to deliver you from sin so that you can fellowship with Him. You see? So he says, mortify your members which are upon the earth. Verse 7, now get this. In them you also once walked when you were living in them.

Do you get that? When you used to live over here, you lived in this realm, you walked in this realm. Now, we're not there anymore. He says, you're living over here. Now He says, walk where you're living now.

That's it again. You see, every one of these pictures of regeneration is saying the very same thing. Realize who you are. Realize who you are and live there. Because you can live there now. You don't have to live like what you used to be.

Because you're not there anymore. Your life is in this realm over here. Okay. So He says, lay them aside. Verse 8. Put them all aside, anger and wrath and malice, all these things. Because you laid aside the old man.

So quit acting like the old man. And then He goes on down in verse 12 and He says, As those who have been chosen of God, holy and beloved. That's who you are, Christian. Chosen by God, you're holy, you're beloved by God.

He says, alright, put on this heart of compassion. Put on this heart of kindness and humility and gentleness and patience. Be who you are. Now this comes out a lot. A transition from the world to the heavenlies.

The Christian's Heavenly Citizenship

Let me just give you some verses on this. First of all, you remember in John 8 .23. Jesus said to those Jews, He says, you're from below. I am from above. You're from this world. I'm not from this world.

Now that fits in, we can understand that really well. You're from below, I'm from above. You're from this world. I'm not from this world. All that makes perfect sense. The thing is, is when you get a little bit further over, He's talking about the disciples.

He says, they're not of this world, even as I am not of this world. Isn't that amazing? You no longer live here. He says, if you were of the world, the world would love its own. But you're not. You're out of that thing.

You're gone out of there. Therefore, the world knows us not because it knew Him not. I mean, no non-Christian has a clue of what makes you tick. They can't understand. They don't know us. They don't understand us because we're in a different realm.

Here again, Philippians 3 .19. Paul talks about those people that mind earthly things. But what? He says, you're minding these earthly things. These men are minding these earthly things. But he says, our commonwealth, our citizenship is in heaven.

So there's some whose God is their belly. They're minding earthly things. There's some whose citizenship is in heaven. And they're no longer minding earthly things. They're minding the things that are above.

Everybody get that? There's a lot of commotion. All right? Here's another one. Galatians 4 .26. He talks about this present Jerusalem that's in bondage. But he says, the heavenly Jerusalem, she's our mother.

That's where we belong. That's where our membership is. We've come to this heavenly Jerusalem, to Mount Zion, the church and assembly of the firstborn. We've already come to it. You see? Here's another one.

Ephesians 1 .3. Blessed be God who, what? Has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ. And again, in Ephesians 2 .4 -6. God being rich in mercy because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our transgressions, made us alive together with Christ, raised us up and seated us with Him in the heavenly places.

That's where our life is. Our life is no longer down here in this world. Now think about it. He says, why as if you were living in the world, you keep on submitting to that stuff that relates to all these external things?

Why as if you're living in the world, you're not living in the world anymore? You're in a different realm. He seated us with Him in the heavenly places. Now, beloved, it makes a great deal of difference if you believe this or if you don't believe it.

A lot of Christians, I know what it is in my own life. I had this idea. It's kind of like the old-fashioned scuba divers, only they didn't have scuba then. They had those hoses that went up, you know.

Now here you are down here in this world, you know, and there's this little air hose that's going way up into the sky, clear out of sight. You know, this little air hose, and God is up there a million miles away, and you're trying to get some help down here, you know, trying to struggle to fight this battle to try to get victory over this thing that you can't get victory over.

It's bigger than you, and you're trying to get a victory that's never been won. And you're trying and struggling and trying and trying to get help down through the hose so that you can do it. That's a whole different thing than when you're up here in the heavenlies looking down on it and Christ has already defeated it.

And by faith you realize, I'm seated in the heavenlies. I don't have to do that anymore. I'm not that anymore. I'm alive in the Spirit. I'm alive in the heavenly realm. I'm seated with Christ in the heavenlies.

One brother had a little plaque thing made that was a blessing to me. It says, keep looking down. For you have died and your life is hid with Christ in God. It's a whole different attitude. Christ has won the victory over that sin.

He beat that thing and killed it. And I've got to believe and enter into what He's done. He says, reckon yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin. Sin shall not have dominion over you. If you through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, you can do it by the grace of God, by His power, you see, because He's already done it.

I think it was the same brother. He was given his version of Ephesians 6. We wrestle not against flesh and blood. And he just put in a few little words. We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against defeated principalities and dethroned powers.