The Word and Regeneration

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

3 views

0 comments

00:06
Alright, if you want to open up your Bibles and turn with me to the first chapter of the epistle of James.
00:17
By the way, I'm so thankful to see many of you back who we haven't seen.
00:22
I'm glad to see you guys, and I'm thankful.
00:25
If you haven't been able to keep up with us on sermon audio, I just want to kind of give you an update as to where we have been so far.
00:35
Because we've sort of tried to go slowly through the epistle.
00:41
There's no reason to run too quickly through these things, especially on Wednesday night.
00:46
We open up the opportunity for questions as I'm teaching, so it's less of a sermon and more of a lesson on these texts.
00:54
So if you come to something that you don't have, or something that you don't understand or you have a question about, I'm open to you asking questions.
01:02
Sometimes they take us on rabbit trails, and sometimes we even have to push the rest of the lesson the next time, and that happens, and I'm okay with that too.
01:09
But we'll try to move on.
01:12
But right now, if you'll look at James chapter 1, tonight we're going to be in verse 18.
01:19
So we've made our way through several verses.
01:22
One of the things that I have noted...
01:25
By the way, who wrote this? Who is James? Do we know? James is the half brother of Jesus Christ.
01:31
This is not James the Apostle, because he would have been dead by the time of the writing of this.
01:36
This is James, the half brother of Jesus Christ, the pastor of the church at Jerusalem.
01:41
And so he is writing as a pastor, and he's writing too, it says, to those in the dispersion.
01:48
These would have been the ones who started out in Jerusalem, but after the slaying of Stephen they would have been dispersed, and that's really what was the cause of the first evangelistic missionary movement of the church.
02:03
Because when the church started, it started in Jerusalem, and it sort of stayed there, and then Stephen is martyred, and boom, everybody goes running, and the church kind of spreads as the church moves out away from that persecution, the spreading of the gospel goes with it.
02:18
And so he's writing to these people who, many of them have lost their homes, many of them have lost their livelihoods, many of them have lost their friends and their families, and he says to them, count it all joy when you experience trials of various kinds.
02:35
And we think of that today, and we think of the trials that we go through, and some of us have been through some very serious trials, some of us have been through some very serious health issues, some of us have been through very serious economic issues, some of us have had some major trials in our life.
02:49
But remember who he's talking to, and remember the situation they're in.
02:53
These are people who have given up everything for Jesus Christ.
02:56
Their whole life is a trial at this point.
02:59
Their whole life is dealing with problems, and the problem that they could solve if they would just turn their back on Jesus and go back home.
03:08
They would have been welcomed back home if they would just reject Jesus, recant their faith and just go back.
03:14
In fact, I imagine a lot of the families would be pleased to see them recant this new Messiah figure.
03:22
So this trials, the context of James, the trials that they're dealing with is trials for the faith.
03:29
That doesn't mean that it can't apply to our trials, surely it can, it can apply to any type of trial.
03:36
But the context of this is this is trials that they're dealing with for Christ.
03:41
And Jesus says, blessed are you when you are persecuted and you undergo trials for me, for my name's sake.
03:50
So James is reminding them of their blessing.
03:55
He is reminding them of their joy that they can have in Jesus Christ.
04:04
And so verses two all the way down through verse 15, he gives them reminders of having joy, how to have reminders of what they need to be dealing with in their trials.
04:15
He talks about joy in trials.
04:17
He talks about having wisdom in trials.
04:20
He talks about understanding positions in trials.
04:24
He talks about the high rich man and his position in the low poor man and his position, how the low man ought to exalt in Christ and the rich man ought to humble himself because everybody's equal at the foot of the cross.
04:35
And we talked about that a few weeks ago.
04:37
When we stand at the foot of the cross, there is no rich man.
04:39
There is no poor man.
04:39
Every person stands before the cross of Jesus Christ as equally guilty of God's law, having broken God's law, equally worthy of his punishment and equally in need of the grace of God.
04:53
And then he goes on to talk about God's character because he says that we cannot say when we're dealing with temptations that God is the author of temptation because God doesn't tempt anyone.
05:07
And we we talked about that a few weeks ago and what that means.
05:11
He says in verse 16, do not be deceived.
05:13
And this is where we were last week.
05:15
He says, don't be deceived, my brethren.
05:16
Every good and every perfect gift is from above coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change.
05:25
Now, what doctrine did I mention last week is found in verse 17? What doctrine do we see James appealing to when he's calling us to have comfort in our trials? What doctrine is there? Yeah, yes, it was the doctrine of immutability that God doesn't change.
05:49
One of the ways that we can have comfort in difficult times is to know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever.
05:56
And just because my day is bad today doesn't mean that God started to hate me or that God's attitude towards me change or his will for me has been interrupted.
06:07
God is immutable.
06:10
He is unable to change and he will not change.
06:15
And that's a great promise.
06:16
And that's the promise that James holds to in verse 17.
06:20
Well, that takes us up to where we are today.
06:23
And if you'll take your paper that I give you, you'll notice that what I've provided for you, and we start on the side with all the different languages, if you'll take your worksheet, you'll notice that I provide for you four different versions.
06:41
I give you the ESV, which is what I teach out of.
06:45
I give you the New American Standard Bible because I know that so many of you use that one.
06:50
It is a great translation.
06:52
And so I encourage if you use that, that's fine.
06:55
I give you the King James Version because I know that sometimes many of us growing up on the King James Version, we remember certain verses having memorized them in the King James.
07:04
And also some of you I know still use the King James Version, which is fine.
07:07
And I give you the Greek, knowing full well that most of you cannot read it.
07:11
But that's why I put at the bottom a transliteration and translation of the words so that you can follow along in the original language as I'm teaching through the passage.
07:22
So what we're going to do is we're going to read in the ESV our lesson or our verses for tonight, says in verse 18 of his own will.
07:37
This is God is the object here of his own will.
07:43
He brought us forth by the word of truth.
07:48
That we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures, know this, my beloved brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
08:10
Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.
08:28
This is the word of the Lord.
08:32
So that's the passage we're looking at tonight.
08:35
And the previous verses to this addresses God as the author of every good and perfect gift.
08:44
The greatest gift that God has given to man in regard to what we receive, you could say, is the work of Jesus Christ.
08:54
But how do we receive that work is through a process called regeneration, regeneration.
09:05
And that's going to be really the focus of what we're talking about tonight, because I believe in verses 18 to 21.
09:17
The author here is giving us not only a reminder of this gift that God has given us, the gift of regeneration, but he also gives us the product of regeneration, the results of regeneration, which will go on past in verse 22 and following when we come back after our break, we'll get to verse 22 and move on.
09:35
But we're going to see some of it as it comes out tonight.
09:40
Look with me again at verse 18.
09:44
It says of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth.
09:52
Consider that we are brought forth in the exercise of God's will.
09:59
What does it mean to be brought forth? Well, in this particular context, the word brought forth that word in the Greek and you can see it there, it's actually the the word that is second on the in the Greek.
10:11
If you're looking at the under the Greek New Testament there, the word is it means to give birth to something.
10:19
Look at the King James of his own will, he did what he begat us.
10:27
So it's speaking of God's giving birth to something.
10:31
It's God's God's causing something to come into existence of his own will.
10:37
He brought us forth.
10:42
What is the common vernacular among Christians? People will say I'm a blank, blank Christian.
10:50
I'm a born again Christian.
10:53
Anybody know where that term came from? OK, it comes from John 3, but do you know why people say today born again Christian? You know where the term where how that became popular in American vernacular? Jimmy Carter, Jimmy Carter was the president before I was born and Jimmy Carter was asked, what is your religion? I'm a born again Christian.
11:19
That's how he described himself.
11:21
And thus that term born again Christian became part of American vernacular.
11:30
Now, I don't want to get into Jimmy Carter today because I think he's gone a little off the rails, but that's a whole other as a whole other story.
11:35
But he at least described himself as a born again Christian.
11:39
Let me say this about that.
11:42
That is an exercise in redundancy.
11:48
To say that you are a born again Christian is like saying you're a male man and I don't mean a mailman, a guy who delivers mail.
11:58
I mean a male who is a man.
12:01
Well, if you're a male, you're a man.
12:03
And if you're a man, you're a male.
12:05
And if you're born again, you're a Christian.
12:06
If you're a Christian, you're born again.
12:07
If you ain't born again, you ain't a Christian.
12:13
Does everybody agree with that? Do I have to defend that? You know, I would have to defend that in certain circles.
12:20
There are certain people who call themselves Christians who do not believe that being born again is necessary for a Christian or necessary to live the Christian life.
12:39
In fact, it's become a derisive term among some in the liberal Christian section.
12:49
And I hate to even call them liberal Christians.
12:50
I say Christians with quotation marks.
12:52
But in liberal Christianity, people like us, they call us born agains.
12:58
Oh, that's just a bunch of born agains.
13:00
And it's a derisive term.
13:01
It's making fun of people who actually believe that to be admitted into the gates of heaven, one must have to be born again.
13:18
Yes.
13:20
Yeah.
13:21
And that's where I'm headed.
13:22
I promise I'm getting there.
13:23
But I'm just saying it's interesting to me that anyone would deny that.
13:28
But there are people who do.
13:30
There are people who deny that regeneration or being born again is necessary to the Christian life.
13:38
And by the way, I don't use big theological words because I'm trying to impress anyone.
13:43
I do want you to understand what these words mean because they are important and they are biblical words.
13:49
The Bible talks about the washing of regeneration.
13:52
The Bible uses the term regeneration several times.
13:56
I remember one time I was asked to come preach at a small church, a little country church, and I was asked by the lady from the church.
14:06
A couple of days before I was coming, she said, Pastor, you're coming to preach for us this week.
14:11
What are you preaching on? And I said, I'm going to preach on the necessity of regeneration.
14:16
She said, oh, please don't do that.
14:19
I said, why? She said, ain't nobody gonna know what you're talking about.
14:25
I said, well, how about I preach on why you have to be born again? She goes, that'd be good.
14:28
Come on, do that.
14:30
It's kind of like the old deacon who didn't want to let the church buy the chandelier.
14:34
You ever heard that? The church is having a meeting to buy a chandelier, and they asked everybody to come.
14:42
And the deacon came in and said, we can't do it.
14:43
He stood up.
14:44
The same deacon every time wanted to argue.
14:45
He said, we can't buy the chandelier.
14:48
He said, because I don't know anybody in here that if we called Sears and Roebuck could spell it.
14:54
He said, ain't nobody here could play it.
14:57
And what we really need are lights in the church.
15:01
That's the old joke about Baptist deacons.
15:04
And I can tease Baptists because I'm a graduate of a Baptist school.
15:09
And so I can tease, if I feel like I am one, at least at heart.
15:14
You probably know that guy.
15:17
All right.
15:18
Well, I do want to look at what Jesus says about being born again.
15:23
I know most of you probably have gone through this text several times, but there's something in here that's often overlooked.
15:28
So turn with me to John 3.
15:32
Talking about being born again.
15:38
In John chapter 3, most of us know John 3, 16.
15:43
And probably most of us know John 3 in the beginning is the scene where Jesus is speaking to a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus.
15:51
Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the evening time.
15:54
I always called him Nick at night.
15:56
Does he come, you know, haha.
15:57
Anyway, he comes in the evening time to talk to Jesus.
16:00
Probably, some people believe he was hiding from his contemporaries, so they wouldn't see him talking to Jesus.
16:05
Other people believe that he just wanted Jesus to himself because he had serious questions and he wanted to know what the deal was.
16:10
We don't know.
16:11
We do know that he was a follower of Jesus.
16:13
By the end of Jesus's life, he's willing to be with him at his death, so that we know that there is a change that's happening in the heart of Nicodemus at this point.
16:22
So Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he says in verse 2, he says, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God, for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
16:32
Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
16:37
Notice that Jesus doesn't really address what he said at all.
16:42
I always love that.
16:43
Nicodemus says he's giving him props as a good teacher.
16:46
He says, man, we know you're from God because nobody can do what you do.
16:49
Jesus looks him right in the face and say, know this, unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
16:53
Can't see it.
16:55
Isn't that what it says? He said he cannot see the kingdom of God.
17:02
What does that mean? To see something refers to the ability to understand or to take it in, to be able to comprehend the kingdom of God.
17:17
He said, unless you're born again, you won't understand this at all.
17:22
And then he goes on, verse 4.
17:25
Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? You see, Nicodemus had that naturalistic mindset.
17:32
What are you talking about? Man can't be born again.
17:36
He can't go back into his mother's womb.
17:38
Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and of the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
17:44
So now Jesus talks about not only comprehension, but actually where he's going to go.
17:47
He cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again.
17:52
And he talks about the water and the Spirit.
17:53
There's some variations and translations of that.
17:56
Some people believe the water there is baptism.
17:57
Some people believe the water there is referring to physical birth.
18:02
Because when you're birthed by water, everybody who's born of woman is born of water.
18:06
So it's a reference to physical birth.
18:08
And then spiritual birth is born of the Spirit.
18:09
There are some variations and translations there.
18:11
Some people use this to teach baptism or regeneration.
18:14
I certainly don't think that that's true.
18:15
But I do think that we could discuss and debate what Jesus does mean here.
18:19
In Jeremiah, it talks about having been washed by the water of the Spirit.
18:23
So there is a way that you can interpret it.
18:25
Simply say, unless you're born of the water of the Spirit, not water and the Spirit, but the water of the Spirit.
18:29
That is a possible translation as well.
18:32
Because Jeremiah talks about spiritual washing.
18:34
And that's what later on when the Apostle Paul talks about the washing of regeneration.
18:37
That's a spiritual washing, not a physical washing.
18:40
So anyway, my point tonight is not to deal with baptism and regeneration.
18:43
Again, squirrel, I could go off.
18:44
But keeping on task here, the point is the necessity of this new birth.
18:51
Jesus tells us in verse 6 and 7, He says, that which is born of the flesh is flesh.
18:55
And that's why I do think it could possibly mean physical birth.
18:58
Because now He's comparing it to physical birth.
19:00
Flesh is flesh, Spirit is Spirit.
19:02
Do not marvel at what I say to you, you must be born again.
19:05
And now verse 8 says something about regeneration.
19:09
The wind blows where it wishes.
19:12
And you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
19:16
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
19:19
What is He saying there? It's kind of a cryptic thing.
19:25
But what He is saying is regeneration is an act, a sovereign act of the will of God.
19:33
So let me just put that up here.
19:35
It is a sovereign act of God's will.
19:43
It's a sovereign act of God's will.
19:45
Now, we heard Jesus say that, right? He said the wind blows where it wishes, so too does the Spirit move where He wishes.
19:51
It's a sovereign act of His will.
19:52
Can you control the wind? You also can't control the Spirit.
19:56
The Spirit is going to work as He wills.
19:59
Now go back to James 1.18.
20:02
Of whose will did He bring us forth? Of His own will.
20:11
That is a powerful thought.
20:13
We are born again not of our own will.
20:17
We are born again of the will of God.
20:20
God is the one who gives birth to our dead spirits.
20:25
What does it mean to be born again? It means to be reborn spiritually.
20:30
What does the Bible say is the spiritual condition we are born into? Death.
20:36
Ephesians 2.1 says what? And you were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
20:45
According to the Prince of the Power of the Earth.
20:48
I forget how it goes.
20:49
According to how you...
20:50
Let's go to Ephesians 2.1 because I just lost it.
20:53
I want you to hear this.
20:54
It's important.
20:55
Galatians, Ephesians, General Electric Power Company.
20:58
Okay, I'm here.
20:58
I got it.
20:59
G-E-P-I...
21:02
And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked following the course of this world, following the Prince of the Power of the Earth, and the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind.
21:23
We are by nature children of wrath.
21:25
We were born that way.
21:27
And we grow up that way.
21:29
And until we are born again, we stay that way.
21:33
People, you know what I hate? I hate it when somebody says good people go to heaven.
21:40
I know what you mean by that.
21:42
And I've heard everybody say...
21:43
I've heard that a long time.
21:46
Well, I always say good people don't go to heaven.
21:48
There ain't no such thing.
21:50
The Bible says there's none good, no not one.
21:52
And if you say good people go to heaven, you're making God unjust.
21:56
Good, huh? I meant good people go to hell.
21:59
That's right.
21:59
That's what I was trying to say.
22:00
People say good people go to hell.
22:01
I'm trying to say thank you for...
22:03
yeah.
22:04
I got to slow down.
22:06
People say good people go to hell.
22:07
Good people go to hell.
22:08
No, they don't.
22:08
There's nobody good that goes to hell.
22:10
There's no one good anyway.
22:11
It's God who makes us good.
22:13
And when God makes us good, by virtue of declaring us righteous through the work of Jesus Christ, we then enter into heaven by virtue of Christ's righteousness, not our own.
22:23
But don't ever go around telling people that good people go to hell because that's just not true.
22:29
Good people don't go to hell because ain't nobody good.
22:33
Be honest.
22:35
People tell me out, people say, I know a guy who's an unbeliever and he's such a good man.
22:38
I know what they mean.
22:40
They mean he's a socially good man, he doesn't lie, he doesn't steal very much, he doesn't do very much wrong.
22:46
Go ahead.
22:48
Yeah, he's good according to their standards.
22:49
It's the whole pirate thing.
22:51
You ever heard my pirate analogy? People say, people ask me all the time, why are all these good people in the world, if you keep telling me everybody's totally depraved? Because I obviously teach total privacy.
23:01
People say, why do you say all these good people in the world? I say, look, everybody in the world is a sinner.
23:07
We know that.
23:08
But I want you to think about a pirate ship.
23:12
Everybody on a pirate ship lives by a code and they behave according to that code.
23:19
They have honor among thieves, you've heard that term.
23:23
And they all take turns cleaning the ship.
23:26
And they all take turns cooking for one another.
23:29
And they don't take from one another on the ship.
23:31
And there's an honor that's among them.
23:34
But the whole time they're on the ship, they're pirates.
23:39
They are maritime criminals.
23:44
A man may live in this world and he may be a socially good man, but he is according to the law of God, condemned in his sins until he repents and trusts in Jesus Christ.
23:55
He is a criminal in the tribunal of God.
24:00
And we don't like to think of it that way, but that's the way it is.
24:02
That's why we go out and we share law and gospel.
24:05
The law condemns and the gospel saves.
24:08
If you share the gospel without sharing with somebody what sin is, and sin is a breaking of God's law, if you share the gospel without sharing the law, you've shared a man the good news without the bad news, and he doesn't understand why he needs the good news.
24:19
It's like telling somebody, here's some medicine to help you with your sickness.
24:22
I ain't sick.
24:24
But if you say, hey, you've got a terminal disease, and here's a medicine that can fix it, they'll take it as soon as they can.
24:30
You've got to understand why you need it before you'll receive it, right? Now, again, I've kind of departed from the...
24:38
I've got to hurry because I'm one-third of my page, and I've got two pages, so I need to move on.
24:44
There is no such thing as a Christian who is not born again.
24:47
We've already addressed that.
24:49
And the theological term for being born again is regeneration.
24:52
I want to read to you from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology.
24:56
By the way, Wayne Grudem, if you're looking for a systematic theology to read, Grudem is a good one.
25:03
He does tend to lean a little charismatic at times at certain portions, but most of what he writes is very, very good.
25:10
So Wayne Grudem writes this on regeneration.
25:12
He says, and I quote, "...regeneration is a secret act of God in which He imparts new spiritual life to us.
25:21
In the work of regeneration, we play no active role at all.
25:26
It is instead totally a work of God." We see this, for example, when John talks about those to whom Christ gave the power to become the children of God.
25:35
They were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.
25:41
And he references John 1.13.
25:43
Here John specifies that children of God are those who have been born of God.
25:48
And our human will, the will of man, does not bring about that kind of birth.
25:55
End quote.
25:57
You see, oftentimes we like to think that we participated in the new birth.
26:03
And I tell people, you participated in the new birth as much as you participated in the first birth.
26:11
Whereas, did anybody here participate in the first birth? Well, you were there, and it was done to you.
26:17
But all of the work was somebody else's.
26:22
That's why you've heard me talk about the term monergism.
26:26
You guys remember that term? Monergism.
26:33
Monergism.
26:34
Mono means one.
26:36
Ergos in Greek means worker or work.
26:41
Monergism, one work, one worker.
26:45
The person who works in our salvation is God.
26:51
Synergism, the prefix syn means together.
26:55
Ergos, same root, means to work together.
26:58
If you've ever worked in corporate America, you've heard of synergism.
27:02
Because that's the new word that everybody, you've got to work synergistically.
27:05
Everybody's got to work, get teamwork, you know.
27:07
They put synergism up on big banners.
27:09
You know what synergism is.
27:11
Synergism is the idea that God does His part and I do my part.
27:15
And that's how I get born again.
27:16
I do what I have to do and God does what He has to do.
27:19
And you've heard it probably like this.
27:21
God has done 99%, but you've still got to do your 1%.
27:26
Or you've probably heard this.
27:28
The devil has voted against you.
27:30
God has voted for you.
27:32
And you break the tie.
27:34
I heard one guy say it like this.
27:36
He said that God's courtroom, God is the judge, Jesus is the defense attorney, Satan is the prosecuting attorney, and you're the jury.
27:51
You're the decision maker.
27:56
That's what I figured out.
27:56
I'm sorry.
27:57
That's theological.
27:58
It's the Greek word baloney.
28:05
Yes, we do believe and I'm going to get to that in a moment.
28:07
But it's the result and not the cause.
28:12
And now we're going to talk about that in a minute.
28:13
But I just like to give that theological...
28:16
That's my thought to that.
28:21
So we understand regeneration is an act of God.
28:24
Of His own will, He brought us forth.
28:28
But it was by an agency.
28:30
And this is where we're getting to.
28:31
He brought us forth by His will, by His word.
28:40
Or of His will, by His word.
28:42
And see that's the part in all this is breaking it down.
28:45
I don't know if I'm going to get to all this tonight.
28:47
But we're still stuck on the first part of the first verse.
28:50
Of His will, He begot us by His word.
28:58
Read with me.
28:59
Go to 1 Peter 1.23.
29:02
1 Peter 1.23.
29:21
This is just a parallel passage.
29:24
Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through what? The living and abiding word of God.
29:38
That is the agency, that is the thing by which you've been born again.
29:44
You heard the word.
29:47
And through hearing the word, God regenerated your spirit.
29:52
And you received the word.
29:59
How many of you know who James Pettigrew Boyce is? How many of you know who the Southern Baptist Convention is? Okay, we know who that is.
30:08
James Pettigrew Boyce was one of the founders of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Kentucky.
30:13
He's one of the founding members of the Southern Baptist Convention.
30:18
One of the past presidents.
30:19
And he writes this.
30:21
The Scripture teaching is that God operates immediately upon the heart to produce the required change by which it is fitted to receive the truth and immediately through the word in its reception of that truth.
30:35
So God works on your heart to change your heart so that you will believe what the word is saying.
30:45
God is the one who works on the heart, opens your heart.
30:50
Remember what the Bible says about Lydia? Remember Lydia and the axe, the lady, the business woman who meets Paul? It says the Lord did what? Opened her heart to believe what Paul was preaching.
31:07
See that's the part that we often forget is God's role in salvation.
31:15
We make such a big deal about our role in believing.
31:19
But what we forget is our capacity for believing is a result of the work of God that precedes the work of us.
31:29
The believing is from us, but the work that allows that the work that causes that is from who? It wouldn't be from us.
31:37
It can't be from us.
31:38
We don't naturally desire to do what is pleasing to God because we are the Bible calls us slaves to sin.
31:46
In fact, if you go to John 6, you don't have to go there.
31:51
Just you'll remember this when I start saying it.
31:52
What does Jesus say? No one can come to me unless what? Unless the Father who sent me draws him.
32:04
That's verse 44.
32:06
And I'll raise him up on the last day.
32:08
And then in verse 65, he says it again.
32:09
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me grants it to him.
32:15
What does it mean to come to Jesus? It means to have faith in him.
32:20
It means to follow him.
32:21
It means to be his disciple.
32:22
No one can do that unless the Father precedes that coming with an enablement.
32:30
The enablement.
32:31
See, this is why I'm reformed.
32:35
Because I believe that that enablement is absolutely necessary.
32:41
And I believe that that enablement is absolutely sovereign.
32:45
Some people believe God enables everybody equally and thus it falls back on us.
32:50
The problem with that is I call that peanut butter grace that's sort of spread everywhere.
32:55
You know, there's no specificity in that.
32:58
But also it's not taught in Scripture.
33:02
Because think about just that one verse.
33:04
No one can come to me unless the Father in heaven draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
33:12
That's John 6, verse 44.
33:16
All the Father gives me will come to me.
33:20
That's also in regarding God's calling or his disciple grace.
33:24
All the Father gives me will come to me.
33:27
And no one can come to me unless the Father grants it to him.
33:29
So that's a double whammy.
33:31
All that he gives me will come and no one can come unless he gives them.
33:35
So yeah, kind of they do work together.
33:38
But verse 44 says something really neat.
33:40
It says no one can come to me unless the Father in heaven draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.
33:51
You see, because a lot of people say, well, he draws everybody.
33:53
Well, if he draws everybody, then he raises everybody up.
33:56
Because that verse says the one who is drawn is also raised up.
34:00
It's the same hymn.
34:01
There's two hymns.
34:02
I will draw him and I will raise him up.
34:04
And unless you want to make an exegetical cartwheel and say that there's a different hymn in the first one than in the second one, which don't work, then you've got to believe that there's specificity in the drawing.
34:19
And there is.
34:21
It's the only way it can work.
34:23
So this again, God gives birth to us by his will through his word.
34:32
It never happens apart from the word.
34:35
And that's what I'm kind of getting to now.
34:37
God doesn't save people.
34:39
I had a guy tell me recently, God just saves people.
34:41
It doesn't matter if they hear the gospel or not.
34:43
He just saves who he wants.
34:44
He's a hyper-Calvinist out of his mind.
34:48
Told me God doesn't need us to use the gospel.
34:50
God doesn't need us preaching the gospel.
34:52
He's just going to do how he wants, what he wants, where he wants, what he wants, whatever.
34:57
The Bible says in Romans 10, how shall they hear unless someone preaches to them? Yeah, faith comes from hearing, and hearing from what? The word of Christ.
35:11
We have to preach the word because they have to have something to believe in.
35:14
Faith cannot be without an object.
35:19
By the way, that's the great heresy of TBN.
35:22
Did you know that? Because they talk about faith, faith, faith.
35:27
Faith is the highest thing.
35:29
We've got to have faith and more faith, and faith is what gets you healthy, and faith is what gets you wealthy, and faith, faith, faith.
35:34
And you step back, faith in what? Faith in faith.
35:38
Because I'll tell you, if you don't have enough faith, you won't get this.
35:43
It's always faith in faith.
35:45
Faith without an object is ludicrous.
35:48
Faith requires an object.
35:52
And if you don't have the word of God to put your faith in, if you don't have the gospel to put your faith in, then all you have is faith without an object, and that's ludicrous.
36:02
So that's why the word becomes an active agent in your salvation.
36:07
God does the work causing you to be able to believe what? The word.
36:13
And you respond by believing in it.
36:16
All right, we've milked that cow for a while, so let's move on.
36:22
Let's try to at least get through a little bit more.
36:25
It goes on to say, "...that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." That we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.
36:38
Firstfruits is an agrarian term.
36:39
It's agricultural.
36:41
It refers to a promise.
36:45
The firstfruits of the season are the sign that the seeds have germinated, and that they've taken root, and that you're going to have a harvest.
36:54
Right? If you walk out and the seeds are supposed to be blooming, and nothing's blooming, there's no firstfruits, then you know nothing else is coming.
37:03
But if you walk outside and you see you've got a garden, you see those first things start coming up, you say, well, hey, something worked, so now it's going to grow, and it's going to make a harvest.
37:15
Firstfruits in the Bible are seen as a promise from God of the harvest.
37:21
And they're also seen as being sacred because it was the firstfruits that were taken and given as an offering to God.
37:29
Because it was, thank you for this promise of the harvest.
37:33
It was part and parcel of how people handled their offerings.
37:37
So what we see here, God has saved the soul through the Word so as to demonstrate to the world His promise of the harvest.
37:52
We are a sign, every believer is a sign that God is still saving souls.
37:58
God still saves people today.
38:00
That wasn't something that just happened back when Paul was alive.
38:04
And it's not something that just happened with Saint Augustine.
38:06
It's not something that just happened with Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening.
38:09
It's not just something that happened with Charles Spurgeon.
38:15
Exactly.
38:16
We know that God is saving souls today because I look out and I see people here who are saved by the grace of God.
38:25
The promise that God is still working in the harvest is still right.
38:31
The harvest is still white, rather, for the harvest, or the fields are white for the harvest.
38:36
We're a holy people, we've been made sacred by Jesus Christ, and we are the reminder that there are still people out there that need to be saved.
38:44
So we see that in verse 18.
38:46
Verse 19 talks about the results of this.
38:51
Regeneration is a new heart.
38:54
God has changed us, He's born again.
38:57
We are born again.
38:58
Now what happens as a result? You're born again, you're a new man.
39:02
What does the Bible say? Old things have passed away, behold new things have come.
39:07
You're a new person.
39:09
What happens then? New desires.
39:14
If you can't look back at a time before you knew Jesus and see yourself as different since you've known Jesus, I would say what is it that makes you think that you've been born again? A new born-again Christian is a new person.
39:26
Now you're not going to be perfect, and I'm not saying you're going to be perfect, but I used to like my professor, he said, you're going to get a new wanna.
39:33
You know what a wanna is, right? A wanna is not like a Bible program.
39:37
I know there's a thing called a wanna, but no.
39:39
A wanna, W-A-N-N-A, he said, because when I was, before I was saved, I wanted to do a lot of things I shouldn't do, but now I got a new wanna.
39:47
I want to follow Christ.
39:49
I want to serve Him.
39:51
I got a new one of those, and it came from being born again.
39:56
So, he starts talking about this in verse 19, he says, Know this, my brothers, let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger, for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness of God.
40:14
This could be a lesson all to itself, but I do want to just touch on it tonight.
40:20
The natural inclination of man is to be slow to hear, quick to speak, and even quicker to get mad.
40:30
If you can't say amen, say ouch, because you know it's right, right? It's much easier to talk fast and get mad fast, and yet, he's telling us here of one of the things that regeneration is supposed to give us is a new heart, and what is the result of this new heart? Practical righteousness, a desire to follow Christ, and anger is not a part of that, but I do want to very quickly make a caveat.
41:12
Is there a such thing as righteous anger? Uh-huh, yeah, we can tell you.
41:19
How do we know there's such a thing as righteous anger? Because Christ demonstrated it when He went into the temple, and He overturned the tables.
41:29
I'm pretty sure He didn't do that with a big old smile going, hey guys, you know, I'm pretty sure He was upset, and when He said, my father's house is a house of prayer, you turn into a den of thieves, and He says that with indignation.
41:43
We call it righteous indignation, right? But also, doesn't God show His anger? Doesn't God pour out His wrath? What is hell, if not an expression of the eternal wrath of God that burns forever and ever, that will never be quenched, that will never be put away? That's what hell is.
42:07
People don't want God to be angry, so they eliminate the doctrine of hell, because they don't see how, because the, I remember the kid who told me, I told him one time, I says, God hates something, I forget what it was, and he said, I didn't know God hated anything.
42:21
I said, God hates a lot of stuff.
42:24
You don't know God hates anything.
42:26
Do you think God loves adultery? He hates adultery.
42:29
Do you think God loves divorce? The Bible says God hates divorce.
42:32
Do you think God loves abortion? God hates abortion, right? Let me say that.
42:39
I say, no, without doubt.
42:41
Hey, are you speaking for God? Yeah, God hates abortion.
42:45
It's the murder of an unborn child in the womb.
42:48
Absolutely.
42:49
So, having said that, is it possible for us to exhibit righteous indignation? Yes.
42:59
And the Bible is clear, Ephesians 4, 26 and 27, it tells us be angry, but what? But do not sin.
43:09
So what does that tell us? It tells us you can.
43:13
If the command is to be angry and sin not, it's telling us that the anger itself is not necessarily the sin, but what the anger produces.
43:24
Now, can anger be sin? Yes.
43:28
Anger itself can be sinful.
43:31
But it's not always.
43:32
It should subside eventually.
43:35
Well, that's what he said.
43:36
Do not let the sun go down on your anger.
43:38
That's what the verse goes on to say.
43:39
Don't let the sun go down on your anger.
43:42
And that's a good little principle for living.
43:45
You know, you probably heard this before.
43:46
Don't go to bed angry with your wife.
43:49
Try to at least talk through whatever the situation is, or at least agree to disagree for the night.
43:55
Love each other, snuggle up and go to sleep.
43:57
And maybe in the morning when you wake up, things won't feel as bad as they did when you went to bed.
44:01
But don't go to bed mad, slamming doors and going to another room or something.
44:05
At least try to, you know, you know, my wife always, I always do this.
44:09
Maybe y'all might think this is a little weird.
44:11
But, you know, nobody ever called me a marriage counselor.
44:15
I'll tell you what, sometimes when we're, you know, because we do have disagreements, like real ones.
44:21
You know, we're not perfect.
44:22
People say, oh, you're a preacher.
44:23
No, that don't matter.
44:24
My wife and I disagree.
44:25
And she can hear me right now because she's in the nursery.
44:29
Sometimes I just look at her and I say, are we going to get a divorce? And I know the answer is no.
44:34
And she just looks at me and goes, ah, because she knows what I'm saying.
44:38
If we're going to be together again tomorrow, we need to figure out a way to get through this now.
44:43
Because why do you want to live miserable? We ain't leaving.
44:46
You ain't going nowhere.
44:47
Because if you leave me, I'm going with you.
44:48
We've already discussed that.
44:49
If she leaves, I'm just going to follow.
44:51
So we're not, you know, we're going to be together tomorrow.
44:54
We're going to just figure this out.
44:58
I know that might sound really simple.
44:59
Like I said, I ain't no marriage counselor.
45:00
But, you know, the end of the day, he's right.
45:05
We can't let our anger become sin.
45:08
And we can't stew.
45:10
Stewing is bad.
45:12
And what are some things which can inspire righteous indignation? What are some things that do make us angry in a righteous way? Somebody uses God's name in vain might upset you.
45:30
What do you think? All sin should upset us.
45:36
Anybody, I mean, more specifically, I would think, you know, when somebody commits an abortion.
45:44
That's angry.
45:45
Because you know what they're doing.
45:47
When somebody, when a man leaves his wife and kids, I get angry, you know.
45:56
When the word is improperly preached, you better believe I get upset.
46:00
I'm ready to throw down.
46:02
Not like that, but I mean, I'm ready to have a debate, yeah.
46:07
Exactly.
46:08
So yes, all sin ultimately.
46:10
But the problem is, it is possible to have righteous indignation.
46:16
The problem though is this, is oftentimes our indignation is not righteous.
46:22
Oftentimes our anger is not righteous.
46:25
And so what do we do? We give in to the flesh.
46:29
We allow ourselves to behave in ways that are ungodly.
46:34
And that's what James is dealing with here.
46:37
He says, be quick to hear, slow to speak.
46:41
Boy, if that ain't marriage counseling, that's marriage counseling right there.
46:43
That's life counseling.
46:45
You know what most people listen for? A pause.
46:53
Yeah, just so they can get their word in.
46:55
They listen for the pause.
46:57
They don't listen to try to understand what the person's saying.
47:00
They don't listen to try to learn what it is the person is conveying.
47:04
They don't listen for the emotion and hurt or pain that's in the person's voice.
47:08
They listen for the pause so they can jump in and have their word to say.
47:13
James is telling us, be slow to speak.
47:17
And to be quick to hear.
47:20
And even less quick, or slow to, or more slow to get angry.
47:28
Finally, verse 21, and we may deal with this some more when we come back, but I just want to finish out tonight.
47:33
He says, therefore, put away all filthiness, rampant wickedness, and receive with meekness the implanted Word, which is able to save your souls.
47:42
So he starts in verse 18, says that we're born again of the Word, and now he's saying that the Word is engrafted into us.
47:50
Now how is the Word engrafted into us? Let me tell you something, it ain't magic.
47:57
The Word isn't like, I heard one preacher one time say, well, what I do to prepare for my sermons is I open my Bible, I lay it on the ground, and I lay down, and I put my face in my Bible, and I just pray.
48:06
And that's how he prepared for his messages.
48:09
And you know what happened when he preached? Not a lot.
48:14
Because he wasn't preparing, he was hoping to get it through osmosis, I guess.
48:17
I don't know, he was hoping it would seep in.
48:20
No, the engrafted Word here is the way I think it is.
48:24
Let me see my sheet.
48:25
The King James, I think, uses the word engrafted.
48:29
Where'd my paper go? But the ESV says implanted.
48:37
The word there simply is something that means to be put into place with the implication of developing.
48:46
Something that's put into place to develop.
48:49
When you are saved, somebody preached the Word to you, and that's how you got saved.
48:53
That Word is now implanted in your heart, but it ain't implanted into your heart to grow stagnant, it's implanted there to grow.
49:00
And how does it grow? Through reading, and studying, and imbibing more of the Word of God.
49:05
You do not grow spiritually simply by being a Christian.
49:13
You grow spiritually by studying the Word of God, seeking to be obedient to the Word of God.
49:18
Through prayer and study do we grow.
49:21
That is the means of grace by which we grow.
49:25
The means of growth is the study of the Word.
49:28
That's why we come to church.
49:30
We come to church because we want to use the gifts God gives us in the ministry of the Gospel, and also we want to grow as believers.
49:40
You come to church so that you will hear the Word of God, you'll be challenged in the Word of God, and you'll be grown in the Word of God.
49:52
Regeneration produces two things in the life of the believer.
49:55
And I'll end with this, and then we'll move on to the application, and I'll give you the answers.
49:58
Two things happen in the life of the believer as a result of regeneration.
50:01
Well, several things.
50:02
If you go through the whole Ordo Salutis, it could take us all night.
50:05
But two things that I want to just give you tonight.
50:08
One is justification.
50:10
As a result of regeneration, you stand before Christ justified of every sin.
50:17
And justification is a forensic declaration.
50:20
That means legal.
50:22
It is a legal declaration whereby God declares you saint.
50:27
He declares you holy.
50:28
He declares you righteous.
50:30
Yes, you.
50:32
Not because you are a saint, but because Christ's righteousness is applied to you, and thereby you stand in His righteousness.
50:41
That's why you get that forensic declaration.
50:45
That's justification.
50:47
Justified.
50:48
You ever heard that? Justified never sinned.
50:51
Just as if I'd never sinned.
50:53
That's what justified is.
50:55
I stand before God just as if I'd never sinned.
50:59
Now, the second thing is sanctification.
51:04
Sanctification is the process whereby you are conformed to the image of Christ.
51:13
This is a process of growth that every believer is undergoing.
51:21
And it is not instant.
51:24
Just because you get saved does not mean you instantly become super sanctified, or become like Jesus.
51:33
It's a growth.
51:35
And it comes through what? What we call the means of grace, or the means of growth and grace, which is the word, ministry of the ordinances, the fellowship, the prayers.
51:48
All of these are means by which we grow.
51:51
This is why church is so important.
51:52
Where people say, I'm going to be a Christian and not go to church.
51:54
Huh? Well, number one, why would you want to? Why would you want to neglect the bride of Christ, the one who saved you? Why would you not want to be a part of that? But also, by what are you growing? Oh, I watch Benny Hinn on television.
52:07
Oh, don't say that.
52:08
No, no, seriously.
52:10
We grow through the means of grace.
52:13
And that's important.
52:16
So having said that, if you want to turn your papers over, I want to give you the three application points and bring us to a close.
52:22
Went a little long tonight.
52:23
I apologize.
52:24
I know some of you all have young ones.
52:26
Hope I wasn't too, too long.
52:30
Three things to consider from tonight's lesson.
52:32
Number one, regeneration.
52:34
If you want to write under there, being born again, is the result of an act of God's sovereign will.
52:55
Number two, the word of God is essential in bringing a person to a right knowledge of salvation.
53:11
Why do I put that in there? Well, see, that's the thing.
53:16
Regeneration gives new birth to the soul.
53:19
And we have to have something to put our faith in.
53:21
That's where the word of God comes in.
53:22
We have to know what salvation is to believe it.
53:25
And so the word of God is essential.
53:27
It's a means.
53:29
It's part of the process.
53:32
Finally, the word of God gives us insight into how to live an upright life.
53:38
Upright, what does that mean? I never say that you're going to live a perfect life.
53:43
Because we don't live perfect lives.
53:45
But the Bible does call us to live uprightly in the world.
53:48
It calls us to live above reproach.
53:52
Elders are supposed to be above reproach.
53:54
That's what the men of the church who are called elders are supposed to live that way.
53:56
But you know what? That doesn't mean that everybody else in the church is supposed to live below reproach, or in reproach, or under reproach.
54:04
It's simply to say that the men who are to be the elders are to be exemplary.
54:09
But that's not calling the rest of the church to sin.
54:11
It's just saying that among those who are believers, these men are to set this example.
54:18
And we're all called to live an upright life.
54:21
We're all called to live without the filthiness, and wickedness, and rampant sin of this world.
54:43
And some of us may...
54:51
I can tell you that some of the sins that we commit is not really consumed that bad.
55:00
By who? By us.
55:02
Okay.
55:04
Yeah, yeah.
55:05
Because we just haven't grown to that point to see the wickedness, really, the filthiness in our sin.
55:14
Yeah, that's true.
55:15
If you guys...
55:16
If anybody's interested, I did make some notes I didn't get to tonight.
55:20
But the filthiness and rampant wickedness that he's talking about here, Paul gives three lists, at least three.
55:27
There's more than three, but there are at least three lists of sins.
55:29
One is in Romans 1, 29-32.
55:32
If anybody's interested in writing...
55:34
Romans 1, 29-32.
55:37
1 Corinthians 6, 9-11.
55:40
And I love 1 Corinthians 6, 9-11 because that's where the Apostle Paul says, that such were some of you.
55:46
And he addresses things like homosexuality, sexual immorality, things like that.
55:49
He says, in such were some of you.
55:53
That's powerful.
55:55
Finally is 1 Timothy 1, 8-11.
55:57
These are lists of some of the sins.
55:59
If you want to know what he means when he says all filthiness and rampant wickedness, he doesn't leave it to question.
56:06
We know what it is.
56:08
1 Timothy 1, 8-11.
56:11
Well, I hope tonight's lesson was helpful to you.
56:13
I hope it was encouraging to you.
56:14
It was kind of theological.
56:17
Hopefully not over your heads or anything or not something that wasn't helpful.
56:20
But I pray that it will be beneficial to you in the week to come.
56:23
Maybe help you understand a little bit more how God has saved your soul.
56:27
Let's pray.
56:29
Father in heaven, I thank you for the study tonight.
56:32
I thank you for the opportunity to go the word together.
56:33
I pray that it's been beneficial to your people.
56:36
And ultimately that you would use it to glorify yourself.
56:38
In Jesus' name, amen.