The Word and Regeneration

Trials for the Faith in James

Alright, if you want to open up your Bibles and turn with me to the first chapter of the epistle of James. By the way, I'm so thankful to see many of you back who we haven't seen. I'm glad to see you guys and I'm thankful.

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. Because we've sort of tried to go slowly through the epistle. There's no reason to run too quickly through these things, especially on Wednesday night 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. 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.

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. But we'll try to move on. But right now, if you look at James chapter 1, tonight we're going to be in verse 18.

So we've made our way through several verses. One of the things that I have noted, by the way, who wrote this? Who is James? Do we know? James is the half brother of Jesus Christ. This is not James the apostle because he would have been dead by the time of the writing of this.

This is James, the half brother of Jesus Christ, the pastor of the church at Jerusalem. And so he is writing as a pastor and he's writing too, it says, to those in the dispersion. 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. 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.

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.

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. But remember who he's talking to and remember the situation they're in. These are people who have given up everything for Jesus Christ. Their whole life is a trial at this point.

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. They would have been welcomed back home if they would just reject Jesus, recant their faith and just go back.

In fact, I imagine a lot of the families would be pleased to see them recant this new Messiah figure. So this trials, the context of James, the trials that they're dealing with is trials for the faith.

That doesn't mean that it can't apply to our trials, surely it can, it can apply to any type of trial. But the context of this is this is trials that they're dealing with for Christ. And Jesus says, blessed are you when you are persecuted and you undergo trials for me, for my name's sake.

So James is reminding them of their blessing. He is reminding them of their joy that they can have in Jesus Christ. 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.

He talks about joy in trials. He talks about having wisdom in trials. He talks about understanding positions in trials. 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.

And we talked about that a few weeks ago. When we stand at the foot of the cross, there is no rich man. There is no poor man. 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.

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. And we we talked about that a few weeks ago and what that means.

He says in verse 16, do not be deceived. And this is where we were last week. He says, don't be deceived. My brethren, 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.

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.

One of the ways that we can have comfort in difficult times is to know that God is the same yesterday, today and forever. 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.

God is immutable. He is unable to change and he will not change. And that's a great promise. And that's the promise that James holds to in verse 17. Well, that takes us up to where we are today. And if you'll take your your your paper that I give you, you'll notice that what I've provided for you, 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. I give you the ESV, which is what I teach out of. I give you the New American Standard Bible because I know that so many of you use that one.

It is a great translation. And so I encourage if you use that, that's fine. 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.

And also some of you, I know, still use the King James Version, which is fine. And I give you the Greek, knowing full well that most of you cannot read it. 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.

Regeneration as New Birth by the Word

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, this is God is the object here of his own will. He brought us forth by the word of truth 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. Therefore, put away all filthiness and rampant wickedness and receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls.

This is the word of the Lord. So that's the passage we're looking at tonight. And the previous verses to this addresses God as the author of every good and perfect gift. The greatest gift that God has given to man in regard to what we receive, you could say, is the work of Jesus Christ.

But how do we receive that work is through a process called regeneration, regeneration. And that's going to be really the focus of what we're talking about tonight, because I believe in verses 18 to 21, 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.

But we're going to see some of it as it comes out tonight. Look with me again at verse 18. It says of his own will, he brought us forth by the word of truth. Consider that we are brought forth in the exercise of God's will.

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.

If you're looking at the under the Greek New Testament there, the word is it means to give birth to something. Look at the King James of his own will. He did what he begat us. So it's speaking of God's giving birth to something.

It's God's God's causing something to come into existence of his own will. He brought us for what is the common vernacular among Christians? People will say I'm a blank, blank Christian. I'm a born again Christian.

Anybody know where that term came from? OK, it comes from John three. 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. That's how he described himself. And thus that term born again Christian became part of American vernacular.

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 that's a whole other story. But he at least described himself as a born again Christian.

Let me say this about that. That that is an exercise in redundancy to say that you are a born again Christian is like saying you're a male man. And I don't mean a male man, a guy who delivers mail. I mean, a male who is a man.

Well, if you're a male, you're a man. And if you're a man, you're a male. And if you're born again, you're a Christian. And if you're a Christian, you're born again. If you ain't born again, you ain't a Christian.

Does everybody agree with that? Do I have to defend that? You know, I would have to defend that in certain circles. 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.

In fact, it's become a derisive term among some in the liberal Christian section. And I even call them liberal Christians. I say Christians with quotation marks. But in liberal Christianity, people like us, they call us born agains.

Oh, that's just a bunch of born agains. And it's a derisive term. 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. Yes. Yeah.

And that's where I'm headed. I promise I'm getting there. But I'm just saying it's interesting to me that anyone would deny that. But there are people who do. There are people who deny that regeneration or being born again is necessary to the Christian life.

And by the way, I don't use big theological words because I'm trying to impress anyone. I do want you to understand what these words mean, because they are important and they are biblical words. The Bible talks about the washing of regeneration.

The Bible uses the term regeneration several times. 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 a couple of days before I was coming.

She said, Pastor, you're coming to preach for us this week. What are you preaching on? And I said, I'm going to preach on the necessity of regeneration. She said, oh, please don't do that. I said, why?

She said, ain't nobody going to know what you're talking about. I said, well, how about I preach on why you have to be born again? She goes, that'd be good. Come on. It's kind of like the old deacon who who didn't want to let the church buy the chandelier.

You ever heard that? Deacon said the church having a meeting to buy a chandelier and they asked everybody to come. And the deacon came and said, we can't do it. He stood up. The same deacon every time wanted to argue.

He said, we can't buy the chandelier. He said, because I don't know anybody in here that if we called Sears and Roebuck could spell it. He said, ain't nobody here could play it. And what we really need are lights in the church.

That's the old joke about Baptist deacons. And I can I can tease Baptist because I was I'm a graduate of a Baptist school. And then so so I can tease if I feel like I am one, at least at heart. So you probably know that.

The Necessity of Being Born Again in John 3

All right, well, I want to go I do want to look at what Jesus says about being born again. I know most of you probably have gone through this text several times, but there's something in here that's often overlooked.

So turn with me to John three talking about being born again. And John chapter three, most of us know John three, 16. And probably most of us know John three in the beginning is the scene where Jesus is speaking to a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus.

Nicodemus comes to Jesus in the evening time. I always called him Nick at night because he, you know, anyway, he comes in the evening time to talk to Jesus. Probably some people believe he was hiding from his contemporary so they wouldn't see him talking to Jesus.

Other people believe that he just wanted Jesus to himself because he had serious questions. He wanted to know what the deal was. We don't know. We do know that he was a follower of Jesus. By the end of Jesus's life, he's he's he's willing to 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.

So Nicodemus comes to Jesus and he says in verse two, 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. Jesus said to him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Notice that Jesus doesn't really address what he said at all. I always love that Nicodemus says he's given him props as a good teacher. He says, man, we know you're from God because nobody can do what you do.

Jesus looks him right in the face and say, no, this unless a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God can't see it. And that what it says, he said, he cannot see the kingdom of God. What does that mean to see something?

Refers to the ability to understand or to take it in, to be able to to comprehend the kingdom of God, he said, unless you're born again, you won't understand this at all. And then he goes on, verse four, Nicodemus said him, how can a man be born when he is old?

Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb? Even be born. You see, Nicodemus had that naturalistic mindset. What are you talking about? Man can't be born again. He can't go back into his mother's womb.

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. So now Jesus talks about not only comprehension, but actually where he's going to go.

He cannot enter into the kingdom of heaven unless he is born again. He talks about the water and the spirit. There's some variations and translations of that. Some people believe the water there is baptism.

Some people believe the water there is referring to physical birth, because when you're birthed by water, your birth, everybody who's born of woman is born of water. So it's a reference to physical birth.

And then spiritual birth is born of the spirit. There are some variations and translations there. Some people use this to teach baptismal regeneration. I certainly don't think that that's true, but I do think that we could discuss and debate what Jesus does mean here.

And Jeremiah talks about having been washed by the water of the spirit. So there is a way that you can interpret it and simply say, unless you're born of the water of the spirit, not water and the spirit, but the water of the spirit.

That is a possible translation as well, because Jeremiah talks about spiritual washing. And that's what we're later on when the Apostle Paul talks about the washing of regeneration. That's a spiritual washing, not a physical washing.

So there's so anyway, my point tonight is not to deal with baptism regeneration again. Squirrel, I could go off, but keeping on task here, the point is the necessity of this new birth. Jesus tells us in verse six and seven, he says that which is born of the flesh is flesh.

And that's why I do think it could possibly mean physical birth, because he now he's comparing it to physical birth. Flesh is flesh. Spirit is spirit. Do not marvel at what I say to you. You must be born again.

And now verse eight says something about regeneration. The wind blows where it wishes and you hear it sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the spirit.

What is he saying there? It's kind of a cryptic thing, but what he is saying is regeneration is an act, a sovereign act of the will of God. So let me just put that up here. It is a sovereign act of God's will.

It's a sovereign act of God's will. Now, we heard Jesus say that, right? He said the wind blows where it wishes. So too does the spirit move where he wishes. It's a sovereign act. Can you control the wind?

You also can't control the spirit. The spirit is going to work as he wills. Now, go back to James 1 18. Of whose will did he bring us forth? Of his own will. That is a powerful thought. We are born again, not of our own will.

We are born again of the will of God. God is the one who gives birth to our dead spirits. What does it mean to be born again? It means to be reborn spiritually. What is the Bible says is the spiritual condition we are born into?

Death. Ephesians 2 1 says what? And you were dead and your trespasses and sins in which you once walked, according to the prince of the power of the air. I forget how it goes. According to how you let's go to Ephesians 2 1, because I just lost it.

I want to hear I want you to hear this. It's important. Galatians, Ephesians, General Electric Power Company. OK, I'm here. I got it. G .E .P. 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 air 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.

We are by nature children. We're born that way and we grow up that way. And until we are born again, we stay that way. People, you know what I hate? I hate it when somebody says good people go to heaven.

I know what you mean by that, because I've heard everybody say I've heard that all a long time. Well, I always say good people don't go to him. There ain't no such thing. The Bible says there's none good, no, not one.

And if you say good people go to heaven, you're making God unjust. Good, huh? I meant good people go to hell. That's right. That's what I was trying to say. People say good people go to hell. I'm trying to say thank you for that.

Yeah, I got to slow down. People say good people go to hell. Good people go to hell. No, they don't. There's nobody good that goes to hell. There's no one good anyway. It's God who makes us good. 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.

But don't ever go around telling people that good people go to hell because that's that's just not true. Good people don't go to hell because ain't nobody good. Be honest. People tell me people say, I know a guy who is an unbeliever and he's such a good man.

I know what they mean. 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. Well, go ahead. Yeah, he's good. According to their standards, the whole pirate thing.

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 profit.

People say, why are you selling these good people in the world? I say, look, everybody in the world is a sinner. We know that. But I want you to think about a pirate ship. Everybody on a pirate ship lives by code and they behave according to that code.

They they they they have honor among thieves. You've heard that term. And they all take turns cleaning the ship and they all take turns cooking for one another. And they don't take from one another on the ship.

And there's a there's a honor that's among them. But the whole time they're on the ship, they're pirates. They are maritime criminals. 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.

He is a criminal in the tribunal of God. And we don't like to think of it that way, but that's the way it is. That's why we go out and we share law and gospel. The law condemns and the gospel saves. 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 don't understand why he needs a good news. It's like telling somebody, here's some medicine to help you with your sickness.

I ain't sick. 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. You got to understand why you need it before you receive it.

Right now, again, I've kind of departed from the 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. There is no such thing as a Christian who is not born again.

We've already addressed that. And the theological term for being born again is regeneration. I want to read to you from Wayne Grudem's Systematic Theology. By the way, Wayne Grudem is if you've never if you're looking for a systematic theology to read, Grudem is a good one.

He does tend to lean a little charismatic at times at certain portions, but most of what he writes is very, very good. So Wayne Grudem writes this on regeneration. He says, and I quote, Regeneration is a secret act of God in which he imparts new spiritual life to us in the work of regeneration.

We play no active role at all. 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. They were born not of blood, nor the will of the flesh, nor the will of man, but of God.

And he references John 113. Here, John specifies that children of God are those who have been born of God and our human will, the will of man does not bring about that kind of birth. End quote. You see, oftentimes we like to think that we participated in the new birth and I tell people, you participated in the new birth as much as you participated in the first birth.

Whereas did anybody here participate in the first birth? Well, you were there and it was done to you. But all of the work was somebody else's. That's why you've heard me talk about the term monergism.

You guys remember that term monergism, monergism, mono means one, ergos in Greek means worker or work, monergism, one work, one worker, the person who works in our salvation is God. Synergism, the prefix syn means together, ergos, same root, means to work together.

If you've ever worked in corporate America, you've heard of synergism because that's the new word that everybody, you got to work synergistic, everybody's got to work, get teamwork, you know, they put synergism up on big banners.

You know what synergism is. Synergism is the idea that God does his part and I do my part and that's how I get born again. I do what I have to do and God does what he has to do. And you've heard it probably like this.

God has done ninety nine percent, but you've still got to do your one percent. Or you've probably heard this, the devil has voted against you. God has voted for you and you break the tie. I heard one guy say it like this.

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. You're the decision maker.

That's what I think. And I'm sorry. That was that's theological. It's the Greek word baloney. But it's you and I that believe. Yes, we do believe. And I'm going to get to that in a moment.

But it's the result and not the cause. And now we're going to talk about that in a minute. But I just like to give that theological. That's my thought to that. So we understand regeneration is an act of God, of his own will, he brought us forth.

But it was by an agency. And this is where we're getting to. He brought us forth by his will, by his word. Or of his will, by his word. And see, that's the part in all this is breaking it down. I don't know if I'm going to get to all this tonight, but we're still stuck on the first part of the first verse.

Of his will, he begot us by his word. Read with me. Go to 1 Peter 1, 23. 1 Peter 1, 23. This is just a parallel passage. Since you have been born again, not of perishable seed, but of imperishable through what?

The living and abiding word of God. That is the agency. That is the thing by which you've been born again. You heard the word. And through hearing the word, God regenerated your spirit and you received the word.

How many of you know who James Pettigrew Boyce is? How many of you know who the Southern Baptist Convention is? OK, we know who that is. James Pettigrew Boyce was one of the founders of the Southern Baptist Seminary in Kentucky.

He's one of the founding members of the Southern Baptist Convention, one of the past presidents. And he writes this. 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.

So God works on your heart to change your heart so that you will believe what the word is saying. God is the one who works on the heart, opens your heart. Remember what the Bible says about Lydia? Remember Lydia and the axe, the lady, the businesswoman who meets Paul?

It says the Lord did what? Opened her heart to believe what Paul was preaching. See, that's the part that we often forget is God's role in salvation. We make such a big deal about our role in believing.

But what we forget is our capacity for believing is a result of the work of God that precedes the work of us. 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.

It can't be from us. We don't naturally desire to do what is pleasing to God because we are the Bible calls us slaves to sin. In fact, if you go to John 6, you don't have to go there. Just you'll remember this when I start saying it.

What does Jesus say? No one can come to me unless what? Unless it is unless unless the father who sent me draws him. That's verse 44. And I'll raise him up on the last day. And then in verse 65, he says it again.

No one can come to me unless the father who sent me grants it to him. What does it mean to come to Jesus? It means to have faith in him. It means to follow him. It means to be his disciple. No one can do that unless the father precedes that coming with an enablement.

The enablement, see, this is why I'm reformed, because I believe that that enablement is absolutely necessary. And I believe that that enablement is absolutely sovereign. Some people believe God enables everybody equally and thus it falls back on us.

The problem with that is we call that peanut butter grace. It's sort of spread everywhere. You know, there's no specificity in that, but also it's not taught in scripture. Because think about just that one verse, no one can come to me unless the father in heaven draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

That's John 6, 44. Verse 37, all the father gives me will come to me. That's that's that's also in regarding God's calling or irresistible grace. All the father gives me will come to me and no one can come to me unless the father grants it to him.

So that's a that's a double whammy. All that he all that he gives me will come and no one can come unless he gives them. So, yeah, kind of they do work together. But verse 44 says something really neat, says no one can come to me unless the father in heaven draws him and I will raise him up on the last day.

You see, because a lot of people say, well, he draws everybody. Well, if he draws everybody, then he raises everybody up because that verse says the one who is drawn is also raised up. It's the same him.

There's two hymns. I will draw him and I will raise him up. And unless you want to make an exegetical cartwheel and say that there's a different him 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 and there is. It's the only way it can work. So this again, God gives birth to us by his will, through his word. It never happens apart from the word.

And that's what I'm kind of getting to now. God doesn't save people. I had a guy tell me recently, God just saves people. It doesn't matter if they hear the gospel or not. He just saves who he wants. He's hyper-Calvinist out of his mind.

Told me God doesn't need us to use the gospel. God doesn't need us preaching the gospel. He doesn't. He's just going to do how he wants, what he wants, where he wants, what he wants, whatever. 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. We have to preach the word because they have to have something to believe in. Faith cannot be without an object. By the way, that's the great heresy of TBN.

Did you know that? Because they talk about faith, faith, faith, faith is the highest thing. 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. And yet you step back. Faith in what? Faith and faith, because I'll tell you, if you don't have enough faith, you won't get this. It's always faith and faith. Faith without an object is ludicrous.

Faith requires an object. 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.

So that's why the word becomes an active agent in your salvation. God does the work causing you to be able to believe what? The word. And you respond by believing in it. All right, we've milked that cow for a while, so let's move on.

Let's try to at least get through a little bit more. It goes on to say that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. That we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. First fruits is an agrarian term.

It's agricultural. It refers to a promise. The first fruits 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. Right. If you walk out and the seeds are supposed to be blooming and nothing's blooming, there's no first fruits.

Then you know nothing else is coming. But if you walk outside and you see you 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.

First fruits in the Bible are seen as a promise from God of the harvest. And they're also seen as being sacred because it was the first fruits that were taken and given as an offering to God. Because it was thank you for this promise of the harvest.

It was a it was part and parcel of how people handled their offerings. 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. We are a sign.

Every believer is a sign that God is still saving souls. God still saves people today. That wasn't something that just happened back when Paul was alive. And it's not something that just happened with St. Augustine.

It's not something that just happened with Jonathan Edwards during the Great Awakening. It's not just something that happened with Charles Spurgeon.