Regeneration - Part 1 — Charles Leiter

To be among the people of God, and to have His Word that we can open and look into. Let's turn to begin with to Titus 3. And we'll read from verses 3 -7. I'm using the New American Standard Translation.

Titus 3. For we also once were foolish ourselves, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various lusts and pleasures, spending our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared, He saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness, but according to His mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit, whom He poured out upon us richly through Jesus Christ our Savior, that being justified by His grace, we might be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life.

Regeneration and Its Supernatural Contrast

As the Lord wills, I'll be speaking to you these three days on the subject of regeneration. And it is a glorious subject. We see that right here in these verses we've looked at. You notice the contrast.

Verse 3, we were. There was a time. And what was the description of what we were? Well, foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved, hateful, hating one another. What a contrast between that and what follows.

God's rich mercy, where He pours out His Spirit upon us by the washing and the renewing and the outpouring, all of these things. What a contrast. What a miracle, I say. This is something right off the bat you see regeneration is something supernatural.

It's something miraculous. It's something divine. It's a radical thing. You see that right off. It's something radical. But I've read these verses not only because they introduce the theme of regeneration, but because they tie regeneration in with another great Bible doctrine and that's the doctrine of justification.

And you see that right here in verse 7. That being justified by His grace. These two things always go together. Justification, regeneration. They're inseparable. They're very different, but they're inseparable.

Now, Brother Michael's going to be touching on justification, so I'm not going to spend much time on that, but I want to say a few things in the introduction here just to bring out the contrast between justification and regeneration.

The Heart Problem and the Record of Sin

We know that man's great problem is sin. But I want to remind you, first of all, that sin problem has two parts. First of all, man has a bad heart. He's corrupt on the inside. And we have that in Mark 7.

The Lord Jesus brings this out. Let me just read it to you. "...From within, out of the heart of men, proceed...". And it's not their environment and it's not their heredity in that sense, but it's from within, "...out of the heart of men, proceed the evil thoughts and fornications, thefts, murders, adulteries, deeds of coveting and wickedness, as well as deceit, sensuality, envy, slander, pride, and foolishness.

All these evil things proceed from within and defile the man.". So that's talking about the heart problem. And every man that we meet anywhere on the street, the natural man has got a corrupt and polluted heart.

He's got a bad heart. But that's not his only problem with sin. If by some miracle, he could have a brand new heart and never commit another sin the rest of his life, he'd still go to hell. Why would he go to hell?

Well, because he not only has a bad heart, but he's got a bad record. He's got a criminal record. He's a fugitive from justice. And he's got a bad record in the eyes of God's law. All the sins that he's already committed.

Now that's an objective problem on the outside of him. You see, it doesn't matter what happens to him on the inside, he's got that problem on the outside that needs to be dealt with. Now, beloved, God takes care of our bad record in justification.

He justifies us, He imputes to us the righteousness of Christ, and those sins are laid on Christ and He pays for them. That's justification. He takes care of the bad heart in regeneration. He does something on the inside, changes us internally.

Justification has to do with something that takes place in heaven. It takes place in the courtroom of God where He pronounces me to be right in the sight of His law. Regeneration takes place down here on earth inside of the heart of man.

See the difference? Justification is a declaration on the part of a righteous judge. He makes a declaration. It's not an act of power in the sense of exertion of power. It's a declaration about the way things really are.

God's not pretending anything. When He says, your sins have been paid for, they really have been paid for. When He says, look here in the book, it looks like to me you've got righteousness laid to your account, it really has been.

Somebody really did that righteousness for you, and that's the Lord Jesus Christ. He's making a declaration about the way things really are. Your sins, that one sin, whatever the sin is, the worst, most wicked things you've ever done or can ever remember, they're not floating around in the air.

They actually came down on the Lord Jesus Christ and He actually paid for them. And the judge looks in the book and says, this thing's paid for, it really is. He's not pretending anything. He's making a declaration as a righteous judge.

Now that's justification. Regeneration, on the other hand, is not a declaration of a judge. It is a creative work by an omnipotent Creator. Different kind of thing, you see. And that takes place in the heart of man.

It's an act of creative power. Justification takes care of my condemnation in the eyes of the law. Regeneration takes care of the perversity and defilement in the center core of my being. That's what regeneration does.

Justification and Regeneration Illustrated by the College Grade

Now, I like to illustrate it like this, and I was talking to one of the brothers about this earlier, I think it was Brother Tom, were we talking about this thing of the college student. When I was in college, I used to work hard to get an A, try to get an A at the end of the course.

And that's the way it always was. That's the way it is for college students. But there was one class I had that was different. I think God allowed it just so I'd be able to give this illustration. And what happened, I didn't realize it until years later, but what happened was we got to class on the first day, and there were just three or four of us.

It was a senior level class. It was actually a chemistry class, and I had studied physics, but they let me in because when you get far enough in chemistry, you get into physics. And I was in there, and there was two or three others, and we were all majors, all studied this stuff for years.

The first day, the teacher said, I don't want you to worry about your grade. You've all got an A. He gave us an A at the beginning of the course. Now, beloved, that's what justification is. God gives you an A at the beginning of the course.

He says, you've already got your A. Now, there's two types of responses to that. There's a response of the legalistic, pharisaical religious man, the lost religious man who is trying and striving to get his A at the end of his life.

And he doesn't like that idea of justification by faith. He doesn't like that because the only reason that he's toeing the line, and the only reason he's reading his Bible, and the only reason he's doing, quote, good works, is because he's trying to get that A one day.

And he doesn't like the idea of God giving that out freely. And you know, actually, in his heart, he's envious of these sinners that get to go out and sin. You know, I wish I could do that. That's what he's thinking.

I wish I could do that. And so he's mad about that. That's the way the Jews were, many of them. On the other hand, you have this lawless, immoral man that hears that stuff about getting an A at the beginning of the course, and he kind of likes that.

He said, well, now, if I could get an A at the beginning of the course, then I could just tear my book up and throw it in the trash can, spit on the teacher, and go out and do my own thing. Now, beloved, the vast majority of churches are filled with people just like that.

And the theology of our day calls them carnal Christians. Now, what about this? Does God justify a man? Does He pay for his sins legally, just so that he can go ahead and steal and murder and rape and pillage, and have immunity from ever being put in prison?

What kind of a God would that be? The lost man has a higher opinion of God than that. Lost people, many times, they know at least one thing. If there's any God, He's got enough integrity that He's not going to let a man go to heaven without changing him.

You see? God won't do that. It's impossible. And the answer to it is this. At the same time God gives you that A at the beginning of the course, He fixes you up on the inside so that you love to study the material.

And that's what regeneration is. That's what it is. What about it this afternoon? Is there anything in you that just loves God just because He's God? That just loves to read the Bible? Or do you read the Bible and study the Bible?

In order to try to, you know, you have to do this. I've got to do that in order to try to earn this favor with God. Is there anything, is there even a little spark of just love for God because He's so lovely?

And as pastors, I could ask you the question, what about your people? Do they read the Bible? Do they study the Bible because they just love God? Or do you have to tongue lash them and beat them and try to get them to do that by being mean to them?

See the difference? If you have to do that, you're dealing with a bunch of goats, not sheep. If you've got sheep, they love God because that's what it is to be a Christian. Christians follow God and walk with God because they love God, not in order to try to get eternal life.

That's something that has been given to us. Everyone Jesus said that hears my word and believes Him has sent me has eternal life, not something you hope to get one day. You have eternal life. It's something that's given to you at the beginning of your course.

Regeneration as a New Creation

Well, right off, as we approach this subject of regeneration, I want to say this, we're only going to scratch the surface. And you knew that already, but I want to say it again. The Bible gives at least 10 or 12 representations of regeneration.

We're going to try to look at 9. Every one of these is very instructive. We'll try to look at 3 every day. And as the Lord wills, that will be the plan. How does the Bible describe regeneration? What is regeneration?

Well, first of all, it describes it as a new creation. So, number 1 out of these 9 things, new creation. And you see that from the word regeneration itself. This word palingenesis, again create, again plus genesis.

In other words, the Bible is saying that what takes place in regeneration is something on the order of what took place when God spoke the universe into existence. That's what we're dealing with when we talk about regeneration.

Morally speaking, it's a bigger miracle that God does anytime, anybody, anywhere becomes a Christian. There's a re-creative work on the part of God. 2 Corinthians 5 .17, of course, comes to mind. Therefore, if any man...

Now, beloved, we've got to remember this, because in our desire to believe the best about people and stuff, we can soften it down. But the fact is, if any man, anywhere, be in Christ, he's a new creation.

He's a new creation. There's a creative work that takes place, and he's new. Old things have passed away, all things have become new. Any man, anywhere, he's a new creation. You meet somebody that's not a new creation, they're not a Christian.

It's a miracle, a creative miracle that takes place. Maybe we ought to turn there, 2 Corinthians 5 .17. Notice what he says in the next verse. All these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ.

All of this comes from God. God is the One who does it all. We have no part in this whatsoever. A thing cannot create itself. Isn't that obvious? It'd have to be there first in order to create itself.

What part did you have in your creation? You didn't have any part in it, because you weren't there. This is God's work, you see. God does something. He does a creative work in the heart of man. Well, the Bible calls this a creation over and over.

Let's just look. I want to turn to the various passages and give you a feel for how frequent this is. Galatians 6 .15. Here it comes up again. Paul says, For neither is circumcision anything nor uncircumcision.

One thing that matters. New creation. That's the bottom line. It doesn't matter any type of external things. It doesn't matter how many external things are done to you. Or how many external things you've done.

The only thing that matters is, are you a new creation? Are you a new creature? That's the only thing that matters. And then in Ephesians 2. These famous verses. By grace are you saved through faith, that not of yourselves.

It's a gift of God, not of works, lest any man should boast. Verse 10. For we are His workmanship created. Now, sometimes the word is translated, and some versions translate it made or make. It's the very same word as this word used in creation.

It's the very same root of the thing. And it's created. We are His workmanship. Now, look at that. We are His workmanship created in Christ Jesus. For good works, which God has prepared beforehand, or foreordained, that we should walk in them.

Now, think about this. When Paul thinks about being saved by grace through faith, automatically it comes into his mind. There's a creative work that took place. We are His workmanship created. You see that?

Same idea again. This is a created work. And he says God has created. Every Christian has been created. He's been created in order to achieve something that He has before ordained. He's marked out. And what He's before ordained is, is there's going to be some good works that are going to go on from there.

So God does a creative work and makes this new man in such a way that he'll walk in those good works. He always will. You see, they're ordained. That's the way this work is. He's prepared beforehand that we would walk in them.

Ephesians 2, verse 15, By abolishing in His flesh the enmity, which is the law of commandments, contained in ordinances, that in Himself He might make, and here's the word again, create the two into one new man, that is Jew and Gentile, created into one new man, thus establishing peace.

The whole church is a creation. It is a created thing. You cannot organize. The church is not an organization. It is a supernaturally created organism. That's what the church is. And the church is this new man.

The whole church is created as a new man. Ephesians 4, verse 20, and leading on to verse 24, He says, You did not learn Christ in this way, if indeed you have heard Him and have been taught in Him that just as truth is in Jesus, that in reference to your former manner of life you lay aside the old man which is being corrupted in accordance with the lust of deceit, and that you be renewed in the spirit of your mind and put on the new man, which according to God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.

Notice here, He says in verse 24, that a new man has been created. You see that? Here again, the word created. What's this new man like? Well, he's created in righteousness and true holiness. What's the description of this new man?

A new man created in righteousness and true holiness. Now, you see again here how real this is? Not just words he's talking about. There's a new man that has been created and he has characteristics about him.

This is something concrete we're talking about. It's not just a figure of speech. This new man has been created in righteousness and true holiness. That's the way this new man is. Now in Colossians 3, the last one we'll look at here.

Colossians 3 and verses 5 to 11. If you read down through here, all this is very rich. But he says, "...mortify the members which are upon the earth to immorality, impurity, passion, evil desire, greed, which amounts to idolatry.

For it is on account of these things that the wrath of God will come.". Notice in verse 7, "...in them you also once walked when you were living in them. But now you also put them all aside, anger, wrath, malice, slander, abusive speech, free mouth.

Do not lie to one another, since you laid aside the old man with its practices and have put on the new man who is being renewed to a true knowledge according to the image of the One who created him, in which there is no Greek and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave and free man, but Christ is all and in all.".

So here's this new man again that has been created. And he says in verse 12, "...as those who have been chosen by God, holy and beloved.". That's who Christians are. They're holy and beloved, chosen of God.

So, first designation the Bible gives us, a very important one. Regeneration is a creative work. And to summarize what it tells us, it tells us right off the bat that we're dealing here not with a decision, but with a miracle.

We're not talking about some decision man makes. We're not talking about stepping out of the line that's going to hell and stepping into the line that goes to heaven. We're talking about God doing a creative miracle.

And this representation that the Bible gives us of regeneration tells us right off the bat man ultimately doesn't have any hand in this at all. God is the One that does this work of regeneration. Now you can get that just from the very fact that it's called a new creation.

And He does it. You see? Very far reaching. Just that one truth would destroy a host of errors about regeneration. God is the One who does this and it's a miracle. Second representation the Bible gives us, regeneration is a new man.

The New Man and Christian Identity

Now we read that several places here in Ephesians 2, Ephesians 4, Colossians 3. We won't read all those verses again. But it's clear that a new man has been created. And the whole church we saw is a new man and every Christian is a new man.

Now I'm not going to spend a lot of time on it at this point. But I just want to say this. A Christian is not both an old man and a new man. He's not both an old man and a new man. What else? A Christian does not have a new man living inside of him.

He is a new man. And even more so, he does not have both an old man and a new man living inside of him. You know the white dog and the black dog and that thing where they're fighting each other. That's a very defective theology.

He doesn't have a new man. He is a new man and he doesn't have both an old man and a new man inside of him. The Christian is a new man. Some of you know about Augustine. He lived a very immoral life before he was converted.

And he was going down the street one day after he was a Christian and one of his old girlfriends cried out to him, Augustine, it is I, it is I. And he turned and looked at her and said, yes, but it is not I.

He was a new person. You remember Jesus talking to Peter. He says, you're Simon. He knew him through and through. You're Simon, but from now on, you're going to be Peter. And what happens when you become a Christian, God radically changes you.

Some of you know Bob Jennings, that brother. One characteristic of Bob Jennings, he was always late until he became a Christian. Now he's the first one there. What's happened? Jesus said, you're Simon, you're going to be Peter from now on.

Now, when you become a Christian, you've got to start getting used to being Peter. That's one thing that makes it so hard, like some of these college students get converted and then they go back to their home and everybody says, hi Simon, hi Simon.

That's not who they are anymore. And you've got to explain to people, and a brand new Christian, you know, it's a process, isn't it? I'm not Simon. You've got the wrong person. I'm Peter now. That's what he's talking about.

Be renewed in the spirit of your mind. Realize who you are now. Realize what God has done for you. Realize who you are. If you're a Christian, you are a new man. And the call of the New Testament is, realize who you are, and now live according to who you are.

That's why he says, put on these deeds of the new man. In other words, act like who you are. Start being and practice what God has made you to be on the inside. That's the New Testament way of teaching growth in grace.

Realize who you are. Believe that. Realize it. Enter into it and then start to act consistently with who you are. You know, it matters how you view yourself. If you still think of yourself as that same old rotten person that you were, you know, sin has something to say for itself.

And you've got to try to become something that you're not. Now that's not the Bible way of teaching growth in grace. You don't have to try to become something you're not. All you've got to do is be who you are.

That's what's got to be done. You've got to just become who you really are. If you view yourself as essentially, in the core of your being, both good and evil, again, evil's got something to say for itself.

It really fits you in some ways. No, it doesn't. It doesn't fit you at all if you're a Christian. It goes against who you are and I can prove it. It grieves you. Every time you sin, it grieves who you really are.

If you're a Christian, you're a new man at the very center of your being and that is the ultimate truth about you. Deep down, God has put a new life within you. His very life. Now that's not the only truth about you.

There is a more superficial truth about you that has to do with the fact that your body has not yet been redeemed. We're waiting for the adoption to wit the redemption of our bodies. And until we get that redeemed body, we're still going to have a conflict with sin.

That's not the deepest truth about us. It's not the ultimate truth about us, but it's still one aspect of our lives and the Bible calls that the flesh. That's not who you really are and you don't have to live and walk in the flesh.

That's the message. You're a new person. That's not who you really are anymore. Here's a guy that was an alcoholic all his life. He becomes a Christian. All of a sudden, on the inside, he's a new man.

He doesn't want that anymore. He walks by the bar and that smell of whiskey, his flesh might want to go in there. He doesn't. And you've got to realize, you don't have to walk after the flesh. You can walk in the Spirit and not fulfill the lust of the flesh.

You see? Now, I want to belabor this a little bit. I like an illustration that I read one time. There's a factory here that's all set up and it produces poison gas. It's an instrument of death. And some new management comes in with a lot of money and they buy the place out and they take over and they say, we're not going to produce cyanide anymore.

We're going to produce oxygen. Total switch. Life-giving. And so we've bought this place and we're taking over. So what happens? The old board of directors, they don't move over into a room right beside the main office and sit in there and yell orders back and forth.

They move out. And the new board of directors moves in. You see, that's what we're talking about. You don't have both an old man and a new man. You have Christ in you. You have the life of Christ. The old man's out of there.

And a sign goes up out front and says oxygen factory. Well, is it? Yeah, it is. It's under new management now at the very center of things. Now you go out there and walk around and look at the machinery and say, what's this thing doing here?

What's this old cyanide container doing here? Say, this must not be an oxygen factory. This is a poison gas factory. No, the fact is it's an oxygen factory and all this junk's going to get cleared out.

It's just going to take a little bit of time. You see that? Sin has no chance of living in a Christian. It's not going to make it. And if we can realize, now look at here, I'm a new creation. I don't have to live that way anymore.

And that is doomed. It's going to pass away. There's no hope for it. And I'm not going to walk that path anymore. I'm going to become who I am. That's what we're talking about here. I love the account of Nicky Cruz.

He was a gang member in New York City. Went wild at the sight of blood. He'd go into these gang wars with a garbage can over his head and a baseball bat swinging. And the night he was converted, he went back to his room and he stood in front of the mirror.

He still had his revolver on and he still had his knife. And he looked in the mirror and he said, so Nicky's going to be an angel now. Well, that's the reality. He didn't look like it, but it was just a few days before that gun was gone and that knife was gone.

You see? Here's a brand new Christian driving down the road, breaking the speed limit like crazy, singing and praising and worshiping God. That's much more pleasing to God than the most self-righteous Pharisee holding right to the speed limit.

See that? Don't get carried away over there. What is regeneration? It's a new creation. It's a new man. We've become a new man. Now, the third one we want to look at, it's the giving of a new heart. A new heart.

Regeneration and the Gift of a New Heart

Ezekiel 36. We'll be looking in Ezekiel and in Jeremiah. Ezekiel 36. These glorious promises of the new covenant. Verse 22,. "...Therefore say to the house of Israel, thus says the Lord God, it is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.

And I will vindicate the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord, declares the Lord God, when I prove Myself holy among you in their sight.

For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands, and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.

Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you. And I will remove...". Don't you like all these I wills? I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.

"...And I will put My Spirit within you and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will be careful to observe My ordinances. And you will live in the land that I gave to your forefathers, so you will be My people and I will be your God.

Moreover, I will save you from all your uncleanness.". Now, some of these promises have to do with the return of Israel to the land. But in a deeper sense, they're quoted in the New Testament referring to the New Covenant and what God does in the work of regeneration.

They go way beyond just anything physical and have to do with this miracle of regeneration. What will God do? Well, He says that He will give us a new heart. Now, if you've ever felt what it's like, the burden of that bile innermost being, what a promise this is.

I'll take this heart of stone out of you, this cold, unfeeling thing, and I'm going to put something in you that's alive and sensitive and living. I'll take that out and I'll put My Spirit within you and I'll cause you to walk in My statutes.

These are promises. It's impossible, you see, to keep on going the other way when God puts His Spirit within you and causes you to walk in His statutes. Let's look at another one. Jeremiah 31. And this is the very promise that's quoted in Hebrews 8, you remember.

Verse 31, Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke.

Although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord. I will, here we go again, I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it.

And I will be their God and they shall be My people. And they shall not teach again each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord. For they shall all know Me from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord.

For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more. The promise of the new covenant. Now look, here's justification. I'll forgive their iniquities, their sins I'll remember no more.

We talked about that earlier. Oh well, my sins will be forgiven, He'll remember them no more, the whole category's gone out of God's sight. Now I can just live like the devil. No, you've got to get the whole new covenant, you see.

What's the rest of it? I'll write My laws on their heart. Regeneration. See how they go together? Both those things. If we could just even study the new covenant and realize what's involved, we'll get a lot of what it means to be a Christian because this is what it means.

I'll forgive those sins, I'll write My law on their heart and every single one in the new covenant will have a personal knowledge of God. Well, think of this. He says, I'll write My law on their heart.

I'll put My law within them. In the old covenant, the law was on the outside of the man. It was written on tablets of stone and the law comes to the natural man and it tells him what he ought to do and what he ought to be, but it does not give him the desire nor the ability to be that.

Now God says, I'm going to do something a lot better than that. I'm not going to give you rules and externals. I'm going to put it on the inside. It's what I said a little bit earlier. If you've got to beat people into doing stuff and tongue lash them into doing stuff, it means they're not a new creation.

You're putting the law on them from the outside to try to restrain a rebellious people to get them to do what they ought to be doing and what they would do if they had a new heart. He says, I'll write My law on the inside of you.

The best that external law can do is to give you an external righteousness. And that's what those scribes and Pharisees had. Jesus said, you're like cups all clean. Take this cup that's full of filthy stuff and just clean up the outside really good and set it up there on the shelf.