May 14, 2020 Show with Angus Stewart on “Supernatural & Infallible Regeneration: Most Delightful, Astonishing, Mysterious & Ineffable”

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This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Thursday on this 14th day of May 2020 and a man who has become one of my favorite guests to interview is back on the program today and his name is

Angus Stewart. He is the pastor of the Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of Balamina, Northern Ireland and today we are going to be addressing supernatural and infallible regeneration, most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable and it's my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Pastor Angus Stewart.

A privilege to be back with you and your listeners, Chris. Praise God. Well before we go into the theme at hand, as we normally do when we have a pastor on, even if he's already described his church many times, you never know who is listening, who has never heard you before, because we seem to be getting new listeners on nearly a daily basis that we're aware of added to our audience, so why don't you tell our listeners about Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of Balamina, California, Northern Ireland.

I don't know where California came from, Northern Ireland. Same climate, sunny and warm, that was probably a very natural slip to make.

The Covenant Protestant Reformed Church is in the middle of County Antrim, about 25 minutes drive from our capital city,

Belfast. It's a good congregation, but with the coronavirus, our attendance has plummeted.

These days, there's just two people in church, Chris. There's myself and my wife.

The live webcasting and the other recorded videos, but the congregation are struggling through this lockdown.

We're part of Europe, geographically, and over here there's not as much emphasis on personal liberty and freedom and so forth, and the laws give you a little bit less wriggle room, but we're doing what we can in the congregation.

We've had some baptisms, members joining with us, and we're using the lockdown to catch up on some other things.

We've been developing our website, cprc .co .uk. We now have almost 3 ,000 translations on there.

We've been tidying it up. Today, after over three weeks of struggling with PayPal, we now can order.

People now in the UK can order books. The United Kingdom can order books, boxes of CDs and DVDs through our website and pay for it, and with a few more days, my wife and I will have worked out a good rate for people to order those things from the rest of the world.

Lord willing, we've got a couple of books, of pallets of books coming across from the states.

We've been working on our filing cabinet and the Covenant Reform news, so we're encouraged in the

Lord, and we're probably even working harder with this lockdown than we were before it, but we're making progress,

Chris. Now, I know you're saying that you're on lockdown, but you seemed disappointed that only two people were coming to the public worship.

Now, are you still... Chris, that was humor. Oh, okay, because I do know churches that are continuing to have public worship in spite of other things going on, and of course, here in the

United States, we have, as you know, 50 states, and some of them have somewhat of a more lax attitude about actually mandating a lockdown, and they are just strongly suggesting that people not publicly gather, but that is the minority,

I believe. Well, I am really thrilled that you have all those translations.

Now, is it of all three forms of unity, or is it just one of the three forms of unity that you have all of those translations?

The translations include the early creeds, the Apostles' Creed, Nicene, Chalcedonian, Athanasian creeds, and they include the three forms of unity, the

Heidelberg Atticism, the Belgic Confession, the Counts of Dort, the original Five Points of Calvinism.

So we have those creeds in dozens and scores of languages, including even the three forms of unity.

Obviously, we have a few hundred Apostles' Creeds, but it's harder to get something of a longer document like the

Heidelberg Catechism, and then we have translations in over 200 different languages. We have about 550 in Italian, 480 in Portuguese.

We have a lot of Spanish, Burmese, Indonesian. Interestingly, Indonesia is the number two country on our website, behind the

U .S. Brazil is number three. Wow, you mean as far as people who download the information?

Yes. That's fascinating, because Indonesia has more Muslims per capita than anywhere else in the world.

It does, and there are several factors why we have so many. We have a lot of material on Indonesia, with two great guys in Eastern Java who are translating for us and have done for years.

And then Indonesia has a large population. It has about 300 ,000.

So someone like the U .K. has 60 ,000. So they have five times as many people, but there aren't as many

Christians over there. But then there are fewer resources online in Indonesian compared to English.

And then actually, for some reason, the Apostles' Creed in Indonesian, if someone does a search for it,

I think we're first on the World Wide Web. Wow. And then we say at the bottom of the page, for more in Indonesian, click here.

Although we got our Indonesian translator to put that, for more in Indonesian, in Indonesian, so the

Indonesian people can actually read it, click here. Yeah, that made sense.

Well, this topic is one, in fact, I think every time we have you on the program, the topics we address are one of the most important topics within the

Christian faith, namely regeneration. And if you could, start off our discussion by defining regeneration.

There are churches that may not even use that word. They may just simply say born again or things like that.

But tell us about regeneration. Yes, Chris. Regeneration, let's break it down into words.

Generate and re means again, so we generate again. So God generates us again with a spiritual life.

Born again or born from above refers to this same work with different language, saying that it is like a new spiritual birth.

The other word that's used in our Bibles is begetting, which emphasizes the birthing of us more from the perspective of God, as it were, a male begets and a woman gives birth.

So God plants a new seed of life in us. It's heavenly life.

It's the resurrection life of our Lord Jesus Christ, crucified for our transgressions and risen again for our justification.

He plants this new life in us as a seed. 1 Peter 1 and 1

John 1 verse 3 use that he gave a seed inside us. So in principle, all of our organism or organic life is in us at the very beginning when

God instantaneously grants to us this new spiritual resurrection of Jesus Christ.

So regeneration, the new birth, being born again, all biblical theological ways of speaking of this wonder, which for the benefits of those who wondered about the title, the canons of Dort explain as ineffable.

Something that is difficult to set forth in words. So we're using biblical words and we're making a point.

Something that is infallible. That is, when God wills to regenerate someone, he regenerates us.

It's something most powerful. It's a supernatural, divine, heavenly work.

And I'm just using the language there now and in the title for tonight from the canons of Dort, the original five points of Calvinism, Head 3 -4,

Article 12. Chris, I think this is worth quoting for your listeners. They're bound to like this.

This is the regeneration so highly celebrated in scripture and denominated or called a new creation, a resurrection from the dead, a making alive, which

God works in us without our aid. And then it goes on to say that this isn't merely a moral suasion.

It's not just some effect only of the preaching or God does his bit, but it remains in the power of man, whether he's regenerated or not converted or not.

But to quote precisely and by word, it that is regeneration is evidently a supernatural work, most powerful, and at the same time, most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable, not inferior in efficacy to creation or the resurrection from the dead, as the

Holy Scripture inspired by the author of this work declares. That last point is significant because the canons of Dort are saying, and this is biblical too, that the power and might of God that goes into regenerating one totally depraved dead sinner is not inferior or less than the power which

God used in creating the world in the very beginning in Genesis 1 or in raising one person from the dead, like Lazarus, or indeed the entire human race on the last day from the dead.

That's a mighty, supernatural, amazing work, and this work is something which

God works in the heart of each and every true child of his, and without which there is no such thing as a

Christian. This is crucial. This is the very beginning of the application to us of our salvation which we have in Jesus Christ, the

Lord, who died for our sins, and all this is in accordance with our eternal election in Christ in his great love and unspeakable mercy before the foundation of the world.

Now, so what you're saying is that the biblical understanding of regeneration, or should

I say that in the biblical understanding of regeneration, and the historically Protestant Reformational understanding, especially the

Reformed understanding, is that man is completely passive in his own regeneration, and therefore this is 100 % the work of God in these individuals, those of us who are born again, and here is where the confusion lies, with a lot of people especially who don't believe in our understanding of the ordo salutis, the order of salvation,

I would say that although Reformed theology is on the rise,

I still believe we are a minority within Christendom today, so therefore

I believe from what I've heard and read and been in Christian media for so many years, is that people believe that once they exercise faith somehow from a soul that is sinful and selfish and wicked, they somehow summon up this faith, and of course you have

Arminians and Roman Catholics having an unbiblical answer on how that is accomplished through provenient grace, they call it, which is nowhere in the

Bible, but however it's accomplished, whenever the human summons up this faith, it therefore subsequently pleases

God and he regenerates them and they are born again. They have the reverse order that we do.

Yes they do, and this error is already refuted even by the very language which the

Holy Spirit chose to describe this wonder. It's called being born again or regenerated.

Now with regard to one's own physical birth, I did not choose to be born on the 8th of October, Chris are you writing that down?

8th of October, just a few good books, I'm not going to get into trouble,

I did not choose to be born, I didn't choose my birthday, I'm not angry or upset about it or anything,

I'm not cursing the day of my birth like poor Job did in his terrible trials, but being born, a person is born, but it's something that happens to them, and the new birth is just as much something that happens to us.

Billy Graham wrote a famous book with the infamous title, How to be

Born Again. Now you can write a book, How to be an Expert Carpenter, or How to Paint Your House, but you can't write a sensible book,

How to be Born Again. You may as well write a book, How to be Born, and give that to all the unborn infants around the world.

Besides the word itself though, I want to look at some scriptures to show that being born again comes before faith, that being born again causes faith, that regeneration is the implanting of life, and then faith is the manifestation of that life.

You could say it's like the birthing process again. Someone is born, and after they're born, they start breathing.

Well, spiritually, someone is born, and then they start breathing, and that breathing is faith and prayer.

But you don't have faith before regeneration any more than you have a baby breathing before it's born.

Let's start with a scripture. I think everybody would agree that the prologue in John 1 would be a key scripture.

The first 18 verses of the gospel according to John. Here's John 1 verse 13.

It says here, They, that is Christians, were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.

John there is being emphatic. He says they were born, this new birth, is not of three things.

That's antithetical, polemical, that's sharp. It's not of blood. It's not a matter of a physical birth or your physical descent.

You're not born by the will of the flesh. Your own will, your own decision, your own believing, and believing involves the will.

Nor of the will of man, and there the word man is male, so your father, your physical father, or even a preacher.

You're not born, born again, of one blood, two the will of the flesh, three the will of man, but four, positively, we are born of God.

And in the next verse, the verse that people believe and understand, The word was made flesh and dwelt among us.

The very verse before that great statement about the incarnation says, Three times, so that he who runs may read it, that man is not born of blood, spiritual birth, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man.

But Arminianism is stone deaf. It's tragic. And then if you go from John 1 to John 3, that famous discussion between Jesus and Nicodemus.

Jesus said to Nicodemus, he used a physical analogy of something in the physical world, he says,

The wind blows where it listeth, or wishes, or wants. I can't determine what way the wind blows.

I was out jogging today, and when I went out, it seemed as if the wind was blowing into me. And then it turned around, it's an in and out track, and then the wind seemed to be blowing it to be a game.

But I can't have any effect on the wind. It's probably psychological, the wind is swirling around, I must have got mistaken.

But the wind blows where it wills. You hear the sound thereof, but can't not tell where it's coming or where it's going.

And then Jesus twists it, Jesus then hits the issue, he says,

So is everyone, everyone that is born of the Spirit. The Spirit is the wind, the sovereign wind, who blows wherever he wills, as when he pleases, from this one and not that one.

And then somehow or other, Arminianism, R .E. Torrey, Charles Finney, D .L.

Moody, John Wesley, say that after all, it's the free will of man.

And if you know anybody, Chris, who can change the direction of the wind with his free will, if you can show me a person like that, then

I'm prepared to become an Arminian, just to speak. Well, tragically,

I've heard... Another good text, and James, Chris, if you and your readers would like to hear this one. Yes, I just wanted to say, tragically,

I've heard people claim that ability, I'm not saying I agree or believe that they're telling the truth, but some of these

Word of Faith Pentecostal heretics will claim they can change the direction of the wind, but anyway.

You know, that's an interesting point, because logically, and thankfully, not everybody in there, many in camp, does this, but logically, if you believe that you can make yourself born, be born again, by your own will, logically, you're confessing to have the same power to change the direction of the wind or to speed it up.

And to go back to the biblical imagery regarding the resurrection from the dead, since regeneration is a spiritual resurrection from the dead, anybody who claims that they were born again by their own will, if they really understand what they're saying, this is what they're saying, that they are able and have power not any whit less than the power of almighty

God who raised Lazarus from the dead and will raise the entire human race from the dead, and that they have the same power, if you can regenerate yourself by your own free will, they're saying they have the same power to create the world out of nothing by their own will, like God in Genesis 1.

And it is interesting that the word of faith people came out of, and every last one of them, as far as I'm aware, is a professing

Arminian, or open -faced, or even worse. And it is interesting where that, I'm not saying every

Arminian has got there, but logically that's where it entails, and some people have, as you pointed out, made that full, complete journey.

Can we go to James 1 then? Yes. Here's James. Most people think

James isn't very theological, but there's a lot of deep theology in James. James 1 verse 18.

James 1 verse 18 mentions regeneration. And now listen for the very first thing that James says about regeneration.

Quote, Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.

Of his own will. That's God's will. God of his own will, that's first in the

English and it's first in the Greek, God of his own will begot he us, begot, that's regeneration, the new birth, he begot us with the word of truth.

So who's active? God. God begot us. Who's passive? Us. This new birth that God achieves when he gives birth to us is said to be of his will, of his own will.

And then if you look at the context, this is even more revealing. Verse 16. Two verses before says, Do not err, my beloved brethren.

Skip a verse. Verse 18. Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth.

And there you are. Sadly, some people are erring, they're not searching the scriptures, they're not humbling themselves before God and reading what the word of God actually teaches.

Do not err, my beloved brethren. Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth. And the verse in between doesn't weaken my case, it builds it up.

Do not err, my beloved brethren. James 1 .16. Verse 17 says, Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

And it comes down from the Father of light, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.

So don't err. Every good and perfect gift comes from God. And then what's the first good and perfect gift that's mentioned?

Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth. And that is the first act of God in applying his salvation to us.

It is this. Without that good gift of God, regeneration, all the other gifts are for our condemnation.

Don't err. Every good gift, every perfect gift is from above, not from the will of man.

It comes down from the Father of light. There's no variableness of God, no shadow of turning.

That is, his will is always one, constant. He always does whatever he wants. He can't be resisted.

None can stay his hand. None can say unto him what doest thou. Of his own will begot he us with the word of truth.

So therefore, our description that you took from the three forms of unity, supernatural and infallible regeneration, that is proven in everything that you've been saying.

Because if it's from God and God alone, there's not going to be any halfway regeneration that fails, or there's not going to be any regeneration that a dead sinner can resist.

You could always declare, or God, I should say, could always declare, after he regenerates a sinner, mission accomplished.

Chris, that's superbly put. And you are of the same spirit and mind of the authors of the calendar door.

I didn't quote that whole article. I'm going to quote it now. And you'll see that they are saying, in the bit that I omitted, but I'm going to come to now, exactly what you just said.

Regeneration is not inferior to creation. Inefficacy to creation is the resurrection from the dead, as the scripture says.

That's the bit I said earlier. Now this, so that all in whose heart God works in this marvelous manner are certainly, infallibly, and effectually regenerated, and do actually believe.

Whereupon the will thus renewed is not only actuated and influenced by God, but in consequence of this influence becomes itself active.

Wherefore also man is himself rightly said to believe and repent by virtue of the grace received.

That is, God infallibly regenerates it. God changes the heart, and then with the heart being changed in faith, we believe with the heart, faith comes out of the heart, then we believe and repent by virtue of the grace.

God gives a new heart, therefore we believe. He changes us, therefore we respond to his grace powerfully.

And actually, the following verses in James 1 go on and talk amazingly about what regeneration means in the life of the child of God.

1 John, the whole epistle, does that. 1 Peter 1 and 1 Peter 2 does.

This is a very, very rich subject. Chris, here's another point. We said that the new birth means it's all of God.

Resurrection and the new creation means it's God. Another phrase that the Bible uses for regeneration is

God giving us a new heart, a heart of flesh. That's Ezekiel 6 and Ezekiel 11.

If someone believes that they can give themselves a new heart by their own free will, that would be even more crazy than a man who has no skill like myself claiming to be a heart transplant surgeon and operating on myself and exchanging the physical heart that I currently have for another heart.

Or here's another reference to regeneration, the circumcision of the heart.

There was the Old Testament. There was physical circumcision of the male sexual member. The New Testament reality is circumcision of the heart.

And that is performed as Colossians 2 says, not with man's hands but by the

Holy Spirit. Or the New Covenant deals with regeneration because it's

God's writing his law upon the heart. That is, putting love in the heart, which 1 Peter 1, 22 and 23 and 1

John explains comes out of regeneration, writing God's law upon their heart, putting love on their heart, and only

God can do that. He sheds the love of God abroad in our heart by the Holy Spirit, as Romans 5 verse 5 says.

Here's another one, the seed. We want to overwhelm our listeners,

Chris, with solid biblical arguments so that they go home if they're out, or they listen to their car, or they listen on their computer with a good spiritual meal.

We're not going to give them old thin gruel here or soup with no body. There's a seed.

God puts a spiritual seed in the heart. Man can't do that.

It's the wonder of grace. Salvation, as Jonah said, from the whale or great fish's belly is of the

Lord from top to bottom 100%. That's the only way people who are sinful like us can ever be saved.

And that's why we praise and worship God for his glorious act of delivering us in Christ.

Amen. And now we have to go to our first break. If anybody wants to join us, our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com

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Chris Arnzen. If you just tuned us in, our guest today for the full two hours, with a little less than 90 minutes to go, is

Angus Stewart, pastor of Covenant Protestant Reformed Church of Ballymena, Northern Ireland.

And we are addressing supernatural and infallible regeneration, most delightful, astonishing, mysterious, and ineffable.

And if you have questions, our email address is chrisarnzen at gmail .com chrisarnzen at gmail .com

And please give us your first name at least, your city and state of residence, and your country of residence if you live outside the

USA. Only remain anonymous if your question involves a personal and private matter.

And we do have some questions here. We have Aaron in Indianapolis, Indiana.

While every regeneration is truly a miracle, I wonder if Pastor Stewart might tell of particular supernatural accounts of the

Lord's regeneration, of which he is aware, perhaps during awakening or revivals there on the

Emerald Isle or in the UK, for the sake of glorifying God. Thank you, gentlemen.

That's an interesting question because everybody who gets saved is saved in this way. But perhaps there's more unusual circumstances that might clearly reveal that this salvation or this salvific work was entirely of God.

Do you have an answer for our listener? A good question from the brother in Indiana.

No, no, a sister, Aaron, E -R -I -N. Oh, E -R -I -N. Oh, that actually means

Ireland. Wow. That's the name, Aaron, E -R -I -N. So maybe that's why she asked, although maybe,

I don't know, if she knows what her name means. Aaron from Indiana. One could start with the

Ireland perspective with St. Patrick, a hero of mine. His Confession is a wonderful book, the earliest extant writing in Irish literature.

He was a little bit after Augustine, so he's writing in the 5th century. He was a British Christian, that is, on the island of Britain, probably somewhere in the west of Britain, captured by pirates.

His father and his grandfather were church office bearers, an elder and a deacon. But he was an unbeliever, and he was taken by Irish pirates over to the island of Ireland and sold, worked as a shepherd boy.

And it was there that God revealed himself to him. So he was born again as a slave, a sort of prodigal son, whom

God severely disciplined through that experience. He escaped from captivity, came to Britain, possibly

France, trained there and went back as a missionary to preach to the people on the island of Ireland, whom he dearly loved.

And he writes, like the apostle Paul, about how the

Word of God worked in him mightily and how he would pray in all sorts of difficult circumstances, bringing the scriptures to pagans almost martyred.

That's a good example of a sovereign work of God regenerating a child of the church who went astray and then working in him mightily.

Because it's the same grace that regenerates, that seed shows itself in powerful ways in later life.

As a second example, and I say this because I know more about my own personal experience than others, to me, regeneration was a great wonder.

And this is one of the reasons why I chose this for tonight's topic, because I was born again from an ungodly lifestyle, and it amazed my school friends in high school.

And their point was, but surely you couldn't become a Christian. You couldn't become a Christian. But the point about regeneration is the wind blows where it wills, and God regenerates schoolboys according to his choice.

And if a person is particularly wicked or stubborn or foolish or, as we would say, acts the guide, it doesn't make any difference.

Because the regeneration of all people are, according to the omnipotent God, all alike easy to him, because none can stay at hand or say unto him, what doest thou?

And after I was regenerated, then you've got a hunger for the word. 1 Peter 2 talks about this, as newborn babes, that is those who are already regenerated, desire the sincere milk of the word that you may grow thereby.

And I remember in my early days as a Christian, coming across 2 Corinthians 5 verse 17, which says that if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature.

And I thought, that's my Bible verse. That describes me. Because among my friends and family there were unbelievers, ungodly people, and some who mocked.

And then there were some who believed in salvation by works. That's the

Protestant version of the old Roman Catholic heresy. Salvation by works, you go to heaven by being a good person.

Although if that's the case, why did Jesus die on the cross? And why do you need regeneration? And I was getting this sort of barrage.

And 2 Corinthians 5 verse 7, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature, a new creation.

Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new.

And I said, there it is. That's me. That's the wonder of regeneration. And among the many truths in the

Bible that are precious, this one of regeneration is one that always has meant a lot to me.

So in my very early days in the ministry, one of my first sermons was on John 3.

On the new birth. That famous scene with Jesus and Nicodemus.

Because I wanted to preach about that. And actually we have on our website, on our home page, cprc .co

.uk. Mary built a regeneration resources page. It's linked to the home page.

You can see it near the top right, cprc .co .uk. And the sermons on John 3 are on there.

They deal with the necessity of the new birth. Even Nicodemus, who was a

Jew, who was a Pharisee, who was a ruler of the Jews, a member of the Sanhedrin. In the top 70 religious leaders,

Jesus told him, you must be born again. The necessity of the new birth. The agency of the new birth.

Born of water and the Spirit. The Spirit's the agent of the new birth.

Not the free will of man. Nor water baptism. Not decisional regeneration or baptismal regeneration.

Then verse 8, the sovereignty of the new birth. We spoke about that earlier. The wind blows wherever it lifts us. And then the revelation of the new birth.

Jesus told Nicodemus about that. How come you're a master or a teacher in Israel and you don't know these things?

They're there in the Old Testament. I can say more about that too. And then later on, and more recently,

I preached on James 1. Including the second half of James 1 on regeneration. Brought me back to one of my favorite subjects.

And that brings out even more riches on that subject. So the

Lady Erin of Indiana, that's been quite expansive. I hope she finds all of that helpful and interesting.

Well, she says, thank you, Pastor. Yes, I am aware of the beautiful meaning of my name.

I'm not worthy, she says. Erin, you'll have to come over to Ireland and come back to your name's home.

Mary and I have two spare bedrooms. And as long as you're house trained and so forth.

We'd love to meet you and have you over with us. Once the coronavirus is gone, and if you can get your husband, or I don't know what age you are, if you're married, to come over, whatever, you'd be very welcome.

CPRC .co .uk, look us up. Bear that in mind. And even if it's a few years down the line and we're still living, you've got free accommodation.

The flight will be expensive. Possibly more once this coronavirus thing cuts in. And if they take out the

Middle Isles seat, the prices will be even higher. But you've got free accommodation. There you are. Haven't you stolen enough

American citizens from this end of the pond here? I'm speaking of your wife was somebody that you stole from our country, isn't she?

That's right. That's right. A number of the young men, although not all of us are so young now, have married fine

Christian ladies from America. And some of us have talked about America as being like Paddan Aram in the book of Genesis.

Just as Abraham and Isaac got wives for their sons from Paddan Aram, there are a few members of our church who have gone to Mesopotamia and come back with fine, godly, wonderful, wonderful women.

Well, I also have a question that I will ask you, and I will have you answer it when we return.

And I may get myself into trouble with my own fellow Calvinists if I don't word this very carefully and properly.

But I obviously agree with you and the Reformed faith historically that regeneration is a monergistic act.

It is an act of God alone. At the same time, does not

God in his sovereignty use means to bring about this miracle?

For instance, in the famous parable in Matthew 13, the parable of the soils, or as most people probably call the parable of the seeds and the sower, or the sower and the seeds, you have planting and watering going on, and then

God alone gives the increase, which I would view as regeneration.

We can't be too disappointed and we can't get involved in self -loathing when we tirelessly evangelize, and especially this would go for a missionary who might have given up everything where he lives and gone to a foreign world and may be laboring there for years amongst the people and either see one or two conversions or maybe none for years because we shouldn't be too hard on ourselves because we have to remember it is

God that gives the increase. But if you could answer that when we return, we're going to our midway break, our longer than normal break right now, and please be patient with us.

Those of you who listen to the show regularly will know that you know that the middle break is longer because Grace Life Radio, 90 .1

FM in Lake City, Florida, uses this portion of the program to air their own public service announcements and other things that localize this program to Lake City, Florida.

While they do that, we air our globally heard commercials. So please use this time wisely.

Write down information provided by our advertisers so that you can keep them happy by patronizing them and maintaining their support thereby for this program so that we will remain on the air.

And also write down questions for Pastor Angus Stewart on regeneration.

And our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com. chrisarnson at gmail .com.

Don't go away. We will be right back after these messages from our sponsors. James White of Alpha and Omega Ministries and the

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O hail the power of Jesus' name.

This is Pastor Bill Sousa, Grace Church at Franklin, here in the beautiful state of Tennessee.

Our congregation is one of a growing number of churches who love and support

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This is Pastor Bill Sousa wishing you all the richest blessings of our

Sovereign Lord, God, Savior, and King Jesus Christ today and always.

Chris Sorensen, host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio here. I want to tell you about a man I have personally known for many years.

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He wrote the test for the National Board of Trial Advocacy, and currently his firm has over 100 cases that have settled for $1 million or more and in approximately 10 different states.

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Dan Bonifuco's number is 1 -800 -669 -4878. 1 -800 -669 -4878.

Or email me for Dan's contact information at chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

That's chrisarnson at gmail dot com. As host of Iron Trumpets Iron Radio, I frequently get requests from listeners for church recommendations.

A church I've been strongly recommending as far back as the 1980s is Grace Covenant Baptist Church in Flemington, New Jersey, pastored by Alan Dunn.

Grace Covenant Baptist Church believes it's God's prayer to determine how He shall be worshiped and how

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Tell Pastor Dunn that you heard about Grace Covenant Baptist Church on Iron Sharpens Iron Radio.

Hi, this is John Sampson, pastor of King's Church in Peoria, Arizona. Taking a moment of your day to talk about Chris Arnson and the

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The coronavirus pandemic has rapidly changed our way of life, bringing so many uncertainties.

When will it end? Why do disasters like this happen? How do we deal with anxiety, fear, and the like?

Well, join us each Friday on the program Iron Sharpens Iron with your host Chris Arnzen and Pastor Joe Jacowitz as they explore

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This is Andrew Rappaport with Striving for Eternity Ministries. Are you cooped up at home? Are you just desiring to use your time wisely?

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Get all the details at strivingforeternity .org and there you can go to the online events to register before May 30th.

And we'll see you there online in your home. Charles Haddon Spurgeon once said,

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I believe then I would be more than happy to help you launch an ad campaign immediately because we surely do need your advertising dollars as well and last but not least folks if you are not a member of a local

Bible believing church you're having a hard time finding one near you I may be able to help because I have lists of biblically faithful churches all over the planet earth and I have helped many people in our audience find churches near them that they didn't know existed prior to contacting me and they have either joined those churches or they have visited them on vacation or they have referred them to family friends and loved ones who do not know of a church near them so please send me an email to chrisarnsen at gmail .com

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I'm sorry for the delay in getting back to you but I intend to do that tonight or tomorrow

God willing so please be patient I'm sorry for the delay once again and send us an email with your questions for Pastor Angus Stewart on regeneration and that email address again is chrisarnsen at gmail .com

chrisarnsen at gmail .com and give us your first name city and state and country of residence if you live outside the

USA and by the way before I have you answer my question I just wanted to let you know that Aaron from Indianapolis, Indiana says

Pastor I will take you up on that offer for sure I am house trained and it will be just me alone so just wanted to let you know that you're going to have

Aaron showing up on your doorstep at some point in the future maybe unannounced that sounds wonderful it sounds like Aaron will be a lot of fun we look forward to that yeah

I think that she will be she has communicated with me in this program many times and she does have a good sense of humor so as I said before the break although I am a monergist

I believe that God does not require or even involve the cooperation of men to save sinners he uses means however and would

I be correct in saying as even the parable of the soils sometimes called the parable of the sower and the seeds or the seeds and the sower and it seems to be depicting there that regeneration comes about when men are planting and watering seeds through evangelism and the preaching of the gospel etc so if you could if you could answer that Chris your orthodoxy is unimpeachable and even though you use the word though I believe in monergism but God uses means that's no compromise of monergism the truth that God works salvation by 100 % one of the verses we cited earlier even makes your point

I'll come to Matthew 13 if I will later James 1 verse 18 of his own will begat he us there's monergism entirely of God's sovereign will the wind blowing wherever it wills as John 3 says of his own will begat he us with the word of truth and that's the means

God regenerates us by means of the word of truth and then the next verse goes on to talk about hearing the means is the word especially as it's preached hopefully we'll get back to that and then there are other passages including 1

Corinthians 4 verse 15 1 Corinthians 10 interestingly

Paul mentioning the role of the word in regeneration so God uses the word in regenerating people and sovereignly and this is where a really important and often omitted point ought to be made the key here is 1

Peter 1 verse 23 1 Peter 1 verse 23 it says there being born again regeneration, the new birth being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible by the word of God which liveth and abideth forever here there are two senses or aspects of regeneration there is first being born again of the

Greek preposition is ek of, out of we're born again not out of a corruptible seed but out of an incorruptible seed so here's the first logical step in regeneration the first of the two senses

God implants a seed in us and regeneration is out of that seed he implants and the second preposition is by we're born again 1 out of an incorruptible seed that's inside us that seed's implanted and then 2 by the word of God which we hear preaching so it's like this, the world of horticulture, what you do is you take a seed for certain types of vegetation and I usually see it in the pictures with the little thumb, you put the thumb you use the thumb to put the seed into the ground and then the rain and of course sunshine comes and the seed germinates and grows, well what

God does in regeneration is number 1 he plants the incorruptible seed in us out of which we're born again and 2 the second sense is he uses the word of God to bring the life implanted in us to manifestation so James 1 verse 18 refers to the second sense of regeneration we're born, it says there of his own will begat he us with the word of truth so what happened was

God sovereignly implanted the word implanted the seed in us, stage 1 which

James 1 doesn't mention but 1 Peter 1 does and then James 2 mentions the word of truth that comes by the power of God and germinates the seed so it's all sovereign, regeneration is all sovereignly the first stage is immediate that is without the means of the word

God plants the seed in us the second stage or aspect is where the word of God itself comes and then brings the life to manifestation this brings me back to Matthew 13 the parable of the sower of the soils and if we wanted to fit that in with the 2 senses of regeneration or aspects to it there's the sower, he sows the seed that's the second stage and then the soil,

God makes good soil, that's as it were a regeneration his preparing the heart of Putin and then the word comes that's signified by the seed in that, did

I make that clear enough? Oh yes, you made it perfectly clear and it's also key that you said he makes the soil fertile for the increase that he brings because according to Romans 9 we are all both the reprobate and the elect created from the same soil originally same lump of clay you couldn't even grow reeds from the sort of soil we are we're corrupt and we're the children of wrath even as others

I have one more question that may get me in trouble with many of my listeners that's an ominous way to start a sentence

I'm sorry? that's an ominous way to start a sentence but please well, anybody who knows me and who has listened to this program knows that I absolutely love the late

R .C. Sproul he has been one of the greatest influences on my life and my sanctification and understanding of theology

I consider him a great hero of the faith I prize as one of my most valued possessions the commendation that he wrote for this program after being interviewed on it and I could not stop raving and singing praises for the late

R .C. Sproul but I was watching YouTube fairly recently and there was a panel discussion that R .C.

was having during a Ligonier conference and on that panel were

Dr. Al Mohler and Ravi Zacharias the only Armenian amongst the three and somebody in the audience they were answering questions from the audience and somebody asked or either the audience asked or the moderator asked

I can't remember which but the question was asked what is your opinion of the

Seeker sensitive movement and R .C. began responding in ways during which

I agreed with everything he was saying up to a point he was talking about how he was very dismayed over the

Seeker sensitive movement so called he was talking about how unbiblical it is and dangerous and basically said oh it's no good so he was right on the money but then he started rightly quoting from Romans chapter 3 where we read none is righteous no not one no one understands no one seeks for God all have turned aside together they have become worthless no one does good not even one their throat is an open grave they use their tongues to deceive the venom of asps is under their lips their mouth is full of curses and bitterness their feet are swift to shed blood in their paths are ruin and misery and the way of peace they have not known there is no fear of God before their eyes so therefore he said and this is where I disagreed with him he said no one seeks after God unless they are already born again he said men seek after religion and facets of religion and things that are embodied in religion that are pleasing to them while discarding other things but they are not truly seeking

Christ they're not truly in humility and repentance and so on seeking

Christ alright this is where I disagree I believe and you could either agree with R .C.

or agree with me on this obviously I believe that the unregenerate would never seek after God left to their own depraved hearts and minds but I believe

God also softens men's hearts and they do begin to seek before their regenerate because if you have only born again people seeking after Christ you have regenerate people who do not yet believe in Christ who are seeking for him if you follow what

I'm saying I don't know if R .C. Sproul had the time to rethink that because it was kind of an on the spot way of answering it but I can say that and I hope

I don't offend you in this either but other than infant baptism it's the only time I can recall disagreeing with Brother Sproul on anything that I can remember but if you could comment on what

I just said Chris there was quite a lot there I'm not sure

I grasped at all you expand appealing no doubt in other words do men who are unregenerate ever seek for God and I'm not saying that they do that in their own depraved hearts and minds unaided

I believe like for instance God even softened Pharaoh's heart to release the

Israelites the Hebrew slaves but yet Pharaoh was still as lost as he ever was before I believe that the drawing process involves lost people having their hearts softened before they are actually in a full blown state of being regenerate and that's because as I said if you have only born again people seeking after Christ you have people who are regenerate who do not yet know

Christ because they're still seeking if you follow what I'm saying sort of with regard to Pharaoh God hardened

Pharaoh's heart Pharaoh hardened his own heart and then God hardened his heart so he even went into the

Red Sea and was drowned I think you're going to agree with me when Pharaoh released the children of Israel it was it was because he was sick of the sight of them and he realized that he couldn't hang on to them any longer that useful as they were as slaves this was more hassle than what it was worth it's still described as the softening of his heart by God sorry it's still described as the softening of his heart by God that resulted in that I'm not aware of any scriptures that talk about the softening of his heart but it was good for Israel that they got out anyway the idea of someone seeking

God there is none that seeketh after God when we go back to what R .C. Sproul said about someone may seek deliverance from hell or they may seek help to get rid of their drunkenness or they may realize their life is empty

I find myself agreeing with him there I can remember days before I was converted and I believed that the

Bible was true and that I was a wicked person who deserved punishment and someone could say

I was a seeker presumably some Christians might have said I was a seeker but all that time

I was there was only once when I sought God when

I really meant it all the other time maybe I'm going to die tonight in my sleep and then there was one time when

I was seeking God, only God only the forgiveness of sins and not just a better life or a way out of my current misery or to avoid hell and whenever I really wanted to trust, then

I believed the gospel and it all appeared very simple, God will use the heart now with regard to the psychological stages that someone goes through before faith that is more complicated,

I'm not sure that I understand all the questions Chris on what we're saying and what we're not saying well like for instance if you go back to my my main reason for rejecting the idea that you must be born again to first seek after God is that therefore you would subsequently have regenerate people who are not yet Christians, you would have regenerate people seeking for Christ and seeking for Christ means they haven't found

Him yet and I'm saying and I have to reiterate that I don't believe a totally depraved man or woman or child unaided by the

Spirit will ever seek after Christ, but I believe the drawing process involves

God softening hearts and prodding them and providence placing people in the right place at the right time where the gospel is being preached and things like that like for instance when a man before he's regenerate says to himself

I've got to find out what all the fuss is about about this preacher that my family, my

Christian family members are telling me about and there's something going on there before the person is regenerate that's really all

I'm saying and going back to if you believe you have to be born again to even seek in that full state of regeneration before you even seek then you have somebody who's seeking who is regenerate and not yet a

Christian it doesn't seem to make sense to me ok Chris, some of this material is we're in and around the area of preparationism and which

I personally don't actually believe in but then we have to define what we mean by it and then as to seeking what exactly do we mean by seeking like the bible says those who seek find so if you get some guy and he seems to be doing this that and the other and he seems to be seeking but he doesn't actually find it wasn't a sincere true seeking after God there's a key bit in the canons of dork heads 3 -4 rejection of errors number 4 it says we reject the errors of those who teach that the unregenerate man and I'm not saying this is what you're teaching either

Chris I want to be clear I'm just saying here's something clear that we can all agree on the error of those who teach that the unregenerate man is not really nor utterly dead in sin nor destitute of all powers unto spiritual good but that he can yet hunger and thirst after righteousness and life and offer the sacrifice of a contrite and broken spirit which is pleasing to God and then comes the rejection these are contrary to the express testimony of scripture ye were dead through trespasses and sin

Ephesians 2 verses 1 -5 and every imagination of the thoughts of man's heart was only evil continually

Genesis 6 verse 5, 8 verse 21 moreover to hunger and thirst after deliverance from misery and after life and to offer unto

God the sacrifice of a broken spirit is peculiar to the regenerate and those who are called blessed verses according to Psalm 51 and Matthew 5

Chris I'm not sure I'm going to be able to shed much more light on the matter on this one and I have a lot of really nice stuff

I'd like to get into on regeneration could we divert the path a little with my apologies that I didn't shed more light on that of course before you go on to anything else let's go to a listener question especially since she's a first time questioner we have

Sharon and I don't know if it's Wanakee or Wanakue New Jersey W -A -N -A -Q -U -E but she says

Reverend Stuart is there a proper analogy between the seed of regeneration of our souls and the seed of resurrection of our bodies that Paul talks about in 1

Corinthians chapter 15 verse 42 so both our souls and bodies are made new so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption that's an interesting question from Sean from New Jersey I'm sidestepping the time there

Chris 1 Corinthians 15 verse 42 says so also is the resurrection of the dead it is sown in corruption it is raised in incorruption there

Paul is explaining what happens at a burial and what happens on the last day and this is something for those who are who have been at funerals especially with loved ones and people really close to them what happened at the funeral my husband my wife my father my mother my children we put the body in the grave and it was like a sowing a seed that one day will bring forth a crop and that's how the

Christian thinks about a burial so that's an analogy to help us understand the faith perspective on burials the seed imagery in regeneration is a reference ultimately to the

Holy Spirit the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ he is put in us the indwelling spirit the indwelling

Christ the indwelling of the Triune God through Christ by the Holy Spirit as a seed that is spiritual life which life then blossoms comes to manifestation through the word in faith hope and love in putting off sin in walking in righteousness so the word seed is used in the two different instances regeneration and ultimately the resurrection but in one the idea is the implanting of a new life in someone and the other one has to do with the physical body and it's an image to understand the burial and the glory that God is going to work on on the last day great well thank you

Sharon and you have won by virtue of being a first time listener a free

New American Standard Bible thank you for your great questions and make sure you give us your full mailing address in Wanakee or Wanakee New Jersey now if you would like to, no in fact we're going to go to our final break it's going to be brief and I already see this being part two if you're willing to come back in June when we have our earliest availabilities but I already see us going into a part two on this in fact

I'm certain of it if you are if you are interested I'm in great we're going to our final break and our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com

chrisarnson at gmail .com if you have a question for Angus Stewart on regeneration chrisarnson at gmail .com

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and make a long list of books published by Solid Ground Christian Books. Then you can order them at cvbbs .com

because cvbbs .com carries all of Solid Ground Christian Books' titles. And if they don't happen to have what you want in stock, they will order it.

That way you keep both of our advertisers happy. We are now back with our guest today, who always proves to be quite fascinating and very discerning and wise and biblically literate.

And his name is Angus Stewart. And we have been discussing supernatural and infallible regeneration.

And we do have a listener from Northern Ireland as well. And correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks like it's pronounced

Antrim, Northern Ireland. Antrim, yes. Sam says, since regeneration produces faith in us, is faith our responsibility or the

Holy Spirit's? Oh, okay, so the key word there is responsibility.

Is faith our responsibility or the Holy Spirit's? The Holy Spirit is the one who gives faith.

For by grace are ye saved through faith, and that that is salvation, the grace, the faith, not of yourselves.

It's the gift of God, lest any man should boast. Ephesians 2. So the Holy Spirit gives us faith.

He is responsible for giving us, to us, if we want to use that word. The believer is responsible, and even the unbeliever, is responsible to believe.

That is, God commands unbeliever and believer. Here is the truth. Believe everything

I say in my word. Centrally, this is the key Protestant point about faith. Centrally, faith is directed to the promises of God in Jesus Christ and his salvation.

So the command to believer and unbeliever is believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved and thy house.

So man is responsible to do or to believe, whether it's a command of God or whether it's a gospel proclamation, exactly what

God tells him to do or believe. So the Holy Spirit is responsible as the giver of faith, but we are responsible, probably a slightly better word, accountable or commanded, and we ought to believe.

So that would be my answer to that one. We have Susan Margaret in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, who says,

There are some who reject the Reformed faith who build a caricature of it, and when they reject our understanding of the order of salvation or the order of salutis, they say that in our understanding, since we believe as Calvinists regeneration precedes faith, that there is some period of time between regeneration and faith that takes place, so therefore you have regenerate people walking around with no faith until at some point they receive it.

It could be days, it could be weeks, months, or even years and decades.

Is this not a falsehood or a caricature? Does not faith immediately flow from the regenerate heart?

Yes. Regeneration is the giving of life, and when someone is given spiritual life, they have spiritual life, and they reveal that, they believe.

We're born again unto a lively hope. So those who are born again, hope.

We're born again, that's 1 Peter 1 verse 3, we're born again unto love. Later on in that same chapter, we're born again unto faith.

So regeneration shows itself in faith, hope, and love. There is no gap there.

I mean, if you're going to talk about unborn infants, John the Baptist, he was regenerated in his mother's womb.

He even leapt for joy in the presence of Christ. That's right. So there is a manifestation of regeneration in an unborn infant.

So yeah, you can't have life without showing it. That's basically what it boils down to in layman's terms.

We do not believe in regenerate people living like the devil. In fact, 1 John chapter 3 even says that he who is born of God doesn't commit sin, for his seed remains in him, and he cannot sin because he's born of God.

That refers to someone who cannot live in sin, impenitently cannot live in sin as the main course and drift of his life.

And from the perspective of the believer with regard to his new nature, the new nature cannot sin.

The believer can sin, and he does sin. He sins according to the flesh. The flesh and the spirit are always battling, fighting against one another, as Galatians 5 and Romans 7 especially teach.

And of course, regeneration is the truth which underlies that struggle. Because we have the new birth, we have a new nature, and hence flows the battle between the flesh and the spirit, the old man and the new man in Christ Jesus.

To go back to another point from the questioner about the caricature of the

Reformed faith, the only way in which the Reformed faith can be beaten in an argument is by caricature.

Because the Reformed faith is the truth. It's a faithful summary of what the

Bible itself actually says. And it was B .B. Werfel who put that so clearly.

The Reformed faith is nothing else but the pure summary and systemization of the lively oracles of God.

Amen. And it may confuse those who oppose the

Reformed faith. When we give an order, or when we say the

Bible gives an order to salvation, they may misunderstand what we mean by regeneration comes first, faith comes second.

They may not realize in that wording that we mean instantaneously faith comes second.

Yes. God is a God of order. That's why church meetings are to be orderly places.

That's why the creation is orderly. That's why God set stars and the sun and the moon in the heavens. There's water and there's dry land.

And God, when He applies to us the salvation which Jesus Christ has earned for us,

He applies it in an orderly, logical, understandable, though also mysterious way.

And the classic verse for this is Romans 8 verse 30. For whom

He did predestinate, them He also called, and whom He called, them

He also justified, and whom He justified, them He also glorified. Four stages are mentioned there.

The first one is predestination. That's before the foundation of the world. The gracious choice of God of some equally unworthy sinners to full, rich, blessed salvation in Jesus Christ.

And obviously, that predestination comes before, logically and temporally, the cross and our salvation in time.

Then God predestinates us and then He calls us. The gospel comes partly. God speaks through His word to us.

We hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. That's the call. And whom God calls, He justifies. Because when God calls us, effectually, powerfully in our souls, we hear that voice.

We respond as to our Lord and Savior, Good Shepherd, Jesus, and we believe. And then justification.

God's declaration of us as righteous is by faith alone. And obviously glorification, that is the believer as to his soul in heaven after death or even, ultimately, in the new heavens and new earth.

That must come after justification. That's future to us believers on earth. So there's an order there.

Romans 4, Romans 8, verse 30 mentions an order. And then there's regeneration. That comes in there. Sanctification.

God's making us holy obviously comes after His regenerating us and giving us life. The progressive work of dying to sin and living on to righteousness.

The work of preservation. Well, God cannot preserve us in our salvation until He's actually regenerated us.

So preservation comes obviously after, logically and chronologically, after regeneration.

And so the reformed faith in saying there's an order in which God applies salvation to us are doing justice to the orderly nature of the triune

God. Everything is of the Father through the Son by the Holy Spirit. We're doing justice to the

Scriptures which teach this and we're reading the Bible intelligently and by faith to try and draw out from the

Word of God, successfully too by His Spirit, the wonder work of our salvation. God has delivered us.

He wants us to know about it. He wants us to think about it, listen to good radio shows about it, pray about it, search the

Scriptures and learn about the great God, the God of our salvation and then we want to worship

Him and give Him thanks for delivering us from so great a death. Praise God. Well, a lot of what

Susan Margaret was saying actually is very connected to my question before that you scolded me for bringing up that.

It was a very light scolding though, Chris. Be fair to me. And I must confess that the wording

God softened Pharaoh's heart does not exist and I was perhaps guilty of eisegesis there but perhaps a better example would have been

Nicodemus. But since we have a month until you're going to be back on, I'd like to reintroduce that question when you're back on, at least briefly, after there's some time at least.

I was hoping you were going to drop that one but we can talk about this later. I want to thank you for being on the program today and if you could give your website one more time.

It's www, obviously, cprc .co

.uk And I want to thank everybody who listened and I want you all to always remember for the rest of your lives that Jesus Christ is a far greater