God's Will and Word in Regeneration

Sovereign Grace Family Church iconSovereign Grace Family Church

2 views

0 comments

00:00
Let's open our Bibles and let's turn to the book of James, chapter 1, verse 18.
00:05
We're only going to look at one verse today.
00:08
So James 1.18 is the subject this morning.
00:16
The title of today's lesson is Regeneration by the Will of God.
00:21
Regeneration by the Will of God.
00:24
And we're only going to be, like I said, looking at verse 18.
00:28
So with our Bibles open, it says, Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of His creatures.
00:46
Let's pray.
00:48
Father in heaven, I thank you for this opportunity to study with these men.
00:52
I love these men and I know Lord that you've put us here together to study your word and I thank you for the love that you've shown us in bringing us together and have a desire to dig into the word together.
01:05
I thank you for the epistle of James and all the wisdom that is found here.
01:09
Lord, this is the Proverbs of the New Testament, Lord.
01:12
We glean so much every time we open up this important book and we learn from what James had to teach us.
01:20
Because Lord, ultimately we know it's your Holy Spirit who is doing the teaching.
01:23
And I pray that the Holy Spirit would go out today into the hearts of all of these men.
01:28
For the ones who know Christ and have bowed their knee to Christ, Lord, that this would be to them an encouragement to their faith, a better understanding of what brought them to faith.
01:39
And Lord, for those who know not Christ, Lord, those who have not yet bowed the knee to Christ, that today might be a day of renewal for them, of regeneration for them, that you might open up their hearts, take out their heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh that has a desire to live for you and serve you.
01:56
Father, this is a place called set free.
01:59
And we know that the greatest act of setting anyone free is when you take a dead man and make him alive in Christ.
02:06
And we praise you for that in Jesus' name.
02:09
Amen.
02:14
We've been going through this book verse by verse.
02:17
And as I mentioned over the last few weeks, the subject that James has been dealing with since the beginning of the chapter has basically been how Christians are to deal with trials because he's dealing with a group of people who are all in some kind of trial.
02:35
They're called the saints in the dispersion, meaning they've been put out of their homes, they've been put out of their town, they've been pushed out and the church had been expanded.
02:45
Not because it necessarily tried to expand, but it was a forced expansion because when you're forced out of one place, you're forced into another.
02:52
And so the church is being expanded through dispersion.
02:55
And so a lot of these people are suffering greatly.
02:58
And so James comes to them and he gives them admonitions to take joy in their trials and to ask God for wisdom in dealing with those things.
03:06
And he's giving them words of wisdom to remember as they go through their Christian walk.
03:12
Last week, we looked at verse 16 and 17.
03:16
And in verse 17, it says, And that's James' reminder to us that God doesn't change and God's gifts do not change.
03:34
His promises do not change.
03:36
And that we are to understand that God is the source of all of our gifts.
03:48
And then he goes into verse 18.
03:50
That's the context of verse 18.
03:52
James says, Now that phrase, brought us forth or brought forth there in the text, comes from the idea of giving birth.
04:10
If there was a time when my wife and I, we didn't have any babies.
04:18
And, well, of course, there was a time, kind of a silly statement to make.
04:24
There was a time when I didn't have any kids, of course.
04:25
But there was a time when we didn't seem like we could have any children.
04:29
My wife and I were married for 13 years before we ever even had a positive pregnancy test.
04:34
And so during that 13 year period, we met two children that we loved and we adopted those two children.
04:41
And so we have two older children that we adopted through foster care.
04:44
And those older children are, in every way, our children as much as our later children are.
04:51
And we love them.
04:52
And they are my babies.
04:54
And my son has been here.
04:55
You guys have met my son and my daughter on Thanksgiving.
04:57
So those are my kids.
04:59
And my daughter's 20 and my son's 18.
05:01
But my next child is 6.
05:04
So there's this wide gap.
05:05
And the reason for that gap is because we weren't able to get pregnant.
05:08
And finally we found out there were some medical issues that was causing the problem.
05:11
And we were able to take some medicine and do some things.
05:14
And my wife was able to get pregnant.
05:15
So in 2012, we had our first, what we call, biological child.
05:20
She was our first biological baby.
05:23
And I was there when she came forth.
05:28
I don't know how many of you have children and you were there for that moment.
05:31
It's an amazing experience to see the baby come forth.
05:36
And I remember I'm crying.
05:38
And I'm holding my wife's hand.
05:41
And I'm looking at her.
05:42
And I'm looking at the baby.
05:43
And I'm looking at her.
05:44
And I'm looking at the baby.
05:45
And I'm looking at her.
05:45
And she goes, go.
05:47
And I say, okay.
05:48
And I ran to go hold the baby.
05:50
Because I wanted to be with the baby.
05:51
But my wife, I didn't want to leave holding her hand.
05:53
So I was sort of in this sort of stuck.
05:55
In this situation where I want to be with you.
05:58
But I want to be with her.
05:59
And I don't know what to do.
06:00
And she goes, go.
06:01
And so I went and ran.
06:02
And I just remember that moment.
06:04
And so the idea of bringing forth.
06:07
If you've ever been in that experience.
06:08
That's the idea that James is getting across here.
06:11
The idea is birth.
06:13
Bringing something forth.
06:15
And so how do we apply this? We apply this in the words of Jesus.
06:21
In John chapter 3.
06:23
You remember in John chapter 3.
06:25
Jesus had a man come to him by night.
06:29
The man's name was what? Nicodemus.
06:32
Oh, Nick at night.
06:33
And he came.
06:36
Nick at night came.
06:39
I love it when an old joke makes a good, you know.
06:43
Because I've been using that joke for years.
06:44
New audience, you know.
06:48
So Nicodemus comes.
06:49
And we don't know why he came to Jesus at night.
06:51
There's some questions about that.
06:53
Some people think that he came because he was afraid.
06:56
Of what people would think if he talked to Jesus in the daytime.
06:59
Right? So maybe he was afraid of how the Pharisees would assume on him.
07:03
Because he was a Pharisee.
07:04
And how these people would think about him.
07:06
Because of being with Jesus.
07:08
Right? Because, you know, the Pharisees were divided from Jesus.
07:11
And so some people think he went under the cover of darkness.
07:14
Right? Other people think, well, he's a learned man.
07:17
And he wants to get Jesus to himself.
07:19
And during the day Jesus is surrounded by crowds.
07:21
And so he came at night.
07:23
Because that was the only time he could get a private audience with Jesus.
07:26
And that's possible too.
07:28
I tend to like that as an interpretation.
07:31
Only because I don't like to ascribe negative motives to someone when I don't know there's a negative motive.
07:37
It could be that he was hiding.
07:39
But it could also be that he wanted a private opportunity.
07:41
And what he says to Jesus, we know that you're sent from God.
07:45
Because no one can do the things that you do unless he be from God.
07:49
Right? So there's at least genuine love and appreciation in the heart of Nicodemus.
07:54
And we know later he's one of the ones who stood with Christ even after his death.
07:58
And so we appreciate Nicodemus in this sense of coming to Christ.
08:03
And he said, we know you're from heaven.
08:05
In fact, let's go look at the text.
08:07
I'm doing it from memory here.
08:08
I want to actually show you something.
08:11
And I don't want to miss anything here.
08:13
So go to John chapter 3.
08:17
It says in verse 1, Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews.
08:23
This man came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God.
08:28
For no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.
08:32
Verse 3, very important verse.
08:35
Jesus answered him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
08:42
Stop right there.
08:43
Notice that Jesus did not really answer.
08:48
It's not as if Nicodemus even had asked him a question.
08:52
He just said, we know you're from God.
08:54
Because no one can do what you do except he be from God.
08:57
And Jesus said, wait right there.
09:01
Yeah, let's skip the small talk and let's get to the nuts and bolts of this.
09:04
Truly, truly, I say unto you, And truly, truly is Jesus' way of saying this is absolutely something you need to listen to.
09:10
Any time a Jew would repeat something, that was a way of emphasizing what he's...
09:13
You know, Simon, Simon, the Satan has asked to sift you his wheat.
09:18
You know, verily, verily.
09:19
Anytime there's a repetition in words, it's an attempt to establish the idea of importance.
09:25
What I'm about to say is very important.
09:27
You need to hear what I'm saying.
09:29
And so he says, verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say to you, Unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.
09:38
Now, if you take notes, I want you to just in your notes or in your mind, I want you to think and put this word.
09:45
The word is regeneration.
09:49
Regeneration.
09:52
Regeneration comes from the root word to generate.
09:56
And we know what to generate means.
09:58
It's to come into being or to create or to cause something to be.
10:02
And actually, that has a root.
10:04
The root there is genase, which means source.
10:08
We think of like our genes, you know, the genes are where you come from, you know.
10:11
So it's where we get the word genesis, the beginning, right? So you have genase, which becomes generate, which becomes regenerate or regeneration.
10:20
And so the doctrine of regeneration is what we call the doctrine of the new birth.
10:28
Okay? How many of you remember Jimmy Carter? Jimmy Carter was president before I was born.
10:35
Huh? Okay.
10:37
And one of the things that was...
10:40
I didn't hear what he said, brother.
10:42
I'm sorry.
10:42
I did.
10:42
Oh, I didn't.
10:43
Okay.
10:44
One of the things that Jimmy Carter made his name on was that when he was running for president, he was only a single term president if I remember correctly, but when he was running for president, he identified himself as a born-again Christian.
11:07
He wasn't just a Christian, but he was a born-again Christian.
11:14
And he identified himself in that way.
11:16
He was a southern man.
11:18
He was a Baptist by faith.
11:20
And the Baptist church has long pushed the idea that you must be born again.
11:26
And they didn't invent that.
11:27
It came from the words of Jesus.
11:29
But, I mean, they focused on the rebirth.
11:32
They focused on regeneration.
11:34
They focused on being born again.
11:35
And so when somebody said, are you a Christian? Well, a lot of people are Christians by title only, right? They're Christians because mom and daddy were Christians.
11:46
Or they're born into, like, a Lutheran church or a Presbyterian church or a Catholic church.
11:50
And they're Christians by birth, at least in their mind, right? Or they grow up in a Catholic country, and they're Christians by citizenship, right? And so what Jimmy Carter was trying to do, and as liberal as he may have gotten in his old age, you know, at one point, at least in that sense, he was trying to identify himself differently than someone who was a Christian by association or a Christian by birth.
12:14
He was saying, no, I'm a born-again Christian.
12:17
I'm a person who believes that God changed my life.
12:24
Now, again, whatever we may think of Jimmy Carter as a person or as a president or as a politician, I can appreciate that he was at least trying to make a stand for what he believed was his change.
12:37
I'm born again.
12:39
Now, later, and I would agree with this to an extent, some theologians took issue with the term born-again Christian because they said this.
12:46
We shouldn't have to say born-again Christian because if you're born again, you're a Christian, and if you're a Christian, you are by necessity born again.
12:53
So to say born-again Christian is like saying a Christian Christian.
12:58
It's a redundant statement.
13:00
So they sort of gave the term a little bit of a knock and said, well, you shouldn't have to say born-again Christian.
13:05
If you're a Christian, you're naturally born again.
13:07
But I do appreciate, again, what Carter was trying to do.
13:10
He was trying to differentiate his understanding of the gospel with what had become a cultural understanding of the gospel.
13:18
You guys know people.
13:19
I know you know people who would identify themselves as Christians but have no love for Christ.
13:25
You know people who identify themselves as Christians but have no desire for the things of God.
13:32
But why do they call themselves Christians? Because it's culturally acceptable to do so.
13:40
They want to have a Christian wedding.
13:42
They want to have a Christian funeral.
13:46
They want to be identified in a Christian country.
13:51
But they themselves don't want Christ.
13:53
You say, well, why would that be? Because of all the social benefits that come with being in a Christian nation.
13:59
Things like justice and fairness and truth and all those things that come along with that.
14:03
Christmas is great.
14:04
We like that.
14:05
So we're going to celebrate once a year something we don't believe in.
14:08
Right? And that's why Santa Claus takes the place of the baby in the manger.
14:13
Because for them it's easier to believe in the one guy who can deliver presents on one night a year than it is that God came in the flesh 2,000 years ago.
14:20
Right? So we have this problem of the non-born-again Christians.
14:26
And I'm here to say there's no such thing.
14:30
A non-born-again Christian is simply not a Christian.
14:34
Because Jesus here tells us in John 3, and I've already stopped a lot.
14:40
I have a lot more to say in James, but I'm still stuck on Jesus' words.
14:43
He said, unless a man be born again, he shall not, cannot see the kingdom of God.
14:55
Years ago I was asked to speak in a little holiness church down in Stark, Florida.
15:06
And the lady asked me, the lady who set it up, she said, we want you to come down and speak.
15:11
And I said, I'd love to.
15:13
I'll preach the gospel anywhere.
15:14
I'll preach the gospel in an atheist convention.
15:18
I don't care.
15:18
As long as you invite me to come, I'll come.
15:21
So I know it was a different church than what I'm used to.
15:23
You know, holiness church, more Pentecostal, a little different.
15:25
But I still wanted to go, and I was excited to go.
15:29
And the lady said, I'd like to be able to tell them what you're going to preach on.
15:34
I said, well, tell them I want to preach on the doctrine of regeneration.
15:38
And the phone went silent, like for like a good three seconds.
15:43
And she said, oh, pastor, don't do that.
15:46
And I said, why? And she said, because they're not going to know what that means.
15:52
I said, okay, tell them this.
15:55
I'm going to preach why you must be born again.
16:00
And she goes, oh, they'll like that.
16:02
So I went, and I dropped the theological language, even though I still taught the theological propositions and the principles.
16:12
So when I put up a word like regeneration, I'm not doing that to be confusing.
16:16
I'm doing that to simply explain to you, we have as a church a wellspring of good, solid theology that comes from Scripture, and we learn these things.
16:27
But the root of these types of things are found in the simple words of Christ.
16:32
You must be born again.
16:35
You must be, or you will not see the kingdom of God.
16:46
Nicodemus didn't understand what Jesus meant.
16:48
And honestly, I don't know if I would have.
16:50
I mean, if I had never heard that language before, if I didn't understand that language, and I was talking to a man who was a rabbi, a teacher, a miracle worker, and he said, you must be born again, I don't know that I would have had anything better to say than Nicodemus did.
17:06
Because Nicodemus says this in verse 4, Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Now, I think at this point, Nicodemus is being a little facetious, not argumentative, and I don't think necessarily sarcastic, but I think he knows that's not the answer.
17:28
I think he's saying, that can't happen, so what do you mean? You know, we know we can't be born physically again.
17:35
No man can go back into his mother's womb and come out again.
17:40
And so Jesus answered, verse 5, Verily, verily, or truly, truly, I say to you, Bye guys, love y'all, see you later.
17:48
Truly, truly, I say to you, see you later, brother.
17:53
Unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
18:02
So, a couple things changed on the second go-round.
18:06
One, he said, born again, see the kingdom of God.
18:09
Two, he said, born of water and the Spirit, enter the kingdom of God.
18:14
And so there's a little bit of a change in Jesus' language, but I don't think the meaning necessarily changes.
18:19
I think it's a different way of expressing the same truth.
18:22
There's something in Hebrew language called parallelism.
18:25
We see this in Proverbs.
18:26
If you ever study Proverbs, it'll say something, and it'll say the exact same thing, but in a different way, but it's intended to get around to the same thing.
18:33
Being born of water and of the Spirit is the same thing as being born again, I believe, in this language.
18:38
I don't think there's a huge difference.
18:40
And people have tried to apply baptism, physical water baptism, with the words of Jesus when He says, born of water.
18:49
Now, there's a few difficulties with that.
18:54
One, if we make baptism something that must happen before you can enter the kingdom of God, then we have to say, okay, there's a work involved, so it's an issue of works righteousness, but also you have to take into consideration all the people that cannot be baptized for whatever reason.
19:15
There are people who get saved in dungeons and are never offered the opportunity for the sign of baptism and they die as prisoners, right? There are people who are saved in deserts and have not the opportunity to have water for baptism and they die unbaptized.
19:33
There are people who before Christ died and believed and were not baptized.
19:40
And so if the universal statement is that one must be baptized to be saved, then nobody could have been saved before the New Testament.
19:49
Does that make sense? Huh? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
19:55
We're looking at it from simply the perspective of what does Jesus mean.
19:59
I believe this is a reference to an old...
20:01
Yes, sir? Do you believe that maybe that's some kind of symbolism? Yeah, just fixing to go...
20:06
Because in the Old Testament, in the prophecy of the New Covenant, we see in the prophets the promise that God would wash us with water from heaven.
20:17
And so I do believe that the water that Jesus is referring to here is not physical.
20:23
I believe it is a spiritual washing that happens at regeneration.
20:27
We are washed by the water of regeneration, not by the water of baptism.
20:33
Yes, sir? Yeah, the living water.
20:39
Yes, absolutely.
20:40
Yeah, that's what you're talking about, right? Where He said, I will give to you living water, and when you drink of this water you'll never thirst again, right? Yes, sir? Yeah, absolutely.
21:02
Yeah, and the one I'm thinking...
21:03
I have one in my mind, and I believe it's in Ezekiel, but I can't...
21:06
I don't have it.
21:07
I'd have to look it up.
21:08
But it says, I will sprinkle clean water on you from heaven, and you will be made clean.
21:12
And I think of that text when I think of when Jesus talks about being born of water.
21:16
I think that text.
21:17
So if you all want to do a little research this week and get back with me, I'll see if I can't find it.
21:21
But the reference is being made clean by the water, but it's a spiritual cleansing.
21:27
Yes, sir? Okay, yes, sir? Therefore repent and turn back so that your sins may be wiped out, that seasons of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord.
21:40
Absolutely.
21:40
The water being the presence of the Holy Spirit.
21:42
Yes, and that's really the point, is the Holy Spirit is the one who gives us the new birth.
21:50
The Holy Spirit of the Trinity, God is the one who establishes the elect.
21:56
The Son redeems, and the Spirit regenerates.
22:03
The Spirit comes in, and He gives the new birth.
22:08
Now some people think that this, when Jesus said born of water and the Spirit, that some people think that's talking about your physical birth.
22:16
Because you know when you were born, the water broke.
22:19
And some people think that the water Jesus is talking about there.
22:22
I don't take that interpretation, but you may if you're studying, especially you said you're studying this, you may see that as a possible interpretation.
22:28
I don't see it that way, because I want to mention something as far as the language is concerned.
22:34
Sometimes the word and, which is in Greek is chi, sometimes the word and can mean and, or it can also mean even.
22:45
Right? So here's how it could read.
22:49
Unless you'd be born of water, even the Spirit.
22:53
And in that sense, water and the Spirit are equated, not added.
22:57
So in that sense, the water is the Spirit.
22:59
And that's kind of going along with what? Yes sir? Well God elects.
23:08
God establishes the elect.
23:10
Jesus redeems the elect.
23:12
And the Holy Spirit regenerates the elect.
23:14
So that's the work of the Trinity and what we call the economic Trinity or God.
23:20
And how even though all three persons are God, all three persons don't do the same thing.
23:26
Because the Father didn't die on the cross.
23:28
And the Son isn't the one who indwells.
23:32
It's the Spirit.
23:33
He's called the Spirit of Christ, but it's the Spirit.
23:36
Jesus said, if I go away, the Spirit will come to you and He will walk with you and He'll be your perikletos or the one who walks beside you.
23:43
He's in you.
23:44
So yeah, so understanding that helps a little bit better understand the workings of the Trinity, the economic Trinity.
23:50
Alright, so we have this, this born of water, born of the Spirit.
23:55
I think it's the same thing.
23:57
It's a spiritual washing.
23:59
He said, unless that happens, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.
24:03
First, you won't see it and you won't enter it.
24:09
Then He says, that which is born of flesh is flesh, but that which is born of Spirit is Spirit.
24:18
Do not marvel that I said to you, you must be born again.
24:22
Verse 8, the wind blows where it wills or wishes and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes.
24:31
So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit.
24:35
Very important phrase there because in that particular phrase, we see the nature of the Spirit in the work of regeneration.
24:44
The wind blows where it wills, so it is with the Spirit.
24:50
God's Spirit comes upon people.
24:55
God's Spirit enters into people and they don't know where that comes from, but it results in something that's unmistakable.
25:05
That results in the rebirth.
25:07
Yes? Wind and Spirit come from the same Greek word, right? Yeah, pneuma, pneumos.
25:14
In general, the Spirit is referred to as the hagios pneumatos or hagios pneumos, and that's the Holy Spirit, right? But in this sense, Jesus is equating the idea that when you see the wind blow, you don't know where it came from.
25:29
In fact, I mean, now we can talk about science and how certain atmospheric changes create pressure shifting and that's how wind blows and we could argue.
25:39
But we still don't know where it comes from.
25:41
What's it called? The butterfly effect? Butterfly flaps its wings in Africa and we get a hurricane here because of all the things that happen as a result of all these minor minute changes in pressure that build up to this giant storm, right? And so we don't know where that storm came from.
25:55
Could have came from a butterfly flapping its wings in Africa, right? So we don't know where it came from, but we know it is.
26:02
And so Jesus, when He's talking to Nicodemus, He's talking about the fact that when you see the Spirit and He comes upon a person and changes that person's life, that that's a sovereign act of the will of God.
26:19
God is the one that's doing that work in the life of that person.
26:25
Now, with that in mind, go back to James because this is why I want all of that to say this.
26:30
Back in James, in verse 18, it says, in verse 18, of His own will.
26:39
Notice there, that idea again.
26:41
Of whose own will? Of God's own will.
26:43
Of God's own will, He birthed us.
26:47
Now, I know it says brought us forth, but what did we say earlier? That language is the language of giving birth.
26:53
So of God's will, He gave birth to us.
26:58
God gave you.
26:59
If you are a believer this morning, and I'm not going to assume any of you are.
27:03
I hope, I pray that all of you are, but I don't know.
27:06
But I'm going to assume that some of you at least are.
27:08
And those of you who are, you know there was a time when you weren't.
27:14
You know there was a time when you hated God.
27:17
And you might say, oh, I didn't hate God.
27:20
Well, maybe not in that kind of language.
27:22
Maybe you didn't go around, you know, kicking children and stomping on kittens or something.
27:29
Maybe you weren't that guy, but you didn't want God.
27:34
You wanted whatever you wanted.
27:36
You wanted the desires of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, the pride of life.
27:40
You wanted what the flesh wants.
27:42
Is that a way of saying you didn't like Him at the time? Yeah.
27:45
I would say, well, the Bible says we were His enemy.
27:48
Amen.
27:48
Before, some amen being there.
27:52
The Bible says that we were God's enemy.
27:56
And God made peace with us through the cross.
28:01
I think Romans 5, I've often said this.
28:04
I said if I ever, if I was ever on a desert island and somebody said, you can only take one book, I'd take the Bible.
28:09
If they said, if you can only take one book of the Bible, I would probably take either the Gospel of John or Hebrews.
28:15
But if they said, if you could only take one verse, like you write one verse on a wall, I would write Romans 5, 1.
28:22
Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.
28:34
And the reason why that verse is my verse of choice, if I could only have one verse to write on a wall and I was in prison or on an island and I could only look at one verse for the rest of my life, I would want to know that while I was once at war with God, I now have peace with God.
28:51
And it's not because of what I did.
28:55
I have peace with God because of Jesus Christ.
29:01
Because the wall of defense that I had put up around myself, which was held together by the sins of my heart, was broken down by the Spirit of God when He came into my heart and changed my life.
29:15
He broke the barrier of my stony heart.
29:19
And He ripped it out of my chest and He gave me a heart of flesh.
29:22
That's the picture of the Old Testament.
29:24
That's the picture of being born again from the Old Testament is God taking out a heart of stone which is hard and hateful and doesn't want God and doesn't love God.
29:34
God takes out the heart of stone and He replaces it with a heart of flesh.
29:40
You might think He should replace it with a spiritual heart.
29:43
No.
29:44
Why a heart of flesh? Because a heart of flesh is different than a heart of stone.
29:47
A heart of stone doesn't beat.
29:50
But a heart of flesh beats.
29:52
A heart of stone is dead and a heart of flesh is alive.
29:56
And that's the idea of regeneration, right? It's giving birth to something that's alive.
30:01
God took that which was dead.
30:03
Think of Ephesians 2.1.
30:06
You were dead in your trespasses and sins in which you once walked.
30:12
But God, by His mercy, has made you alive.
30:16
By grace you have been saved.
30:18
That's regeneration.
30:20
And it's God's will to do it.
30:23
God opens the heart.
30:24
God gives you a new life.
30:26
God grants you the Holy Spirit and you are now alive in Him.
30:31
And this is why the Bible says, therefore the old things have passed away and all things have become new.
30:42
Now, I want to say something about that.
30:45
Just because you get regenerated doesn't mean that automatically you don't have the flesh anymore and that everything is...
30:54
all of the old desires are automatically killed because not always.
30:58
Sometimes we fight battles for a long time.
31:00
Yes, sir? That kind of goes along with my question that I've been asking a couple of people.
31:06
And it says that if you are saved, it will show in your acts.
31:11
So if you're saved, does it have to show immediately? I think that what we see in the normal experience, and I know when I say normal experience, it's not...
31:22
not everybody's the same.
31:24
But in the normal experience, there is an immediate change of want.
31:29
Absolutely.
31:29
But not always an immediate change of do.
31:36
There's an immediate change of want, but not always an immediate change of action.
31:42
And the reason for that is because we've lived many years in this sinful flesh and now, for the first time ever, we're battling it.
31:53
Yeah, you could argue that.
31:55
That's Romans 7.
31:57
You could go to Galatians 5 where Paul says that the spirit wants one thing and the flesh wants the other and they're always battling each other.
32:05
The picture I look at is this.
32:07
When you've got a school of...
32:09
If you've got a group of dead fish in a stream, where are they going to go? They're going to go wherever the stream takes them.
32:15
Right? So as the dead fish are floating down the stream, belly up because they're all dead.
32:20
If by a miracle one of them was made alive, he's going to try to swim the other direction.
32:25
He's going to try to get out of all that dead fish, but he's going to be running into dead fish and he's going to be fighting the current immediately.
32:38
Sanctification is the process by which we are conformed to the image of Christ.
32:42
And some people, I think, think it happens like this.
32:44
Like here, you get saved, right? Just use the crosses.
32:47
You get saved and then you go up to your sanctification, right? What I think it's more like this.
32:54
I think it's like...
32:58
I think there's a steady increase but I don't think it's always necessarily in the right direction.
33:04
Yeah.
33:04
So is that helpful? Yes, sir.
33:15
Yes.
33:16
And I think that's exactly why Paul wrote that.
33:19
Because the next word is meganoited.
33:21
By no means.
33:22
May it never be.
33:24
So yes, we never should and must never use our freedom in Christ as a license for sin.
33:37
The grace card.
33:38
Yeah, that's funny.
33:40
Yeah.
33:41
So what's the answer? I think the answer is found in Romans 6, 7 and 8.
33:45
Because in Romans 6, Paul explains to us that if we're using grace as an excuse for sin, that's wrong.
33:52
But then in Romans 7, he goes on to express the idea that the flesh and the spirit are in conflict with one another.
33:59
And then we get to chapter 8.
34:00
What does he say? Therefore there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.
34:07
For the law of the flesh...
34:11
I can't quote it exactly.
34:14
Yeah, we now live according to the Spirit.
34:18
We live according to the Spirit, not according to the flesh.
34:20
But we still live in the flesh, so we still battle the flesh.
34:25
I am...
34:26
I was saved at 19, I believe.
34:30
Genuinely saved.
34:32
I'm 38 years old.
34:35
So I'm almost 20 years into my Christian life.
34:39
And I battle sin every day.
34:42
I think the difference between a believer and a non-believer is not the presence of sin, it's the battle.
34:48
The unbeliever loves his sin and the believer hates his sin.
34:55
And so when it comes to being born again, how do I know someone's been born again? Well, I don't know necessarily that you've been born again, but how do you know? I think the first question I ask is, do you love your sin or do you battle your sin? Do you love the flesh or do you want the release, the sweet release of Christ's forgiveness? And do you long for the ability of repentance? I think repentance is a grace, guys.
35:22
I think repentance is a gift.
35:23
Repentance is not something you build up in yourself.
35:26
The Bible says in several places, God grants the gift of repentance.
35:30
Repentance is a gift.
35:31
It's something God has to give.
35:33
You know, y'all remember Augustine? St.
35:36
Augustine? Fourth century.
35:39
Or fifth, yeah.
35:41
Fifth century.
35:43
Augustine prayed this prayer.
35:46
He said, Lord, command what thou will.
35:49
And Lord, grant me the ability to do what thou commandest.
35:58
That's a two-fold prayer that we all ought to pray.
36:01
One, God tell me what you want me to do, but also give me the grace to be able to do it.
36:07
Because apart from grace, I will fail every time.
36:12
As you've probably heard me say it, others say it, all of the bad in me is me and all of the good in me is God.
36:21
All of the failure is me, all of the success is God.
36:25
And so, yes, brother, I think there's an immediate change, but I don't think that that means we're immediately perfectly sanctified because we're not going to be perfectly sanctified until this flesh is redeemed in the new heaven and the new earth.
36:40
So that's either going to come with our death or the return of Christ.
36:43
Either we're going to die and we're going to go as spirit to be with the Lord until our bodies are raised in the new heaven and the new earth or Jesus is going to return and we're going to immediately be transferred into the new heaven and the new earth.
36:54
Either way, there is not going to be, after this death, a continuation of sin.
37:00
And I don't even understand how that...
37:02
I got to get going.
37:03
I don't even understand how that works.
37:05
I've tried to sit and imagine what a sinless world will be like.
37:10
Because, you know, that's what we have to look forward to.
37:13
You have, if you are in Christ, if you have been born again, the kingdom of heaven, the kingdom of God is here now because it's the kingdom of Christ.
37:20
But the coming kingdom is the new Jerusalem, the new heaven, the new earth.
37:23
When that comes, there will be no more sin.
37:26
And this battle we're discussing is over.
37:29
No more.
37:31
We will get to experience the presence of God without division.
37:36
That's the excitement.
37:37
Yes, sir? I'm just curious.
37:38
When all this happens, we're going to have new bodies and all that, right? Yeah, I believe so.
37:43
Yeah, I believe heaven's physical.
37:45
Yeah, I don't believe that heaven is us sitting as ethereal...
37:49
Not as we look now.
37:50
No, I hope I don't look like this forever.
37:52
No, I don't know how I'm going to look forever.
37:56
I do think, and this is...
37:58
I don't have time to break this down.
38:00
Maybe in the future we could talk about this.
38:01
I do think we'll know each other.
38:03
I do think there's a sense in which we'll understand each other because I don't think we lose who we are when we go to heaven.
38:09
Because if so, what was all this about? I think that we'll understand our redemption because I think the only scars that go into heaven are the scars in the hands and the side of Christ because they were still there after the resurrection.
38:23
And he said to Thomas, he said, See my hands, feel my side, know that it is I.
38:27
I think that his scars go on forever as a reminder of the redemption that was made.
38:32
And so we...
38:33
Huh? Yeah, like I said, and I could go on and on.
38:38
The point of today is this.
38:39
Jesus said we must be born again.
38:41
James says, by His will He has brought us forth.
38:44
God is the one who gives new birth, guys.
38:47
And how does He do it? This is where I have to finish.
38:50
By His own will, He brought us forth by the Word of Truth.
38:54
How do you get born again? The Word of God is preached to you.
39:00
The Spirit comes into you and gives you the ability to receive it in faith.
39:05
And boom! You're alive! That's how the process works.
39:12
God births you through the instrument of the Word of God.
39:19
How do I know this? Romans chapter 10.
39:23
How shall they hear? Unless someone preaches to them.
39:27
And how shall they believe? Unless they've heard.
39:30
Right? So faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the Word of Christ.
39:36
That's why I come here every week.
39:39
I preach to you guys because I love you but I also know that some of you don't know Christ yet and I want you to.
39:46
And those of you who do know Christ I want you to know Him better.
39:49
And I want to know Him better.
39:51
And I want to grow with you.
39:54
And so the whole idea of preaching is twofold.
39:56
One, for the believer, preaching is to them a growth process.
40:00
And to the unbeliever, it's an opportunity to hear the Word again so that the Spirit might come into your heart and give you new birth.
40:06
And you might believe in that Word and be saved.
40:11
Preaching is never for nothing.
40:14
It's never just to hear ourselves speak.
40:17
We preach to the believers, life in Christ.
40:21
And to the unbelievers, salvation through Christ.
40:26
So that's whoever you are today.
40:28
If you're a believer, know this, you're a believer because God saved you by the work of His Holy Spirit, by believing in His Word.
40:36
Keep believing.
40:37
Keep trusting.
40:39
Keep battling.
40:41
And it will be a struggle.
40:42
But God has said, no temptation has overcome you that is not common to man.
40:46
And with every temptation He gives a way of escape.
40:49
So just know this, every time you have a temptation, ask God, show me the window.
40:53
Show me the escape hatch.
40:55
Show me the door.
40:56
Keep me from sin.
40:58
Lead me not into temptation.
41:00
Deliver me from evil.
41:01
And if you don't know Christ, the Bible says this, whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord will be saved.
41:09
But I tell you this, it won't come without a change.
41:13
It will always come with a change.
41:16
Jesus changes our life.
41:18
If He's changed yours, praise God.
41:21
And if He hasn't, I want to pray for you right now.
41:23
Let's pray.
41:24
Father, I pray for these men.
41:26
God, I pray for those who know Christ, Lord, that You would continue to draw them in and conform them to Christ.
41:31
And Lord, for those who don't know Christ, Lord, that today, maybe even right now, might be the time where You open up their eyes to the truth.
41:38
Unstop their ears so that they might hear the truth.
41:41
Lord, take out the heart of stone and give them a heart of flesh whereby they might believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and be saved.
41:48
And it's in His name we pray.
41:50
Amen.