January 1, 2018 Show with William Downing on “What it Means to Be Born Again”

Live from the historic parsonage of 19th century gospel minister George Norcross in downtown

Carlisle, Pennsylvania, it's Iron Sharpens Iron, a radio platform on which pastors,

Christian scholars and theologians address the burning issues facing the church and the world today.

Proverbs 27 verse 17 tells us, iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Matthew Henry said that in this passage, quote, we are cautioned to take heed whom we converse with and directed to have in view in conversation to make one another wiser and better.

It is our hope that this goal will be accomplished over the next hour and we hope to hear from you, the listener, with your own questions.

Now here's our host, Chris Arnzen. Good afternoon,

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, Lake City, Florida, and the rest of humanity living on the planet Earth who are listening via live streaming at ironsharpensironradio .com.

This is Chris Arnzen, your host of Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, wishing you all a happy Monday on this very first day of January 2018, very first day of the year for 2018, and I hope that you all had a safe and blessed

New Year's Eve. I was quite depressed last night watching

Fox News and hearing the New Year being rung in by the John Lennon song,

Imagine, and that song is basically the anthem for Marxist atheism.

But anyway, I did hear from Peter Jones of Westminster Theological Seminary in California that a mutual friend of his and John Lennon's told him that he is fairly certain that John Lennon actually came to know the

Lord before he departed this Earth. Peter Jones was in the same, I believe, elementary class as John Lennon in the

UK. That has nothing to do with what we are talking about today. We are going to be discussing what it means to be born again with Dr.

William Downing, the pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Silicon Valley, California, and he's also the director and president of the

Pacific Institute for Religious Studies. He is supposed to be with us, and we did have a conversation over the weekend where he confirmed that, and we came up with the topic, but he did not answer the phone, so I'm not really sure what is going on on Dr.

Downing's end. I'm going to go to an early station break right now. Don't go away.

In fact, why don't you take this time to write your questions for Dr. Downing on our theme, what it means to be born again, and the email address you could send those questions to is chrisarnson at gmail dot com.

God willing, we will be right back after these messages. Iron Sharpens Tired of box store

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Paul wrote to the church at Galatia, For am I now seeking the approval of man, or of God?

Or am I trying to please man? If I were still trying to please man, I would not be a servant of Christ.

Hi, I'm Mark Lukens, pastor of Providence Baptist Church. We are a Reformed Baptist Church and we hold to the

London Baptist Confession of Faith of 1689. We are in Norfolk, Massachusetts. We strive to reflect

Paul's mindset to be much more concerned with how God views what we say and what we do than how men view these things.

That's not the best recipe for popularity, but since that wasn't the Apostle's priority, it must not be ours either.

We believe by God's grace that we are called to demonstrate love and compassion to our fellow man, and to be vessels of Christ's mercy to a lost and hurting community around us, and to build up the body of Christ in truth and love.

If you live near Norfolk, Massachusetts, or plan to visit our area, please come and join us for worship and fellowship.

You can call us at 508 -528 -5750, that's 508 -528 -5750, or go to our website to email us, listen to past sermons, worship songs, or watch our

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that's providencebaptistchurchma .org, or even on sermonaudio .com. Providence Baptist Church is delighted to sponsor

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio. Welcome back, this is Chris Arnzen, and we do have joining us on the phone, all the way from Silicon Valley, California, Dr.

William Downing, who is an author, he's also the pastor of Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Silicon Valley, and Director and President of the

Pacific Institute for Religious Studies. Today we are going to be addressing the theme,

What Does It Mean to Be Born Again? And it is my honor and privilege to welcome you back to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio, Dr.

Bill Downing. Thank you, Brother Arnzen. I'm sorry for the mix -up about the phone situation.

Yeah, I assume that the last time I called you, and that was a rarity, usually my guests call me, and it's like maybe one -half of one percent of the time

I call them, and that's what threw me off, I guess. So I'm sorry about that. No, that's all right.

There are no mistakes with God, just with men. That's right. Well, before we go into the subject at hand, which is a very important one, and I think an excellent way to start a new year, by discussing new life in Christ, let our listeners know something about Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Silicon Valley, California, because there may be listeners who are joining the

Iron Sharpens Iron Radio audience for the very first time, and have not heard you before, and perhaps are unaware of you and Sovereign Grace Baptist Church.

So if you could, let our listeners know about that. We planted this church in 1994, and we were in the

YMCA in a neighboring town for six years. During the five years that we were there, after one year,

God brought us a time of what we considered to be true revival. We had professions of faith made in the service.

People would come to me after the service and say, God has done something to me, I need to talk to you.

This was a very common occurrence. We had baptismist time almost every week, and usually every month we had a number of baptisms.

The congregation grew from about 40 up to 200 in that amount of time, and it was a blessed time.

In the year 2000, it was April 10th, 2000, we were able to purchase and move into our building, which is now in Morgan Hill, south of San Jose, about a 20 minute drive.

We've been here, we had a church division, some of it's been 13 years ago now, and we're building up from that.

We have a consistent ministry. We have the Pacific Institute for Religious Studies, which is open to anyone who wants to do studies, directed studies.

We have Sovereign Grace Baptist Theological Seminary. We have five students at this point in time.

We're authorized by the state to grant theological degrees, and we work with these men.

They're preaching at rescue missions and sometimes in our services, so we have a rest home ministry, and we have a full schedule.

I'm going seven days a week. Our guest today just turned 77 last week, and I remember

I wished you a happy birthday live on the air when I was interviewing a mutual friend of ours,

Pastor Joe Jackowitz. Yes, yes. Pastor Joe is located about an hour east of here, and we have some ministries in common, including

First Love Publications. They have printed and distributed and translated about six or seven of our books, and they have quite a worldwide ministry.

Amen. We'll be giving contact information for Sovereign Grace Baptist Church of Silicon Valley and other ministries under the umbrella of that church throughout the program, so I hope that you'd make note of that information.

If you live in Silicon Valley or nearby or have friends, family, and loved ones who live there, or if you're planning to visit there, this will be valuable information for you.

I might as well remind you of that website right now. The website is sgbsv .org.

That's s -g for Sovereign Grace, b -c for Baptist Church, s -v for Silicon Valley dot org.

You can find out all of the other information about the institute and the seminary and so on at that website.

Well, I think that one of the best ways you could possibly start a new year, this being the first day of 2018, is to talk about the new birth, the new life that one can have in Christ.

And the phrase, born again, is something that definitely confuses a lot of people, just as it confused

Nicodemus when he, by night, snuck to see

Jesus Christ to ask him questions. And that is a very important phrase that comes up from the lips of Christ.

And that is the thing that our eternal destiny hangs on, whether or not we are born again.

And I was wondering if you could start off with a definition. In fact, let me, before you even do that, let me read from the

New American Standard Bible, the text that I am speaking of in the

Holy Scriptures that involves the new birth. This is starting in Chapter 3, verse 1,

Now there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. This man came to Jesus by night and said to him,

Rabbi, we know that you have come from God as a teacher, for no one can do these things that you do unless God is with him.

Jesus answered and said to him, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And Nicodemus said to him, How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?

Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the

Spirit is Spirit. Do not be amazed that I said to you, You must be born again.

The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and where it is going, so everyone who is born of the

Spirit. And if you could, tell us exactly what

Jesus is referring to, because there are people who think born again just means that you are a part of some kind of a denomination that they wrongly perceive in their minds is called the born again denomination or something.

Some people believe that if you are born again, that certainly must mean that you are a charismatic or a

Pentecostal, somebody who speaks in tongues and dances around in their worship services and does all kinds of things like that, very enthusiastic and exuberant demonstrations of what they believe.

And of course, the term now has been borrowed by secular society, being born again just means to them that you are having a brand new start.

In fact, a lot of people might be considering themselves born again New Year's Day because they have made a resolution to quit smoking, to quit drinking, to quit doing drugs, to do all kinds of things or stop doing all kinds of things.

But what is it to be born again, Dr. Downey? All right, I will give you a two -fold answer.

When I define the term, and I'm defining it from our catechism, our church has its own catechism,

I think it's largely taken from Strong's theology and perhaps from the

New Hampshire Confession of Faith. But I would define it, give you the various terms, and then go into Nicodemus a little bit.

That is a key passage and we should look at that, open it up and give people a good grasp of that conversation.

We refer to the new birth theologically as regeneration, that is a being born again or born from above.

Our Lord only used the term regeneration once, and that's referring to the restoration of all things yet way into the future.

Our Lord himself never used the term being born again. That's the term that we use, it's found its way into John's chapter three.

He used the term to be born from above, anothen, probably from above, a spiritual birth.

The term born again does occur and used by other authors of Scripture in the

New Testament, and we've inherited this term, born again. It is a religious term, and yet even within religion it refers, sadly, to a host of different things, and we can explore these things.

So regeneration, being born again, being born from above. Regeneration is the sovereign act of God, effected below the level of the consciousness, wherein he communicates divine life to the sinner, giving a holy disposition to the mind, and is such that it secures a certain immediate and voluntary obedience to the gospel.

That would be a fairly concise definition. And in the text that I read, it is interesting that Nicodemus did not know what

Jesus was speaking about, and yet later on in the text, a part that I did not read, where Nicodemus says in verse 9, he says to Jesus, How can these things be?

And Jesus answered and said to him, Are you the teacher of Israel, and do not understand these things?

Truly, truly I say to you, we speak of what we know and testify of what we have seen, and you do not accept our testimony.

If I told you earthly things and you did not believe, how can you believe it if I tell you heavenly things?

No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended from heaven, the Son of Man.

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the

Son of Man be lifted up, so that whosoever believes in him may have eternal life.

The question I have in regard to that is that it is obvious that Jesus is chastising

Nicodemus, the leader of Israel, for not already knowing this. How would

Nicodemus have been responsible for knowing what born again means when the concept, at least in a cursory view of this experience that Nicodemus is having with Jesus, this is something being introduced to the people of God for the first time.

And yet, as I said, Jesus is chiding Nicodemus for not already knowing it.

Where in the Old Covenant would he have known this concept? All right,

I will answer that. Let me draw just a few things at the first.

Your translation shows a connection between chapter 3 and chapter 2.

The King James does not. There's a particle in the original language there, and or now.

And the Lord's public ministry in Jerusalem began at the

Passover. And he was there for probably the eight days, performing miracles.

And Nicodemus evidently was among those people who saw these miracles. And the scripture states that when he was in Jerusalem at the feast day, he did many miracles.

And many people believed in him when they saw the miracles that he was doing. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them.

They believed him. He did not believe them. And the word believe is the, commit is the same word believe.

And they were watching him intently. Theoreo is the Greek term. I translate it, they gawked at him.

They were completely befuddled and beside themselves when they saw these signs and miracles.

But the next day had passed away. Our Lord didn't commit himself. One person out of the multitude followed up on this and sought an interview with the

Lord at Bethany at night and walked there evidently. And he said, we know that from God, you have, you have come a teacher for no man can continue to do these miracles that thou doest except God is with him in the most intimate way.

And what our Lord is doing is he designs Nicodemus' salvation.

So he says, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God.

And this was of course, astounding to Nicodemus. He thought he was in the kingdom of God already, but his religion was completely outward.

Rites, rituals, ceremony, cleansing, dress, food, diet, uh, law, temple worship, offering sacrifices.

And he said, how can a man be born a old being?

In other words, our Lord raises the conversation to a spiritual level and he brings

Nicodemus into that conversation. Our Lord says being born from above, Nicodemus took it to be born again.

He said, a man cannot enter the second time, Taduteron, the second time into his mother's womb and be born.

Can he? Of course not. And the construction in the original language anticipates a no answer.

He was completely at the end of his thinking. So our Lord begins to raise the conversation to a spiritual level, except a man be born of water and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

And he explains this to Nicodemus. Nicodemus should have known the meaning of what we would say is

John 3, 5, except a man be born of water and of the spirit. But he's completely at a loss.

Verse 9, and he said, how can these things be? Now to break in, to complete the thought here, all of the great rabbis had a title and we miss it in the

King James, but there's a definite article there in the Greek and Nicodemus was known as the teacher of Israel.

That was his title. And Jesus said, are you not Hadidas Galos to Israel? Are you not the teacher of Israel?

And these things you do not know, implying that he should have known. So this brings me to the second part of my answer.

Where in the old covenant, where in the old Testament is a basis for these old rabbis knew their scriptures extensively.

They knew much of them very thoroughly. And I will give you three passages and make some comments upon them.

Jeremiah chapter 31 verses 31 through 34, a new covenant will

I make with the house of Israel, not according to the covenant I made with their fathers in the day when

I took them by the hand to bring them out of the Egypt, which covenant they break. The failure of the old covenant is it was outward circumcision was outward in the flesh.

It was a principle of outward command, but there was no inward dynamic of grace.

And he continues, but this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel. After those days,

I will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their

God. And they shall be my people and they shall teach no more. Every man, his neighbor and every man, his brother saying no, the

Lord, for they shall all know me from the least of them unto the greatest sayeth the Lord, for I will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more.

So God was going to do an internal or inward work, a change of the nature, a change of the heart.

The second passage is Ezekiel chapter 11 verses 19 and 20.

And I will give them one heart and I will put a new spirit within you. And I will take the stony heart out of their flesh and will give them a heart of flesh that they may walk in my statutes and keep mine ordinances and do them.

And they shall be my people and I will be their God. And then

I think the strongest passage is Ezekiel chapter 36 verses 25 through 27.

Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you and you shall be clean from all your filthiness and from all your idols will

I cleanse you. Of course, this has nothing to do with sprinkling or baptism. It had to do with the water of purification that was involved, the sprinkling of the blood of the red heifer, hyssop and so forth.

It prefigures the cleansing of the blood of Christ. A new heart also will

I give you and a new spirit will I put within you. And I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you a heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them.

So this is the promise of a new covenant that God would make with his people and it would be an inward work of grace.

It would be taking the stony heart out of their flesh and giving them a heart of flesh, a living heart, a feeling heart, an acting heart, an inward principle of grace as contrasted to that outward externality of religion that they had at that time.

This evidently was hidden from Nicodemus. He did not see it, but he should have.

And you already addressed this, but I want you to perhaps go a little bit further into this because as you know, a great number of professed

Christianity will believe or does believe that water is required for someone to receive the gift of new birth.

We have the Roman Catholics who believe in this. We have the Eastern Orthodox who believe in this and even those perhaps closer to home.

Lutherans believe this and those within the Restoration Movement or the

Church of Christ believe this. And yet we who are known to be Calvinistic and others who are evangelical do not believe that the requirement of water and the spirit in these texts has anything to do with water baptism.

And I'll repeat it again. Starting in verse 4 of John 3, Nicodemus said to him,

How can a man be born when he is old? He cannot enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born, can he?

And Jesus answered, Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.

So I have heard some explanations that involve evangelicals saying that this is referred to the water that flushes out when a baby is born, vaginal fluid.

I have heard that this is referring to the water of the Word of God because the

Bible itself refers to the Scriptures as the water. So what is your opinion on this specifically, on what

Jesus is talking about? There are about five different views. I believe he was speaking figuratively.

I once had an informal debate, a discussion with a good pastor friend of mine.

We're talking now some 40 years ago or more. The man is now with the Lord and we were gathered together at a meeting and it was an informal discussion that got rather heated at times with several men talking and he says,

Well, the water here refers to the Word of God. And he quoted Ephesians chapter 5, washing of water by the

Word. And he said, What's your answer to that? And I looked at him and said, Nicodemus never read

Ephesians chapter 5. And he was, needless to say, he was a little taken aback because he had a flat view of Scripture rather than a progressive revelation.

He had a flat view and you could just arbitrarily pick a verse, Old Testament, New Testament, and fit it in, and many do that.

Baptismal regeneration began about 150 A .D. and it was confusing the reality with the symbol and then the symbol became, had the emphasis and so you have baptismal regeneration.

I would like to give you a thought on the Church of Christ or the Campbellites as we call them.

Their saying is you meet the blood in the water. So really repentance plus baptism equals salvation.

And their great text is Acts chapter 2 and verse 38.

I've been with the Campbellites. I've talked with them. I've had some as acquaintances and so, and their favorite saying was you give me an ax and two 38s and I can whip any

Baptist. This is the humor among themselves. But I've sat in debates, not as a participant, but just taking notes.

Bob Ross, who was a Campbellite before God converted him in his teenage years, he's written many books and is a great debater of the

Campbellites. He's the head of Pilgrim Publications. I've heard some of the big guns among the

Baptists in Campbellite debates and no one has put their finger on a certain issue.

And we have Peter now saying, repent and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins.

And you shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost for the promises unto you and to your children and to all that are far off, even as many as the

Lord our God shall call. First then the Baptist would say the preposition ace unto or because of and the preposition ace into or other meanings could possibly mean that, but that's not really the issue.

And the Campbellites will draw a diagram of the English repent and be baptized.

They are equal verbs in the English. It's a compound predicate and people will fight back and forth and of course no one comes to a conclusion.

But look at the words repent and be baptized every one of you. These are not equal in the original language.

The first is an aorist imperative, urgent, immediate action, second person, plural, all of you immediately repent.

And the second is an aorist in the third person which is permissive and it's singular not plural.

So let me look at this. All of you immediately and urgently repent and let every one of you be baptized.

These are not equal in the original language at all. Let be baptized is a permissive form and construction and is much much less in its in its emphasis.

Then we go on for the promises unto you and to your children and our reformed brethren,

Paido Baptists, will say you see this promises unto you and to your children.

But my contention was and my answer was that cutting off the last part of the verse does not prove your point.

And to all that are afar off even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

So the promise was not simply to believers and covenant children so to speak but the promises all to all that the

Lord will call. Amen. Well going back to another part of the verse that I would like you to exegete or explain we have back in verse 3 of 3

Jesus answering Nicodemus truly truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God.

Now is that phrase that Jesus is saying meant to be equated with he cannot enter heaven after he dies or is

Jesus talking about something else? Well the kingdom of God is an invisible entity.

It can be seen we see the works of the kingdom of God manifest among men.

Matthew uses the term kingdom of heaven 19 times and every place where he uses the term kingdom of heaven in a parallel passage in the gospel and there's a parallel passage for all 19 occurrences is translated the kingdom of God.

So the kingdom of God is an invisible entity of God's rule over his universe and of his spiritual work among his people.

Let come thy kingdom in the in the model prayer. We pray for the increase of God's kingdom.

So it is an entity and the works of God's kingdom may be observed through the preaching of the gospel through missions through evangelism in that way.

I think the point he was making to Nicodemus because Nicodemus thought he was in the kingdom of God that a man cannot even see the kingdom of God and he's bringing that conversation up to a spiritual level to face

Nicodemus. There was nothing left for Nicodemus when our

Lord got to the latter part of John chapter 3. Nicodemus held that the world was the

Jews and the Gentiles and that's the way our Lord used I think the term cosmos in John chapter 3 verses 16 17 and so forth and Nicodemus being an orthodox

Jew at that time thought the only thought God had toward the Gentiles was to judge them and when he said for so loved

God the world and then he said for God sent not his son into the world to judge the world but that the world through him might be saved it just was astounding to Nicodemus that salvation through Christ would go out to all the world so the kingdom of God he cannot even see the kingdom of God I think it's an extreme statement that you don't even you can't enter it you can't even see it you can't discern it and of course

Nicodemus at that point in time was completely blind to it his religion was consisted of externals and not the internals of divine grace and spiritual sight well one of the reasons

I brought that question up is because we who are theologically reformed who believe in the doctrines of sovereign grace or how it is nicknamed calvinism we use that as one of many texts uh to prove or at least bolster the notion that the ordo salutis the correct ordo salutis or order of salvation is that regeneration must precede conversion or faith and here we have an example of Jesus saying that unless one is born again he cannot even see the kingdom of God meaning that the the rebirth or being born from above is required for anyone to have any kind of spiritual sight at all and are those who use the text in that way to bolster the reformed order salutis uh using the term the text correctly

I believe so we enter into a new spiritual realm a new spiritual if I may use the term dimension to which unsafe people unconverted people are completely oblivious and blind they know there's something out there but they have no idea what it is and we have views uh we have baptismal regeneration uh entering into the kingdom of God through infant sprinkling baptism or whatever and then we have the the view which is very common uh in pelagianism which stresses man's alleged free will that conversion precedes or decision precedes regeneration or the new birth and that the new birth is

God's response to man's faith now this is going to be rather complicated if regeneration is

God's response to man's faith then man in and of himself in his unregenerate and unconverted state has the ability to believe and that means that saving faith is nothing more than mere human trust and so we have a decisional regeneration and a decisional regeneration goes back to an external right something that man does that doesn't have to be spiritual at all he makes his religious decision perhaps to find meaning in life perhaps to find himself in our modern society keep his family together be delivered from this habit or that addiction or something else but not as a sinner fleeing to Christ uh with empty hands uh seeking salvation salvation when

God saves us he saves us from ourselves and from the reigning power of sin and that's the furthest from these people's thinking uh there's a a very famous seminary in Texas and in their uh statement of faith they state that as soon as someone exercises that saving faith in Christ then as a result of this he is born again and so they put a decision or conversion or faith they put something in front of regeneration so the new birth to them is a divine reaction to man's ability and faith and uh the the whole concept that someone could not only believe in a trusting way in a way that would save him before he is born from above while he is still dead in his trespasses and sins while he is still in the flesh the idea that he could repent and truly turn to God in more than a mere intellectual way which uh obviously uh

James says in his epistle that even the demons believe there is a God but they tremble so the the mental ascent or intellectual recognition of Jesus or even the gospel is not obviously enough for one to receive a new birth but doesn't

Romans 8 8 bolster the notion that one who is dead in his trespasses and sins cannot offer a faith to God that would please him and save him we have

Romans 8 8 Paul says and those who are in the flesh cannot please

God well if faith that saves you pleases God how can someone in the flesh possess that faith unless he is already born again am i right in using the text that way i i believe so but you are not in the flesh but in the spirit if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you and if any man have not the spirit of God he is none of his that's in the context of Romans chapter 8 i i can give you several reasons why regeneration is necessary uh and that means to uh as an antecedent to conversion as an antecedent to man's uh believing in the

Lord Jesus Christ and I'll just list them and we can explore them as you will and this shows what man is by nature man by nature is spiritually dead

Godward man by nature is insensible to spiritual matters man by nature is at enmity with God that's

Romans 8 man by nature is under the reigning power of sin man by nature cannot contribute anything toward his own salvation or produce anything that is acceptable to God man by nature does not possess true saving faith and man by nature is satanically blinded to the truth and reality of the gospel so we have here about seven reasons why man needs the new birth he needs to be born from above or born again he needs to be regenerated and all of these we have scripture these are based upon scripture and the modern

Pelagian to use that term the modern idea of extreme free will and a man comes to Christ and he believes in him and then we have to come to the conclusion that not all faith is saving faith how do we explain these people who are professing

Christians yet living in sin and oftentimes in immorality or even perversion and do not have anything that is of substance concerning a conversion or even a conversion experience and uh

I'm going to go to one of our listeners we have a number of them who are waiting anxiously to have their questions asked and answered by you

Dr. Downing first we have Anthony in Hoshton and I'm sorry if I'm mispronouncing that perhaps you know how it's pronounced

Dr. Downing I don't know how to pronounce I'm sorry h -o -s -c -h -t -o -n

Hoshton or Hockton I'm not sure but uh Anthony in Hoshton Georgia says could

Dr. Downing address the water of the separate the water of separation from numbers 19 in reference to Jesus's instruction to Nicodemus in John 3 if numbers 21 and the serpent of brass was spoken of in this same context there seems to be a link oh

I'm trying to get to the scriptures here well while you're doing that I'm going to repeat our email address if anybody else would like to join us all right our email address is chrisarnsen at gmail .com

chrisarnsen at gmail .com c -h -r -i -s -a -r -n -z -e -n gmail .com

please give us your first name your city and state your country of residence if you live outside of the USA and please only remain anonymous if your personal involves a if your question involves a personal and private matter and uh so we are

I'm going to repeat uh Anthony's question could Dr. Downing address the water of separation from numbers 19 in reference to Jesus's instruction to Nicodemus in John 3 if numbers 21 the serpent of brass was spoken of in this same context there seems to be a link all right this refers in numbers 19 to the water of uh to the water of separation or the water of purification and that I think again is what uh

Ezekiel refers to in Ezekiel chapter 36 all of these prefigure the cleansing of the blood of Christ and that the brazen serpent in numbers 21 the message was simply look and live it was to to believe and to be healed of the serpent's bite look and live and our lord takes that as a point of contact with Nicodemus Nicodemus understood that he didn't understand much to that time he was confused uh the lord was just undercutting his trust in the rites the rituals the ceremony the law and other things then he said even as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness even so must the son of man be lifted up there's a must there's a moral necessity here and of course uh the brazen serpent was a type was a prefigurement a picture of the lord

Jesus Christ in his redemptive work and the message was look and live it was by faith and this was preparing preparing the world for the gospel

Israel was like first and second graders dealing with stick figures and learning their

ABCs and so forth and the fulfillment of all this anticipatory revelation would be found in the fullness of the gospel and the person and work of the lord

Jesus Christ this is a general answer but I trust it'll be sufficient well thank you

Anthony uh and keep listening to Iron Sharpens Iron Radio and keep spreading the word there in Georgia and beyond and uh if you have the time uh let me know if I'm pronouncing

Hoshton Georgia correctly uh we have another listener we have let's see here we have

Joe in Slovenia let's see he says

I reposted a meme on Facebook today that reads I can't believe it's been a whole year since I didn't become a better person once again millions of people are pledging themselves or pledging to themselves in God others that are and others that they are going to in some way become a better person in 2018 the vast majority of them are deluded that they can accomplish their own self -improvement while they are as yet not born again in what ways can we use this clearly this yearly cycle of unfulfilled new year's resolutions as a talking point in evangelistic conversations to steer the discussion towards the gospel and specifically the necessity of the new birth very good question from Joe in Slovenia basically how do we if somebody says

I'm doing this and this and I'm stopping this and that for my new year's resolutions how do you use that conversations when when somebody brings that up to to steer them to the gospel okay

I'll begin with our lord and you find this with Nicodemus you find it with the woman at the well and the woman at the well presented herself as as a woman with religious concerns and racial cultural concerns she was actually an immoral woman but the lord had to confront her with the truth of the law indirectly uh go call your husband and come here she said

I don't have a husband he said I know you've had five husbands the man you're living with now is not your husband when you said this is the greek a husband

I do not have says you're speaking the truth she's finally brought to the place where she calls her religion into question our lord dealing with Nicodemus and with the woman at the well and we may find this in in other interviews of our lord is that he would bring the conversation up to a spiritual level and then he would bring them to their sense of need and we're living in a time when man is considered to have plenary ability full ability free will full ability it's just left up for him if that's true then spirituality is by self -determination and uh and that may even be acceptable today but it's not it's not biblical who and what we are we are by the grace of god and if a person's truly religious not necessarily saved but truly religious truly sincere he wants to live he or she wants to live above sin beyond sin to be done with sin to be done with contradictions in the personality well even the best of believers are beset within dwelling sin and remaining corruption so we can't talk about perfectionism we can't talk about these other things we have to say here i am but what we are we are by the grace of god and the grace of god is sufficient to overcome anything in this life and i'm not saying perfection at all i'm not saying that but any advancement we make we in the spiritual life we make by virtue of the grace of god and attending unto the means of god's grace many professing christians are utterly bereft of god's grace they're they're unconverted they profess they've walked the aisle i did that years ago walked the aisle made my decision and i often wondered for 10 years why i didn't have a dynamic a power a lasting motivation in my life when god converted me i think we dealt with this last year when we talked when god converted me uh it was at night in my bedroom in the middle of the night i hammered it out with god it was it was it was not a glorious experience it was an awful experience and i gave up everything to him that was it the next morning when i got up i was a different person i was a different person and other people saw it as well as myself and if there's a true conversion experience which is the immediate effect and manifestation of the new birth or regeneration others will see it as well as you the grace of god becomes a reality in the life you are not under the law but under grace romans chapter 6 verse 14 i just pulled that out of the scripture not arbitrarily don't think dispensationally though the definite article is not before the term law there you are no longer under a mere principle of outward command that was the jews outwardly in the old testament but you're under the inward dynamic of grace i believe that's the thinking of that and the context of romans chapter 6 would bear this out i believe that there's a there's a dynamic of grace the divine grace is a reality in the life enabling us cleansing us uh motivating us and enabling us to deal with that principle of indwelling sin and remaining corruption that besets every believer but in evangelism many of the people we talk to are mere professing christians they've gone through the religious machinery and they wonder why in their case it didn't work and i lived like that for 10 years that's my personal comment on that well thank you jones slovenia and we are going to our break right now if you would like to join us on the air with a question of your own our email address is chrisarnson at gmail .com

c h r i s a r n z e and gmail .com please give us your first name and city and state and country of residence if you live outside the usa unless you are asking about a personal and private matter then you can remain anonymous if you so choose and uh this is our elongated break because grace life radio 90 .1

fm in lake city florida requires a 12 -minute break between our two parts so please be patient with us and take this time to write in your questions to dr bill downing at chris arnson at gmail .com

c h r i s a r n z e and gmail .com don't go away god willing we'll be right back with dr bill downing to answer the question or to continue answering the question what does it mean to be born again tired of box store christianity of doing church in a warehouse with all the trappings of a rock concert do you long for a more traditional and reverent style of worship and how about the preaching perhaps you've begun to think that in -depth biblical exposition has vanished from long island well there's good news wedding river baptist church exists to provide believers with a meaningful and reverent worship experience featuring the systematic exposition of god's word and this loving congregation looks forward to meeting you call them at 631 -929 -3512 for service times 631 -929 -3512 or check out their website at wrbc .us

that's wrbc .us i'm james white of alpha omega ministries the new american standard bible is perfect for daily reading or in -depth study used by pastors scholars and readers the nasv is widely embraced and trusted as a literal and readable bible translation the nasv offers clarity and readability while maintaining high accuracy to the original languages which the nasv is known for the nasv is available in many editions like a topical reference bible researched and prepared by biblical scholars devoted to accuracy the new topical reference bible includes contemporary topics relevant to today's issues from compacted giant print bibles find an nasv that fits your needs very affordably at nas bible .com

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that's nasbible .com linbrook baptist church on 225 earl avenue in linbrook long island is teaching god's timeless truths in the 21st century our church is far more than a sunday worship service it's a place of learning where the scriptures are studied and the preaching of the gospel is clear and relevant it's like a gym where one can exercise their faith through community involvement it's like a hospital for wounded souls where one can find compassionate people and healing we're a diverse family of all ages enthusiastically serving our lord jesus christ in fellowship play and together hi i'm pastor bob waldeman and i invite you to come and join us here at linbrook baptist church and see all that a church can be call linbrook baptist at 516 -599 -9402 that's 516 -599 -9402 or visit linbrookbaptist .org

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that's chef exclusive .com hi i'm pastor bill shishko inviting you to tune into a visit to the pastor's study every saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m

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we bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in with your questions our time will be lively useful and i assure you never dull join us this saturday at 12 noon eastern time for a visit to the pastor's study because everyone needs a pastor are you a christian looking to align your faith and finances then you'll want to check out thriving financial we're not your typical financial services provider we're a not -for -profit fortune 500 organization that helps our nearly 2 .4

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you will also win a free book that retails for 15 dollars and that is a book uh authored by dr joel beakey a personal friend of mine and someone whom i have interviewed on this program many times and heard preach in person many times he is a true gift to the body of christ not only in the 20th century but in the 21st century i am so delighted that i have been given the privilege of getting to know dr beakey and call him friend but his book knowing and growing in assurance of faith is uh 15 dollars as far as its retail value and you'll get that for free if you purchase at least 50 or more worth of merchandise from cvbbs .com

and uh please always mention chris arnzen and iron trip and zion radio when you place an order in fact this is how you do that when you place an order you click on instructions uh that is something that is an option after you place your order and when you are given the opportunity to write instructions put in there i heard about you from chris arnzen on iron trip and zion radio please do that that's very important that our advertisers know that you are patronizing them that you are supporting them and that you learned about them through iron trip and zion radio otherwise a connection will not necessarily be made and we may eventually lose advertisers that we would have normally maintained or retained uh because of the fact that they knew that their ads were bringing them business and that people were listening and so on so please make sure you mention chris arnzen and iron trip and zion radio uh just a couple of more things very briefly uh the g3 conference is coming up in uh january uh this month actually obviously uh just coming up in a couple of weeks from the 17th through the 20th in atlanta georgia in fact i know that uh two of our listeners who already submitted questions uh one lives in hoshton georgia one lives in slovenia but has a daughter in georgia please uh why not take this opportunity to come to the g3 conference since it's right there in atlanta and joe in slovenia why not make it a double uh a trip with double significance visit your daughter in georgia here in the united states and come to the g3 conference and take her and her family to the g3 conference the g3 if you're wondering stands for grace gospel and glory and the theme this year of the g3 conference is on discipleship uh the exact uh the exact title of the conference is knowing god a biblical understanding of discipleship and the speakers include stephen lawson lodi baucom phil johnson keith getty hb charles jr tim challis josh bice james white tom askell anthony methenia michael kruger david miller paul trip todd friel derrick thomas who was my guest last friday martha peace justin peters who was also a guest last week and stephen nichols and uh the debate uh between dr james r white and a muslim apologist launches the event on the 17th of january that's wednesday the 17th at 7 p .m

eastern time and well at least 7 p .m uh and then the event will pick up after that with the english speaking edition of the conference until the 20th and then uh prior to all of that there is a spanish speaking edition of the conference during the daytime on january 17th wednesday january 17th that leads up to the english speaking debate between dr white and the muslims so if you know anybody who is a spanish speaking christian or pastor let them know about the spanish speaking edition of the g3 conference on january 17th now i must also do something that i always hate doing but i have to beg you for money uh iron trip and zion radio is in desperate need of your donations we are really in a precarious situation financially we are really and genuinely on the verge of going off the air due to a very uh hard and difficult battle and struggle with finances and we thank god for all of you who have been uh taking heed to the call for help and who have been sending in donations some of you even weekly have been sending in donations and we thank god for that we need more of you to follow their footsteps in order to remain on the air so go to iron sharpens iron radio .com

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that's also the email address where you can send a question for dr bill downing that's chris arnson at gmail .com

we're talking about uh how a man can be born again or what does it mean to be born again uh and we would love to hear your own questions and by the way i forgot to mention there are two listeners who submitted questions before the break anthony and joe you have received a free copy of a catechism on biblical doctrine by our guest dr wr downing so please make sure we have your full mailing addresses so we can ship those out to you compliments of the publishers of this book and also compliments of cvbbs .com

that's cumberland valley bible book service who will be actually shipping the book out to you and dr downing if you could before we go on to any more questions why don't you tell us something about this book uh a catechism on biblical doctrine that you have written it was uh it was a work that i did for homeschoolers originally and uh i would teach for them we would have a a monthly session of about oh two hours we'd gather all of the families together usually mothers and children and we would go through this discuss it it was very informal and eventually it became the book that it is now it's been translated into five languages and it's used around the world we have a question an answer and then a commentary so the book in english is about 335 pages long and it's it's a it's an elementary book on theology i try to write in uh in language that most people can understand and to explain theological and historical terms i use it for my own daily reading i read a question and answer every day and and sometimes change a few things here and there it's been through about three editions but it's gotten a good hearing and we have at this point in time perhaps i'm not sure 15 20 000 of them in print around the world we do we do a work with inmates across the united states in various prison facilities and it's found a good home there the inmates that we deal with are quite studious they want our greek book they want our exegetical handbook they want the hermeneutics book and of course the the catechism book they're defending the faith on the inside as we are on the outside could i could i make a statement here as we go back to the discussion on regeneration oh yeah definitely all right and this is basically from our catechism if we look through the new testament and we gather up those essentials that would comprise regeneration or the new birth what would we have we would have a list these things are true in regeneration and apart from these essential things regeneration has not taken place if these are true then regeneration has taken place we have biblical proof for this uh discussed in the scripture sometimes a single statement sometimes many statements and if any one of these is not true then regeneration has not taken place this was a personal study for me years ago because i lived as a professing christian a good carnal christian living in sin for 10 years until god saved me and it's my opinion that the conversion experience is so real and life changing it's the immediate manifestation and evidence of a regenerate heart that everyone knows it's something that cannot be hidden but let me give these there are six of them and give them to you by way of suggestion and perhaps for discussion if i may oh yeah definitely all right there are six essential spiritual realities which together comprise regeneration or the new birth if any one of these realities is not actual not true within the personality then the individual is yet unregenerate this is is my contention and this is from what is regeneration in our catechism study the first of course is the impartation of divine life unless we have new life from god we are unregenerate and we have such things as genesis or i'm sorry john 3 3 john 3 5 and then in ephesians chapter 2 and you have the quickened who are dead in trespasses and sins and we're dead is on toss uh necruse necruse is uh is uh nominal it's it's a noun it means uh a corpse we were in the state of being corpses a very strong expression used several times in the new testament we were in a state of being a spiritual corpse we may have been religious we may have been moral or immoral we may have had this or that but we were still spiritually dead so first there's the impartation of divine life second there is by necessity the breaking of the reigning power of sin the bible makes a distinction between being a willing bond slave of sin our english bible says servant there are eight different words for servant five to eight different words for servant in the original language and when it's used servants of sin it's the term doulos which means a willing bond slave a very strong term romans chapter 6 works this out in verses 1 through 14 why the believer cannot live continually a life of sin and verses 15 through 23 the tense changes there cannot lightly commit acts of sin so there is the impartation of divine life there's the breaking of the reigning power of sin no one sin can lord it over or master the believer now we do commit acts of sin we see that in first john chapter 2 and verse 1 the the terms there are arist my little children these things i write unto you that you do not commit an act of sin and if anyone does commit an act of sin we have an advocate with the father jesus christ who alone is righteous so it's important to note the tenses there because first john is the battleground for perfectionist teaching third the removal of the natural enmity of the human heart and that is from romans chapter 8 verses 7 and 8 of the man in the flesh the mind of the flesh i don't like the term carnal there in our english translation because some would say this is a contrast between a spiritual christian and a carnal christian it's the mind of the flesh the unregenerate mind has an enmity against god it is not subject to the law of god neither indeed can be first corinthians 2 14 but the natural man receiveth not the things of the spirit of god and the word natural there is psuchikos soulish and it means man at the apex of his uh intellectual and uh uh mental process the the philosophers the greek philosophers were called psuchikoi this is man at his best and yet unregenerate he does not welcome and the word means to reach out the hand and welcome the things of the spirit of god for they are foolishness unto him and the word foolish is moros it's the our word moros or moros or moron it's insensible to him it's insipid it's tasteless to him neither can he know them udunatai a very strong term it's not possible that he can know these spiritual things for they are spiritually discerned so that there's this removal of the natural enmity of the human heart fourth the recreation of the image of god in principle and uh ephesians i just have to say this and if someone wants to ask we can explore it ephesians chapter 4 verses 22 through 24 is not uh a command it's not urging someone to put off the old man and put on the new these are arist infinitive of results you've already put off the old man you've already put on the new and then colossians chapter 3 which are arist uh uh participles that we've already put off the old man we've already put on the new man so there is this recreation of the image of god in principle when man fell the image of god was defaced instead of a righteous intellect controlling the nature what happened he came under the control of his bodily appetites in a sense the body became the boss and we see romans chapter 6 ephesians 4 colossians 3 and uh ephesians chapter 4 verses 17 through 24 show that there is this this principle whereby we come a new creation in christ jesus with a new mind set and fifth and necessarily so there is the removal of satanic blindness this doesn't have anything to do with our own will uh the limitations of the will the freeness of the will we are under satanic blindness who has blinded us that we cannot see the truth and reality of the gospel but god who created the light out of darkness has shined in our heart to give the light of knowledge of the gospel in the face of jesus christ and what we have then is regeneration as a fiat work of god and then finally in the sixth place the gifts of saving repentance and saving faith and when you bring all of these together as spiritual realities they really comprise the that we describe as regeneration or the new birth praise god that was excellent um and now we have a listener from clifton new jersey joey he says dear dr downing thank you for your excellent points on john 3 my apologies that i missed something you were saying were you saying that being born from above is the same as regeneration the reason i was confused is because i thought i heard you say that regeneration is only mentioned once in the new testament perhaps implying elsewhere uh if you could clarify what you meant on these points it would help thank you and that's joey in clifton new jersey all right regeneration may be mentioned more than that usually as being born again uh which is uh on the ganao is the greek verb on again and ganao to be born our lord used the term regeneration in matthew i believe uh let me note something here in matthew referring to a future age that's the only time that our lord used the term regeneration the lord himself used it uh and i don't have uh the scripture at hand but he said in the regeneration uh he said that to the disciples you will you will rule the 12 tribes of israel and so that doesn't refer to being born again that refers to uh the re -establishment of society in a spiritual sense i don't want to get into the eschatology of it uh pre -post all or whatever but that's our lord uses the term regeneration then but the bible uses the term being born from above that was the way our lord worded it and the others have used uh he begat us with the word of truth of being born again not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible these are the common terms that are used for regeneration or the new birth was the verse you were thinking of matthew 19 28 yes probably so in in the regeneration yes and jesus uh let me put my glasses on because i am going blind and fit nearly 56 years of age and jesus said to them truly i say to you that you who have followed me in the generation when the son of man will sit on his glorious throne you will also you also shall sit upon uh 12 thrones judging the 12 tribes of israel so you're saying that that word in there uh in the group yes that is used in the context of eschatology not in the context of being born again right and uh well thank you joey uh by the way you have also won a free copy of uh dr downing's catechism a catechism on biblical doctrine and we thank uh first love publications actually who provided us with these uh they were uh leftover copies from my recent my most recent pastors luncheon iron sharpens iron radio pastors luncheon where first love publications had a book table where they were giving away thousands of free books to the uh pastors who attended that conference and uh they had a handful of these leftover that they gave to me so i'm sharing them with you today i thought it was appropriate since we had dr downing on the program today and we're going to go to our final break right now it's a it's a very brief break uh not nearly as long as the last one so please send in your questions if you intend to ask one of dr downing to chris arnzen at gmail .com

chris arnzen at gmail .com don't go away we'll be back very shortly with more of dr bill downing and what it means to be born again every day at thousands of community centers high schools middle schools juvenile institutions coffee shops and local hangouts long island youth for christ staff and volunteers meet with young people who need jesus we are rural and urban and we are always about the message of jesus our mission is to have a noticeable spiritual impact on long island new york by engaging young people in the lifelong journey of following christ long island youth for christ has been a stalwart bedrock ministry since 1959 we have a world -class staff and a proven track record of bringing consistent love and encouragement to youths in need all over the country and around the world help honor our history by becoming a part of our future volunteer donate pray or all of the above for details call long island youth for christ at 631 -385 -8333 that's 631 -385 -8333 or visit l -i -y -f -c .org

that's l -i -y -f -c .org hi i'm pastor bill shishko inviting you to tune into a visit to the pastor's study every saturday from 12 noon to 1 p .m

eastern time on wlie radio www .wlie540am .com

we bring biblically faithful pastoral ministry to you and we invite you to visit the pastor's study by calling in with your questions our time will be lively useful and i assure you never dull join us this saturday at 12 noon eastern time for a visit to the pastor's study because everyone needs a pastor charles heddon's virgin once said give yourself unto reading the man who never reads will never be read he who never quotes will never be quoted he will not use the thoughts of other men's brains proves he has no brains of his own you need to read solid ground christian books is a publisher and book distributor who takes these words of the prince of preachers to heart the mission of solid ground christian books is to bring back treasures of the past to minister to christians in the present and future and to publish new titles that address burning issues in the church and the world since it's beginning in 2001 solid ground has been committed to publish god -centered christ exalting books for all ages we invite you to go treasure hunting at solid -ground -books .com

that's solid -ground -books .com and see what priceless literary gems from the past or present you can unearth from solid ground solid ground christian books is honored to be a weekly sponsor of iron sharpens iron radio and thank you all of you who have been purchasing books from solid ground christian books and letting them know that you heard about them from chris arnzen and iron sharpens iron radio they have made a turn for the better in their sales thanks to you and mike gadosh the founder of solid ground christian books is thrilled with the orders he is receiving and is thrilled that iron sharpens iron radio is a very strong catalyst in those orders coming in so thank you so much and remember even when you purchase books from cvbbs .com

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