What is My Standing Regeneration — E.A. Johnston

The Crisis of Superficial Conversion

Dr. R .G. Lee, years ago, shocked the Southern Baptist Convention in South Carolina when he announced that, of his immense congregation in Memphis, he believed only 10 of his people had an experiential knowledge of Christ Jesus.

Well, I taught Sunday School at that church in Memphis for 15 years, and I would not disagree with his assessment. Listen, friends, only God knows the heart as to whether one is truly born again or not, but if we're brutally honest with ourselves, I wonder how many in our congregations today, including ministers, know the reality of God in the life and have the life of God in the soul of man through a regenerated heart by being truly born again.

Diluting the Gospel and Producing False Converts

When the church began to dilute the gospel and pull its teeth of the great doctrines of the gospel in order to make it more palatable to sinful man, did we ever realize the damage that would be done when we took salvation out of the hands of God and placed it in the hands of men?

Did we care that we were making false converts just to fill our seats in the sanctuary? The apostle Paul did not fear man more than God, and he pulled no punches when he preached, and he never once sugarcoated the gospel to make it more acceptable, and he was not afraid of his deacons, and when he wrote in Romans 8 and 9.

Examining Ourselves in the Faith

But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit. If so, be that of the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now, if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his. We must ask ourselves the question, what is my standing in regard to ourselves and regeneration, and be honest with ourselves as in the exhortation of the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 13 .5, which declares, Examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith, prove your own selves.

Know ye not your own selves, that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates? This is often more difficult than one would imagine, because the devil gives a false peace to many, both John Wesley and George Whitefield, while members of the Holy Club at Oxford operated as religious lost men until their conversion.

John Wesley's Conversion from Religious Zeal to New Birth

John Wesley even traveled to America as a missionary to the Indians as an unconverted minister. Sailing back to England after failure, he wrote in his journal, I came to Georgia to save the heathen, but who will save me?

It finally happened one evening at a Bible study in London. Listen, friends, to his journal entry describing his conversion. In the evening I went very unwillingly to a society in Aldersgate Street where one was reading Luther's preface to the epistle to the Romans.

About a quarter before nine, while he was describing the change which God works in the heart through faith in Christ, I felt my heart strangely warmed. I felt I did trust in Christ, Christ alone for salvation, and an assurance was given me that he had taken my sins away, even mine, and saved me from the law of sin and death.

Well, after Wesley experienced a new birth, he had a holy boldness for God. He would say, give me a hundred men who fear nothing but God and hate nothing but sin, and I will shake the gates of hell, and he did just that.

George Whitefield and the Life of God in the Soul

Well, George Whitefield knew what it was like to be a lost religious man as well. He fasted and prayed. He did good works like visiting widows and those in prison. He even denied himself good food and warm clothing to demonstrate his service to God, but it was only after his good friend, Charles Wesley, loaned him a book by the Scotsman, Henry Schugle, entitled The Life of God in the Soul of Man.

Did the young Whitefield realize this was his greatest need? He needed to be born again to where he knew firsthand the life of God in the soul of man. Whitefield would go on to shake two continents for God in revival, proclaiming his main theme, he must be born again.

And while preaching on Boston Common to 20 ,000 people, afterwards he was approached by a minister who asked how many converts he had had, to which the great British evangelist replied, I cannot say, sir, but a year from now I will return to these parts and I will look for the evidence of their salvation.

Regeneration Versus a Mere Decision

Well, we must ask ourselves, what is my standing in regard to regeneration in my heart? Am I just a lost religious member or am I truly born again? Am I born from above and washed in the blood? The answer to the following question may help you determine your state.

Are men saved as a result of a decision they make or as the result of the regenerating work of the Holy Spirit? You decide, friend, but I tell you this, you must be born again.