Regeneration (Rora 2003) — Ron Bailey

Good morning, we'll pray briefly, inspire the living faith which whosoe 'er receives the witness in himself he hath and consciously believes. The faith that conquers all and doth the mountain move and saves whoe 'er on Jesus' call and perfects them in love.

Amen. Can't pray any better than that. In fact if you've read that and thought through it carefully I don't really need to preach to you this morning. That might get me into less trouble. We've had one or two questions come in on the internet from people who are curious as to where exactly we stand on some of the things we're saying.

Had a telephone call from my wife. I have a message to you from her. I am not a Humpty Dumpty. Of course what she means by that is anybody's guess. Our topic this morning is regeneration and it's the third in our series of which the overall title is Having Begun in the Spirit and I've chosen that series title very, very carefully because I want us to be thinking about reality in the spirit not logical deductions drawn from proof texts.

Faith Based on Revelation Rather Than Evangelical Formulas

One of the questions that has been not just from the internet but come in from individuals too is I made a passing statement about discomfort I felt with certain trends in evangelicalism which I prefaced by saying that faith that is not based on revelation is superstition.

And people have said, what do you mean? Illustrate, give us one or two examples. And I'm not going to give you many because I want to press on with this thing but I'll tell you the kind of area I'm thinking of.

There's a whole language that's built up in evangelical circles probably over the last hundred years which we're all very familiar with and which I think we've probably stopped thinking about. And you get kind of statements for example like this.

You'll say, if you give your heart to Jesus, you'll go to heaven when you die. Now, the Bible says no such thing. I'm not saying it's not true. I'm just simply saying the Bible says no such thing. If you ask Jesus into your heart, you'll have your name written in the Lamb's book of life.

Nowhere in the Bible does it talk about inviting Jesus into your heart. In fact, the testimony of the Bible is that your heart is so incurable that God doesn't want it. So, he'll give you a new one. So, we have an entirely different pattern of ideas that come.

Anyone who has received Christ has received his spirit which is actually the exact opposite of what the Bible says which is that when someone receives his spirit, that's how you receive Christ. But this whole language of receiving Christ is evangelical rather than biblical.

I know where it comes from. It comes from another happy little most quotation where we say, ah, but as many as received him, they became real Christians. That's not what it says. What it says is as many as received him, to them he gave the authority to become children of God which is actually quite different.

All I'm pleading for is that we consider what the Bible says. Think it through and don't just go with the flow. The terrible danger is that we just sleepwalk from one generation to the next in our evangelical theology and stop thinking about things.

That's why I asked Norman if we could sing this hymn. This hymn, to quote those last lines again is this, Inspire the living faith which whosoever believes the witness in himself he hath and consciously believes.

Assurance, the Witness of the Spirit, and Logical Deduction

At different times in my life, I've had different sorts of responsibilities and I recall on one occasion working as an advisor who was someone over a group of counsellors at Evangelistic Crusades. And that particular evangelistic agency which has been very, very greatly blessed and was blessed to my own conversion, developed a methodology.

They discovered, for example, that of all the people who came forward after an appeal, there were many different reasons why people had responded in that way. I've forgotten the exact figures but it was something like about 15 were coming forward because they had heard something that had spoken to them for the first time and they wanted to respond to God.

Now there's a whole bundle of little things like people went forward because their friend went forward or because they wanted to stand on the turf at Wembley or something like this. But the largest percentage was of people who had come forward before but weren't convinced that the thing that they wanted had happened so they were now coming forward again.

And the terminology that was used to describe these people was people who need assurance. They need the assurance of salvation. So, a methodology was developed which went something like this. You work with such people by going through steady steps.

And you began by saying, well, when you ask Christ into your life, another non-biblical statement, when you invite Christ into your life, did you do it in the name of Jesus? Because Jesus says, hitherto you've asked nothing in my name.

Ask and you will receive that your joy will be full. So, if you ask him to come into your life in his name, he must do it because he never breaks a promise. So, have you done it? And they'd say, yes, I did that the last time.

And you'd say, okay, if that's the case, let me read this passage to you. Here it is from 1 John chapter 3. This is the record that God has given to us eternal life and this life is in his Son. He that has the Son hath life and he that has not the Son of God has not life.

These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may know that you have eternal life and that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And in one particular school of counselling, I was taught on verse 13 to make a deliberate mistake to attract the attention of the person who has been counselling to what the Bible actually said.

So, you'd read it like this. These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may hope you have eternal life. And the person who has been counselling would say, no, that's not what it says.

And you'd say, let me read it again. These things have I written to you that believe on the name of the Son of God that you may be almost sure that you have eternal life. And they'd say, no, that's not what it says.

So, I'll read it again. These things have I written unto you that you may feel that you have eternal life. And they'd say, no, that's not what it says. And you'd say, what does it say? And they'd say, it says no, so you can know absolutely for sure.

Is that right? And they'd say yes. And that's brainwashing. That's brainwashing. In fact, if we'd started off not at verse 11, this is the record, but verse 10, we would never have got ourselves into that mess.

He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself. And this is why A. W. Tozer, who I mentioned is often referred to as a 20th century prophet, used to say that what we have done in evangelicalism is in place of the genuine witness of the Spirit, we have begun to replace it, we have substituted logical deductions drawn from proof texts.

And I am fearful in my heart because we end up with a generation of people who are wonderfully educated in evangelical theology and who have not consciously believed, who do not have the witness in their spirit, but they are propped up with a logical deduction process that comes from the Scriptures.

Let me give you an illustration of the other side of it. Many years ago, I remember listening to a man named Richard Wunbrandt, who was a Romanian pastor and in communist years had suffered terribly for his faith.

I think almost every bone in his body had been broken. He'd been in prison time after time. He'd gone through so many processes of brainwashing. So, this is his testimony. He came to one point in prison where he could not rebuild a single verse of Scripture.

But he says, I knew I was the Lord's. That is the witness of the Spirit. We just need to remind ourselves, of course, that so many of the early Christians didn't actually have 1 John chapter 5 to read.

Maybe we should sympathize with them. Poor things, they only had the witness of the Spirit to go on. Now, you know I love this book. I love this book to bits and mine is almost falling to bits. I have a friend who says, have you noticed that Bibles that are falling to bits are usually owned by people who aren't?

Regeneration as a Change of Nature

I want to talk to you this morning about regeneration. It's the third one in our series. The first one was repentance, a change of direction. The second was justification, a change in legal status. Third one, regeneration, a change in nature.

I want you to notice how carefully I'm using these words, a change of. Not a modification in, not an addition to, a change of. You will get used to me and my pedantry if you can live long enough. Alright?

Regeneration, a change of nature. Did you notice that line at the end of verse 58? We sang it, And saves who err on Jesus' call and perfects them in love. The early Methodists used to love to talk about perfect love.

John Wesley wrote a very contentious book called Christian Perfection. I believe with all my heart in Christian Perfection. So now what have you done? Have you been me now already? Or are you still going to listen to me?

Well, what's the alternative? What do you believe in? Christian Imperfection? Who would like to say, I believe in Christian Imperfection? Amen. That would be a real watchword to take around the world, wouldn't it?

Or Imperfect Christianity. I believe in Imperfect Christianity. Well, there's enough of that about to thrive whether you believe in it or not. But I believe in Christian Perfection. I think I've had a longing in my heart from even before I was conscious of God ever speaking to me, that I wanted something to be perfect.

Now, I don't think it's unreasonable. I think it's an instinct. In the heart of the human race, we know that we were designed for something. We may be frustrated to death as we reach out for this and that.

But somehow in the heart of man, we know we were made for better than this. And we sing these hymns. People who say they don't believe in Christian Perfection sing these hymns. Purify me, we were singing last night.

Like pure gold, we were singing. Sometimes we need to think about those kind of things we're thinking too. You know that when a refiner refines silver or pure gold, it was not a lifetime's job. It was an intense hour.

Yes? An intense hour of fierce concentration. And then the thing was done. Or I believe in regeneration. Let's go to, let's go to a good starting point, but maybe not where you're expecting. Let's go to Matthew, first of all, chapter 12.

No, sorry, 19. This is the only time the word regeneration is found on the lips of the Lord Jesus. He spoke, of course, about being born again, which is the same idea, but the exact word is only used here in Matthew chapter 19 and verse 28.

And Jesus said unto them, Verily I say unto you, that you who have followed me in the regeneration, when the Son of Man shall sit on the throne of His glory, ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel.

I'm not going to read on. I want you to get the feel, the mood of that word. In the regeneration, what is He referring to? He's referring to a time when thrones are set. He's referring to a time when the Son of Man sits in the throne of His glory.

He's really referring to what you might call cosmic regeneration. And there's a little thumbnail sketch of cosmic regeneration in the book of Revelation. I'll read it to you. It says this, And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes, and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain.

For the former things are passed away. And He that sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. Former things passed away, all things made new. Can you hear an echo there of something that Paul once said, If any man be in Christ, he is a new creation.

Old things are passed away, behold, all things are become new. When Jesus spoke in Matthew chapter 19, He was referring to the cosmic regeneration. The regeneration, the renewing of all things in the consummation of the ages.

I'm on the side of Tom Hamblin on this. I'm not going to get into Revelation this morning. I'm just going to say that is the statement of what it says here. But as well as cosmic regeneration, there is personal regeneration which is almost a microcosm.

Being Born From Above in John 3

It's a living example of what God is going to do in that final day. And if you'll turn with me now to where you thought I was going probably, John chapter 3. John chapter 3. It's one of those chapters in the Bible where we don't know absolutely for sure where the words of Jesus stop and the words of John the evangelist, the commentator, join together.

So, if you've got one of those Bibles with all the words of Jesus in red, well, their guess is as good as yours. So, don't worry too much about it. I've got this very special Bible where all the words of the Holy Spirit are in black.

I far prefer it. John chapter 3. There was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews. The same came to Jesus by night and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God for no man can do these miracles that thou doest except God be with him.

Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born from above, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born?

Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born of water and of 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.

Marvel not that I said unto you, Unto thee ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth where it wants to and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh and whither it goeth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit.

So, you can see in the kind of language that's coming together here that regeneration, being born from above or being born of the Spirit are ways in which Jesus is referring to something that he wants Nicodemus to know as a certainty must happen.

In this old-fashioned AV that I use, one of the main reasons I use it is not because I like the beauty of the words, that's not the main purpose of the Bible to be beautiful but because we are impoverished in English in one thing in particular and almost every other language in the world as far as I know is richer than us in this aspect and that is that we have lost the distinction between the and you.

We've just got this one word you which now just means you personally and you collectively and we've lost the word that gives you the sense of God putting his finger lightly on your chest and saying thou art the man.

This thing that personally applies the truth to us. And if you noticed as I read here, you'll see that there's actually a switch in one of these verses where in verse 7 it says this, Jesus speaking to Nicodemus, Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again.

What he's done there is he has switched from the singular to the plural. It is absolutely true that thou Nicodemus must be born again but this is not just a truth for Nicodemus. This is a truth for all those who were there at the same time including the writer of this particular record of the gospel.

You must be born again. This is a categoric divine imperative, you must. Not it would be preferable if or it would be convenient if, you must be born again. To begin with, the Lord Jesus says to Nicodemus that until he is born again and literally it means from above, in one sense a new birth wouldn't necessarily be better.

It might just be an action replay of the one you'd had the last time. But if you're going to be born from above, now there's a new source to this life. It's not just new in the sense of again, it's new in the sense of brand new.

It's being born from above and that's what this word means. It's used several times in the New Testament and nearly always translated from above. But we're used to it here as again, but it's from above.

He says to Nicodemus, Nicodemus until a man is born again from above, they can't see the kingdom of God. Interesting statement, isn't it? Going back to evangelical ideas, a little while ago there was a very strong move that we should get out there and show them what it was really like and manifest the kingdom.

Let's get out there on the streets. Let's show them that the alternative society is already here and if we get enough people together they can't possibly ignore us. 500 ,000 lemmings can't possibly be wrong.

I don't know what we thought we were doing but apparently you can't see the kingdom unless you're born again from above. So by definition, whatever it was we were manifesting, it wasn't the kingdom because that can't be seen except to people who are born again from above.

You see why I say I think we need to get back to think through what the Bible is telling us and not just go along with these evangelical superstitions. So first of all Jesus says you can't see it. You can't see the rule of God.

You can't see what God is doing. You can't see. Well, in this hymn that we sang earlier, what does he say? No man can truly say that Jesus is the Lord unless thou take the veil away and breathe the living word.

In other words, if we quote Paul, it's only by the Holy Spirit that you can call Jesus Lord. It's only as a result of revelation. We're back to that word again. It's only as a result of revelation that we can begin any of these crises which much develop into processes.

Unless you're born from above, says Jesus, you can't see how this thing works. You can't see the rule of God. You can't see the purpose of God. And Nicodemus is somewhat perplexed by it and I'm not going to go into his perplexity.

I just want to look at this statement in verse 6. That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must be born again. The wind, and you probably know that in Greek the word for wind and breath and spirit are all the same word.

So, this could be. The spirit blows where he wills and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it comes and whither it goes. So is every one that is born of the Spirit. There's always going to be mystery about genuine regeneration.

It's never going to be as a result of a procedure, a technique, a methodology. No matter how closely we try to tie it to Scripture, God will have his prerogatives in these things. It will be as he wills, as he chooses, when he chooses and not when we decide we'll go through an ABC of salvation or a certain number of spiritual rules and produce some kind of product at the end of it.

You must be born again. Why? Why can't God just patch us up? Why can't he just forgive us and let it drop? Why do we have to be born again? Alright, come with me now please to Romans. Very much of what I'm saying in these four sessions could have been said all out of Romans because this is almost a progression that you get into the book of Romans.

Romans: Guilt, Justification, and the Purpose of the Law

So we'll turn to, what does Peter call this? The wisdom that Paul was given and has written to you. So this is not the mind of Paul, this is the wisdom of God given to Paul for you and me so that we can read it.

It's intriguing too for me to notice how Peter gives Paul his full title. We get again carried away in evangelicalism into all kinds of titles and we have bishops this and elder that and evangelist the other and pastor this and you know that none of those words are used as titles in the New Testament.

They're all job descriptions. There's not a single one of them that's used as a title. But we can give Paul his full formal title if you want to. It's the one that Peter uses in his second letter when he says, our beloved brother Paul.

That'll do. I'll tell you something, you ought to use that more often. Very difficult to criticize someone if you start off by saying our beloved brother. Very difficult. Okay, let's see what we've got here.

Very quick resume of Romans. The first two or three chapters, Paul is bringing this accusation, he's bringing the whole world, every individual, every part of it to justice. And the verdict is guilty.

But because of this astonishing thing that God has done in paying the price in Christ, it's possible for God to declare us to be justified and we can walk from the court a free man. And then he illustrates that that was the experience of these people that we call Old Testament saints.

And he starts in chapter 4 by saying, what shall we say then that Abraham our father as pertaining to the flesh has found? So there's his question. And chapter 4 is very much the answer to his own question.

What was Abraham's experience? What did Abraham discover? And then he goes through here and he brings in David who further expands the blessednesses of being justified by faith. And he comes to this point and he says, Abraham is the father of all those who believe us, whether they are from the Gentile races, whether they are from, whether they are physical descendants of Abraham, it makes no difference.

They all have to have this Abrahamic faith. The faith of Abraham, he says. Later on he'll talk about the faith of Jesus which is somewhat different. But we may not get quite onto that. That'll be another question for you another time.

He then begins to talk about the law and he makes it very clear, he makes it even clearer in Galatians if you want the condensed version, that the law was only ever given as an addition and for a specific purpose and for a specific period of time.

What purpose does the law serve, says Paul right into Galatians? Well, he says it was added. It was added to a relationship of sorts that men had with God. It was added for the sake of transgressions until the seed should come unto whom the promise was made.

So, it was only an addition and it was only ever intended to be temporary. And the purpose of it was transgressions. What the Jewish people did is they made it a ladder. They made it a way of attaining a certain standard of righteousness, a do-it-yourself achievement by which God would have to listen to what they were saying and continue to own them as his people.

And Paul says that was never the purpose of it. The purpose of it was to sensitize this particular people of God to whom God had given his unique revelation in this whole issue of sin. I have a Finnish daughter-in-law and we have just said goodbye to Alan and Margie Brett and Daniel who were in our home for two or three weeks.

And Margie, of course, is Finnish. And we sat down and I said, Margie, I want you to make me a list now of all the Finnish words you know for snow. And she stopped at about 30. I've had this conversation with her before but I'd lost the list so we had to go over it again.

I've kept it safe now. I know where it is. 30. You see, for people like us down in the south-east of England, we have snow for a couple of hours. One morning, usually in February. And that's it. So, it's no big deal.

That's just snow is snow is snow. What more can you say? It's snow. But for people living in Finland who have six months of the stuff, the snow is not never just snow. There's all kinds of snow. There's snow that's falling on snow.

There's snow that's freezing as it falls. There's snow that isn't freezing as it falls but freezes when it hits the frozen snow that's underneath. There's snow that blows into your face. There's snow that floats down.

There's snow. There's all kinds of snow. And the reason there are all kinds of snow is because the Finnish people are highly sensitized to snow. So, it's important for them to know what kind of snow we're talking about.

You know that there are 18, 1 -8 -18 Hebrew words for sin. God was determined to sensitize this people to sin. That they might see the exceeding sinfulness of sin. That they would see the terrible scorecard.

That they would understand to be under no illusions as to how hopeless it was ever to try and achieve acceptance with God by their own righteousness. That was the whole purpose of it. It was only ever intended to be temporary.

It was until the seed should come to whom the promise was given. So, it has its sell-by date and not-good-after date very plainly printed on it. From the moment that the seed came, you began to see in Him, in the pattern of His life, an entirely different way of living.

And then as a result of His death and as a result of His Spirit, that way of living becomes a possibility for all men and women who receive His Spirit. And the law of the life that's in Christ Jesus frees them from the law of sin and death and makes a whole new way of life gloriously possible.

It was only until the seed should come to whom the promise should be made. But justification by faith is a very, very important foundational truth. And in some ways, we have to preach it with such an extreme energy that it's possible for someone to listen to us and say, what shall we say then?

Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound? Now you notice Paul never says, now that's not logical. Because that is actually a perfectly logical question if you followed what he's saying. What he does say is, how can you?

We who died to sin, how can you continue to live in it? In other words, if you're asking the question, you're not in it. You don't know what I'm talking about. It's a perfectly logical question following what we were saying yesterday.

Our acceptance with God is 100 determined by what His Son did upon the cross. 100%. And that will be the same forever. Even in Emmanuel's land, as that lovely hymn says. It will still be the basis of our acceptance with God.

What He did upon the cross for us. But there's more. In fact, in Romans chapter 5, there's much more. It uses that little phrase, five times in your AV and four times in the Greek. Much more, much more, much more, much more.

So I want us to flow from Romans chapter 4 into 5 and see what we're beginning to see now here. This is what he says. I'll read from verse 20, and I'll go back a little bit, because these are such wonderful verses that we shouldn't miss them.

I'll read from verse 18, which is speaking about Abraham's faith. And it says, As who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, so shall thy seed be.

And being not weak in faith, he considered not his own body now dead, when he was about an hundred years old, neither yet the deadness of Sarah's womb. He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God.

And being fully persuaded that what he had promised, he was able also to perform, and therefore it was reckoned to him for righteousness. Now it was not written for his sake alone that it was reckoned unto him, but for us also, to whom it shall be reckoned, if we believe on him that raised up Jesus our Lord from the dead, who was delivered for our offences and was raised again for our justification.

So this is Paul saying, this wasn't just a one-off for Abraham. It certainly just wasn't a one-off for the people of Israel. This is true for all those who put their faith in him. All are justified by faith.

All have righteousness reckoned to their account. So he wants this, this is part of our experience. Remember what I said the very first time we were together, and I'll repeat it now in case you've forgotten it.

What we're doing something in Bible study like this is inherently dangerous. We are extracting truth and assembling bits of truth together so that we can look at particular topics. Now the Bible never speaks truth to us like that.

It always puts truth in amazingly rich contexts. It always insists that we consider other truths alongside this truth. So what I'm doing is something which is really quite artificial. It may be justifiable in that it can be helpful to think about it.

As long as we think about it in the way that the old theologians used to say that we should think about the Trinity. You may distinguish the persons, but you must not divide the substance. And in these things that I'm speaking of, of having begun in the Spirit, you may distinguish the elements, but you must not divide the substance.

This really is one topic we're talking about. Having begun in the Spirit. Alright? Now what does Paul say in chapter 5? He's just said that Christ was rised again for our justification. And he says, therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

So to all those blessings that David identified, which you can still see possibly in verse 7 and 8 of chapter 4, iniquities sent away, sins covered, sin not kept a score of. Paul now adds this one. Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

And this is not the peace of God, which is a sense of well-being and God's care. This is the peace of God. Its opposite is enmity with God. What has happened in the death of Christ is that God has been able in putting forth that propitiation to satisfy His own righteous requirements, His own anger against sin.

And now we have this glorious possibility of entering into peace with God. And then he says this, by whom also. Now also means, in addition to what I've just said, there's something fresh coming. Is that right?

Is that right? That's what also means. It means okay, we've done 1, 2, 3 and 4 and there's more. Also. By whom also, we have access. Now this is new. We have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand.

Can you see the possibility of a contrast here? We've just seen the grace in which Abraham stood. We've seen the grace that was extended to David. We've seen the grace that's extended to those who are justified by faith and reckoned righteous as a result of what Christ has done.

That's grace. That's grace. Wonderful, wonderful grace. But there's more grace. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand. There is an open door into something new. There's an open door into something which was not the ordinary experience of those saints in Old Testament times.

Oh, they saw that day. They saw wonderful glimpses of it and you'll get them in the writings of people like David. But this grace is uniquely New Covenant grace. By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand and rejoice in hope of the glory of God.

In Romans chapter 3 and verse 23, Paul had said we have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. Man's inheritance, his destiny had been forfeit. Our hope of ever being what God had wanted us to be, a living revelation of his own character, his own likeness, were gone, squandered, blown, no way through.

But now Paul says we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. There's a restoration of hope to those who read this. God is going to do something that He hasn't done previously in this way. Then he speaks like this.

He says, not only so, but we glory in tribulation also, knowing that tribulation works patience and patience experience and experience hope. And hope makes not a shame because the love of God has shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has given to us.

We have now come in Paul's reasoning the wisdom that God gave to him written to you. We have now come into this place where we are moving into this amazing era of the Holy Spirit given to us. Because of the Holy Spirit being given to us, the love of God is poured out in our hearts.

Same word that Peter used on the day of Pentecost. He has poured forth this which you now see in here. This is the living proof in flesh and blood again that Jesus had achieved what He intended to achieve and that the Father has accepted it and can now move on with His glorious plan of salvation and making each man and woman His own personal dwelling place.

He can come into men and women and dwell there. He can fill them with His Holy Spirit. And then Paul does this astonishing thing. Maybe in case we aren't quite sure what he is talking about. He begins to explain what the love of God is like and he shows that the love of God is quite different to any other kind of love.

It's not like any other love you've touched. This is quite a different order of love. And he expresses it by saying, well, I'll read it. Verse 6, When we were yet without strength in due time, Christ died for the ungodly.