Why Are You A Christian? - [James 1:17-18]

Ever ask the question, why?

Sometimes it's from a kid, but it doesn't end with the first why.

You answer the question and then they say why again, and then they say why, why, why every time.

You know, when my children were little, Daddy, why did you marry Mom?

Well, because I loved her.

Why?

Well, she's godly on the inside and pretty on the outside.

Why?

Why?

And finally, sometimes I'd have to say to my kids, you can ask this one last question, why?

But if you ask the next question, you're going to get a spanking.

Why?

I mean, there's got to be an end to the why questions eventually, right?

My question to you this morning is, why are you a Christian?

If you're a Christian this morning, maybe there are some people here that are not born again, but if you're a Christian,

why are you a Christian?

You say, well, I believed.

What's my next question?

Why?

Well, someone brought the gospel to me and showed me my sin and the riches of Christ Jesus, His

death on the cross as a sin bearer, His literal resurrection, and I could see how attractive that was.

My conscience convicted me.

I knew how sinful I was, and I couldn't turn away from it.

Why?

Well, I lived my life in sin, and I was compelled to run from my sin and run to the

cross by faith.

Why?

And this morning in our passage, we're going to answer that question with the terminal why.

Why are you a Christian?

And the answer is going to be something you already know, but it's good to be reminded of.

If you're a Christian today, you're a Christian because God made you one.

It's not because of your own faith.

It's not because of the evangelist that brought you good news.

It's not even based on those people that prayed for you to become a Christian.

You are a Christian because God is the final one who made you a Christian.

Turn your Bibles to James chapter 1 this morning.

It's been about 19 years since I've been in James, and so I thought I would return to James.

We will get back to Hebrews in the next week or two.

Jump back headfirst into Hebrews.

Maybe not headlong, but headfirst into Hebrews.

But this morning, James chapter 1, why is anyone a Christian?

As you know, all doctrine, as the Puritans would say, is practical, and all practice

is doctrinal.

And you will notice as we work through James chapter 1, you'll say to yourself, if I made myself a Christian, I can

pat myself on the back.

If other people made me Christians, then I can pat them on the back.

But if God made me a Christian, then I only have Him to praise.

Right?

Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord.

And if God takes you out of darkness and places you into light, if you were in the world and now you're in Christ

Jesus, if you're forgiven for all your sins, and God did that, could any man

forgive his own sins?

Could any man make peace with God?

The answer is no and no.

But if God made you a Christian, then the response is, thank you.

I don't know if anybody's done something super nice for you before, and your knee -jerk reaction is, thank

you.

And so you'll notice today as you go through James 1, the response for the Christian is probably

amazement, how could you do this, God, knowing who I was?

And secondly, thank you, thank you, thank you.

I think it will also give you insight into the world's problems, because, friend, the world

is in a total disaster mode, and no politician can solve it.

Did you hear me?

No politician can solve it.

No doctor can cure it.

No scientist can invent the solution.

You have to make the right diagnosis first, and the diagnosis is, there's a sin problem and only

atonement can solve it.

The world needs an internal change.

The Christian observer said, you might as well try to cure smallpox by scenery

as to try to save the world by improvement of environment.

I think you could ask Adam to confirm that.

My own take, this was in the middle of jet lag, so forgive me.

You might as well try to cure greed by the lottery.

It just doesn't make any sense.

Today, praising God, from whom all blessings flow, the subject of regeneration.

Who causes regeneration?

Who is the author of regeneration?

How did you become a Christian?

And the answer ahead of time is, you're a Christian because of God's free will, God's determining will,

God's loving will, God's distinguishing will.

The ultimate cause for your Christianity is from God.

Well, let's just go to James chapter 1.

We're going to focus on verses 17 and 18 today.

In a book full of all kinds of imperatives, there are a few indicatives, there are a few statements of fact that are wonderful.

To use Machen's terminology, the great theologian, he said, there are some triumphant indicatives.

And our verses are going to be 17 and 18, but I think it would be good for us to see the context.

And let me read James 1 .1 through about verse 12, and then we'll

pick up our exposition for today, answering the question, why is anyone a Christian?

With the answer, monergistic regeneration.

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings.

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the

testing of your faith produces steadfastness.

And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete,

lacking in nothing.

If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God, who gives generously to all without reproach,

and it will be given, it will be given him.

But let him ask in faith with no doubting.

For the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.

For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord.

He is a double -minded man, unstable in all his ways.

Verse nine, let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation and the rich in his humiliation,

because like a flower of the grass, he will pass away.

For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass.

Its flower falls and its beauty perishes.

So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the

test, he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those

who love him.

Verse 13, you're going to notice that temptation, evil temptation, is from the

inside.

It's not from God.

Let no one say, let no one say when he's tempted, I'm being tempted by God.

For God cannot be tempted with evil, and he himself emphatically tempts no one.

The problem with this illicit temptation lies elsewhere.

It's not found on the outside.

God, it's found from the inside.

The real blame is the person.

I'm the one to blame.

You're the one to blame.

You want to blame someone, the blame doesn't go to God.

But each person, do you notice verse 14, is tempted when he is lured and

enticed by his own desire.

Then desire, when it is as conceived, gives birth to sin.

And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death.

Friends, it's easy to say, you know what, God's tempting me, God's arranging providentially such

a format so that I'm just going to fall headlong into sin.

The problems with everybody else, it's easy to be misled.

And therefore, James writes, verse 16, do not be deceived.

If it wasn't easy to be deceived, he wouldn't have to write it.

But it's easy to blame others, especially to blame God.

Especially those who have been taught reformed doctrine of sovereignty and providence, blaming God for

something.

Don't be deceived and look at the pastoral heart of the half -brother of Jesus, my beloved

brothers.

Now, you can say when you're getting tempted, let's not blame God.

I'm really the problem.

I don't want to be deceived.

But it also bolsters the one who's being tempted when he looks to God to see, what

does God do in the middle of these things?

Who is God?

What's his track record?

And we come to our two verses for this morning, verses 17 and 18.

And you're going to see that God gives.

He's a giving God.

He's not the cause of some temptation so we can blame him.

He provides everything, salvation and even the remedy in temptation.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above.

Coming down from the father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change of his own

will, he brought us forth by the word of truth that we should be a kind of first fruits

of his creatures.

Here's what we're going to do today.

We're going to look at these verses in context and then we're going to have some questions and answers about salvation.

Why we're Christians?

So we'll do some exposition and then some questions with biblical answers.

Looking back at verse 17, the good gifts come to us from above.

Our temptation is from within.

These good and perfect gifts come from above.

To say that God does evil and he does sin and he somehow tries to trip us up,

that's not true.

He's a comprehensive giver.

Do you notice every two times there in English and in Greek, every good giving and every

perfect gift is from above.

I hate the inclusiveness that the world sells but I love this kind of inclusiveness.

Everything good comes from God.

And that word good means useful, beneficial.

He's lavish in his generosity.

If you're in a temptation, you can't blame God because everything God does, he does well and he just gives.

It's like that king that died, as the story goes, and he had two sons.

Who would be the successor?

And those two little boys laying there sleeping, one with his fist tightly shut and

the other with his hand wide open.

They said, let's pick the boy with the hand wide open and he'll be known as the king with the open hands.

Here's God with his hands open.

He's not tempting.

He gives good gifts.

Everything he gives is good.

Everything he makes is good.

This harkens back to Genesis chapter 1.

God saw the light was good.

He called the dry ground land and God saw that it was good.

The land produced vegetation and God saw that it was good.

And you know the refrain over and over, and God saw that it was good.

Even back in verse 5, do you notice?

If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without reproach.

Everything you need comes from God.

Wisdom, salvation, family, friends, and everything in between.

And this is not only a good gift.

Do you notice what the text says?

It's a perfect gift.

It's a lacking nothing gift.

If you like to look at farm animals, you don't see usually too often cows with only one leg

or horses maybe with two legs.

God gives perfectly.

God gives completely.

There's nothing lacking.

When I was a kid, we didn't have iPhones, so we had to use our imagination.

We had to do things like pull the legs off of big grasshoppers and put them in the spider webs.

You know, things like that the boys do.

That's after we got the magnifying glass and burned holes in their wings.

Kids had to be creative in those days.

If you take a microscope and you look at something man -made, on the

outside it looks pretty detailed and looks pretty good.

And then under the microscope, you will see the flaws.

You will see the imperfections.

But take a flower.

I was going to look at this one.

Are these real?

Good.

I was going to offend somebody who just gave them.

If you look at the flower and you look at it under a microscope, you'll see it is close to perfection.

That's just how God does things.

It's just perfect.

It's wonderful.

Smooth.

Clear.

James is saying, when you're troubled with persecution in the world, make sure

you don't ever say, God, how could you?

God, why would you?

Because whether it's wisdom or anything else, everything that God does is good.

The Puritan Thomas Manton said, God is originally good, good of himself, which nothing else is, for

all creatures are good only by participation and communication from God.

God is essentially good.

Not only good, but goodness itself.

The creature's good is a super added quality.

In God, goodness is his essence.

He's infinitely good.

He's eternally and immutably good.

For he cannot be less good than he is.

Some people think these verses were a hymn in the original church, the

first century church.

And if they weren't a hymn, maybe they should have been.

And to look back at the verse again, every good and perfect gift is from above.

Like a Jewish man talking about God, not trying to say God very often, it's from above,

from God, coming down from the Father of heavenly lights, who does

not change like shifting shadows.

This is constant, a revealing of who God is.

Unending succession, one writer said.

And when you think of Father, you should say to yourself, Fathers create, they don't destroy.

When you think of Fathers, you should think, Fathers have compassion.

They're not trying to get their children to sin.

Reminds me of Jesus when He said in Matthew 7, Which of you, if his son

asks for bread, will give him a stone?

Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake?

If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father

in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him?

Fathers are good.

They're not tempting you to sin, enticing you to sin.

And James keeps going.

He's what kind of Father?

A Father of lights.

This is all alluding back to Genesis 1, God making two great lights, the greater light to govern the day and the

lesser light to govern the night.

He also made the stars.

And this God who does this, and who is this, never is going to change.

Do you notice the text?

With whom there's no variation.

That harkens back to Malachi.

Malachi, I'm the Lord, I do not change.

God's not going to cause you to sin if He's this good.

That's what James is saying.

Now you have moon outside, and sometimes the moon is waxing, sometimes it's

waning, sometimes it's, what's a gibbous?

A waxing gibbous?

What does that mean?

I know my kids know.

I know that's what moons do.

When moons act moonishly, they often wax and wane.

There are eclipses in the sun.

There are clouds that come by and block the light.

You see the stars sometimes, and sometimes you don't see them, but with God there's no

change.

He's eternally good.

He's never going to cause you to sin.

That's why James is saying, when things are getting really bad, don't somehow blame God.

Great is thy faithfulness, O God my, what?

Father.

There is no shadow of turning with Thee.

Thou changest not Thy compassions, they what?

Fail not.

As Thou has been, Thou forever will be.

And James says, I could sing that song, but I'm talking about His goodness.

At the end of verse 17, Who does not change like shifting shadows.

Those things are notorious for change.

You're persecuted, church.

You're on the run, church.

You want to blame people, church.

And James says to these 12 tribes of the dispersion, don't ever blame God because

He's good generally.

Now he hones in on the specifics.

This brings us to our topic today.

What's the greatest gift God could ever give?

Oh, it's nice to have rain and it's nice to enjoy a good

meal.

But what's the greatest gift?

If God doesn't tempt to sin, what does He do the best?

What's the most wonderful gift you could ever have from God?

Of His own will.

We move from general now to specific.

A good God, a giving God, a perfectly giving God to now the most specific gift

of His own will.

He brought us forth by the word of truth.

This is regeneration.

It's the language of birthing.

It's the language of birth.

God doesn't tempt to sin.

He's a good God who's giving good things all the time.

Specifically, He causes people, to use the language of 1 Peter 1, to be born again.

How could we ever wag our finger at God and say, God, why'd you do that?

He gives us salvation, the most perfect gift.

Isaiah 53 says, after the suffering of his soul, he will see the light of life and be

satisfied.

Talking about the Messiah.

By His knowledge, my righteous servant will justify many and He will bear their iniquities.

And the writer Blanchard writes, what a staggering sentence.

Here we have a statement which says that at the end of time, when man's existence on this planet has finally

come to an end, the eternal Son of God will look back on the whole, vast enterprise

and especially His work of redemption and be satisfied.

Why?

Because it's a good work.

This is the language of regeneration.

Do you see it?

He brought us forth.

He brings forth new life.

Justification is an outward declaration.

Not guilty, based on the work of Christ Jesus.

His perfect life, credited to our account.

Our sins, credited to His account, confirmed by the resurrection.

It's external, it's judicial, it's courtroom.

Now this language is internal.

This language is new life, new birth.

An inner recreating of the human nature that's fallen and the Spirit of God is

pleased to do it.

This is a new disposition that's given to us, an inward work.

Now some people think when you hear the word generation, they think, well that's like reincarnation, right?

The Hindu heresy.

They call reincarnation, some do at least, to be born again.

Of course we know that's determined for a man who wants to die and after that what?

The judgment.

This is not language of New Year's Day resolution.

Perpetual resolutions meaning regeneration.

This is not word faith deification.

Dogs beget dogs, cats beget cats and God begets little gods.

It has nothing to do with that.

But what does it have to do with?

And now we come to our question and answer time about regeneration.

Maybe we could call this a primer on regeneration.

Question one.

Is regeneration optional?

We've talked the context, we've kind of looked through a little bit, what was James trying to say and now let's hone in on, let's

camp on chapter 1 verse 18.

I'm trying to pace myself because I'm on a different time zone I know.

But I've been gone for several weeks and I usually teach the Bible 5, 6, 7 times a week and I did

one Bible study in California, I taught at the master's seminary one day and I preached one sermon.

So I want you to know I have a lot of bottled up energy.

A lot.

I think the last time I preached from James, gas was about $1 .11 a gallon.

So see things have changed.

Regeneration, is it optional?

Now here's where I'm going.

We have people, you know these people.

I'm a Christian, they'll say.

Are you born again?

No, no.

I'm not one of those born agains.

That was big in the 70's and I remember my mom complete with a 1974 Malibu

station wagon and she had this yellow sign on the back of it and it was a yellow bumper sticker

and then it had black letters and it said, I found it.

And you were supposed to go to them and say, what did you find?

And she was supposed to say, I found Jesus.

Let me tell you about Jesus.

Do they have those in Massachusetts?

You know what a bumper sticker is?

I don't know.

I'm a Christian, but I'm just not really an uber Christian.

I'm not really a born again Christian.

We'll turn to John chapter 1, if you would please.

We've been to this text several times, but it's good to see you again.

For Jesus, it's not a take it or leave it.

If you would like to see heaven, if you'd like to be in heaven, you can't say you're a Christian and not born again.

You were born into this world, fallen, Adam's sin imputed to your account, your own fallen nature,

and you need to be recreated.

Yes, the judge needs to say by justification, not guilty, but also there needs to be a change on the inside, new

affections, a new birth.

I don't even really say when I meet someone on a plane, someone on a plane, I don't really say, are you a Christian?

But I would say to them regularly, are you born again?

Are you born again?

John chapter 3 verse 1, Jesus commands this, regeneration is not

optional.

Now, there was a man of the Pharisees named Nicodemus.

Remember at verse 2, he came to Jesus by night.

He knew all about Jesus.

He wasn't saying, Jesus, you're satanic, like some of the Pharisees and

Sadducees would say.

He's got a demon.

He didn't say any of that.

You're a teacher.

You come from God and you perform miracles.

And Jesus didn't even address what Nicodemus was saying.

And here the omniscient son replies, I tell you the truth, no one can

see the kingdom of God unless he's born again.

If I say to you, you're never going to see the inside of my house, it means you're never going to go into it.

That's exactly the way Jesus is talking here.

You must be born again.

Doesn't he say that in verse 7?

You must be born again.

This summer I met an almond farmer and he gave me some of his almonds.

They were good.

And he's a smart man.

He's a smart farmer.

But he comes across like a farmer.

He's not some big speaker or anything.

He's a dear man of God and he's a farmer.

And he said, I was going to my class reunion, my 40th, and they asked me to speak because

I'm this big businessman in town, but I'm not really a speaker.

So I got up in front of all my friends and I said, what then?

And then now he begins to preach to me the sermon that he preached to them.

And now I'm preaching to you.

Go to high school, you get a degree.

What then?

Go to college, you get a degree.

What then?

Go get a job in corporate America or someplace else.

What then?

Find a wife or a spouse and get married and have some children.

What then?

And he's telling this to his class reunion.

Work 40 years, 30 years, retire.

What then?

Die one day.

What then?

What's going to happen?

And then he said, I was really just enjoying this as this man was preaching, and he said, and then I

told them, you're going to die one day and stand before God and you're going to have to have your sins forgiven before you get to

heaven, before heaven's gate, judgment's gate, and you need to have your sins forgiven.

And there's only one way.

You've got to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.

He died, he was buried, he was raised from the dead as a sin bearer and you must believe.

I just thought, there's a church in Massachusetts that would love you.

Not just for your almonds.

Standing before God, this holy God, even Isaiah,

who wasn't a murderer or a rapist or a terrorist, he sees the holiness of God and he's

undone.

Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God Almighty.

And then he knew how undone he was.

What we do in America is, well, God's not quite as holy and we're not quite as sinful, and so there's no

bridge to gap.

There's no chasm.

We can make it on our own.

Maybe moral reformation, or we're just good people.

But it's this gap, this gaping hole we can't make.

That's why God has to do it to you.

You have to be born again.

You need to be declared righteous.

Justification.

You need to be declared not guilty.

Justification.

But you also need to be regenerated.

I regularly say to people, do you think heaven is

sinless?

Would it still be heaven if there were sin up there?

No.

Well, then how's God going to get sinful people and get them to heaven?

They've got to be born again.

It's not optional.

When you preach the gospel, I think you should regularly tell people, you must be born again.

Are you born again?

Question 2.

While we're in John chapter 3, question 2.

How does one become born again?

What's the instrument?

And the answer found in verse 14, as we know, is faith.

It's faith alone.

Sola fide.

As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness.

Remember numbers, and the complainers, and the snake bites, and there's only one remedy.

Make that brazen serpent, put it up on the pole, and look.

Take God at His word.

Believe what He said.

Look at that serpent.

They'll be healed.

So must the Son of Man, Jesus loved to use that designation for Himself,

be lifted up.

That's the language of crucifixion.

That whoever believes in Him may have eternal life.

Verse 16.

Whoever believes in Him.

Verse 18.

Whoever believes in Him does not believe is condemned already, because he

has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.

We need to be born again, and how do we become born again?

We become born again through the Word,

and we respond with faith.

Why am I trying to make this a big deal?

You say, Mike, it's not that big deal.

Well, we live in an area where it is a big deal.

Section 1215, Catechism of the Catholic Church.

The sacrament of baptism, quote, is also called the washing of regeneration and renewal by the Holy

Spirit, for it signifies and actually brings about the water, birth of water and the Spirit,

without which no one can enter the kingdom of God, end quote.

I grew up in a baptismal regeneration home.

You get baptized as an infant, it regenerates you.

This is taught by Cyprian, even one of the church fathers, back in 200 A .D.

He considered water baptism the labor of saving faith.

And when asked, but what about the thief on the cross in Luke 23, when Jesus said, today you

shall be with me in paradise, what about him?

And Cyprian said, he was baptized with blood.

It is through faith and faith alone.

When Paul came to preach the gospel, he said, I didn't come to baptize.

Christ sent me not to baptize, but to preach the gospel and not with words of eloquent wisdom, lest the cross of Christ

be emptied of its power.

Regeneration is through faith alone, not any other sacrament.

Question three, is regeneration or new birth earned or given?

Regeneration isn't optional, it's through faith alone and it's something that God

gives.

Let's go back to James 1.

This is the context of James, this great giving God.

He gives and gives and gives and he's happy to give because he's a good father, he's an unchanging father, he's the father of

lights.

He just gives all the time and this is something that God alone gives.

It can't be earned, it can't be merited.

God's own eternal decree, He, the decreeing God, has decided to do this.

In James 1 .18, the ESV says, of His own will He brought us forth.

The NIV says, He chose to give us birth.

The New American Standard Bible says, in the exercise of His will, He brought us forth.

King James says, of His own will begat He us.

Holman Christian Standard Bible, by His own choice, He gave us a new birth.

The Net Bible, by His sovereign plan, He gave us birth.

God's Word translation, God decided to give us life through the Word.

Every one of those is God gives, God graciously gives, God alone gives, and what we

call this is monergistic, mono, alone, erg,

working, God alone works when it comes to salvation.

This isn't a partnership, this is not a cooperation, this is not dual working, this is the Holy

Spirit, He is the only efficient agent in regeneration.

What did I contribute?

What did I give to God so that He would do that?

Those are wrong questions to ask.

No contribution, no cooperation, because men are fallen.

Now think about it.

One day in heaven, I know if you could ask any theological question in heaven, you would get the right answer.

But I know in heaven, I think you'll still learn in heaven.

I hope so, because I will still be finite in heaven, and God will still be infinite, and when the finite is in the

presence of the infinite, I think there will be everlasting glory, and worship, and honor, and learning, and

comprehension.

But what makes you different than your friend who's not in heaven?

Remember, there's a heaven and there's a hell, and let us Christians not be ashamed of those two facts.

There's a heaven and there's a hell.

Why is one person in heaven and the other person in hell?

And if the answer isn't Jesus made the difference, you're not understanding salvation.

Only Jesus makes the difference.

You say, well God gives a little bit of grace to both, but I made the right choice, that's why I'm in heaven.

God foresaw my faith, that's why I'm in heaven.

I weighed the balances a little bit more.

I have a friend who's named Scott.

I've told you about Scott before.

My dad was best friends with his dad.

My mom was best friends with his mom.

We got our first jobs together.

We had cabin houses up on the Missouri River together.

We went fishing together.

We went shooting bows and arrows together.

We did everything together.

Mischief together.

All this kind of stuff together.

I'm not talking about the looks, that's not the point, but it just makes an interesting story.

Scott's nickname is the Anvil.

Because he's got this like ZZ top beard that goes down to about here.

Now beards aside, as far as I know, Scott has not bowed the knee to the Lord

Jesus Christ.

What makes the difference between I did, and he didn't?

The answer can't be in either of us.

Because both are sinful, but of his own will, of his own sovereign pleasure, for reasons

I don't completely understand, but will always be amazed by, God gave me new birth.

And he did for you as well, if you're a Christian.

Back to my earlier illustration.

Why?

Why?

Why?

Why?

We find ourselves in the eternal decree, in the eternal past, before Genesis

1, and it pleased God.

Just like it pleased God to choose Israel, even though Israel wasn't strong, or powerful, or rich, or smart.

God just said, it just pleases me to do that.

I will have mercy upon whom I'll have mercy.

The reason why anyone's a Christian is not because they naturally love God, because they did good things, they did some

religious things.

It is by grace and grace alone.

You receive regeneration sola fide, and it is because of sola gratia, grace

alone.

It's outside of us.

And of course, James, the context is, so if God gives that kind of gift, never blame him for anything else,

true or false.

No one can say Jesus is Lord except by the Holy Spirit.

I hope you said true, because that's 1 Corinthians 12, 3.

I haven't tricked you like that for a while, but you know my ways.

Oh, you can say the words, but no one with heartfelt trust and gratitude and

real belief can say, Jesus is Lord, unless the Holy Spirit did a work in their life.

You say, well, how does this work?

I thought, the way I was raised, I believe, and then God saves.

That's kind of like the chronological order.

Is that true?

God's waiting for you to believe, and then you finally do, and he says, oh, great, but that's works -based.

Regeneration takes dead people.

Turn to Ephesians 2 for a second.

This is a good one, because it uses the language of birth as well.

Regeneration takes dead people and makes them alive, and then alive people say, God, I love you.

The response is, yes, amen.

I trust in the Lord Jesus Christ.

Regeneration precedes faith.

And, matter of fact, it elicits faith.

The cause of your salvation isn't your faith.

I can put it this way.

Jesus died on the cross for your sins, not your faith.

Your Savior's not your faith.

But once God regenerates you and gives you a new life, that new life that

has been literally erased from the dead spiritually doesn't say anymore, I love sin, I love my own self, I

love all these things like I used to.

No.

I love God.

I know we know this, but it's hard to take because grace isn't very amazing in evangelicalism.

God owes man nothing except judgment.

But He's this good Father that regularly and often gives good gifts, including regeneration,

to what kind of people?

Verse 1 of Ephesians 2, when you were dead in trespasses and sins in which you once walked,

this is my resume.

Following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that's

now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out

the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children, that's the language

there, of wrath like the rest of mankind.

So God takes children by nature, wrathful children, He needs to regenerate them to make them

children of the living God.

There's nothing in that dead person that says, well, I can merit this and I can merit that.

True or false?

Here we go again, you already know it's going to be true because it's going to be a Bible verse.

I'll just rephrase Romans 8.

The flesh can't please God.

Is faith pleasing God?

Pleasing to God?

You better believe it is.

But in the flesh, you can't please God because Romans 8 says that and we know because of depravity.

This is why regeneration is what we call, we're passive in regeneration.

It's something that's done to us and then once it's done to us, yes, we believe.

Nobody's been regenerated and said, I'm not going to respond with faith.

Every regenerated person responds with faith.

See, monergism says God alone works.

There's another option, it's called synergism.

S -Y -N, together, we work together with God.

And if I was preaching this message 20 years ago, it sounds like sin because it is sin to believe in

synergism.

That's probably what I would say.

Synergism says, man's working, God's working, they work together.

God kind of brings man to like the 50 yard line and you've got to run the rest of the way to the end zone.

God doesn't respond to a virtue in us because there's no virtue in us.

He saves because He's merciful, He's good, He's kind, He's a Father.

Who has ever given to God that God should repay Him for from Him and through Him and to Him are

all things.

Now go back to James 1 .18 please, the language of new birth.

Instead of bringing death, it brings life.

James has talked earlier in James chapter 1 about life,

pregnancy, giving birth, but it was the bad side.

It was the awful side.

If you go back to verse 15, the desire when it is conceived gives

birth to sin and sin when it is fully grown brings forth our birth's

death.

What's the opposite of death?

Well, it's life.

That's what God does.

James 1 .18, He chose to give us birth, to make

us alive.

He caused us to be born again.

If you have believed in the Lord Jesus Christ and you're a Christian, it's because God

gave you new life.

Question four.

Question four.

Who is in charge of regeneration?

Well, I've touched on this, but now I'm making what was implicit, explicit.

Regeneration is not optional.

You must be born again.

Regeneration is through faith alone.

It is given by grace alone.

And who is in charge of regeneration?

Who decides who's regenerated and who's not?

I just talked about this before, but I want to make sure it's very clear.

Martin Luther said, the flesh profits nothing, quoting Jesus in John 6.

And that nothing is not a little something.

I like that.

We've fallen short of the glory of God.

We've been separated from God.

In his first law of motion.

Anybody read that book, The First Law of Motion?

It has some spiritual truth in it.

Here's a little extract.

Everything continues in a state of rest unless it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it.

That's good spiritual truth.

Everything continues in a state of rest until it is compelled to change by forces impressed upon it.

And it's the exact same thing with sinners.

Lazarus, I'm appealing to you to maybe try to figure out where that turban

headband is because I don't want you to shock us and just come out if you could.

It was Lazarus come forth, compelling him walking out there.

By the way, we know God controls regeneration because we pray like that, don't we?

You have a loved one that you'd like to see go to heaven?

I do.

How do you pray for that person?

Dear Lord, I don't want you to do anything to their will or nature.

Can you somehow arrange it in some serendipitous, circuitous fashion so they kind of just

stumble upon your salvation and we don't want to make them like robots or anything or

some kind of puppet or something.

So just do what you can, roundabout, kind of Henry David Thoreau

sound.

Nobody prays like that because we all know from scripture that God is the one that gives

new birth.

God, save my loved one.

Monergistically, you don't have to pray monergistically when you pray, but if you do, God hears that in a special way.

No, but that's what you're saying, God and God alone.

Would you please save my loved one?

When it comes to evangelism, how am I going to talk my friend into it?

I don't have the answers.

I don't know all this creation stuff and skin pigmentation and carbon dating and everything else.

Friends, you don't need to because this isn't winning an argument.

This is God's entrusted me good news.

Hey, friend, I have some good news.

Would you like to go to heaven when you die and have all your sins forgiven?

No, thanks.

Okay.

I don't have to say to myself anything.

I can just say to God, God, would you open his eyes?

I know you can do it because scripture teaches it.

And secondarily, you've opened my eyes to see.

You've opened Paul's eyes to see.

You opened Peter's eyes to see.

And so if you say to yourself, I've got to convince this person and I've got to do all this work

and it's going to be fine.

But I can't go to sleep unless I evangelize someone because people are going to go to hell if I don't.

Of course, if you don't evangelize, shame on you.

But God is the one who gives new birth and it is a resurrection not a

resuscitation.

Thank you.

You've all seen those raft little deals where, you know, there's somebody drowning and you've got to go over with a

raft to rescue them.

That's synergism.

How do you rescue people?

What's the biblical illustration?

God should be taking his raft and going over here.

But here he knows there's people down at the bottom of the ocean and they've been dead for a long time.

As a matter of fact, all the fish have eaten all the flesh off their skin.

When I went paddle boarding a couple of weeks ago, I thought,

I have a tourniquet with me.

It's called a leash for all you folks out there.

These people have been eaten alive and there's some bones down at the very bottom of the ocean and

God gives new life.

If there are a million people at the bottom of the ocean, he could pass over all of them.

He could save all of them and he says, I want to choose some of them and give them new birth.

Can an Ethiopian change his spot or the leopard its spots?

Neither can you do good who are accustomed to doing evil.

I read in doctrinal statements where people say when unregenerate people exercise faith, then they pass out

of spiritual death into spiritual life.

No, no, no.

God regenerates them and then they respond with faith.

Do you see the text?

He chose to give us birth.

He didn't choose to give it to Judas.

He didn't choose to give it to Goliath.

He chose to give it to us though.

God did the choosing.

To be God is to choose.

But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in his name.

But don't forget the next verse.

John 1, 13, who were born not of blood nor the will of flesh nor of the will of man but of

God.

He chose.

His ability is to give people the word.

And you can see it even in your text, can't you?

Through the word.

We preach the word and as we preach the word, God, the sovereign spirit, is

regularly pleased to open people's heart just like he opened up the heart of Lydia.

Through the word.

Plummer said, the annals of this world tell us not of one instance

that we suffer in the cause of God and enabled mightily to triumph over this world except by the

gospel of Christ.

The pressure is off when it comes to evangelism.

No tricks, no gimmicks.

I have a book in my office that I have.

It's a small little booklet about this big and it tells you

talk about Jesus a little bit and sin and then ask them if you could pray for them to receive the Lord

Jesus Christ as their savior.

And it said it helps if you put your hand up on their shoulder blades and kind of push down a little bit.

So I figured that you all ought to pay for my gym membership in the next year because I need to work on my delts a little

bit more for the pressure.

Friends, God is a conquering God and he can conquer the fortress of anybody's will that he wants to

because of scripture and we've experienced that very thing.

And so what you do is you say, you know, I have to just give people the word, gimmicks, and how to evangelize and all that stuff.

Your responsibility is to say, let me tell you about guilt, grace, and gratitude.

Let me tell you about a savior who saves.

Let me tell you about a sin bearer who should damn men and he loves them and saves them.

High pressure.

I grew up in a sales mentality and I was a salesman for a long time and then I got this job, this ministry and I thought, do

you know what?

If I convince somebody to go to heaven with false faith and false stuff then it doesn't do any good.

You know, you can just do the whole IBM selling thing.

Okay, summarize the situation, state the idea, explain how it works, reinforce key benefits, close.

What good's that gonna do?

Now I must ask as we close, are you born again?

You must be born again.

With a congregation this big there are people here today who aren't Christians.

I have a question for you.

If you refuse to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, when you die,

what then?

But while you're alive, the offer of salvation is open to you to run to the cross

through faith in Jesus Christ as we learn from the script reading today the way, the

truth, and the life.

Let's pray.

I thank you Father for this day.

I thank you for a great harvest of men and women you've brought even to Bethlehem Bible Church.

You've made them alive.

Old life is over, new life has begun.

New creatures in Christ Jesus.

We still struggle with sin, we're still far from perfect when it comes to living this life, but we realize we are

in Christ Jesus and new creatures and judicially we're not guilty.

Judicially, we're counted as righteous.

And on the inside you've changed us.

You've given us faith that makes us think Jesus is the Christ and that we've been born of God.

And so Father, today, we would offer up our praise because there's nothing in us

that made you love us.

Nothing in us that caused our salvation.

Not our faith, not our repentance, not our parents, not water baptism,

nothing.

You did it.

We deserve hell, you gave us glory.

We spurned your son, you gave us the Lord Jesus as a friend.

Father, all of us struggle with man -centered thinking.

We'd like to think biblically.

We'd like to think not resuscitation but heart transplant.

We'd like to think like back in Jeremiah, I'll give them a new heart to know me for I am.

I am the Lord.

Help us to do that and grant today by your own sovereign pleasure saving faith to those that are

unregenerate.

In Jesus name, Amen.