Scripture reading tonight. You have your Bible and you want to follow along with me is in second Peter, chapter one, chapter one. And I want to begin reading at verse one tonight. This what I'm about to read is directly in line with the message tonight. But instead of reading the one verse that applies, I thought it would be needful to read the first 11 verses so we can get a clear understanding of what the Apostle Peter is actually saying. 2 Peter 1 verse 1, Simon Peter, a servant, and an apostle of Jesus Christ to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Savior Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord according as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue, whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises, that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust, and beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, and to virtue, knowledge, and to knowledge, temperance, and to temperance, patience, and to patience, godliness, and to godliness, brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness, charity, for, If these things be in you and abound, they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But he that lacketh these things is blind and cannot see afar off, and hath forgotten that he was purged from his old sins. Wherefore the rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election sure. For if you do these things, you shall never fall. For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly. into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Our Father, as we come into your presence tonight, we thank you, Lord, for your word and how the psalmist tells us that your word is a lamp unto our feet and a light. under our path. Our Father, Lord of heaven and earth, creator of all things, the great God of glory and God of wondrous mercy and grace. Oh, Father, we ask you tonight that you would just give us wisdom and knowledge to bring forth your word. Don't leave me to myself. But Lord, help us to declare you who you are, what you do. Oh, Lord, a man can receive nothing except it be given him from heaven. Lord, open our understanding tonight. Take this message. May the Holy Spirit make it effectual to every heart. We ask this in Christ's name for his sake. Amen. Let's turn back to John chapter one, where we are and probably will be for a long time on Wednesday night. John chapter one, tonight I'm just gonna deal with one verse, and that's verse 13. John chapter one, verse 13. 13 but in order for me to do that, I'm gonna have to fall back on Verse 12 just a little bit to kind of refresh us of what we talked about Last Wednesday night Let's read verse 13 Which were born Not of blood Nor of the will of of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. This verse of scripture declares the biblical doctrine and truth, blessed truth, of regeneration. Title of the message tonight is a question. What is regeneration? What is regeneration? Regardless of how long a man or woman may live, the greatest question that anyone will ever face in their lifetime is have you been born again? This is what regeneration is. It's to be born from above. Doesn't matter what you've achieved in your life. Doesn't matter what kind of financial status that you have brought yourself to. It doesn't matter about your pedigree. It doesn't matter about your job. None of this in the end. As Solomon said, vanity of vanities. All is vanity. And vexation of spirit. Solomon said, the very best that a man can be in his life, in his own works and what he possesses materially is nothing but vanity. When it comes to the judgment of the great day, when it comes to the time when the scripture that says both the small and the great are gonna stand before God, when the sea gives up the dead which are in it, and death and hell are delivered up. The only thing that's going to matter is whether or not you've been regenerated or born again by the Spirit of God. If you have never in your life experienced the new birth you'll go to hell for your trouble. It's as simple as that. In the third chapter of the Gospel of John, Jesus made it abundantly clear to Nicodemus. You know, Nicodemus came to Jesus by night, you know the story. And he said, Master, Rabbi, we know that you're a teacher come from God because nobody can do the things that you do. except God to be with him. Jesus didn't even address his statement. He just said, Nicodemus, accept a man, be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said, I don't understand it. How can this be? But Nicodemus was, like most people today, They have no idea what the new birth is. Have no idea what regeneration is. Nicodemus thought of the flesh and he said, how can this be? How can I enter into my mother's womb the second time and be born? And Jesus said, that which is born of flesh is flesh. And I'm gonna deal with that tonight. That which is born of spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, ye must, ye must, without exception, ye must be born again. And the Lord Jesus was pleased to give us a description. of what regeneration is, what the new birth is like. They're one in the same. And Jesus said, the wind, it's like the wind. The wind bloweth where it listeth, or the wind blows where it wills. Thou hearest the sound thereof. You can hear it. You can hear it. that last hurricane that went through, you heard it, didn't you? Thou hearest the sound thereof. But you can't tell where it comes from. And you can't tell where it goes when it leaves. So is everyone everyone that is born of the Spirit. Now tonight, there are three clauses in verse 13, actually four, that I want to deal with tonight. But if you look at verse 13, the first three words are of vast importance. And the first three words are which were born. Now, you have to go back to verse 12 to understand these three words in verse 13. Well, verse 12 said, but up to as many as received him. To them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name. So he's talking about these people. These people that have received, not accepted, but received the Lord Jesus Christ. These people who received him. These people whom The Lord Jesus gave power or authority or the right to become the sons of God to those that believe on his name. These people, then when you read the first three words of verse 13, you understand who these people are. These people, which were born. Now, this clause in the Greek is hyenae, which means to bring forth or to be born. Jesus likened regeneration to a birth. He didn't liken it to a decision. He likened it to a birth. One of the things that has always puzzled me, of course a blind man can't see and I get that. What did you have to do with your first birth? You didn't have anything to do with it. You were born of basically the will of your mother and your dad. You had nothing to do with it. What did you have to do with the country that you were born in. You didn't have anything to do with it. What did you have to do with the environment that you were raised in? You didn't have anything to do with it. Jesus said, what man of you could add one cubit to his stature? Can you make yourself taller than you are? It's got nothing to do with it. Jesus likened this to a birth, which were born to bring forth. And then the first clause I wanna deal with is this, the scripture says, which were born not of blood. Now, regeneration is not hereditary. You can't be regenerated because your mother and father happened to be one of God's elect. It does not come by blood. It does not come by heredity. So many young people today and even older people who have never experienced the new birth They fall back on mother and daddy and say, well, I believe my mother and daddy's going to heaven. They've been in church all their life. They've read their Bible, they've prayed, they've give tithes, you know, and all this. They were raised in church and they feel like because they were raised in a church environment that they're okay. But the scripture says regeneration is not of blood. It is not by hereditary means. It's not of blood. Now, if you'll turn with me to Genesis chapter 15, I wanna show you something. Turn back to Genesis, keep your finger here in John one, go back to Genesis 15. God made a covenant with a man by the name of Abraham. And in Genesis chapter 15 and verse five, the Lord said this to Abraham. He said, Abraham, brought him forth abroad and said, look now toward heaven and tell the stars if thou shall be able to number them. And he said unto him, so shall thy seed be. And he believed in the Lord. and he counted it to him, to Abraham for righteousness. Now, who is Abraham's seed in this new covenant? That's a great question to ask. Now, the Jews, they thought, that because they were the physical descendants of Abraham, they actually thought they had a corner on God. They thought that we're God's chosen nation, we're God's chosen people. We got a corner on God, nobody else does, and because we can trace our fleshly lineage all the way back to Abraham, we're all right. We're gonna go to heaven when we die because we are sons of Abraham. Turn with me to John 8. John chapter eight in verse, I wanna start reading at verse 32. John 8, 32, where the Lord Jesus is talking to these Jews and he says in verse 32, and ye shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And they answered him, we be Abraham's seed. Now the Jews took that promise that God made to Abraham back in Genesis chapter 15 to be a physical seat. They had a perverted view of what true election actually was. So we be Abraham's seed, and we were never in bondage to any man. How sayest thou you shall be made free? Jesus answered them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin, and the servant abideth not in the house forever, but the Son abideth forever. If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed. And look what Jesus said in verse 37. I know that you're Abraham's seed, fleshly seed, but ye seek to kill me because my word hath no place in you. I speak that which I have seen with my father and ye do that which ye have seen with your father. They answered and said unto him, Abraham is our father. Jesus saith unto them, if ye were Abraham's children, ye would do the works of Abraham. Just because a man is a fleshly descendant of Abraham doesn't mean he's one of God's chosen. Now, turn with me to Galatians chapter three. Here's what the Lord Jesus, what the Holy Spirit said by the Apostle Paul, Galatians chapter three, verse 18. not verse 18, verse 24, excuse me, Galatians 3.24. Wherefore the law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ that we might be justified by faith, but after that faith is come. We are no longer under a schoolmaster, for ye are all the children of God by faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you has been baptized into Christ have put on Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond or free, there is neither male nor female, for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. Now look at the last verse. And if ye be Christ's, Then are ye Abraham's seed, and look at the last clause, and heirs according to the promise. In Luke chapter 19, you don't have to turn to it, there's a story the Holy Spirit gives us about a man named Zacchaeus. And Zacchaeus, what a wonderful, wonderful type of salvation it is. But there is something that Jesus said in verses nine and 10 that really points to what I'm talking about tonight. We know the story. Zacchaeus climbs up in a sycamore tree, little short fella. There's such a crowd there and he can't see the Lord. He climbs up in a sycamore tree, gets ahead of the crowd and he's waiting on the Lord to come by. And the Lord comes to a dead stop, calls him by name, says, Zacchaeus, come down for today. I must abide at thy house. That's the effectual call. And what did Zacchaeus do? He didn't say, well, I like the view up here. I'm gonna stay here a while. No, he come out of that tree and he received the Lord joyfully. And Jesus said, there were some things that took place. This day is salvation come to this house. Now, the Pharisees, they didn't like it. They said, this man's gonna go home with a man that's a sinner. And in verse nine, Jesus answered the controversy and basically said, to tell you why I'm doing this, or I'll tell you why I did this, is for as much as he is also a son of Abraham, for the Son of Man is come to seek and to save that which was lost. Not to try to seek, not to try to save, but to do it, but to do it. Which were born, not of blood. Secondly, not of the will of the flesh. Now, when we speak of the sovereignty of God and we talk about election and predestination and all this, the big issue today is not those terms. Here's where the issue is. The issue is that regeneration is not of the will of the flesh. You say, Preacher, what are you trying to say? What this is saying is, is regeneration is not by man's decision. Now there's scores of people and the majority of the religious world believe in what they call the free will of man, that man is free to either decide for Jesus or to decide for Satan and all we have to do is either get the right soul winner or the right preacher who can give a good talk and someone that has the powers of persuasion. And if we can just get him to the point and convince him to pray and convince him that he has the power to do this. And they tell him, God has done all he can do to save you. He's done all he can do. He can do no more. And the rest is up to you. In other words, the ball's in your court. I was looking through the song book the other day, the one we got here. And there's a title of a song that says, what will you do with Jesus? Made me so mad I wanted to spit. But that's not what regeneration is. It's not of the will of the flesh. In John 5, 40 and verse 39 and 40, Jesus talking to these Jews again. He said, search the scriptures for in them you think you have eternal life. In other words, you're constantly searching the scriptures and you think because you constantly search the scriptures that that is going to be good enough to get you to heaven. But Jesus said, but they, the scriptures, are they the scriptures which testify of me. And then verse 40, and ye will not, you will not come unto me. that you might have like, you won't do it. Well, why won't they do it? Is it because of lack of education? Is it because of lack of coaching? Or something that a preacher can do or a soul winner can do in order to get this confession of faith out of them. Have you ever watched, now I've been in this, and if anybody knows what these fundamentalists are doing, it's me. I mean, I was in it 49 years. What their attempt is, is to talk to a fella and to lead them down what they call the Roman's Road. Are you a sinner? Well, it's hard to find anybody that won't say yes to that. Well, Christ died for sinners. He loves you. He died for you. He died to keep you out of hell. Do you believe in Jesus? Do you believe in God? Yeah. Well, He died for you, the work's already done, it's already paid for. And see, this doctrine of universal salvation is the cause of all of this. They say, well, if you believe in your heart that Jesus Christ was here and he rose from the dead, if you believe he died to save you, All you gotta do is say, Lord, and if you don't know how to pray, I just happen to have the sinner's prayer right here. And all you have to do, and their effort, after they talk to them, is to force them or to get them to pray. And they either pray or they repeat the sinner's prayer, and then they say, all right, how is it with you? And they don't have the faintest idea what they're talking about. And I said, well, I don't know. Did you pray? Yes. Did you call on the Lord? Yes. Did he save you? Well, I don't know if he did or not. Well, of course he did, because it says here, for whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. Now, you don't think God had lied to you, do you? Oh, no, God wouldn't lie to me. Well, it says here, if you call on him, that you'll be saved. You did call on him, didn't you? Yeah. He did save you then, didn't he? Well, I don't know. Well, of course he did. He wouldn't lie to you. Tell you what we need to do now. We need to get you to stand up here and confess Jesus as your personal savior and come back tonight and we'll baptize you. Make you a member of the church and then we'll train you to bring other people to Jesus Christ like we brought you. Now you talk about butchers of souls. That's butchers of souls. Regeneration is not by blood nor is it by the will of the flesh. I can't save nobody and you can't either. Man's will, and here's something you need to always remember. When we speak of the unregenerate man's will, his will is handcuffed to his nature. I mean, it's handcuffed to his nature. His will is not an independent thing. There are several factors which makes a man's will what it is. When Jesus said, you will not come unto me, what he meant was this, you don't have the ability to do it. Your nature is what controls your will. John 3, 18, this is the condemnation that light is coming to the world and men love darkness rather than light because their deeds are evil. They can't help it. They can't help it. That's their nature. When Adam sinned in the garden, we fell with him. For but one man, sin entered into the world and death by sin and death passed on all men. Why? Because all sinned. In Adam all die, 1 Corinthians 15, 22. All die in Adam. And this nature is manifested in the birth of an individual. Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin, and my mother conceived me. The wicked are estranged from the womb as soon as they be born, speaking lies. It's manifested in the heart, which is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, and who can know it? It's manifested in the fact. that by nature no one seeks after God. Romans 3.10, there is none righteous, no, not one. There is none that understandeth. What does he mean? There's none that understand spiritual things. And there is none that seeketh after God. Nobody, nobody. Man's will is in bondage to sin. His will is handcuffed to his nature. His will is handcuffed to his heart's desires, and he can't come to Christ. He can't do it. Yes, and then Jesus said in John 6, 44, no man No man can come unto me except the Father, which sent me to draw him. If salvation, listen to me, if salvation was left up to the will of man, there would be nobody saved. They can't do it. You say, preacher, but we've got a will. and a man has to come to Christ. We're not robots, we've got to come to Christ. Charles Spurgeon said something hundreds of years ago that has always stuck with me, Phil, and I've never forgot it. He said, surely a man must decide for Christ, but for a reveal. That's right. When Jesus asked the leprous man, he said, will thou be made whole? Would you like to be made whole? He said, Lord, if you will, you can make me clean. And Jesus said, I. You see, that's what it means in Psalm 110 verse 3 when it said, thy people, Abraham's seed, God's elect, thy people shall be willing. How are they going to be willing in the day of thy power? And that's what regeneration is. That's what it is. which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh. One of the clearest verses of scripture that there is is in Romans nine, verse 15 and 16. When Paul wrote to the Romans, he said, it is not of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that showeth mercy. And that takes man's will. I mean, that just tells us right there, salvation is of the Lord from start to finish. Let me go ahead. The third clause in this verse says, nor of the will of man. You say, well, didn't we just talk about this? No, this is something altogether different. Nor of the will of man. Now, I want you to consider just for a few minutes, and there are three examples I want to give you. I want you to consider for a few minutes some of the greatest men what we would call greatest man in scripture. There are three that I would point out to you. There's Abraham, and there's David, and there's even Eli the priest. What is the Holy Spirit telling us here? Nor of the will of man. You can't will anyone to be saved. You can't. You say, preacher, can't we pray for him? Oh yeah, of course you can. Of course you can, and we should. But because you desire that, and because you want that to happen, your praying will not make that happen. Turn with me, as I wanna point this out. I believe this is very important. Turn to Genesis chapter 17. We're gonna read about Abraham again. Genesis chapter 17, verse 15. Here's what the scriptures say. And God said unto Abraham, as for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. and I will bless her and give thee a son of her. Yea, I will bless her and she shall be a mother of nations, kings of people shall be of her. Then Abraham fell upon his face and laughed and said in his heart, shall a child be born unto him that's a hundred years old and shall Sarah, that is 90 year old, bear. Now notice what Abraham said in verse 18. Abraham had already had a son. by the bond woman, Hagar. Look what he said in verse 18. And Abraham said unto God, oh, that Ishmael might live before thee. In other words, Abraham said, I've already got a son. I'm 100 years old. Sarah's 90. I can just see him falling on the ground just killing himself laughing. I said, are you kidding me? And he said, Lord, let Ishmael live before me. It was his heart's desire. Ishmael came from his loins. He couldn't understand why. It was the will of God for Isaac to be the seed. Look in verse 19. God said, Sarah, thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed, and thou shalt call his name Isaac. And I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant and with his seed after him. And as for Ishmael, I've heard you, but behold, I have blessed him and I'll make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. 12 princes shall he beget, now make him a great nation. Look in verse 21. But my covenant, which I will establish with Isaac, which Sarah shall bear unto thee at this time next year. You see what I'm saying? It was Abraham could not force God to make Ishmael the seed. He desired it. He wanted it with all his heart. But God said, Abraham, no, no. You say, preacher, it's disheartening. In the flesh, it is. It's very disheartening. Then I wanted to give you the example of David. Turn with me to 2 Samuel 23. Here's what David had to say. 2 Samuel 23. What we must keep in mind is God chooses whom he will. He saves whom he will. He saves those who were chosen before the foundation of the world and he did the choosing. 2 Samuel 23 verse one, I want you to notice this. Now these be the last words of David. David the son of Jesse said, and the man who was raised up on high, the anointed of the God of Jacob and the sweet psalmist of Israel, the spirit of the Lord spake by me and his word was in my tongue. The God of Israel said, the rock of Israel spake to me. He that ruleth over men must be just, ruling in the fear of God. And he shall be as the light of the morning when the sun riseth, even a morning without clouds, as the tender grass springeth out of the earth by the clear shining of the rain. Now look at verse five. Although my house be not so with God. Yet he hath made with me an everlasting covenant, ordered in all things insure, for this is all my salvation and all my desire, although he make it not to grow. See what I'm saying here? David wanted his sons to be saved. Look at Absalom. What a rebel he was. One of the most amazing things to me And when I look at my life, my family, my kindred, and you can look at yours the same way and think back how God showed you mercy. and look at all of your kindred around you. But God was merciful to you. Why? Oh, we ask that, don't we? We ask that, we say, why? Salvations of the Lord. God chooses whom he will, saves whom he will. Regeneration is not by the will of man. And then there's Eli. Remember Eli the priest, 1 Samuel? 1 Samuel 2.12, the sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas were sons of Belial. They knew not the Lord. And they were there with Eli the priest. And they were as crooked as a dog's hind leg. They took bribes. Poor little old Samuel was in that house. Hannah had give Samuel, had give Samuel to the Lord to be a priest. And the Lord spoke to him one night and said, Samuel, Samuel. And he thought Eli was calling him. And he went in there and said, here I am. Eli said, I didn't call you. Go back and lay down. Samuel goes back and lays down and then all of a sudden he hears the voice of God again and he says, Samuel. He gets up and goes to Eli and said, I'm here. Eli said, I didn't call you. Go lay down. And the third time, God called to Samuel. Samuel. He got up and went to Eli. Eli said, I didn't call you, but Eli perceived that the Lord had called him. And he said, son, go back and lay down. And when he calls you, you say, speak, Lord, for thy servant here. Samuel did just that. God spoke to him. Samuel said, speak for thy servant here. And he said, Samuel, I'm gonna do a thing so great, it's gonna tickle everybody's ears. The sons of Eli, Haphni and Phinehas, I'm gonna destroy them, they're gonna die. That's what he told him. Samuel got up the next morning, he was scared to death. He didn't want to tell Eli about it. And Eli said, Samuel, you better tell me what God said to you. Don't you hold nothing back. And he told him. You know what Eli said? Even though it was his own sons, he said, it is the Lord. Let him do what seemeth good. So you see, brethren, regeneration is not hereditary. It's not of the will of the flesh. And it's not of the will of man. But the last two words of this verse are crystal clear. But of God. Yes. Let me say this by way of closing. Titus chapter 3 and verse 5, Paul's writing to Titus in Titus 3, 5, he says, regarding salvation, not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us. How'd he do it? by the washing of regeneration and renewing of the Holy Ghost. That's how men are regenerated, which was shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our Savior. It's done by, regeneration is done by quickening and you hath he quickened, made alive. spiritually resurrected from the grave. You have the quickened who were dead in trespasses and sins. And then, how do you know this has come about? How do you know this has come about? How do you know that this change has occurred? Well, there's a couple things. Did you ever notice when a natural birth occurs, what does the baby do first when it comes into the world? He lets you know that it's alive. He cries. It's the same way spiritually. It's the same way spiritually. It's a revelation. Matthew 16. Who do men say that I am? Jesus said, well, some of them say you're John the Baptist, risen from the dead. Some of them say you're Elijah. Some of them say you're Jeremiah. And some of them say that you're one of the prophets, but nobody's really sure. Jesus put the question to him. He said, but who do you say? Who am I? Peter said, you're the Christ, the son of the living God. And here's what Jesus told him. Blessed art thou. Do you realize how blessed you are if you know who Jesus is? Do you really realize that? Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-Jonah. Flesh and blood didn't reveal this to you. You didn't learn this on your own. But by my Father, which is in heaven. Salvation's a revelation. Regeneration is like the wind. And brethren, let me tell you this. When the wind blows, you not only hear it, but brother, you can feel it, amen. The wind blows where it lifts us. This revelation, this regeneration comes to all of those who are God's chosen, God's elect, Abraham's seed and heirs according to the promise. So the question really, what the question really boils down to is this. Have you been regenerated? Not, are you a church member? Not, have you been baptized? Not, have you made your decision for Jesus? No, no. Except a man be born again, he can't see the kingdom of God. Have you been born again? Let's pray. Our Father, bless the reading of your word tonight. Use it for your glory. make an effect sure to every heart. Christ that we pray.