I want to take just a few brief minutes to share with you three of the most important words that you'll ever hear regarding your theological understanding, your biblical paradigm, the paradigm through which you read scripture, and the paradigm by which you understand your own salvation. And those three words are these, regeneration precedes faith. If you have a piece of paper and pencil handy, please write that down. Regeneration precedes faith. Those are three of the most important words you'll ever understand about biblical theology. So, because it is such a big topic, I mean there is no bigger topic to the Christian than these words of regeneration and faith and getting these things in the proper order. It's the difference between actually possessing a saving faith and not. your understanding of regeneration is at stake. And those are just critical to your eternal destiny. So let me just say those three words once again. I hope you've written them down by now. Regeneration precedes faith. Now what I mean by that is that the work of the Spirit to bring you to new life, from the place of spiritual deadness due to your trespasses and sins is a prior work to you coming to faith in Jesus Christ. I was speaking with a neighbor of mine recently and a lovely lady, a lady who's become like a mother to me. And we were just chatting in her kitchen one day and she said she had some questions and we were talking about faith and other issues. And I said, well, let me write this down for you. And I took a piece of paper and I just wrote down regeneration precedes faith. And I turned it around and put it in front of her. And she looked at that and she looked back up at me and stared for a moment. She said, wow. Most people, most Christians believe it's the other way around, that faith precedes regeneration. I said, yeah, and we certainly don't want to follow what most Christians believe these days. So that's very true. Most Christians believe that it's faith that brings about regeneration. In other words, most Christians believe today, due to decades, if not a couple hundred years now, of really man-centered evangelism, that faith is even a contributing factor, a vital contributing factor, to salvation. that Jesus died, that he rose again, he ascended to the right hand of the Father, he was the agent in bringing about the gift of the Spirit at Pentecost, whereby the final work that he did at the cross was, the atoning work that he did at the cross was applied to those who believe, and that somehow, some way, that believing is a work. It's part of the work that gets done. In other words, most Christians believe that Jesus did his work and now we have one essential element that we must contribute, apart from which we cannot be saved, and that is we must believe. Now, before you hang up, before you turn me off, before you start getting angry, let me just say, I agree. We must believe. So we're not talking about whether or not you must believe to be saved. We're talking about why you believe. And what I'm saying to you is the Bible teaches clearly that before you come to saving faith in Jesus Christ, you have had a work of the Spirit on your heart, mind, and will that imparts to you the gift of faith and that leads you to believe in Jesus Christ. It isn't the other way around. Faith is not something that you work up within yourselves or that you bring to the table and complete the circle. or else you cannot be saved. Now, I may sound like I'm splitting hairs, but beloved, I am not. This is no more splitting hairs than trying to say that East versus West are just a matter of opinion. Or up versus down is just a matter of opinion. There are some things that are just truly opposite, that have no relation to each other, other than maybe East and West are directions, up and down are directions black and white are colors but they represent something completely opposite of each other now let me just give you a few texts we always of course want to do that i'm not going to take a lot of your time i just want to get you thinking in this direction regeneration precedes faith Perhaps the best text for this is John 1, beginning at verse 10. He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. but as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God." What did we just hear there? Well, we heard that Jesus came into the world, the world was made by Him, and the world that was made through Him did not know Him, did not recognize Him. We know more about that, in fact, that in Romans chapter 1 we're told that even though the world knows God, they chose not to keep God in their minds. They knew of Him, but they chose not to think on Him. They chose not to know of Him. So that when Jesus came into the world, God incarnate, the Word made flesh, they did not know him. And then it says he came unto his own, meaning his own people, into Israel. And his own received him not. So they did not know him and they did not receive him. They were not in a state of desiring him. There was no desire for him. But then we get this complete opposite. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name, which were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. John is making it vividly clear here that those who did in fact receive him, to those Christ gave the right, the privilege, the authority, the power to become the sons of God, meaning to be his joint heirs, which is so powerful, so profound. I realize most of your translations will read children of God, but the word sons there has to do with inheritance. The inheritance, it's not a gender-specific thing as much as it is a matter of legal inheritance. And in this first century culture, they would have understood much better than we that to be a son is to be an heir, a full heir of the father. And we are joint heirs with Jesus. Why? Because we received him. Now, why did we receive Him? It wasn't because we were simply born into the world and we naturally received Him. We've already learned that most people did not know Him and they did not receive Him. Nor was it of the will of the flesh. It wasn't something that we could bring about within our own self. Nor was it of the will of man. It wasn't about free will or not free will. Well then, how is it that some received and believed and others didn't? The final words, but of God. But of God. They were born of God before they received Jesus. God had worked on their heart before they received Jesus. Faith was a result of a prior work of regeneration. Now, what do we mean by regeneration? Let's look at that again real briefly here. Regeneration is everything that Jesus taught to Nicodemus about. You remember Nicodemus in chapter 3, a Pharisee, most likely of the Sanhedrin, the elders of Israel, one of the 70 elders of Israel. They apparently had had a conference and they got together and said, what are we going to do about this guy, Jesus? He's doing miracles. And they initially concluded that he was a prophet. And so Nicodemus came to Jesus by night and said to him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher 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 again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, we are way too familiar with that verse. We have gotten so familiar with it, we always assume we know exactly what it means. But the historic background here is something that would have been shocking to Nicodemus. Nicodemus is a man of status. He was a ruler of the Jews. He was a Pharisee. Whatever program of accrued righteousness was available to the people of Israel, they believed, through the law, Nicodemus was in the front line. Nicodemus was leading the way. Whatever merit could be accrued by keeping the law and being a good law-observing Jew, Nicodemus was the superior. He was named among them. And he had all the status, he had all the self-assurance, he probably had all the accolades of not only his peers, but the people as well. They probably looked at him and revered him. So he was confident. But the problem was, he lacked something. He lacked the vital, essential thing that was necessary for him to enter the Kingdom of God. And what was that? What was the must that Jesus said? Jesus said, you must be born again. You must be born of the Spirit. You must be born from above. And if he isn't, he cannot see the kingdom of God. So why is that? Why is that? It's because of our status before God, before God does that work on our spirit. By the way, in John 6, 63, I think it is, let me turn there real quick, John 6, 63, we learn what's going on here too. We learn that salvation is of the Lord and not of us. It's not a contributing factor. It's not synergism. That's another very important theological word. Salvation is not synergistic, meaning you do your part, God does his part, and between the two of you, you get yourself saved. Synergism simply says that God has done his part, now you must do your part. It's false. It's not what the Bible teaches. Salvation is of the Lord. Okay, so John 6, 63. It is a spirit that quickeneth, that makes alive. The flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you, they are spirit and they are life. But there are some of you that believe not." There we go again. There are some of you that believe not. For Jesus knew from the beginning who they were that believed not and who should betray him. And he said, therefore I said unto you that no man can come unto me except it were given unto him of my father. And he's referring back to verse 45, where he said, it is written, excuse me, verse 44, no man can come to me except the Father which has sent me draw him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, and they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that hath heard and hath learned of the Father comes unto me. Now, why is that? Why is that so important? Because we can't even begin to save ourselves. And the reason we can't begin to save ourselves is because of sin's deadly effect on the mind and the will and our very nature. Ephesians chapter 2 says it this way, and you who were dead in trespasses and sins, where in times past you walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience. among whom also we all, all, every one of us had our lives, our way of life, our conversation in times past in the lusts of the flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath even as others. but God who is rich in mercy for his great love with him with which he loved us." Isn't that beautiful? Even when we were dead in trespasses and sins, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ by grace ye are saved. Individually and corporately. And hath raised us up. There's not any of us that are not saved this way. It's not so individual that it could be something different for another person. It's all together true. It's universally true. Verse six, and hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come he might show the exceeding riches of his grace and his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus. For by grace are you saved through faith, and that not of yourselves. It is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them." So what are the three words that you've heard today that are absolutely essential to your theological understanding? Regeneration, the work of the Spirit, the work of the Father. Grace. Regeneration. Being made alive, born of the Spirit, actually precedes saving faith. Faith is not something you contribute. Faith is not something that you add. Faith is not something that you do to which the Holy Spirit responds. I understand. That was my initial understanding too. That was what we were taught back in the day. But it was a wrong teaching. It was a bad teaching. It leaves the ego in place. It leaves us thinking that salvation is something that occurred because we did something. And we know, we know that that simply is not true. We believe because faith itself is a gift. And faith itself proceeds from a prior work of the Spirit on our mind and will and heart. So, write those things down. Write those three words down. If you haven't already, regeneration precedes faith. Think of what I'm saying and pray about it. Read the text I just gave you. Pray about that and may the Lord strengthen you and give you great clarity. Amen.