John 3, verses 3 to 8, once again, for the preaching of God's Word. John 3, and verse 3, 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. 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 thee, ye must be born again. The wind bloweth where it listeth, 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. Amen. May God bless the reading, and especially preaching, of His Holy Word. Well, we continue along our series in the doctrine of salvation, or of soteriology, as it is commonly called in theology, the doctrine of salvation, soteriology. We started with the nuts and bolts, the way that we must first perceive the doctrine of salvation by that doctrine of justification, then the doctrine of saving faith, then the doctrine of repentance. And now we're coming into more of the deeper things of God. Some of the deeper things that may not be obvious to you at the first, but are necessary for salvation to be given to any of God's people. And what the doctrine of salvation teaches is that man, who is a sinner by birth, needs to be born again. That a sinner does not need better manners, but a sinner needs a new life. And that's what the doctrine of salvation teaches. You don't need better manners. You don't need to clean up your act. You need, first and foremost, a new life, a spiritual life, the kind of life that comes from the dead in Ezekiel 37 that we read on. And that new life is given in what is called regeneration. Regeneration. And that doctrine is key to understanding the doctrine of salvation and the doctrine that is part and parcel of true Christianity. Because there's a kind of false form of Christianity that is called moralism. And all it does is teaches that you need better manners, effectively. If you can just follow the commandments better, that'll lead to an improvement in your life. And that will be acceptable to God. That's not Christianity. That's what a lot of people think Christianity is, sad to say. Christianity is actually the giving of a new life to a sinner who is dead. You don't need new manners, you need a new life, in other words. And because the new birth is not stressed as it ought to be, you find that in many of our churches, death prevails. Spiritual death prevails. You go to church, you learn a few new things, you learn how to be maybe better to your neighbor. I remember a man that I worked with, he was another department head when I was in the software development industry. And he learned I was a Christian and he said, yeah, I go to church as well. I go to the Methodist church with my brother, you know, on occasion, he goes more regularly. And it's great because I just learned how to be a better neighbor. That's not the point of Christianity at the core. right, not to clean up some manners. And this is a man who's very filthy, by the way, in his mouth and his tongue, the things he did, lied constantly. So even that doesn't take root. Why? Because he's not a new creature. He's not a new creature. And Christianity says no one is saved without being regenerated or born again. Because Jesus Christ says it here. Jesus Christ says no one will come into the kingdom of heaven, into the kingdom of God, into heaven itself, unless they have been born again. That's the criteria here. So there's no way into the kingdom without being regenerated, without being born again. And so that's what we will consider today in our series on soteriology. We'll consider the doctrine of regeneration, and we'll consider it under three heads, from this text and other places. And we'll begin with, in our first heading, an exposition of this text, an exposition of this text to show how vital regeneration is, so that we always have it pressed upon our minds. So the exposition, verse three, Christ said, verily, verily, I say unto thee, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. Now, verily, verily, that means children. I wonder if you know what it means. It means amen, amen, truly, truly. He is emphasizing this is the truth of God. of a truth, and he is emphatic, and this truth cannot be evaded. It cannot be negotiated. It cannot be circumvented. He says, except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. That's the dividing line, isn't it? Without this new birth, you cannot see, you will not see the kingdom of God. A sinner, as I had said earlier, cannot just simply clean up his act to put away bad habits, take up new manners, and maybe give something to the Church. You know how often that happens. I'll just give a lot to the Church, and maybe that will gain me some merit with the Almighty. It happens all the time. That cannot cause you to enter into the Kingdom of God. You cannot purchase salvation, not with your manners, not with your money. A sinner must be reborn. They must become a new creature. And he says, this is required to see the kingdom of God. And remember, he said this to Nicodemus, who is called a master or a teacher of Israel in verse 10. He's saying this to one who teaches religion. That means this is vital for us to understand because it is often the case in the pursuit of religion, even the teachers of it will miss this. This was always part of early American Presbyterianism, to preach this truth, which is to say that without the new birth, right, no man will come to know the Lord. This all happened during the time of the great awakening. And many Presbyterians have forgotten this today. We'll come back to that in a bit, but it is common for religious leaders to not know this very thing. All the religious striving of the Pharisees and other men do not avail without a new birth. Nicodemus seems surprised in verse four. How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter the second time into his mother's womb and be born? Where does his mind immediately go? It's as though he's thinking, born again, then I have to come out of my mother's womb again? How in the world is that possible when I'm fully grown? That is a testimony that even here are religious leaders not thinking spiritually. he misses it. And we can too, right? We see so much spirituality in the Bible, right? And we miss it, and we look at the carnal thing that is being said when Christ is speaking of something spiritual. It's a spiritual rebirth Christ speaks of. In verse five, he says, you must be born of the spirit. In verse six, he will say, that which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the spirit is spirit. So in your first birth, it is of the flesh. The second birth, the new birth, is of the Spirit. It's totally different. Totally different. It's a spiritual birth, and it comes from the Holy Spirit. And so what he says is very plain when you put this together. Without a spiritual rebirth, you will not see the kingdom of heaven. It's impossible. It does not matter how much church you attend. It does not matter how much of your manners improve over time. It does not matter how much you give to the work of God's kingdom. You cannot buy the Holy Spirit, as others have found out. Without a rebirth, without coming alive to God spiritually, you will never be saved. And this doctrine separates religious formalists and hypocrites from true believers. In a prior sermon, we heard about what we call a historic faith. A dead faith that cannot save. What is the reason? There's no new birth. There's no new birth there. It's the same with legal repentance, which we considered last Lord's Day. While there might be a great remorse, you remember, children, we talked about Judas and his remorse over betraying the Son of God. Yet there was no evangelical repentance there. There was no turning to God for forgiveness. There was no seeking the application of the blood of Jesus Christ as the one who atones for the sins of his people. Why? Because Judas was never born again. Think of it, it's rather easy even to fool others, isn't it? Judas, what seemed indistinguishable from the other apostles, he preached even, he was not born again. He seemed in some ways to have an outward appearance of life that was on some measure godly, so that when Jesus said, one of you will betray me, all the disciples look at each other and ask, is it I? but it hadn't taken root in him, had it? He was not a new creature. He had not been born again. He did not have the second birth. So in a nutshell, this is the doctrine of regeneration. The word simply means to be reborn. You remember in the older language to be generate or to generate is to beget or to birth. Children, we talk about generations today, you know, maybe a cluster of maybe people are born in about 20 to 30 years time. We talk about a generation, that's a people who have been begotten in that time period. And so the doctrine of regeneration is a doctrine in which people are reborn or regenerated. And this does, as I've said a few times, separates Christianity, true Christianity, from all the other religions. There's a real change made in the soul of the believer. the believer's soul actually changes. There's a kind of spiritual resurrection that takes place in the soul when one is born again. Just as profound as you saw in Ezekiel 37. There is a passing from spiritual death to spiritual life. And it is, and let us say it, it is a great miracle wrought by God. It is a miracle that comes from God. And it separates even dead and formal expressions of Christianity from true. Though churches that don't stress the need for the new birth are likely filled with dead souls. It's true. Jesus here tells one of Israel's teachers that it must be stressed, that it must be relayed in the ministry of the church, and it must be so even in this day. You might recall, if you remember your American church history, it is the preaching of this doctrine that led to the great revivals in America. when so many churches were formal and dead under the weight of Anglican rituals and mere moralism. Death prevailed. Evangelical Anglicans, however, you think of men like Whitefield, what did they come to preach? You must be born again. You must not just improve your morals. You must have a new life. You remember the anecdote about Whitfield. A friend asked, George, why is it that you preach so often the text, you must be born again. As the anecdote continues, Whitfield stares at his friend for a moment and says, because you must be born again. You see how essential it is. It's do not pass go, right? You cannot enter the kingdom of heaven without being born again. And so many are deluded into thinking that they are Christians without even hearing about it. And so men like Whitefield and the evangelical Presbyterians, especially the new lights, they arose and cried out of God's word, you do not need new manners, you need a new birth. And you know how many within the church are actually uncomfortable with that. So many persecuted these men because they preached that. Well, what are they doing? They're just preaching what Christ himself said. And it's a shock and it's a scandal that it isn't preached so often. Many try to evade it. Many don't preach it because it isn't exactly the best thing for the pride of the sinner, is it? That you are wicked and you don't just have five steps to improve your life. You need a whole new life. Because the life that you have is enmity with God. No matter how nice you seem to your neighbors, you need a new birth. Your soul needs renovation. And Jesus emphatically says, you cannot enter heaven without it. So if we do not receive the new birth being born physically again, how are we reborn? Verses five through six explains. We find the agent of the new birth. The effectual cause is God, the Holy Spirit. 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. So born of water and the Spirit. You understand what the Spirit is, I trust. The Holy Spirit. God, the Holy Spirit. But what of water? You know, many think that refers to water baptism, but it does not. Rome actually uses texts like this to say that baptism then regenerates, that baptism gives the new birth. As if, right, children, the new birth can be sort of bottled up in water, and the Spirit can come down in demand, bound to the water. But instead, what Christ does here is he stresses the liberty and independence of the Holy Spirit. Verse eight, the wind bloweth where it listeth. That word means desires. The wind blows where it desires. And thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth. So is everyone that is born of the Spirit. Right, the Spirit is sovereign and blowing upon whom he wills. So in the preaching of the Word, one is gripped with the conviction of sin, the other is snoring. Why? It's because the Spirit goes where He wills and is sovereign. And so the water is a referent to the Spirit's work when he regenerates a soul. And scripture interprets that for you. John 7, 37 through 39. In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, if any man thirst, let him come unto me and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. That means heart. Out of his heart shall flow rivers of living water. But this spake he of the spirit. which they that believe on him should receive, for the Holy Ghost was not yet given, because that Jesus was not yet glorified. So water in the spirit refers to the working of the Holy Spirit. It's like a cleansing of the sinner's soul. And what water baptism is, is a sign and seal of a spiritual reality. So we are used and we commanded, we're commanded, not just use it because it's a good idea, we're commanded to use water, but the water is not what Christ is speaking of here, but the water baptism is a sign pointing to it. Again, just like with Nicodemus, when Jesus says, you must be born again, he's thinking, oh, do I have to go back into my mother's womb? That's weird. Many take carnal, material things when Jesus speaks of it and don't understand the spiritual significance. He's not talking about physical water. We must not make that mistake. we look to the operation of the Holy Spirit. So you must be born again to be saved. That's an exposition here, that's the doctrine in a nutshell of regeneration. Without regeneration, you cannot have, let me just put this here before we go further, you cannot have the two gifts we spoke of in our last two sermons, faith and repentance. Regeneration grants, through regeneration, you are given the power to believe and the power to repent. Without that, work of regeneration you cannot. Now we'll talk about that a little bit more in our next heading, which is the necessity, the necessity of regeneration. So why does man need to be born again or regenerated? It is because he is born in sins and trespasses. spiritually dead and that's the root problem with man after the fall he is spiritually dead and spiritually dead does not mean a Neutrality it means that he is actively at enmity with God He hates God you can turn to Ephesians 2 verses 1 through 3 I'll read this and talk about it reach a bit of it to you Ephesians 2 In verse 1, and you hath he quickened, that means brought to life, who were dead in trespasses and sins, wherein in time past ye 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 had our conversation, or conduct, in times past, in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others. Now, what does it say about our first birth? You are dead. You're alive in a sense, but you're dead in another sense, spiritually. You are dead in trespasses and sins. The first birth gives you a sin nature, and we spoke of that in the first sermon on the doctrine of salvation. But think about what it is that the spiritually dead do. They walk according to Satan. This is why, again, the doctrine of regeneration is not popular. Because you must say to those who are dead, you actually follow Satan. You actually are following your father, Satan. And that's the reality of it. But God's word is true here, the prince of the power of the air. You would walk in accordance with his will. He works in the children of disobedience, and that there signifies this is a generation of disobedience. We are born into this world ordinarily disobedient. A generation, first birth of disobedience. That's what we are apart from Christ. Born to disobey God as the children of wrath. Even as you heard in John 3, the wrath of God abides on those who do not believe and do not have a new birth. And that is what your first birth has given you. And that is why sin has dominion over the unregenerate, over the unbeliever. Sin has dominion, and they gladly give themselves to it and see nothing wrong with it. That's the blindness. That's the hardness. That's the spiritual death. Now, let's take this a bit to the ground then and talk about your own experience. If you're a believer, have you never found it hard to interact with unbelieving family and friends? Totally different in how you speak to those who are regenerated, those who are believers, isn't it? It's like there's a dullness, there's a deadness, there's an enmity about the very things of God, unprovoked even. They won't receive it. Why? Because they are dead, spiritually. 1 Corinthians 2.14, the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God. They can't receive it. It bounces off of them. Worse, it stirs their flesh at times. And it's not just that they don't receive it, it's that they hate it. So if you've had that experience, this is the reality that God's Word paints for you. Don't think it's strange. Like, why is it that my mother or my father, if they're unbelievers, or even my good friends at work or whatever, why are they so hateful towards the things of God? And even as I express the faith through my acts, what I do in this world, why do they despise it so much? It's because unless they are born again, they cannot receive the things of God. Instead, Satan is operating in them. You know, how often it is the case, ministers, I know some ministers like this, you know, they come to that sweet old grandmother at the end of their life, and they go to the hospital room. And she says, I've gone to church all the days of my life. And the minister says, but have you been born again? You cannot enter heaven without saving faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And the sweet old woman gets angry. Who are you to call me a sinner? I've gone to church. Maybe I've memorized the catechism. I've given eggs to my neighbor. I've tried to give flowers to the sick, so on and so forth. And this kind old grandmother will get very, very angry when you say, but you cannot enter the kingdom of God without being born again. Jesus is very emphatic. And this text in Ephesians 2 is very emphatic, that the natural man is dead in trespasses and sins and needs a new birth. And unless the Holy Spirit humbles, through the Word of God, that sweet old grandmother, she will not come to the Lord and she will find herself in hell. Do you see why Whitefield preached this doctrine so often, friends? So many are deluded. as to where they stand with the Lord. Even church folk, as he found in his day, often do not know that they must be born again. And I don't know what your church experience was like before coming here, but in churches today, too few hear from the pulpit that there's no option for them but to be born again. And they think that if they just stuff their minds with all kinds of information or they jump up and down in the worship of God or something like that, then they're okay with God. but they're not unless they are born again. And the resulting death in the church in these United States in the year of our Lord 2025 testifies to this. Well, let's go back to Ephesians 2, verses 4 and 5, comes the doctrine of regeneration. And so beautiful. But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened, that is, made us alive, together with Christ by grace, ye are saved. So in regeneration, what God does is he sovereignly reaches down into the dead sinner's soul and infuses spiritual life into one that is dead. Why does God do it? I think we sometimes read too quickly over it. The text says that God loves the sinner. He quickens. He says he is rich in mercy and his love is great. And that is why by grace you are saved. It is his gift to you out of his love for you. For those of you who have been born again, is that not a lovely thought to ponder this day? That God, out of his own love for you, Though He has passed over many others, reached into your soul and said, live, and you live. You came alive because His Spirit brought that word into your soul. So God, who is rich in mercy for His great love, wherewith He loved us, even when we were dead, meaning unable to respond, like those dry bones in Ezekiel 37, made us alive. And this is His gift. Well, let's get a bit more technical as we dive into this a bit more. You can readily see, therefore, from John 3 and Ephesians 2, that this work of regeneration is a sovereign work of God's Spirit. Man is dead and does not cooperate in any way with God in this work. Because man cannot, he is spiritually dead. And a man or a woman cannot cause you to be born again either. An angel from heaven cannot cause you to be born again. Only God, only God can. A minister cannot cause you to be born again. A parent, a friend cannot cause you to be born again. You cannot argue anyone into heaven. God must sovereignly come down and make one who is dead as a doorknob alive. And only God has that power. It is the same power that created the universe that must recreate the human soul. That's the only one who has the power. Man is so dead that God who gives life in the first place is the only one who can give spiritual life. And nothing in you can move him to do it. He does it freely out of his own sovereign love. Right? You look at Ephesians 2, is there anything here by which God might say, well, this one who's dead and following Satan, I'll grab that one. That one's a bit better than the other. No. No. It is merely for the good pleasure and love of his sovereignty. He comes to the sinners who are elect from before the foundation of the world and at the appointed time regenerates them. but he does use means. Particularly he uses the word of God and the preaching of it. You remember 1 Peter 1.23, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible. So what's the means used here? By the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever. So we do not expect ordinarily regeneration to occur without the word of God being preached. Do you understand, brethren, why Whitefield preached so much in The Great Awakening? It is faith in this principle. that comes out of the Word of God, that yes, the Spirit is sovereign. And a lot of Presbyterian churches today are unlike our forefathers. We simply say the Spirit is sovereign, and we leave it there. And we just sort of expect that the Lord will ordinarily just bring souls to salvation without understanding that the Word must be preached as well, pointedly, that you must be converted. You must be born again. You must have saving faith or else you are damned. The Spirit uses that kind of preaching. It's a means that he uses to turn the sinner to himself. God has ordained this means. Now, not all who hear the preaching will be regenerated, and not all who will be regenerated are regenerated at the same time. Some hear the preaching of the gospel for years, maybe decades. before the Lord blesses it to their soul. Some will hear the preaching of the word their whole life and never be regenerated. Whereas a man might walk into our assembly one day off the streets, hear it once and be regenerated by the spirit. Again, the spirit blows where he will, but we are responsible to use the means, the promiscuous preaching of God's word. Once a sinner is reborn, they are given the gifts of faith and repentance. They are given the ability to believe and the ability to repent of all their sin, as we heard last week, and turn to God. When they are regenerated, they will do that. A regenerated person will willingly believe and repent, but they cannot do that before regeneration because they are dead spiritually, And the only way to exercise true saving faith and true evangelical repentance is to be born again. So the only way you can have saving faith is if you were first regenerated. You know, it's remarkable how the preaching of God's Word can be blessed by the Spirit in such ways. That's why it has often been called, right, the power of God unto salvation. That's how many have spoken about the preaching of God's word. I believe the Westminster Directory, the original, calls it that. But the great illustration, and children, you might be thinking about this, the great illustration of this from the Bible comes from Lazarus, right? Lazarus is so dead when Jesus comes to him that it says he stinketh. He stinks, he's rotting. Right, his corpse is starting to rot. But what does Jesus do? He calls the one who is rotting away, dead, and commands him to arise. In death, you think about this, Lazarus's ears can hear nothing. His ears can hear nothing. Well, you can think about this, and maybe we might imagine how many, when he died, especially his sisters, wept. And how many might have said, oh, Lazarus, oh, that thou wouldst live. His sisters might have even cried. If only Jesus were here, you would be alive today. He could hear none of that. Just as it is in spiritual death, right? The natural man receiveth not the things of God. And so you might have been pleading with a loved one or a friend, just like Lazarus' sisters might have been pleading by his body and they hear nothing. But then, dead Lazarus heard Christ say, arise. Why is that? It is before, right, before that word reaches his ears, Jesus had given him life. He had raised him to life. And though he did not hear the weeping of his sisters when he was dead, he can now hear Jesus speak to him. And he hears the word, arise, and Lazarus responds to the command. But this dead man must first have life in him. But this is how the Spirit of the Lord uses the preaching of the Word, especially in any time the Word is brought to a dead sinner. There is that hope we have and that prayer before God that God, the Spirit, might use this Word and command this dead one to arise to newness of life. That's a great illustration then, children, if you look at Lazarus of what regeneration is like. The Holy Spirit calling those who are dead with the word, believe and repent. The sinner given spiritual life by which he can obey the command. And as Lazarus awoke, the sinner is able to hear now and able to respond and able to arise because they have been regenerated. Now, we often speak of conversion. I think it is good to distinguish between regeneration and conversion. They are related, but they are distinct. So what is conversion in relation to regeneration? Because we don't often tell people or ask people, have you been regenerated? What we ask is, have you been converted? or tell me about your conversion, right? That is how we speak. That's our experience, right? We, you know, there's so many Christians who may not know the technicalities of the new birth, but have been converted. They've been given the new birth. Maybe they don't understand all of it, but they can tell you I've been converted. I once was a great sinner, but the Lord converted me to himself. So what's the relationship here? What's the distinction? Well, let's remember regeneration as we've heard it. Let me summarize it. It's the sovereign work of God to give you a new heart. In this, the sinner is passive, does not cooperate with God in any way. God reaches into the soul, gives them spiritual life and breathes upon them and deposits what we call the seed of faith and repentance into this new heart. But then, distinct from regeneration is conversion. Conversion is the sinner exercising that new heart, which turns to God in repentance of faith. So you exercise the gift of faith and repentance, the gifts of faith and repentance, and that's your conversion. You truly and really exercise faith and repentance. And that's why Jesus can say, as he did to so many, your faith has saved you. Even though that faith is a gift, you exercise it. And so the sinner exercises the gift that is given. And it's remarkable what conversion is signified as, and you might see this and understand it as you thought about the doctrine of repentance from last week. It is called, conversion is called a giving of yourself to the Lord. The Lord deposits into your soul a new birth, and out of that new birth, basically, your conversion is summarized as giving yourself to the Lord. 2 Corinthians 8.5, and this they did, not as we hoped, but first gave their own selves to the Lord. When you are converted, you give yourself to the Lord, and the sinner is active in that. This is a voluntary act of your will. There's this caricature of Calvinism, not exactly sure where it came from, but it goes something like this, and you'll hear people say it, and it is absolutely false, that I was dragged, kicking, and screaming to salvation. That's not true. That's not true. The Lord says he makes you willing in the day of his power. I once argued with a good friend who was an Arminian, And over the doctrines of grace, as we often did, and it got a little heated, granted. And, you know, he was preparing to leave my home. And it wasn't that there was any breach in the relationship. And I talked about the doctrine of irresistible grace. And he stopped, he paused, and he turned to me. And he said, but you know what, Ron? The day the Lord revealed himself to me, it's interesting he used Calvinistic terminology there. He said, I couldn't have said no. And then he went his way, right? As though, you know, he was pondering these truths from the Bible. You are made willing in the day of his power when you are regenerated. You have a new heart. You have a new heart that beats after the Lord. And once you are at enmity with God, but now you're warm towards him. You know, so let's take these things together and let's take an example, right? You might ask one of your brethren, as you probably all do, you might meet somebody new who's a brother or sister, and you might ask, tell me about your conversion. tell you about your conversion. And they may say, well, back in 2008, I went to church with a friend. I heard the gospel preached. I heard of a crucified Savior. I heard about how great a sinner I am from the Bible. And then I fled to Christ and have walked with him ever since. And they might say something like that. And we say, praise God, brother, or praise God, sister. And they're describing their conversion, and you notice, and you probably said this too, they put it in terms of their own actions. I heard the gospel, I responded to it, I turned from my sin, and I turned to the Lord Jesus Christ. And that's fair enough, because they're describing their conversion. But underneath that is a reborn, regenerated soul, sovereignly so by God. And so what's going on behind the scenes in 2008 when the word was preached is that the spirit of the living God came down and regenerated that same soul to hear the word and gave it the gifts of faith and repentance so that when the word came, the understanding of the word came and that person believed out of a new heart and was saved. So that regeneration is underneath all of that. It's that sovereign work where he deposits saving graces that we need, which the sinner then exercises unto salvation. Okay, without regeneration, none can believe, none can repent, none will see the kingdom of God. So let's end our time by considering our last heading, which is the nature of the regenerate, the nature of the regenerate. Now before the vision of the dry bones in Ezekiel 37, in the prior chapter, Ezekiel 36, you find this promise. It's interesting how they're linked in such proximity. Verse 26, Ezekiel 36, a new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you, and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. And that's what happens when you are born again. You have a new heart. You have a new heart. Now understand what the heart signifies, because we have a very shallow impression of it in modern thinking and language. Today, when we speak of the heart, you're probably speaking of your affections. You talk about, you know, my heart is warm towards this or that, or my heart is captured by this person. But when the Bible speaks of the heart, it addresses typically the whole soul, the whole soul. And the soul of man has two components, the intellect and the will. And the affections are part of man's will classically, because that's what motivates and moves us. So you have the intellect and you have the will, the affections are part of man's will. And in regeneration, praise God, all the faculties of the soul are reborn. The same soul, but with new qualities, spiritual qualities. If any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new. 2 Corinthians 5, 17. So what are the old things? The old affections, the old passions, the old understandings of yourself and of God, they're all gone. But now the intellect and the will are renewed. You're made new. where it counts in the soul. Let's consider the intellect and the will. First, the intellect. Your intellect is renewed, primarily so that you can now understand the scripture. This is what we call illumination. The Bible is illuminated to you and you can see. 2 Corinthians 4, 6, we've heard this recently. For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. The same God who commanded light, let there be light. has shined on our hearts. And think about this, it's more than just your affections. It's your whole soul to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. Now, again, the same God who said, let there be light on the day he regenerated you, said to your soul, let there be light in the soul so that you might understand my word. The intellect, as we've heard recently in Ephesians 1, is called the eyes of your understanding. It can now see the things of God. It can understand the things of God. The natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit, but the one who is illuminated and regenerated can. You think about this. Some of you were converted later in life. I'm using that word converted. You understand what's under it? Regeneration. And you probably opened your Bible, or the Bible, in early days, before your conversion, and it was nothing but darkness and a parable and a riddle to you. So what is this? And you took it apart, you looked here and there, and maybe you were searching for contradictions or some interesting point of interest in the apocalypse because you want to know something about the end times, and it's all bizarre to you. or it's all obscuring the main thing, which is Christ. Then your soul is illuminated when you are regenerated. And now, the same words are now clear to you. and you hear the voice of God in it, and you understand it. Not perfectly, there's still things, as Peter says, that are hard to understand, but it has become, and we use that term, perspicuous. You can understand the things that are necessary for salvation. You can understand the duties God requires of you, and you start to mine it more and more, and you understand it, and you sense God is speaking to you through it. And so the new nature of the soul, the intellect, is able to apprehend the things of God. But the new nature of the soul does not only reside in the intellect, the will is also changed. So you love God, you find pleasure in God, where once you did not. You want to please God, and that is part of the nature of the regenerate soul. Where once it's like, take it or leave it, I don't want anything to do with God. I don't want anything to do with church. I don't want to pray. All this stuff is just obnoxious to me. Suddenly, in conversion, in regeneration, now these are the things you desire. You want to please God, not to be saved, but because you are saved. You love Him now because He first loved you, 1 John 4, 19. And in regeneration, the Holy Spirit deposits the love of God in the love of the things of God, and that moves you to obedience. You want to serve Him. Psalm 110, verse 3, again, thy people are made willing in the day of thy power. Ezekiel 36, 27, I will put my Spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes. and ye shall keep my judgments and do them." Philippians 2.13, it is God which worketh in you both to will and to do his good pleasure. When you are reborn, you want to serve God. You want to serve God. And we know that because, and I'll speak of this in just a minute, time is going quickly, that we struggle in this at times as Christians, but those who are born again, even as they struggle at times because of the flesh, right, there is a desire there, a desire even to desire to serve God. And that doesn't come to the natural man. The natural man doesn't lament, doesn't cry and weep like Peter did when Christ looks at him after he denied him three times. That can only come from a regenerated heart. But your will is inclined to serve God. And in regeneration, and we praise God for this especially, the power of sin over your soul is broken. Romans 6.11, likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord. If you are alive to God, that means you are regenerated. And the contrary principle is true, you are dead to sin. Romans 6.14, for sin shall not have dominion over you. And that is incredibly freeing, because the Son has made you free from sin. and the dominion of it. And you can now make true progress in holiness by the grace of God. This is where your manners change, truly and really, at the root. This is how you can love God and love neighbor and follow those commandments from the heart. And so regeneration, we also remember, is only the beginning of your spiritual life, and it is not the perfection of it. It's the beginning. The residue of sin is still in your soul, and may that comfort and console you, Christian, as you wrestle with sin still, and you think, I have the new birth, but why is it I still toy and tinker with sin so much? It's not the perfection of your soul. It is the beginning of a new birth. We'll speak of sanctification in another sermon, that growth and holiness which is expected in the regenerate over their life. But only the regenerate are sanctified, mortifying sin, growing in newness of life. So some fundamental doctrine there. There's still some important points that need touching on. First, what is the relation of regeneration to infants? Can infants be regenerated? They're going to be, God willing, a couple of infants born into the congregation in the upcoming months. Can an infant be regenerated? We have to say yes. John the Baptist regenerated even in the womb and recognized the presence of the Savior. Why can that happen? It is because regeneration is a sovereign work of God. It's not the work of man's intellect or apprehension of truth. Otherwise an infant could never be regenerated. That said, not every child born in a Christian home is regenerated in the womb. You have obviously your Esau's, as well as your Jacob's. Some are. Some may be regenerated very young, even as toddlers. even though they cannot exercise faith as we've studied it, right? How can an infant, you might ask, possess knowledge and assent which are needed for a mature faith? How can they perform the acts of faith? How can they examine themselves and exercise evangelical repentance? And it's clear they cannot. Yet David says in the 22nd Psalm, thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother's breasts. How do we put these things together? Well, it is possible that an infant can have what we call seed faith, which is the germ of faith. The germ of faith. They can be regenerated at a very early age, and yet faith has not fully sprouted in them. But they have the seed of it in them. They cannot exercise the fullness of faith, yet they exercise it in proportion to how it has sprouted up in them. So you think about this, and you know, if you're older, you've probably observed a child like this over the years, up to the point in which they profess faith in the Lord. You know, a toddler might be very warm to the things of God. They love the Psalms sung. They clasp their hands together in prayer when the family prays or at the church. And a young child may say, I love Jesus and my sin makes me sad. Ways that they can express faith that is sprouting up in that way. Now, we have to be careful because sometimes they say it simply to please mom and dad, or they're just imitating patterns. They're just, you know, like a parrot, effectively. But it's not actually true seed faith in their soul. That's why we wait for later years of maturity to examine them, and so on, for the Lord's Supper. But other times, it is truly the germ. It is the seed of faith sprouting like a tender shoot. And in Christian charity, when we see our children, when they do these things, we hope and we pray that it is the case that they have seed faith, and we are watchful always to see if the root has actually taken hold of them. But it is possible for even an infant to have this kind of seed faith. It's distinguished from a mature faith. The concept of the seed of faith comes from 1 John 3, 9. Whosoever is born of God doth not commit sin, for his seed remaineth in him. And so an infant can be regenerated, even in the womb, and may have the seed of faith and the seed of every saving grace. And over time, it may mature and blossom. And then one day, praise God, they are making a mature profession of faith. And you see that that seed has grown in them over time. Here and there you will see evidences of it. They are sorry for sin, even though they're not very old. They cry maybe over it. And then one day these things blossom and they take a firm stand for the Lord. Experience proves this as well. Some of you have grown up in a Christian home, and there was never that stark illumination was there for you, that stark crossing from death to life, where, you know, one day suddenly the Bible made sense to you. But, you know, you always heard the Word of God. You always received it. You always knew you were a sinner in whatever way was appropriate at whatever age. And you always knew that you loved the Lord and you believed on Him and that He was real. Right? And so there's never this kind of crisis moment that you see that so many in the church are looking for. Well, this idea of being regenerated at an early age, even before you are aware of that you are converting, gives explanatory power to these things. And so we praise God that this is the way the Lord works. The Lord had put his seed in you before you were even aware of it. And there was light in your soul in an appropriate measure. Now, many of you probably have Turretin's Institutes. You can read the 14th question where he addresses this, and you can find it online as well. It's a wonderful read. And as Presbyterians, we confess in Confession of Faith 10.3, elect infants dying in infancy are regenerated and saved by Christ through the Spirit, who worketh when and where and how he pleaseth. See, that comes right out of John 3. So also are all other elect persons who are incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry of the Word. Right? So, it speaks especially, and it must, of elect infants dying in infancy, not all infants. However, Christian parents who have a child who dies in infancy, we would say, ought not doubt the election of their child. David did not. He said, my son will not come to me, but I will go to him. And because there are promises that God is God to us and our children, when a child does not reject the covenant and the judgment of charity, we say, we should not doubt that this child was elect. And so those who've suffered as Christians miscarriages, or a child who dies in infancy, ought to be very thankful for the doctrine of regeneration, which is God's sovereign work. That he can blow where he wills, and that we ought not doubt that we will see our children who die in infancy if we're Christians in the life to come. And again, that does not mean that all children are saved. That does not teach a doctrine of an age of accountability. But when a child of the covenant passes away, we rest on the promise of the covenant that he is God to us and our children. And because he is sovereign, infants can be saved. Otherwise, what hope is there for little ones taken away? that they must comprehend and understand the gospel through the word of God when they can't even hear. God doesn't leave us to worry about such things. But also our confession notes that those incapable of being outwardly called by the ministry can be regenerated. Think of the mentally handicapped. If, for instance, they must completely apprehend and understand cognitively the gospel to be saved, they could never be saved. And we would say all with cognitive impairments are damned. But God can sovereignly work. And when, especially, and I've known ministers who've had children who are so crippled that they cannot even respond to you, These children come into the worship of God, one that I know died before she reached her 20th year. What are we to do with such? But we hope on the mercy and sovereignty of God. that He may regenerate such elect persons if they be elect. And we don't doubt it if they are our own children. Or you think about one who comes into the worship of God, who is maybe mentally deficient, but wants to be in the Lord's Day services. And we are just not sure what they understand about what they're hearing. Can such a one be saved? The answer is yes. So we ought to be very gracious towards those who are mentally handicapped. And we don't say, well, you can't come to church. But God may sovereignly—it's like, what's the use? You can't understand it. No, God can blow where he will. Our time is up. Let me give you quick points of application. First, in the Christian ministry, then, there must be a stress on the new birth. You've heard this. And in this congregation, we must stress it as well. Let us never lose the main thing. Second, you can know if you are regenerate, if you are born again. Do you have the saving graces of faith and repentance? Is the scripture illuminated to you as your will, desiring to strive after God? None is perfected in this life, but examine yourself and see if these things are present. And if so, praise God, I have been born again. Third, as regeneration is a sovereign work of God, when loved ones do not respond to the gospel preached and spoken, you can plead with the power on high. Don't give up on those not reconciled to the Lord. By faith, go to the one who is sovereign over the human heart and ask him to blow on the dry bones in your friends and family. And for the unconverted, here you are under the preaching of the word. You're in a time of worship where the Spirit blows upon that word. And if you hear the Savior say, arise to you, arise and respond in faith and repentance, Take it as an indication, if you are hearing these things and they are resonating in your soul, that God is speaking to you, and he may have done a work to regenerate you, and you must go to him and be converted, if you are hearing these things. And I cannot manipulate you into such things, but the Lord, by his Spirit, will draw you. May he give you ears to hear. If you desire to come after Christ, the Spirit has worked such grace, and don't discount it may be His work to draw you to Christ, so repent and believe. Fourth, for those who are born again, you are called to live as new creatures. One of the most famous sermons in the world was preached by one of our Free Church fathers, Thomas Chalmers. It's a beautiful title, very memorable. It's called The Expulsive Power of a New Affection. The expulsive power of a new affection. Read it, if you will. You can find it on monergism. He preached that a new heart with a new principle after God is what will eradicate worldliness and will eradicate sin. It expels all that is sinful, all that is worldly. And if you grow and nurture the new man, the new birth, you will die more to sin and you will live unto righteousness. And so you feed the new birth as a young child would be fed with the food that is convenient to it, especially the Word of God. And in prayer, right, you ask the Lord, grow me, vivify me, grow me in newness of life, grow me in maturity. The new birth has begun. I am as a toddler, but make me a mature man or woman in Christ. And before the Lord's supper next month, ask the Lord to make it a strengthening ordinance to cause the new man to be strengthened. At the new birth, we become strong and push out. everything else, the flesh. Well, I've gone way over my time, so let's just conclude with the Savior's words. You must be born again. You are going to enter the kingdom of heaven. May the Lord bless His word to us, and let us arise and go to the Lord in prayer. Our gracious God in heaven, Wouldst Thou blow upon these dry bones that are amongst us? Wouldst Thou cause them to live? May they hear something from the Word of God that the Spirit may pour into their hearts, that hearing it with ears opened and unstopped, that they might come to the Savior. We pray, O Lord, that for those who are regenerated, those converted, that they would grow in the new man, and that this new principle of life in them would be strengthened, even through the preaching of the Word that we have heard. And we pray for all our loved ones that are so close to our heart. And we pray, O God, that Thou wouldst regenerate them. We look to Thee, for to whom else shall we go? Only Thou has that power over the heart. So we rely upon thee, blow Holy Spirit upon the souls of the dead, that they may arise and there may be a great army that arises, a spiritual people who put on the armor of faith, contending against their own sin, as well as the world and the devil. And we pray that this great army would arise through revival, that thou wouldst revive our souls. And we think about men that thou had blessed in times past, like George Whitehill and Samuel Davies and others who preached mightily, you must be born again. We pray that what Thou hast done in times past in this nation, Thou wouldst do again. May all our pulpits be filled with a preaching on the requirement of the new birth, for our own Savior has said it and we believe it by faith. So bless us, O God. We pray.