All right tonight we are in the book of James continuing our study we had a little bit of a hiatus here James the first chapter tonight we'll be looking at just one verse verse eighteen we've been going very very slowly through this section we will pick up and in time James chapter one verse eighteen right. Let me read it for you. follow along if you would, "...of His own will begot He us with the word of truth that we should be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures." We have been studying the genealogy of things. And you'll notice back in verse 14, we've talked about where sin comes from. It's when we're drawn away of our own lusts. And then notice lust conceives. It's talking the language of pregnancy here. And when it's finished, it delivers sin. Sin, when it's finished, brings forth And it's interesting that it uses the same word that we have down in our verse, verse 18, where He begot us, He birthed us. So it's that. theme carried over except notice now in verse seventeen we turn from the evil line genealogy to the good that God is the father of every good thing comes down from him and now in verse eighteen we talk about him being our father in particular he is the one who begot us with the word of truth in the Old Testament Do we ever find God referred to as Father? It's sort of yes and no. There is a sense in the Old Testament in which we see God referred to as Father. In a creative sense, He's the Father of all. How about in a national sense? When Israel was a child, I called my son out of Egypt. Certainly he is the father of Israel in that sense. metaphoric sense, as a father chastens his son, so the Lord chastens those who fear Him. But do we find God being directly addressed by His people as their Father? That's what's missing. And that's what is so striking when we turn to the pages of the New Testament and begin to read the Sermon on the Mount. where suddenly, it's just like every other verse, your Father knows you have need of these things. When you pray, pray, Our Father who are in heaven, and over and over again, that you may be like your Father who is in heaven. I mean, it's just constant then. And through the rest of the New Testament, we see the fatherhood of God Both in an adoptive sense, you do realize that there is a sense in which God has adopted us. He's given, as we would say, to adopt a child, there's some legal things you've got to go through. Well, God had to go through some legal things. Some legal things had to be taken care of at the cross in order for him to adopt. But it's not just in an official, sort of an objective sense that we're his children. As we see elsewhere in the New Testament, we are his actual children. in a sense, a subjective sense of being His. That He's given us the Spirit of Sonship. Which means that it's more than just us finding our names on a piece of paper. We've been adopted. Somebody adopted us down at the courthouse. But we feel adopted. We feel as if God is our Father. Now, we're going to be dealing with the subject of regeneration tonight because that's what our text deals with. so uh... if we can sort of look at a few key text tonight and i've picked out these uh... i had to sort of weed out some but uh... there's probably others but uh... this one certainly is important one when we think of cough up a text dealing with the subject of the new birth and jim this is i'm just reiterate what you said so the morning it's amazing how jim and my Lessons have been dovetailing here lately just be reinforcing what you heard Sunday morning if you're in gym Sunday school class But let me read this Jesus answered and said unto him. This is Nicodemus. You remember Nicodemus said We know that you must be a man sent from God couldn't do these things except God be with him and Jesus answered and said unto him barely barely ascend to thee Except a man be born again. He cannot see the kingdom of God and 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 flashes flash and that which is born of the spirit is spirit uh... notice we're talking about being born again anna fun is the greek word can mean from above but here clearly nicodemus is understanding it as being born twice being born again a second time what we would call a new birth And a couple of things just to point out by this of this text. Jesus is saying in the last part that unless a man be born of water and of the spirit. Now that is not necessarily a very accurate translation because a better translation be he must be born of water and spirit. Just one definite article there that he's born of water and spirit. Because saying it like we read it in the King James tends to indicate that we could be talking about being born of water, and then later on being born of the Spirit. But the way the Greek reads, it's one thing, being born of water and Spirit. Notice also this last phrase there, that flesh can only give birth to flesh, Spirit is what is necessary to give birth to spirit. So just a couple observations about that. Then Titus 3, 5, and 6, where Paul writes, by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Lord." Notice the washing, the water and spirit once again. You see the connection there. And then 1 Peter 1, 23-25, a text we had not that long ago. Peter says, being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth forever, for all flesh is like grass, and all the glory of man like the flower of grass. The grass withereth, its flower falleth away, but the word of the Lord endureth forever. And this is the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. Again, I've told you that the phrase, the Word of God, as it's used in the New Testament, most normally refers not to, like, in the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. I mean, that is the Word of God. Most normally, it refers to what we call the Gospel. And notice that last phrase here makes it very clear that that's exactly what Peter means, is that it is through the Gospel, through that Word, that then we are born again. Notice there's no reference to water or spirit here. What is being emphasized here is the Word, namely the Word of the Gospel. Do we find texts in the Old Testament talking about this? Well, yes we do. We just sang one. Now there's a number of texts in the Old Testament that talk about God giving His people a new heart. The one we just sung, I will give them a heart to know me. that I am the Lord and they shall be my people and I will be their God and they shall return unto me with their whole heart." Notice in each case this is talking eschatologically. It is talking about something that is still future to the days of the prophet. They are looking ahead into what we would call the New Testament age and describing this thing that God is going to do in that age. we see this same thing described in jeremiah thirty one verse thirty three he says this shall be the covenant that i will make with the house of israel after those days notice again we're not talking about something in jeremiah's day but it coming day after those days at the lord i will put my law in their inward parts and write it in their hearts and will be their god and they shall be my people notice the similarity what we just read earlier in jeremiah and then of course in ezekiel thirty six starting in verse twenty five i was in canada uh... with d a carson a few years ago and he was expositing john three and i was a very very interesting what interested in what he had to say when he got to the part where it talks about us being born of water and spirit you do understand the paid a bad this believe that's baptism Carson, in his remarks that evening, said he believed that that is referring to Ezekiel 36, verse 25, where it says, God says, Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean from all your filthiness, and from all your idols will I cleanse you, and a new heart will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you. That there is the connection between water and spirit. It's the washing of regeneration. The washing of the water of the Word is a text I didn't put up there, but it is one that Paul uses in Ephesians 5, verse 25, where the husband is to love his wife like Christ loved the church, gave himself for it, that he might cleanse it, notice, and with the washing of the water of the Word. You see the importance of that, that that takes it out of the realm of the sacerdotal, the ceremonial, that it is not speaking of literal water, but it is talking about a washing that is spiritual in nature that then sprinkles these. The context here is that he is going to bring his people back from captivity. They will have been defiled in the world. He will sprinkle clean water upon them and wash them of their filthiness. And then he will give them a new heart, a new spirit. He says, I will put within you, I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh. I will give you a heart of flesh and I will put my spirit within you and cause you to walk in my statutes and ye shall keep my judgments and do them. Again, what we would call both those last two texts a statement of the new covenant. We know Jeremiah 31 is because the book of Hebrews quotes it and tells us that's what it is. And here in Ezekiel 36, we see exactly the same thing. Let's ask ourselves, as we look at those various texts dealing with regeneration, what are the common elements to them? And I would point out that in each case, the recipient is passive. It is never, ever referring to any kind of action on the part of the recipient or a synergism, a cooperation that somehow God does his part and we do our part, and presto, uh... we're born again or were regenerated in each case it is god's saying as in the statements in jeremiah thirty one is eager thirty six i will i will i will over and over again it is god's declarative work of a unilateral action on his part that then is seen in the new testament as well if you think back over those texts uh... nicodemus is told he must be born again he's never really told what he's got to do to be born again He just told us it's got to be that way. Then I want you to realize that this concept of being begotten of God, or born of God, is also shown to us under other figures, other word pictures. One of which is the idea of resurrection. In John 5, and I'm assuming you're familiar with that, Jesus says the day is coming, the hour is coming, Now is when they that are dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. And he's clearly not referring to the final eschatological resurrection because that's a few verses down. He says all that are in the grave are going to come forth at his voice. But listen to those words again. The hour is coming and now is when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God and they that hear shall live. Let me point out that Jesus in talking to Nicodemus takes him to task because he didn't know about this. You remember? Are you a teacher in Israel and you don't know this? He says, if I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how shall you believe if I tell you heavenly things? Now that was a very puzzling verse to me. because wait a minute it sounds like jesus is saying that the new birth is an earthly thing right listen in the context if i've told you earthly things and you believe not which is apparently what he just told him how will you believe that a heavenly things bill commentator john brown is very helpful on this point john brown points out that we're not dealing with uh... spiritual things as opposed to fleshly thing that's how most people that's how i tried to i tried to believe that was the interpretation jesus talking about the wind your mother buried, you know, in other words, if you won't believe me when I give you the physical illustration of wind blowing or whatever, how will you believe if I tell you this other kind? And then realize, wait a minute, that just doesn't work here because Jesus is clearly talking about the new birth as an earthly thing. How can that be? Well, John Brown simply points out, I think, what is the obvious, that by earthly thing, Jesus is describing something that has already been revealed on earth. In other words, through the mouth of the prophets. This is already known revelation. This has already been given to man on earth. Jesus is coming from heaven with new revelation. But this isn't new revelation. We just read it in Jeremiah 31. We just read it in Ezekiel 36. This is old-time religion. Nicodemus had the prophets telling him about this. And what makes that even more apparent is the fact that when we think of this new birth in terms of a resurrection, we are struck with what immediately follows Ezekiel 36. Let's go to Ezekiel 36. This is what John Brown was stressing and I think he's exactly right. Notice the text we read is Ezekiel 36 verse 25. Starts there. But then look what immediately follows in chapter 37. Then the hand of the Lord was upon me, carried me out in the spirit of the Lord, set me down in the midst of the valley that was full of bones. this vision of dry bones and notice how things happen as the word of the Lord is preached you know the story the bones come together he prophesies to the wind the wind comes and blows breath and they stand upon their feet a mighty hoax what do you call that that's resurrection In other words, what you're seeing is what was described more or less as a new heart being given to you in Ezekiel 36. Here, when that is pictured, it's pictured under the guise of dry, dusty, dead bones coming together and living. Clearly, they once lived, or they wouldn't have been bones. They must have had life at some point, but now the life has departed, but at the proclaiming of the Word of God. And now you're seeing where Peter is getting his thing. that were not born again of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible by the word of God, which liveth and then ends with that. That's the word we've been preaching to you in the preaching of the gospel. So what Ezekiel is showing us in Ezekiel 37 is simply a vision, a pictorial, I say what Ezekiel is showing us, God's showing us, but using Ezekiel to do it. He's giving you a pictorial picture of what the new birth looks like. And it's dead, dry, dusty bones coming together and living as Ezekiel is prophesying or preaching the Word of God. Which, I mean, you feel pretty stupid standing there preaching to a bunch of dead, dry bones. it's no more that that's pretty well what happens every sunday you know what we stand we preach to a bunch of dead dry bones and uh... what our hope of life well same thing is equal member g god says to his ego can these bones live and i think he's eager more or less is based may not have anything to do with it well that's the whole point he is simply commanded to preach the word to these dry bones and life enters into them so there you have the idea of this thing we're calling the regeneration we can look at it under the guise of being born again or we can look at it under the guise of being resurrected or to quote paul we can look at it under the guise of a new creation if any man be in christ He is a new creature, a new creation. Old things are passed away, behold, all things are come new. So notice, you have the idea of birth, a new birth, a new, well I guess you'd say a new resurrection, it's a resurrection, it's new life, a new birth, a new life, or a new creation. Notice, each one assumes there have been previous life that has been lost. And yet, what God is doing is bringing about new creation. So notice, we're on the same page. You'll notice we're using different pictures to illustrate the same principle. We see a certain rhyme or reason, let me put it that way, connection, a relationship in the passages that I'm trying to sum up here for you. Number one, in James 1, we see clearly that God is the author of regeneration. He is the Father. We've been begotten by the Father. Correct? And yet at the same time, the Holy Spirit is described as the agent of regeneration. God authors it, ordains it, but it is the Spirit's work that actually brings it to pass. And notice the third thing is that the Word, and by the Word again I mean the gospel, is the instrument of regeneration. We have an author, God the Father. We have an agent, the Holy Spirit. We have an instrument that is used. So we're thinking in terms of like a builder or a designer, an architect. That's the work of the Father. The carpenter is the work of the Spirit. The hammer in the hand of the carpenter is the Word. But all three are involved. Now you say, well, where's Jesus in this? Well, that Word, guess who that's all about? That's about Jesus. In other words, it is through faith in that word, the gospel, that we are brought in contact with Christ. Remember the verse in 1 Peter 1, or 1 Peter 1, verse 2, where it talks about that we were elect, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, sanctified by the Holy Spirit, brought under, shall we say, in contact with the blood of sprinkling. In other words, we're not dealing here necessarily with the chronological order, but we're dealing with what happens to bring us in contact with the saving work of Christ, the sprinkling of His blood. Well, it's the election of God and the work of the Holy Spirit bringing us into contact with Christ. Let me back up. Is that a simple way of thinking about it, Jim? We're going to talk about this again. The work of Christ. Exactly. You've got to have the blood to be in contact with it. But all three are going together here to bring us into the possession of salvation. uh... and notice that in talking about and perhaps i should have started with this but a lot of times we think of salvation as a purely objective thing and when we think of justification that's true it is something that happens outside of us it is a declaration by god it's like a legal uh... court where god the judge declares us not guilty and you say well i still feel guilty i don't care The judge has declared you not guilty for the sake of Christ. Now, you shouldn't feel guilty, you understand. I hope you don't. But the criminal who has been justified by the judge, it really doesn't depend on how he feels. I feel like I ought to be in jail. Well, big whoopee. The judge said, not guilty. You see, it's happening outside of you. really doesn't depend on how you feel about it is a transaction that takes place out there in the court of heaven but here we're dealing when we talk about the new birth we're dealing with what's happening in here salvation is not just what god does for you it's what god does in you and those two things are going hand-in-hand and we dare not divorce the two things So yes, there is a, my old mentor E.W. Johnson used to say, the blood of Christ is sprinkled in two places. It's sprinkled on the mercy seat before God in heaven. But it's also sprinkled on the conscience of the sinner. So that we, my conscience then, is supposed to reflect the not guilty verdict that God has rendered in heaven. That make sense? I am to feel and hear what God has done out there. And in dealing with this whole subject, we are dealing with the work of salvation that takes place in us. Notice, and I did not type this out, but turn there, 1 Peter 1. Because again, a somewhat mysterious thing is the relationship between the new birth and faith. 1 Peter 1 verse 21. up we're breaking into the middle of the senate's but it's talking about christ this one the precious lamb and whose blood is shared there in verse nineteen four day in before the foundation of the world there in verse twenty and then who uh... notice he was manifest let's get our let's get our antecedents over pronouns here he was manifest in these last times for you who by him Okay, what's the antecedent of who? You. Right. In other words, that is referring to the last word of verse 20. Who? You, by Him. Who's the Him? Well, that's Christ, okay? You, yeah. You, by Him, do believe in God. Now let that sink in. In other words, we're asking ourselves, where does faith come from? Notice and keep in mind that faith in several ways has to have an origin outside of you. It has to have an object outside of you. You can't just believe in something that's not there. Faith has to have something that is substantial for my faith to latch on to, to rest on. And of course, that is the work of Christ. Had Christ not come and gone to a cross, could you believe in him and be saved? So number one, the gospel, I'm thinking about that text over in the book of Romans, faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God. Just take those first two words, faith comes. It's not in you, it comes. Well, how's it come? Well, number one, it comes because Christ has come and has done a work that our faith can then have something for its grounds, for its basis, because without the work of Christ, faith could have never come. And then secondly, and probably the way that Paul is using it there, you'll notice it's in that context of whosoever calls shall be saying but how they don't call if they hadn't heard never go or believe in having a believe they hadn't heard never go in other words there's another sense in which faith comes in the sense that the gospel has to come other words you had the objective work that christ did on calvary you gotta have that before you believe it but then the news of what he did the message has to come and that's what paul is emphasizing in romans ten that you can't believe in a message you haven't ever heard. But we're not talking about mystical hocus-pocus here. We're talking about a human agency bringing to you the news of what Christ did on Calvary. So faith comes in the sense Christ had to come and do it. Secondly, faith comes in the sense the message comes to you. And then a third sense, faith has to come because your old dark heart won't believe. You remember there's that wonderful text in the Old Testament, you won't believe it even if a man told you. If a man declared it to you, you're still not going to believe it. So you've got a third obstacle in which faith has to come in the sense of the subjective action on your part. So notice, we're sort of seeing this, how this all relates here. Who by him do believe in God? Now that certainly means that it is through Christ and in His name that we believe in God, but I think it means more than that. Because notice, God raised Him up from the dead, gave Him glory, that your faith and your hope might be in God, seeing you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit. See the sequence there? You have purified your souls. You come into contact with the blood of sprinkling. this cleansing thing we're talking about, in obeying the truth. But notice this is happening through the operation of the Spirit. Notice the connection there. Yes, you're doing something. You're obeying this truth. And by the way, notice that's a pretty good synonym for believing, isn't it? It's hard to sometimes, are we believing the gospel or are we obeying the gospel? Both things are used by Paul almost interchangeably. Here we see Peter doing the same thing. You have obeyed this truth, but you did it through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren. So notice how all of this is brought together. It all started with the work of Christ that has brought you to what we would call saving faith. And notice the next verse is being born again. So all of these things are interconnected one with the other. It's faith that unites us to Christ and to the life that is in Him. He that hath the Son hath life. He that hath not the Son of God hath not life. The way John puts it. Pretty simple. It is faith. The thing about faith that saves us is just this one thing. It unites us to Christ. It makes the connection. Nothing else about faith is saving. Faith itself is not a saving thing. We're not being saved for faith. We're being saved through faith. You say, well, what is it? What's so saving about faith? It connects us to Christ. It's the empty hand that reaches out and lays hold of the Savior. It's the empty mouth, said Spurgeon, that comes to Christ for filling. It is not a productive thing. We think in our society there are producers and there are consumers, correct? which category if you pick it up i'll let you know how much you sort yourself into those categories but faith is not a producing thing it doesn't produce a dog on thing but all my it does receive it is a consumer of what christ has done for senators on calvary's cross that's what saving about it so notice it's faith that unites us to christ and to the life that's in him But it's the work of the Holy Spirit that brings us to faith in the gospel of Christ. As we trace the trail back to what had to happen for me to be a believer in Jesus. Now, in thinking through this and I realize I've left out about half the verse but I'm going to at this point ignore it. I left out the part that we should be sort of like a first fruits but can essentially what that saying is that the first fruits in Israel were totally dedicated to God. Remember it belonged to him in the same sense we who have been born again. We owe everything. to our God so we are to be totally dedicated but I wanted to stress some mistakes that are made first of all this is the Armenian mistake avoid this that men birth themselves by believing or by their own will and I quote there John 1 12 and 13 As many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even them that believe on His name, who were born, not of the will of man, not of the will of the flesh, but of God." In other words, as clear as it can possibly be. Armenians love to quote verse 12, but not the rest. Because the rest of it destroys what they believe verse 12 is saying. Clearly, but yet on the other hand Calvinists tend to like verse 13, don't like verse 12. There's the other side of it. The next one is the Calvinist era. The era of hyper-Calvinism. That men are irresponsibly dead. I mean by that, that they are not held accountable for their deadness. That there is nothing they're supposed to be doing. because after all they're dead i've heard preachers say they're dead like that pulpit there's no use even try well the fact is we're not dead like that pulpit that pulpits not responsible for its deadness we are you understand what i mean by responsibly dead we are guilty dead were culpably it's our fault if we're dead and say that again but but essentially as far as there being anything that they are to do to do right now that's right they are simply out there there's really nothing they can do except set their own their hands and wait for and wait for god to do something and what i would point out two passages one in the early part of deuteronomy and one at the end in the early part of deuteronomy in chapter twelve verse sixteen let me read it so i'll get it right and then we'll read the other one. Deuteronomy 12, verse 16. I could have said a fourth illustration. I said new birth, new creation, new life, resurrection, or I could have thrown in there circumcision. Because that is a common one. Circumcise your heart. Notice Deuteronomy 12, 16. Here's the command. That is not right. It says don't eat the blood or pour it out like water. Boy, did I get the wrong text. The text I am looking for is where God tells Israel to circumcise their hearts. Let me see if I got it right. It's 10. Just missed it by a couple of Yes, let's back up to verse 15, "...only the Lord had the delight in thy fathers to love them. He chose their seed after them, even you above all people, as it is this day. Circumcise, therefore, the foreskin of your heart, and be no more stiff-necked." Jim was just talking Sunday about the connection between responsibility and ability. The Armenians say that any command that God gives us means we have the ability to obey the command. That is a strong Armenian argument. If God says, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved, we have the power within ourselves to do it. He wouldn't have commanded it. It'd be like, and I've heard them say this, it'd be like commanding a man with no legs to walk. be cruel for God to demand of us what we cannot do but I would go so far to say is that everything God commands us to do we can't do and that if you and the flip side of that is then I'm only guilty I'm only culpable and blamable for what I have the capacity to do and if I don't have the capacity to do it I'm innocent Which means when you really think about it, all you gotta plead in judgment day is, God, I couldn't help myself. You know, I hated that guy so badly I couldn't help but pull the trigger. Oh, you were in a state of inability, yeah. So you're innocent. The worse, the more of a sinner you are, the less guilty you are. You see the problem? We don't let people off the hook because they say, I just couldn't help but kill him. Of all people who are guilty, that's the man that's guilty. You say, but he didn't have the ability not to kill. He hated so much he couldn't help himself. In other words, it is not my ability that limits my culpability or my responsibility. And God constantly commands us to keep his law. Can you do it? Absolutely not. Here, he says, circumcise the foreskin of your hearts. Let me see you do that one. Get your knife out. How are you going to make that happen? You understand what that language means. It means what Ezekiel 36 was saying, what Jeremiah 31. Where God says, I'll give them a heart to know me. So notice here in the first part of Deuteronomy, he tells them to circumcise their heart and then look in Deuteronomy 30, 20 chapters later. And again, you can look at the context and see he's speaking eschatologically. Deuteronomy 30, look at verse 3. And then, that then the Lord thy God will turn thy captivity. Here it is again. You're going into captivity. I'm going to bring you back. and then verse 6 and the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart and the heart of thy seed to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart with all thy soul you understand what he commanded them to do in chapter 10 here he says I'll do it so notice the connection here is that that which must be done I must be born again. I cannot birth myself. But there is a God in heaven who can. And so I am. It's impossible for me. To perform the command. That God is given. Yes you must be born again. But how can you. Be born again. Yeah we can't do that. The first thing they would have seemingly seen is yeah that's impossible. Third mistake. Divorcing regeneration from faith in Christ. Notice that we have seen, especially there in 1 Peter 1, the idea that those two things go hand in hand. A regenerated person is a believer in Christ. A true believer in Christ is a regenerated person. You say, well, what's the big deal here? Separating the time of regeneration in faith. There is a logical priority that regeneration precedes faith. But it's not a temporal priority. Can you see that? It's not a chronological priority. That the instant you're regenerated is the instant you believe, and the instant you believe is the instant you're regenerated. and the best illustration I can give you is when Jesus sent that man who was born blind down to wash at the pool of Salome he washed and he saw I'll ask you a question which came first the healing or the seeing well in point of logic did the seeing precede the healing was he healed because he saw no the other way around he saw because he'd been healed if he could see without being healed he didn't need to be ill you understand so the healing logically precedes the saying but did the healing precede the saying chronologically you say oh well he was healed before you ever washed in that water ball i didn't see if he was here yet you understand the instant he was healed was the instant he saw in the instant he saw was the instant he was healed and so it is rip regeneration else we wind up with an absurdity of a regenerated unbeliever or a believing non-regenerate. Do you understand the problem if you separate those two things? Now, in point of fact, in hyper-Calvinism, The often times it is assumed that men are regenerated and they may never come to faith. I ran into a primitive Baptist preacher down in Texas who claimed on the basis of the verse that says that none seeketh after God. Well he says look out there most of these people out here in the world are seeking after God in one way or another so they must all be regenerated. He was close to a universalist, because they all show some hunger for God. That means they're all regenerated, whether they ever come to faith in Christ or not. And that's what I'm trying to say here, is don't fall into that trap. That they're really regenerated, they're just not believers. Or we're not regenerated long before we become believers. It is at the moment of faith, and that's why we see these things associated. For instance, John 3, right after, right on the heels of declaring to Nicodemus he must be born again, what follows? Well, like Moses lift up a serpent in the wilderness, and they that look to him, that serpent, so who believes in me? We'll have everlasting life. Why do you find those two things right on the heels of each other? Because they are that intimately connected. And then for us, it is that, well, since regeneration is the work of God, we don't have any duty in regards to the regeneration of the lost. Well, we are absolutely incapable of regenerating anybody or anything, including ourselves. But we sure try to set up a meeting between the sinner and the one who can. That's the point. is that we can try to arrange the meeting as best we can by the proclamation of the gospel we know that it is the gospel that the spirit employees at the direction of god the father to bring about regeneration so then we know that it is our duty to spread the gospel to preach the gospel every creature whether or not it is the factual it still is our responsibility And then finally, never minimize the importance of regeneration. Boy, in thinking about church history, the battle cry of the Protestant Reformation, we asked ourselves, what was the central doctrine that was being recovered? Well, it was justification by faith. what Luther Calvin others saw so clearly and it was so needful because that's what had been obscured by Roman Catholicism but when you come to the days of the Great Awakening in New England you know what it was the gun what the doctrine was that was the primary point you must be born again that's what Wesley Whitfield Edwards were stressing it has always been sort of an interesting thing that the Great Awakening really didn't have much effect among the Baptist and I say that it did after the fact the Baptist were a small inconsequential denomination before the Great Awakening after the Great Awakening people flock to them in great numbers. But I think there's a reason because Baptist churches believed, as we do, in regenerative church membership. We would hope that if Wesley or Whitfield showed up in our church, that we wouldn't have 90% of the church get saved. ninety percent of the members get saved because they're already saying that would be our our assumption our hope and you can understand then why the Great Awakening didn't have a big impact in Baptist churches you know where it did in the congregation listen Presbyterian churches where they're filled with these covenant children who've been baptized sprinkled told they're saved Till they prove otherwise and they have absolutely no personal experience of an encounter with Christ or what we would call conversion. Or what we've been talking about here. This is just theory. Because they're being told this really happened back yonder when you're sprinkled or at least something similar to it. So in other words, what happened during the Great Awakening is that you had these nominal church members. in these paedobaptist churches that are now being impacted by these guys saying you must be born again. It's not enough Nicodemus to be a good pharisee. That's the point. You can produce pharisees, you just can't produce born-again believers. It takes God to do that. And then never minimize it in the sense of your own experience of regeneration that this is the miracle that God performs that you want to you want to see a miracle. This is the one you ought to be seeking for yourself for your children for others around you. It is partaking of the supernatural in our own hearts. My friend Mike that I preached his funeral last week he was a guy that never said a whole lot. If one of those guys when he spoke is generally something worth listening to and I can still recall that we were in Mexico this is about thirteen years ago and I'd asked Mike to give a devotional for breakfast one morning and in the course of his devotion he said this he said the man. that has not been born again cannot see the kingdom of heaven. And the man who has been born again can hardly see anything else. That's the miracle. That's the transformation that we now walk in the conscious presence of our God. We see this kingdom. We see these principles. We love them. We've fallen in love with this savior who is our king. We can hardly see anything else. The things of earth as the song says have grown strangely dim in the light of his glory. All right. Any comments anything. Yeah Darren. Ezekiel thirty seven. OK. to the house of Israel. The same thing that would limit us using Jeremiah thirty one. I'll make a new covenant with the house of Israel. Clearly. We are as Gentiles. Through faith in Christ. Tapping into promises made to Israel. All the promises of God in humor yay and I'm in under the door of God the father in other words the whole lot whole notion. Is that I'm thinking of Galatians two were. third chapter where we as children of Abraham are then through our faith in Abraham seed that we become partakers of these promises same thing is true in the end of chapter six first part of chapter seven where he quotes a series of promises that were spoken to Israel but he's saying this to a Gentile church in Greece that these are promises to you. You said Wait a minute. These were spoken back yonder to Israel but all says no. These are your promises because you have tapped in. to these promises that come to you. Yeah that. Second with the end of six it's it's at that section where don't be unequally yoked with unbelievers you know we tend to quit reading about that point. But you read a little further and you see. Let me let me read those might be good for you to look at second Corinthians. Yeah. Second Corinthians six sixteen what agreement. have the temple of God with idols he says and here he starts quoting for you are the temple of the living God has got to said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God they should be my people we've read just one place out of saying that out of Jeremiah tonight where for come you out from among them be a separate set the Lord touch not the unclean thing and I receive you again he's quoting Old Testament words to Israel I will be a father and you and you should be my sons and daughters set the Lord God Almighty. Notice chapter seven verse one having therefore these promises dearly beloved. Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God and you might say wait a minute. We don't have these promises. Paul said Oh yes you do. These are your promises. Exactly. Exactly. The apostolic shall we say expansion In some cases yeah there were in some cases I think. I want to say rivalry at one point actually held that there were two new covenants. Yeah and you see why. But that I think most have discarded that notion. Ezekiel. The whole. Had a regenerated. Yeah. Yeah. It's you think about Paul's use of the olive tree in Romans eleven the unbelieving branches broken off but you're being grafted in to those promises there's that they forfeited by unbelief. OK. A radical transformation is I don't know how else you can read. this that what do you mean that we have it well you had a heart of stone now you got a heart of flesh. Well what's the difference. Well the heart of stone you can hit it with a ball peen hammer doesn't feel anything heart of flesh response it's sensitive or you can say well it's I'm going to sometimes the idea it's fleshly and I'm going to give you my spirit I'm going to put my spirit within you. The idea that there is this invigorating power that is now present in the life of the believer that was not there before there's an ability and again not again in ourselves but through the spirit we're able then to mortify the deeds of the body. There is a there's hope for holiness because we have the power of the spirit at work with and remember Romans eight if any man have not spirit of Christ he's not of it. If that's missing. So is salvation. You know that and that is excellent Jim in the sense that there is different is a difference between God loves everybody. And I would certainly agree that in some sense. God he makes the rain to fall. Sun to shine. There is a benevolence. Generally. And we can say God loves his elect. Boy he loved his elect. He sent his son to die to secure their salvation. But boy when you can say God love me. When my wife was truly saved, she kept saying over and over again, he died for me. Well, we would say Christ died for sinners, Christ died for the sheep, Christ died for church, the church, but in Galatians 2.20, I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live, yet not I, but Christ liveth in me, and the life I live in the flesh I live now by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me." There's that personal sense that Christ is my Savior. He's not just the Savior of the church, Savior of Israel, Savior of this and that. He is my Savior. Well I'm sure we're going to hear more about this Sunday morning Jim. But I thought my how these certainly were where I am in James tonight is right there where you are and now you understand the rest of the verse that we should be a kind of first few fruits of his creature the first fruits belonging to him in a very special way. You promise. Yeah. Yes, yes, oh yes, there's this personal spirit of sonship where we sense instinctively, it's like reflexively we call God Father. Yeah. Yeah. Instinctively. Yeah. What a wonderful wonderful text. You're not a servant anymore. You're a son through this spirit. Oh my. Just lots of things flash by of the benefits of all this belonging. We sometimes and I'm guilty. The sentimental syrupy sweet songs of love the hymnals you know. But I but there's a sense I perhaps I'm not. bent in that direction far enough. That there is a subjective side, experiential side of Christianity that perhaps we tend to ignore. We get so cerebral and doctrinal that we forget the personal side of this. We are people of feelings and we know we have conscience and these things are impacted by what God has done. Well, let's set this aside. We better get to praying here in a little bit.