Great Doctrines of Salvation, Regeneration
Mike Doyle · Jul 16, 2006
Great Doctrines of Salvation, No. 03
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/48262356271244

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

Like I said, there are two sheets. There are the questions for next week and then there's a sheet on the Greek words that have to do with regeneration and some more information on redemption and more information on redemption. So put those in your notebook. I think hopefully when we're finished, 10 or 11 weeks from now, anybody in this class could take this notebook with your Bible and teach this class, hopefully.

It's a great class. As a matter of fact, Brian White emailed me on Friday and said, would you send me all the Marchbank stuff? I've got somebody back here that could really be benefited by it. I said, well, what's the matter with you, Evan? You taught the class. He said, yeah, but I'm not home. I left this stuff in North Carolina. I'm in Virginia. Anyway. OK.

Today's topic is regeneration. And the first question, which is probably going to be the first question most weeks is, what does the word regeneration mean? It's not a hard one. Means birth again. So regeneration is something. In Matthew 19.28 Jesus said, Surely I say to you that in the regeneration or the new world, the Son of Man sits on the throne of his glory. Now, objectively regeneration means new birth or birth again.

What does it mean to you? Freedom. What else does it mean? New creation. If you've been regenerated, it doesn't mean that you get a merit badge that says, I am regenerated. It means that you're new. Genesis, you're brand new. Never been that kind of person before. Entirely new. Brand new.

This morning we're going to talk in the doctrinal statement about man and what he is. Or what he was when God created him, what he ended up being, and then what the new man is. And hopefully it'll tie in with what we're talking about this morning and that there needs to be regeneration for those that are are to be saved. So that are saved because there's no fixing up of the old. So. The word is used only two times in scripture. Look them up and talk about the difference.

So in Matthew 19.28, regeneration, that in the regeneration, what's he talking about there? What does he mean there by the regeneration? When is that going to happen? He's talking future.

And if you look at 1 Corinthians 6.2, it talks about a future time too, when we will be judging angels. When's that going to happen? By the way, did you know that you were going to judge angels?

No? Insignificant? Doesn't matter? Not a big deal? It's significant. Why? Why would that be significant? Little thing. Yeah, the importance of where you are in creation and where you are in relation to God. Now, the other verse, I'll hold Matthew in place for a minute. Titus 3, 4 and 5.

But when the kindness and love of God our Savior towards man appeared, not by the works of righteousness which we have done, but according to His mercy, He saved us through the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. So, you mean you got to take a bath to be regenerated? What does the washing of regeneration mean?

What's that? Is it the washing away of your sins? What do you think? It's new life. In scripture, when you see this term, washing, what does it usually mean? You'll see washing of the word, by the word. What does that usually mean? Speak up. They can hear you, but I can't. What's that? The washing of the spirit via the word. Not really.

That's the communication of life. The word of God is designed specifically to communicate life and to regenerate you. And it's referred to as a washing, not like taking a bath, or you might look at baptism as kind of... If you have a Catholic view of baptism, what the Catholic view of baptism is, is that the water washes the stain of original sin off of your soul. And so that's what they say the washing is.

The problem is that from that perspective, there's no intrinsic change in you. You're still the same old dirty dog. You just don't have a stain on you anymore. Yeah, it's a safe center concept. Where the washing of the word for regeneration is actually, what?

New birth. New. Of a totally new kind. So Matthew discusses a future activity in the new creation when the Lord Jesus returns to the earth. Titus discusses what personal new birth means to the individual believer right now. So why does the earth and the creation need a new birth? The old was condemned. Why was it condemned?

You're right because he mentions his Genesis 3.17-19 and he says, because you have heeded the voice of your wife and have eaten from the tree which I commanded you saying you shall not eat of it, cursed is the ground for your sake and toil you shall eat of it all the days of your life. And he goes through and talks about thorns and that kind of thing.

And Romans 8, 19-21 talks about the eager expectation of the creation, eagerly waiting for the revealing of the sons of God, for the creation was subjected to, King James says, vanity, futility, not willingly, but because of him who subjected it in hope, because the creation itself also will be delivered. But there's a difference here. There's one thing to be delivered.

It's another thing for the creation to be regenerated, or born anew. At the beginning of the millennial kingdom, when you and I are revealed as the sons of God, and this existing creation is released from the futility or the vanity that it has been subjected to, that's not new birth, is it? So why, back to my question, why does the creation need new birth? First of all, is it going to have a new birth? Is it going to be regenerated? Why does it need it?

Before that even. And what ruined it? Man, but what specifically ruined it? Sin. So sin and death is in everything, right? And even though it's going to be released from the vanity it's been subjected to in the millennial kingdom, things are still going to die, aren't they? Why do you die? Because of sin.

So when God recreates the heavens and the earth, What element won't the new heavens and earth have in it? It won't have any sin in it. So that's why it needs new birth, new creation. That's why you and I need it. Because your position in Christ, is there any sin there? As God sees you in Christ, are you a sinner? Absolutely not. That's why you need it. According to Titus 3, 4-7, whose work is personal regeneration? Yeah, it's God's work. Yeah, it's God's work. You okay with that? I'm glad. So why do you need personal regeneration?

Romans 5.12. Yeah. Same reason.

When Adam sinned, he did it on your behalf, right? You got screwed in the deal, right? He sinned and so, boy, if you'd have been Adam, you wouldn't have done it. Everything would have been okay, right? How come you're a sinner? When did you become a sinner? When Adam sinned. Not when you were procreated, not when you committed your first sin. You became a sinner when Adam sinned. Why? Because you did it in him. You alright with that? Who doesn't agree with that? Oh, you guys are too easy. Way too easy.

You became a sinner when Adam sinned because Romans 5.12 says that. At the very end, it says that, Thus death spread upon all men, because all men sinned in Adam. So judgment came upon all men, resulting in condemnation. It's appointed unto men to die one time, and after that the judgment. Alright with that? Everybody's convinced that's okay? How about 1 Corinthians 2 verse 14? Let me look it up and let's read it. Why? Why is that so? Why can't the natural man receive the things of the Spirit of God? Why are they foolishness to him? Because he's dead.

Sin doesn't get it. Sin doesn't get to figure it out. The natural man functions solely based on a soul that's infected with a sin nature, attempting to understand spiritual things that have no sin in them. So you can't do it. It doesn't matter what he wants to or not, does it? You can have all the desire in the world. You don't have the tools or the capacity. The natural man does not have the tools or the capacity to receive the things of the Spirit of God.

You okay with that? Why do you need regeneration? Well, one of the reasons is so you can get some tools so you can understand spiritual things. You can't understand them other than being regenerated. I'm going to move over here so I can watch you. I've got to keep you and Ben.

How does a sinful man come to that position of understanding he needs salvation? And that is the Holy Spirit working on him. But it still comes down to that, where it's faith. You have to have faith in what God says. But I was wondering about with these verses, how do we ever get to that point of understanding that we need salvation?

I don't know how much of a spiritual understanding it would be for a natural man to realize he's lost and condemned. I think the spirit can do that without... you don't have to be spiritual to understand that. As a matter of fact, all you have to do is look at the cultures of the world to see that that is inherent within every culture. Why do they sacrifice to a god? Why do they even have a god? Sure, sure. So that part of it is the part that I think is maybe inherent in every man.

The part that the Spirit has to do is to present Christ to them as Savior. Does that take a spiritual understanding? What do you think? I mean if you figured out through the work of the Spirit that you're lost and you don't have any shot yourself. And the Spirit of God reveals to you that if you exercise your faith in this person of Christ who is the Son of God, God will save you for all eternity.

To me, that's really, really hard. Because man is designed to do it for himself and for him to take a step where he would believe that someone else did everything and that he would accrue all of these benefits if he just exercised faith in that person and what he did is hard, I think. Do you agree? Or do you think it's pretty easy?

And I'm not talking about the way evangelism is done today, where it's all emotional, and Christ is a Tylenol, and if you've got trouble, God will fix it, and all you have to do is commit, and receive Jesus into your heart and all that. No, I'm talking about you're lost, and you know it, and Christ is presented to you as Savior, and that He died on the cross for your sins, was resurrected, was buried and resurrected, and if you believe that, God will save you.

That's all it takes. The rest of it is just dressing. I think that's difficult. I think that's really hard. I think that's evident in what you see in so many people striving to please God, striving to live a Christian life, instead of resting in what He has already provided. Sure. See, you think about it.

If, as a non-believer, you get the unobstructed, unpolluted gospel message, then you begin your Christian life based on grace through faith. and that none of yourself. You get that from the beginning. Well, you're much better suited out for spiritual growth than if you somehow got in one of these commitment to Christ, receive Jesus into your heart kind of a thing, because you think you've contributed to the salvation. And so you think you've got to keep contributing in order to grow spiritually. When if you started on the basis of grace, you kind of have a handle on, gee, this whole thing is by grace.

My job is to believe and receive. It's God's job to do everything else. At least you're getting off on a good footing. A good birth, as Myles used to say. Really important. It takes the Spirit of God to do that. I agree. I think it's also, a lot of this is, I think, of all the truth that we can pursue. That's foolishness to somebody who is not a believer. So I say it's kind of a distinction between this verse and salvation. Everybody knows in Romans 1 that God is without excuse. So there is that innate knowledge of God. And the deep verses I think apply to the whole. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I can remember.

Years ago in my Christian life, when I learned the identification truths, I remember meeting with an attorney for breakfast for about three weeks, and he wanted to know about salvation. I spent three weeks telling him about identification, because that's what I was interested in.

From that, it dawned on me that for the natural man, there's only one issue with him, salvation. Nothing else matters until he's saved. And so the gospel message and grace and faith are where you stay until, you know, you don't chase those predestination rabbits or any of the others. You stay right on, you know, your faith in the person and work of Christ is the only issue. There's no other issue. Well, he was a natural man. He didn't know what I was talking about. He finally said, well, we probably don't need to meet anymore. I don't understand what you're saying. And it was my fault.

Well, without identification you can't grow, but the issue with salvation to the natural man is the gospel period. Nothing more than that. In the Bible it refers to removing the scales from people's eyes. What is that? It's the work of the Spirit, showing them what the truth is. So is that the natural man being pulled away? Well, it's the natural man understanding his lack of position before God, and that God has provided a remedy for him through Christ.

Now, when man believes, we talked about last week conversion and the week before repentance, who believes for salvation? The old man or the new man? The old man does. The old man does. He's the one that exercises faith. The problem is that the very second he does it, what happens to him? It's not an old man anymore. See? Pretty cool.

In John 1, 12 and 13, what does the word receive mean? Somebody read the verses, please. Well, you are on it today. John 1, 12 and 13. That as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believed on his name, which were born not of blood, or of the will of the flesh, or of the will of man, but of God. This word, lumbano, means to take hold of, to grab on to, accept plus catch. It means to catch, too. Come on, it means to have, to hold, to obtain, receive, take away up. All of those words. So, in those verses, when John says to receive him, what does he mean? He used to believe in who he is for what he is. And then he gave him the authority to become the children of God and who effectuated the childhood. He did.

It's interesting that you're not born by your own will, or the will of your flesh, or you're not even born spiritually by blood. You get your sin nature by blood, but not new birth. Nor by the will of man. You're born regenerated by God's will alone.

Isn't that interesting? Okay, list some of the things that are true of the unregenerate and true of the regenerate out of the book. He kind of gave you a list. Maybe we'll do this. From this side of the room over, you find the unregenerate stuff. From this side of the room over, you find the regenerate stuff. Okay, what are some of the elements of the unregenerate? This side of the room didn't read the lesson.

Darkness, you're in darkness, as opposed to being in light. You're in death over here, as opposed to eternal life over here. You stand condemned over here by a holy God as opposed to justified before God. You stand over here as what? Alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works. You guys are really fun to be around. As opposed to this group over here. You are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus under good works. The contrast between the regenerate and the unregenerate It can't be more clear in Scripture.

And so, if you learn nothing from this chapter, learn this. Stop working on the old unregenerated man to try to get him to look like he's regenerated. Leave him alone. He won't change. Concentrate, focus, and abide in the new man. Let's discuss position and condition as it relates to regeneration. Who in this room knows what position and condition are? Contrast them. We've only been over this one other time. What's position? Standing. Leave it up to Ben to give me a synonym and not say anything else.

What is your position? standing before God in Christ. You're an entirely new creation and have a standing and a position in Christ that can never, ever be moved, tarnished, deteriorated, go away. It's who you are in Christ. So as you read, especially Paul's epistles in the first half of them, and every single one of them, he talks about standing or position, who you are in Christ. So what's your condition? It's your everyday walking around existence. Your condition may or may not be aligned with what your position is. Your condition fluctuates on a moment-by-moment basis.

Spiritual growth can be defined as the spirit working in you to have your condition line up with what is already true of you positionally. Now, from a regeneration standpoint, how do you look at it from a position-condition standpoint? Positionally, how do you look at regeneration?

You just said it. It's who you are in Christ. You've been recreated in Christ and all that's true of Him before the Father is true of you. Position. Your regeneration is a completion. It's done. Positionally. How about conditionally? You'll see verses like Romans 12, 1 and 2 that say, be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Renewing obviously is a process, isn't it?

2 Corinthians 3.18, you're beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord. What happens? here being conformed, transformed into the very image of Christ. Process. Okay? Ephesians 4, 22 and 23 and 24. Who knows that one? I don't know that one by heart. I think the author said that regeneration then is the creative work of the Holy Spirit by which we, through the new birth, are taken out of Adam, in his fallen and cursed race and placed into Christ and totally blessed.

If you don't ever learn any other principle of spiritual growth, learn position and condition and what it means. Because when your condition isn't going so well, you can always rely on your position. And you want to learn your position first. Because your faith is to focus on Christ who is your position. And once you understand that your position is solid, can't be moved, can't be chipped away at, can't be deteriorated or leaked out the back, then you begin to discover that it's reliable for you as a growing believer. So you begin to trust more in what your position is than what your off-the-rails condition. elitches on Wednesday.

Several times I was worried about my condition. Some of those rides down there, they make a lot of noise and you think, wait a minute, am I going to stay positioned in this seat or not? So if you know your position and know that there is such a thing as position as opposed to condition, It helps the believer to settle down a little bit and to grow because his position can't be changed. Even if he's ignorant about it, he still has it and it doesn't vary. What are the five facts concerning the nature of regeneration?

Out of the author. Anybody? What was the first one? A new life has been begotten which is eternal. That's the first one. What does he say that life is? He says it's the divine nature. It's the nature of the resurrected Christ. The believer is begotten by the Spirit and God the Father becomes his legitimate Father. Do you think of yourself as the legitimate organic offsprings of the God of the universe, not just creatures that he made, but his offspring, which means you're like him. Do you think of yourself that way? That's what your position is. And therefore, all believers are heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.

Now, can you name something that Christ will inherit that you won't Inherit. Nothing. He doesn't inherit that, he already is that. No, we won't get deity. Isn't that something? So what's man's responsibility when it comes to regeneration? He's got one, you know. What is it? What's that? On your side, it's just conditioned upon simple faith.

Galatians 3.26, you're all the sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. Bear with me a minute. I stuck my pages in backwards. So, let's talk about, for the few minutes we have remaining, Subjectively, what does regeneration really mean for you? What does it mean? Is it a good deal? What's that?

What could you say that this word parallels with what we study around here? What other word would parallel regeneration? That's part of it. What course did we just finish studying? That's what regeneration is. Those of you who were in identification class, don't you see that? In order for you to be regenerated, what must happen first? To you. You've got to die. Right?

Now, if you think of regeneration that way, then you'll get out of your mind, I think, this idea that what regeneration is, is just an adding on to me something I didn't have before. So regeneration, could you say it's a starting over? What do you think? How about for you and your existence, is it a starting over? What do you think? No. How about for you as a person, is it a starting over for you? I got a yes over here, I got a no over here. Good, I got a controversy on. What do you think? We're something we never were before. We still have him, he's still present within us. Do we own him? He's not dead. Trust me, he isn't dead. There you go. That's right. Steve?

It seems that starting over can be construed to say my own life is going to start over. Yeah, what do you think? My thinking is more change out from old life to new life. Okay. Just the person starting over. Our person is starting over and we're still the same person. Interesting.

Craig says we're still the same person, but Steve says the life is starting anew. The animating principle within the man is new. Is that what you mean, Steve? Well, it's like this last paragraph in the study that says that regeneration is the creative work of the whole spirit by which we, through the new birth, are taken down. It's like, to me, instead of starting over, it's like more of an exchange. It's an exchange, okay. What do you think? But it's still we. Who's we? He says we were placed, we're taken out of Adam, old Adam, and we were placed on the new Adam. So he is the first one. Okay, here's the verse.

Galatians 2.20 says, I have been crucified with Christ. Nevertheless, I'm still living. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God. The question is, who are the I's? I have been crucified with Christ.

Who is that? Old man or new man? If the old man was crucified, why is he talking? Would the old man say, I've been crucified? No. The new man in Christ would though. I think it points up the fact that you are the same person, the same personality, But I have been crucified with Christ, and to be honest with you, Hal Malloy and I have had discussions about this for hours.

He thinks it's the old man, I think it's the new man. I have been crucified with Christ, nevertheless, I live. That I, obviously, is the new man, right? And the life that I'm now living, functioning, I live how? In the flesh. How am I living? in Christ by the faith in the Son of God. So, now how about this verse?

That God knew you in Christ before the foundations of eternity. Courtney knows the answer to this. We've had a lot of discussion about this. How can that be true? How can God say to you, a believer, that I've known you in Christ from the foundations of eternity? How can he say that? Because you can say, now wait a minute. As far as I can go back, I go back to Adam and the Garden, which can't be more than 10,000 years ago. Yet you're saying, you've known me in Christ from the foundations of eternity. How can he say that? Did you hear that?

Go ahead. Once you're placed into Christ, where does your history go to? Who is now your history? He's only existed, what, a couple thousand years? How long has he been around? Since the foundations of eternity. So the Father can look at you and say, Craig, I've known you in Christ, how long?

Forever. I've always known you in Christ. That's how I know you. God is not saying I knew that you would be there. I've known you personally there, in Christ, from the foundations of eternity. That's right. You hear that? Everybody hear that? Those that aren't in Christ depart from me because I never knew you.

I love that because I'm a realtor. Location is everything. You don't know the saying. In real estate, there are three most important things about any piece of property. You know what they are? Location, location, and location. Nothing more important than that. So in Christianity, location is everything. Regeneration is actually identification. That's really what it is. because it's a new beginning.

Now those of you who want to learn more about new beginning, in October we're going to talk for six, eight, nine months about new beginning. So come back. Any more questions? We're going to quit early. Next week is... What's the subject next week? Redemption. Redemption is harder than regeneration. Regenerating. That's what it means. It's a spirit of God that regenerates or renews you. Renewing is not a makeover. Renewing is new, kind of. He's the agent who does the renewing.

You okay with that? I see, because I was thinking that the renewing of the Holy Spirit would be the function of the Holy Spirit before the cross is after, but I was thinking it's the renewing of the Holy Spirit, not the renewing of us. I'm lost. Okay. Tell me what you mean. That's okay. Well, that refers to the renewing, it refers to us, not the renewing, not the Spirit. Okay. Any other questions? It can't have been that clear. Let's close.

Dear Father, how we thank you for your word and your salvation to us and all the elements that go into it. Father, I thank you for the fact that positionally we've been regenerated and are now placed in your dear Son, who is our very life. As we go forward now, we recognize that this regeneration has to be played out and manifested in our condition. So we rest in those facts and rely upon you and pray in your son's name. Amen.