Born Again: The Miracle of Regeneration

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I thought we would start this evening by turning back to Psalm 111, the psalm that I read this morning. One of the things I enjoy a great deal is walking early in the morning and having a time of prayer and meditation, and just reflecting on the greatness of God. And this week I have on my little MP3 player the Psalms read by Max McClane, which I highly recommend to you, and I was listening to Psalm 111 and I was struck with verse 2. Notice Psalm 111 verse 2, “Great are the works of the Lord;” of course, there's a comprehensive statement. It describes not only God's work of creation, not only His work of providence in ordering everything that He's made, but it also speaks of His work of redemption, bringing sinners to Himself. “Great are the works of the Lord;” now notice the second half of the verse. This is why we're here tonight. This is why we're studying so much in depth all aspects of God and His character, and His salvation of us. “Great are the works of the Lord; they are studied” literally in the Hebrew, they are sought out “by all who delight in them.”

We understand that the works of the Lord are great. We understand that what He's accomplished in our lives is great and deserving of such a name as that. And because we delight in what He's done, it's our delight to study them, to seek them out to try more and more to understand the works of the Lord. I would encourage you by the way; I was reminded of the fact that some of the greatest preachers of all time were also some of the greatest students of nature and creation of all time. We ought to study all the works of God because we delight in what He's done.

But tonight we come, especially to focus our attention and our minds on God's work of redemption. There are any number of stories that I could introduce tonight in the shortage of time I'm not going to tell an extensive story, but let me just remind you of the story of John Newton, a slave trader, the most wicked of men. Who prided himself in how he treated the slaves that he brought from and the evil way he treated the slaves that he brought from Africa. He was a drunkard. He was everything that you can imagine an evil man could become. And yet he's the man who pinned those classic words that we sing with all of our hearts. Amazing grace, how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost, but now am found, was blind, but now I see. How does a man go from being what he was to what he became? The incredible change that occurred in John Newton's life that occurred in my life that occurred perhaps in your life is the result of what the Bible calls regeneration.

Regeneration, first let me tell you what it's not. I think it's important that you understand, and we're going to give a definition of it, so stay with me if you don't have a clue what I'm talking about yet. Regeneration is not, and it's important to understand this, self -reformation. When we talk about a person changing because God changes them, it is not the reforming of self. In fact, Jesus tells a parable about the dangers of self-reformation, of trying to sweep up your house as it were and clean yourself up and somehow make yourself acceptable to God. Regeneration is not self-reformation.

Neither is it the addition of some new part to you. There are those who believe that man is a three part being, they're called trichotomists. Tri being three of course, trichotomist. They believe man is body, soul, and spirit, and they teach that before the fall man was a three part being. But after the fall he was born with a dead spirit and in regeneration God either adds a spirit to the man, or He brings to life that spirit, which was dead. Others teach that regeneration is some adding of a new self or a new nature to your old nature. It's not the addition of some new element to you. Neither is regeneration, changing some little part of you; one or more of your faculties, changing just your will or changing just your mind of your fallen nature. Nor is regeneration just perfecting your fallen nature.

Regeneration is none of those things. Tonight I want you to put those things out of your mind if that's how you've thought of regeneration that has nothing to do with regeneration. Tonight we want to see what the Bible says regeneration is. Last time we looked you remember at the effectual call: an effectual call from God when God speaks through His word and says come, but an effectual call demands a response. God calls, but God doesn't answer, you and I answer, so how can a person who is dead in trespasses and sins answer God's effectual call? Well, the only way is God must first effect a radical pervasive change in the man or the woman that change is regeneration.

Now what is the relationship between regeneration and effectual call? I like the way Wayne Grudem puts it in his Systematic Theology he writes, “As the gospel comes to us,” that's general calling everybody gets that, you hear the gospel anybody who's exposed to the gospel gets this general call. “As the gospel comes to us in the general calling God speaks through it to summon us to Himself.” There's the effectual calling. “And to give us new spiritual life (regeneration) so that we are enabled to respond in faith. Effective calling is thus God the Father speaking powerfully to us and regeneration is God the Father and God the Holy Spirit, working powerfully in us to make us alive.” There's the relationship of the two.

Now why is all of this so necessary? Why does God have to act in changing a man so dramatically? What is the necessity of this change? Well turn to John Chapter 3 and you may want to just if you have a little ribbon in your bible like I have in mine, you may just want to put that at John 3 because we're going to go back there several times or you can put a little card or something to hold your place there. John 3, this of course, is the story of Nicodemus. We're going to come back and look at it in a little more detail, but I want you to see verse 7. Jesus says to Nicodemus, “Do not be amazed that I said to you, “You must be born again.” Literally in the Greek text, what he says is, it is necessary to be born from above. It is necessary to be born from above. Now why is it necessary Christ? As Jesus talks to Nicodemus here we want to ask Him why, why is it necessary? Well Jesus, in this text, provides three answers.

First of all because we're blind verse 3, “Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you unless one is born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” He cannot see, that probably means to appreciate or to spiritually understand or grasp. He just can't see it. He can't understand it. He can't grasp it. This is Jesus' statement similar to Paul's in First Corinthians 2:14, that the natural man can't understand the things of the Spirit because they're spiritually discerned. He just can't get it. He doesn't understand, he's spiritually blind. Second Corinthians 4 talks about that the fact that the God of this world has blinded the minds of those who don't believe lest the light of the glory of the gospel should shine into them. We're blind. We just don't get it. We don't see it. Spiritual realities mean nothing to us.

Jesus says there's another problem, and that's that we're flesh, verse 6. “That which is born of the flesh is flesh, and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” Jesus is simply saying that our flesh or our human nature doesn't have the capacity to produce spiritual life. Only the Spirit can produce spiritual life. Only the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God can produce spiritual life. We are flesh, and we have no capacity to produce anything but flesh. If you doubt that just take out the picture out of your wallet and look at your children, you have produced not spiritual life, you have produced fleshly life. That's all we have the capacity to produce. So we don't have any resources through which to make this change to ourselves.

But there's another reason that really gets to the heart of the matter as to why regeneration is necessary, and that is, we are powerless to enter the Kingdom of God unless God acts. Notice verse 5, “Jesus says, “Nicodemus, “Truly, truly I say to you, unless one is born of water in the Spirit,” and we'll come back to that and talk about that in more detail, but unless basically, God works in him the act of regeneration, “he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.” He is not able. He does not have the capacity to enter the Kingdom of God. The reason God has to act, the reason regeneration is so crucial that God must change us is because if God doesn't change us, we don't have the capacity to enter the Kingdom of Heaven. We are powerless to affect it. Of course, this reminds me of the text we look at and we looked at in John 6:44, “No man can come to me, Jesus said unless the Father draws him.”

So that's the need. That's why God needs to act. That's why we must be absolutely radically pervasively changed by God. So what exactly is regeneration? What is this change we're talking about? Well, let me give you some definitions. The Greek word regeneration by the way, occurs only twice in the New Testament, Matthew 19:28, it's used of the renewal of the world at the second coming of Christ, and then in Titus 3:5, in Titus 3:5, Paul uses it of this internal spiritual renewal that is, part of our redemption, part of our salvation, listen to what he says. “God saved us, not on the basis of deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to His mercy, (and He did it watch this) by the washing of regeneration and renewing by the Holy Spirit.” By a washing and a renewing the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit. To regenerate simply means to impart life, to impart life.

Millard Erickson, in his Systematic Theology, says; “Regeneration is the communication of divine life to the soul as the impartation of a new nature or heart and the production of a new creation.” Robert Raymond puts it this way, “It is the subconscious implanting of the principle of a new spiritual life in the soul, affecting an instantaneous change in the whole man intellectually, emotionally and morally, and enabling the elect center to respond in repentance and faith to the public proclamation directed at his conscious understanding and will.” In other words, it is this act of God that enables us to understand the Gospel and to believe. Wayne Grudem puts it very simply, “It is that secret act of God, in which He imparts new spiritual life to us.”

What an amazing reality. This is, if you're a believer, this is what God accomplished at the moment of your salvation. He imparted new spiritual life to you. He implanted a new principle of spiritual life in your soul, affecting an instantaneous change in your whole person. Intellectually, emotionally, morally, and He enabled you to respond in repentance and faith to the gospel that you were hearing.

Now while the word regeneration only occurs a couple of times, the concept occurs throughout the New Testament and the old as well. What are the biblical illustrations of regeneration? They're really powerful in the pictures that they present. The first is that of birth, right here in John 3, and again we're going to come back and look at this in detail, so I'm not going to spend much time here, but Jesus describes regeneration as a new birth. We understand the concept of birth. We all have watched, I'll always cherish the memory of standing at my wife's bedside and watching our three children, all three of them be born. It's incredible to see that miracle of new life come out of the womb and in a moment's time come into the world, began to cry, began to breathe; birth.

Another image that the New Testament uses of regeneration is creation. Turn to Second Corinthians chapter 5 and verse 17. Here is an image that is also powerful in it's the portrayal of regeneration and the change that God affects. “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature.” Literally, the text says if anyone in Christ a new creation, if anyone in Christ a new creation. We understand that God spoke a word and all that we see around us came into being. That's a very graphic picture of what God does in the moment of salvation, He speaks a word and He creates us. He creates, He recreates us in spiritual life. Turn over Galatians chapter 6 verse 15. Here, of course, he's dealing with the Judaizers, but notice what he says, “For neither is circumcision, anything, nor uncircumcision.” In other words, all those rights don't matter what matters is that you're a new creation. God has recreated you.

In Ephesians chapter 2 verse 10, he speaks of it in different language. He says, “For we are Gods workmanship.” Literally, the Greek word has the idea of masterpiece. We are God's masterpiece “created in Christ Jesus for good works.” In Ephesians chapter 4 verse 24, here Paul is giving some very impractical instructions I believe, about putting the right clothes on the new person that you are responding to the word of God, allowing it to change you, but he says here, “Put on the new self, which is in the likeness of God, has been created.” This new self “has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth.” You're a new creation. You're not the person you used to be. If you're a believer at that moment of salvation, it's like you were born from above. It's as if God spoke and recreated you.

There's a third image of a resurrection turn to Ephesians chapter 2, back just a couple of pages. Paul begins chapter 2 with those profound words, “You were dead in trespasses and sins.” Dead, unable to respond to God, having no capacity to live in the spiritual world at all, alive, certainly in the physical world, but dead to God. And then he goes on to describe the life that we lived, he said, “In which you formerly walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, of the spirit that is now working in the sons of disobedience.” You lived in the cravings of your flesh, indulging the desires of the flesh and the mind, and you were by nature, children of wrath. That is, you were sons of wrath. You were expecting God's wrath at any moment, even as the rest. “But God, being rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead made us alive together with Christ, and He raised us up with Him.” Here is regeneration as resurrection. In Colossians chapter 2, verse 13, Paul makes the same point, “When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He made you alive together with Him.” Resurrection.

Now it's important when you look at these images, they're making a profound point. One of them is, and we're going to come back to this in just a moment, that there is no contribution we make to regeneration. You had no contribution to your birth. You have no contribution to your being created, and you have no contribution to being resurrected. If you're dead, you don't do anything but respond to the work of God. But there's also in each of these pictures another lesson, and that is to say that we are changed in every faculty of our being. We are changed in the sense that we have a new mind that can understand the things of God.

First Corinthians 2:16 tells us that now that we know God, we can understand the things of God. We read the Bible, and it makes sense. Oh we don't understand everything, there are hard things to understand, but it comes alive. We see it for what God intended for it to say, we have a new mind. We have a new heart that can love God. Romans 5:5, “The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts.” We understand God's love for us, and because we understand God's love for us First John tells us that we then love others. We have this capacity instead of being self -lovers as Romans 1 describes it, and Paul describes it in Timothy. We become instead lovers of God and lovers of others, and we have a new will, a will that longs to obey God. If you go through the first 13 verses of Roman 6, you discover that because we died with Christ, as it were, and we were raised to new life, Paul says because of that reality you no longer are enslaved to sin. You don't have to sin. You have the capacity to yield your members as instruments of righteousness, so this change permeates every part of our being, birth, creation and resurrection.

Now let's go on to the characteristics of regeneration. How do we describe it? First, and most importantly it is a divine act. In other aspects of salvation, we play an active part. For example, in faith we're going to talk about faith in a couple of weeks. We play an active part. God gives us the faith to believe, but we respond in faith. But in regeneration we are passive. We don't do anything; God instead does something to us. This is not a great illustration of it that perhaps it will give you some concept. We play an active role in aspects of our health by our exercise by what we eat. But when you're in surgery, you're not acting you're being acted upon. Regeneration is God's surgery to the human soul, taking out one heart as Ezekiel says and putting in another heart, taking out a heart of stone and putting in us a heart of flesh that can respond to Him, and we play no role. It is what theologians call monergistic. Now don't be scared by that word. An erg, you recognize if you remember school at all is a unit of work. Mono means one that means one is working. We do not cooperate with God in regeneration. It's something He does alone. Some say oh, no no no regeneration is synergistic, syn of course meaning with or together. Some believe that we cooperate with God by responding to Him. But what does the Bible say? That's always the question. What does the Bible say?

Well first of all consider the metaphor that is most often used of regeneration, the one Jesus uses in His conversation with Nicodemus, He says, You are born from above, born from above. You must be born from above that implies both that it's supernatural. It's from above it's from God, and it implies that it is a second birth. It's different from our physical birth. But the main point Jesus is making with the metaphor of birth is that you have nothing to do with it just as you had nothing to do with your first birth.

J I Packer, writing in the Evangelical Dictionary of Theology, says “Infants do not induce or cooperate in their own procreation in birth. No more can those who are dead in trespasses and sins prompt the quickening operation of God's spirit within them.” It's a divine act. God regenerates and He does so through the agency of His spirit. In John 1:13, “we were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but we were born by God's decision, God's will.” Ephesians 2:5, “When we were dead, God made us alive together with Christ.” James 1:18, “In the exercise of His (that is God the Father's) will He brought us forth.” He gave us birth by the word of truth. First Peter 1:3, “Blessed be the God and Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ, who according to His great mercy has caused us to be born again to a living hope.” And throughout John's first letter, you see this phrase of having been born of God having been begotten by God. The picture is of God acting and God acting alone. It is a divine act, but when you think about regeneration and it being a divine act remember that God regenerates through the instrument of His word. It's the Spirit, its God the Father working through the Spirit in the heart, but He uses the instrument of His word. James 1:18, we saw it before, “He brought us forth by the word of truth.” First Peter 1:23, “You had been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable, that is, the seed was the living and enduring word of God.” God acts. It is a divine act.

But when you look at regeneration there is one scripture that speaks most directly to this passage or to this issue rather, and it's John 3, and I want us to turn there and look in a little more detail. Turn back now to John chapter 3. You learned this if you've been in the church at all; you've learned it as a youngster. This interchange Jesus had with Nicodemus, but it really is incredibly profound in the truth that it communicates. Let's walk our way through it. “Now there was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews;” Nicodemus was a ruler of the Sanhedrin, a member of 70 men that ruled the land of Israel under the leadership of Rome, and he was a teacher. He was a man who was foremost in teaching. “This man came to Jesus by night and said to Him,” probably by night, because of fear being seen associated with Jesus, still not sure of exactly what he thought about Jesus. “Rabbi, (Teacher) we know that you have come from God as a teacher;” so he acknowledged that this man, although he was the greatest human teacher in Israel, he acknowledges that Jesus, in his understanding of scripture and his understanding of God, is greater than he. He says, “We acknowledge that you come from God as a teacher for no one can do these signs that you do unless God is with him.” Your miracles have punctuated the reality that you are from God in a way that I am not because I can't do these miracles. “Jesus answered and said to him,” Now notice, Jesus answers so far he hasn't asked a question. Jesus understands why Nicodemus is there, and He sort of short circuits the pleasantries and gets to the heart of the issue. “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly,” that's Jesus' way of punctuating the reality of it. Literally, it's the Greek word Amen, Amen, Amen. This is the way it is. “I say to you, unless one is born again” one is born from above “he cannot see the Kingdom of God.” He can't grasp, he can't understand spiritual realities, he can't understand the least truths that belong to those who are part of God's kingdom.

You have to be regenerated. You have to be born again. Born from above. A new birth. “Nicodemus said to Him, “How can a man be born when he is old?” Now give Nicodemus a little credit here, he's a very bright man. He's not literally asking the question, how can I go back into my mother's womb? He understands that Jesus is saying there has to be a radical change at the most basic level of your being. That is, it's as if you were taking a fresh start in life, you were born again. And Nicodemus understands the impossibility of this, and he says such a change is impossible. “How can a man be born when he is old?” I've lived a lot of years and I've done a lot of things and there are issues that I have with God that can't be unscrambled. The messes I've made can't be fixed. He cannot enter a second time into his mother's woman be born can he? There's no way this can be accomplished. “Jesus answered and said to him, “Truly, truly,” amen, amen, “I say to you unless one is born of water and the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God.”

Now this is an interesting expression. Let's take it one at a time, born of water. Some think this is a reference to baptism, but Jesus doesn't say baptism. He says water. Whatever Jesus meant He anticipated that the leading teacher in Israel would understand His illusion. Now you tell me what would have been the first thing to come to Nicodemus's mind with the mention of water. There's only one possible answer in Jewish life, and throughout the Old Testament, water was always symbolic of purification. There are all these references to being sprinkled with water to purify to cleanse. Jesus was telling Nicodemus that to enter the kingdom he must first have a kind of rebirth characterized by complete purification. Must be born of water.

And then He says you must be born of the Spirit. Now in John's writings, this consistently speaks of a supernatural act of new birth accomplished by the Spirit of God. You see this in verse 8, you see it back in chapter 1 verse 13, in First John chapter 2, verse 29, First John 3:9, 4:7, 5:1 and so forth. Throughout John's writings, this born of the Spirit is that supernatural act of new birth accomplished by the Spirit of God. So what is Jesus telling Nicodemus? Jesus was teaching Nicodemus that to enter the kingdom; he was entirely dependent on the Spirit of God, just as we were dependent on our parents for our first birth. The Spirit has got to act. We don't enter the Kingdom because we decide to. Jesus says it's up to the Spirit's decision. You have to be born of the Spirit.

Now Jesus' comments here in chapter 3 verse 5, we're in reality a kind of commentary on a key Old Testament passage, again keep your finger there in John and turn back to Ezekiel, the prophet Ezekiel chapter 36. You have here the new covenant promise. It's a promise that has some physical promises to Israel, but it also has a great spiritual promise to Israel and Jesus in the New Testament says that that spiritual promise is for us as well. Now notice what he says. Verse 22, Ezekiel 36, “Therefore, say to the house of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for My holy name, which you have profaned among the nations where you went.” I'm going to do something not for your sakes, but for My sake, he says, “I will vindicate the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations which you have profaned. Then the nations will know that I am the Lord,” when I prove myself wholly among you in their sight.” In other words, I am going to act in such a way that when people among whom you have profaned My name see the dramatic change in you My great name in My great holiness will be vindicated.

So what's God going to do? Verse 24, “For I'll take you from among the nations,” here's the physical aspect of this promise for those ethnic descendants of Abraham for the Jews. “I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land.” Now, here's the spiritual aspect that Jesus in the New Testament says, even as He's about to die, He says, here's the blood of the new Covenant given for the forgiveness of sins. Paul called himself a minister of the New Covenant. The writer of Hebrews says, we participate in this new covenant promise. What is it? Listen to it, verse 25, “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols.” God says I'm going to act. You've profaned my name. I'm going to act, and here's what I'm going to do when I act, I will cleanse you. I'm going to make you clean. There's the born of water. I'm going to purify you. But it's not going to be some external purification. It's going to go to the very core of your being. I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols, and you will be truly genuinely clean.

I remember in my own salvation. I remember how dirty I felt when I really came to understand what a sinner I was before God, when I really saw myself as God saw me or as best a human can under the work of the spirit. When I saw myself in that way, you understand how filthy how dirty you are before God. And God says, I'll make you clean. I love that image from Isaiah, where He says you're going to be whiter than snow when I'm done, though your sins are absolutely crimson red, you're going to be as white as lamb's wool. I'll cleanse you. Verse 26, “Moreover, I'll give you a new heart” I'll give you a new heart. This isn't some sort of surgery at the outer limits of your person. This isn't God tinkering with your soul a little bit. We're talking about a radical transformation. I'm going to give you a new heart. I'm going to put a new spirit within you. Here He's not talking about the Holy Spirit yet, He's talking about a new disposition may be a good word, a new set of attitudes a new way of thinking. “And I will remove the heart of stone that you have, and I'm going to give you a heart of flesh.” In other words, you are currently dead to Me. It's as if you had a heart of stone when it comes to Me, but I'm going to take out that heart of stone and I'm going to give you a heart that can respond to Me, a heart that's living and breathing spiritually that can respond.

Verse 27, “I will put My Spirit within you.” Here's the Holy Spirit. I'll put My spirit within you now notice what the presence of the Spirit is going to do. “And I will cause you to walk in my statutes. I will cause you to walk in My statutes,” and as a result, “you will be careful to observe My ordinances.” God says I'm going to do that. I'm going to give you a capacity to obey Me, not just the capacity, but I'm going to so order and structure your life. I'm going to so give you the Spirit and the new heart and the new set of dispositions that you're going to want to obey Me and you will. You see in these verses the two aspects of the new birth. In verse 25, we're born of water refers to the fact that in regeneration, God cleans away the defilement of our hearts. In verses 26 and 27, we're born of the Spirit. This refers to the recreation and a new kind of life, a life of love for and obedience to God.

Now turn back to John 3. This is what Jesus was saying to Nicodemus. You've got to be born like Ezekiel talks about; you've got to be born of water, the water of purification and born of the Spirit. And if that doesn't happen, you can't enter into the King of God. Now notice verse 6, “That which is born of the flesh is flesh.” We talked about this before. “That which is born of the Spirit is spirit.” In other words, the flesh has no capacity to affect this, only the Spirit can do it. “Do not be amazed that I said to you, “You must be born again.” It is necessary for you to be born again. Now in verse 8, Jesus compares the new birth to the wind. He says, “the wind blows where it wishes.” He's saying the Spirit in the work of regeneration is just like the wind. No one controls the wind. The wind does what it wants the wind blows where it wishes. The Holy Spirit works this work of regeneration where He wishes. This is, by the way, why we don't tell unbelievers to be born again. That's no different than telling someone to be born. You may as well go to someone and say be born. They have no capacity to do that. Only God can regenerate, and when He acts, He acts monergistically, He acts alone.

Back in the seventies, you'll remember if you've been alive a while, you'll remember it’s popular for people to say you need to be born again, for Christians to tell us, you need to be born again as if that was something that they could do. When Jesus is using these words with Nicodemus, He did it to show Nicodemus that he was incapable of such a heart change the kind of heart change necessary to see or enter the Kingdom of God.

Sinclair Ferguson, who was with us of course for our evangelism conference, he writes in his excellent little book on the Christian Life, he says, “As well to tell a lame man to walk, a blind man to see, as to tell a dead man to live. A man without spiritual life to have it or to say you must be born again.” This is a paradox in the gospel at this point, for we discover that the one thing needful is the only thing outside our power to perform. You must be born again, and Nicodemus says to Christ as it were, it can't be done. I have no capacity to do that. And that's exactly right.

John Murray, in his book Redemption Accomplished and Applied, writes, “It has often been said that we are passive in regeneration. This is a true and proper statement for it is simply the precipitate or the result of what our Lord has taught us here we may not like it, we may recoil against it. It may not fit into our way of thinking, and it may not accord with the time worn expressions which are the coin of our evangelism. But if we recoil against it, we do well to remember that this recoil is recoiled against the words of Christ.” It is a divine act that's the first and most important thing to learn.

Secondly, and briefly, it is an inscrutable act. Notice verse 8 again, “The wind blows where it wishes, and you hear the sound of it.” Its effects are observable. But you do not know where it comes from and where it is going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. It's inscrutable. It's mysterious. The work of the Spirit of God in regeneration can't be traced. We don't know exactly how God affects this change. It can't be reduced to a test tube in a laboratory. But it is nevertheless a reality, even though our puny minds can't fully grasp all that God is doing.

It is also an instantaneous act remember the New Testament pictures we talked about? Birth, creation, resurrection. These are all events as opposed to processes. It's instantaneous. It happens at the moment of salvation. Now there are times when people are fairly confident of the hour or the day that God regenerated them, especially adults who previously lived a life of sin, and in a moment their desires and lives were changed. They immediately see the results. All of a sudden there is a new trust in Christ. There is a desire to obey. There is an assurance that their sins have been forgiven. There's a desire to read and study the Bible and to pray. There's a new delight in worship. There's a longing for Christian fellowship. There is a desire to tell others what God has done. I remember even at eighteen when I came to Christ, all of these things flooded upon my life in a day. But for others, the time of regeneration is a little more difficult to discern. One writer puts it this way, “Especially for children growing up in a Christian home, or for people who attend an evangelical church or Bible study over a period of time and grow gradually in their understanding of the Gospel. There may not be a dramatic crisis with a radical change of behavior from hardened sinner to holy saint, but there will be an instantaneous change nonetheless, when God through the Holy Spirit in an unseen invisible way awakened spiritual life within. The change will become evident over time in patterns of behavior and desires that are pleasing to God.”

In other words, sometimes we can discern at least a time frame when God affects this change. In other cases with people who are raised in Christian homes and in their minds have always believed the Gospel, there is still an instant at some point in their lives when God speaks and creates this new birth. But they may not know exactly what that instant is because it's mysterious, but you see the effects. You see the change begin to happen, that change in a life that hasn't known deep and dark sin. That change may be gradually seen, but it'll be seen nonetheless.

Now, what are the effects or results of justification or excuse me of regeneration? The effects are results of regeneration. This is really also the application. This is what regeneration does to us, and it should be a reminder of how to apply this truth. First of all the defilement of our heart was cleansed. We saw it in Ezekiel 36, those wonderful words I will clean you and you will be clean. In John 3 verse 5, born of water, that speaks of that cleansing. And in Titus 3:5, which I read to you earlier the washing of regeneration, there is a cleansing that happens as part of regeneration. The defilement of our heart was clean. God enabled us as a result of regeneration to see and enter His kingdom by faith. John chapter 3 verse 3, we're able now to see the Kingdom of God being born again having been born again. Having been, having experienced this act of God, this radical change we now can see the Kingdom of God. We understand the things of God. And we can enter the Kingdom of God.

One that's a challenge for some people to see and understand, another effect or result of regeneration is that God enabled us to believe in Christ as a result of regeneration we were enabled to believe in Christ. Look at John 1. We saw this passage several weeks ago and we were putting together our order of salvation. Our ordo salutis, but look at it again in this context. In John 1:12, faith is obviously in view here, “but as many as received Him,” that's a picture of faith, “to them He gave the right to become the children of God.” There's adoption. God adopts those who exercise faith in Him, “even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not out of blood or the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God.” Now the literal translation, let me give it to you, ‘the ones who are believing these are the ones already having been born, not by blood, nor by the will of the flesh, nor by the will of man, but by God.’ The ones who are believing these are the ones already having been born. In other words, the having been born regeneration came before the exercise of faith. Regeneration proceeds the exercise of saving faith. In other words, you would never have believed if God hadn't first made you alive. We were born again, not because we repented and believed; we repented and believed because God had already regenerated us.

In First John chapter 5 verse 1, “Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God” literally, whoever believes whoever is believing that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Everyone believing has already been begotten out of God. We know that this is what John intends because he uses this same construction very clearly in chapter 3 verse 9 of this first letter, we looked at that before, so I won't take you through that again. So it is the work of God in giving us new life that allowed us to respond in faith. We were dead unable to respond, but God gave us life and enabled us to believe.

Another effect or result of regeneration is that God enabled us to obey Him and to avoid a life of sin. Turn to the Epistle of John; I want to show you several references here. First John chapter 2 verse 29, “If you know that He is righteous, you know that everyone also who practices righteousness is begotten by God.” Has experienced this new birth from God, the one practicing righteousness. This is why I constantly use the phrase a pattern of righteousness. This is what John is talking about, the one who as a pattern of life practices righteousness. Doesn't mean he's perfect doesn't mean he never sins, it means that when you look at his life, there's more of a practice of righteousness than there is a practice of sin. There's more a pattern of obedience to the word of God than there is a pattern of sin, when you look at the breadth of his life. I'm not talking about a single moment. We all sin. I'm not even talking about a single day. I'm not even talking about a period of time. David was in sin as I've reminded you before for a period of nine months. I'm saying when you take the scope of a true believer's life; there is a pattern of a practice of righteousness.

First John chapter 3 verse 9 says the same thing. “No one who is born of God” no one who has been begotten by God, “practices sin because His seed abides in him; and he cannot sin, because he is born of God.” Now this passage helps us understand the relationship of these effects to regeneration. Why is it that the person who has been born of God, the person who has experienced this radical change doesn't practice sin as a habit and pattern of life? Why? It's because of the divine birth and the continuing presence of God's seed in us. That the believer doesn't walk constantly in a pattern of sin. We're a new person we've been changed.

First John chapter 5 verse 3, “For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments and His commandments are not burdensome to us. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world;” In other words, we don't give in to the demands of the world; instead, we give in to the demands of God because we have been born of God. Verse 18 of the same chapter. “We know that no one who is born of God is sinning;” that is, is a pattern of life sinning, “but he who was born of God keeps him, and the evil one does not touch him.” That is, he who was born of God refers to Christ. He who was born of God, that is, Christ keeps him keeps him from sin, protects him. He guards him. He enables him to obey God and to avoid a life of sin. We will not live a life characterized by sin because God's seed remains in us.

Just a couple of more to call our attention to. God by regeneration enabled us to love others. Look at First John 4 verse 7, “Beloved, let us love one another, for love is from God; and everyone who loves is begotten by God and knows God.” In other words, when regeneration came, it enabled us not to continue in self-love, but to love others and to love God. This is what regeneration accomplished.

And then finally we began to produce the character qualities that come with the Spirit. Galatians 5 of course, turn there for a moment because I think in some ways this is the most profound list of the effects of regeneration. You want to know whether or not your life has been radically changed? Look at the contrast. Here's how you can tell. Galatians chapter 5 verse 19. See if your life is described by these things. “Now the deeds of the flesh are evident, which are immorality, impurity, sensuality” all those have to do with sexual sins, either in the mind or of the body “idolatry” and that's putting anything ahead of God in your life, not merely falling down before a stone statue. “Sorcery” involvement in witchcraft and those kind of things, and by the way the Greek word, the root word is pharmakeia, from which we get the word pharmacy. Often, drugs were used to induce this sort of state. “Enmities” now we're getting to interpersonal relationships, “enmities, strife, jealousy, outbursts of anger, disputes, dissensions, factions, envying, drunkenness, carousing, and things like these.” If yours is in the list. He says, things like these. Is your life described by those things?

Then notice what Paul says. “I forewarn you; just as I have already forewarned you, that those who practice such things will not inherit the Kingdom of God.” He says you haven't been regenerated if your life is characterized by those things. Instead verse 22, “But the fruit of the Spirit” if the Spirit is in your life, if the Spirit has done His work if He's radically changed you, then there is an increasing pattern of these things in your life. “Love,” love for God, love for others, “joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,” that is loyalty, “gentleness, self-control against such things, there is no law.” If those things are in your life, not in perfection, but in direction then you've been born of God, the Spirit is within you. Now these results are absolutely crucial because they demonstrate the reality of regeneration. Jesus says like you can't see the wind, but you know it's there by the results in the same way you can't see the work of the Spirit in regeneration it's mysterious, but you know He's there by the effects that He produces.

Wayne Grudem writes, “We should realize again that John emphasizes these as necessary results in the lives of those who are born again. If there is genuine regeneration in a person's life, he or she will believe that Jesus is the Christ and will refrain from a life pattern of continual sin, will love his brother. And so forth. These passages show it is impossible for a person to be regenerated and not become truly converted that is not to repent, believe and be changed.” Unbelievers by the way won't have these qualities in their lives if you go back to the Sermon on the Mount. In fact, let's turn there in closing, turn to Matthew chapter 7, verse 15, “Beware of the false prophets; who come to you in sheep’s clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves.” Okay, here are false teachers. They seem like the real thing they're acting like they know me and are teaching for me. How do you recognize them? Verse 16, “You'll know them by their fruits.” You'll know them by their lives. “Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. A good tree can't produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit.” In other words, whatever you observe in that life is a reflection of what's going on in the heart. The fruit that you see is an expression of the heart. Verse 19, “Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into fire. So then, you will know them by their fruits.” And it's on the heels of that that Jesus says, many are going to say to me on that day, Lord, Lord and I'm going to say I never knew you. But notice what they claim. They claim all these miraculous works, but what they don't claim is love and joy and peace and long suffering and gentleness and goodness and holiness. They're claiming religious activity, even miraculous activity.

You see prophecy and exorcism and miracles all kinds of other intensive church activity. Those should never convince a person that he's born again. Jesus apparently says that all of those things can be reproduced in the natural man or woman's own strength, or even sometimes with the help of Satan himself, but genuine love for God, heartfelt obedience to Christ's commands, Christ like character traits like you see in Galatians 5, those simply cannot be produced by Satan, nor can they be produced by the power of man's will. These can only come about by the Spirit of God, giving new life to a person. I love, outside the Bible my favorite expression of regeneration comes in these words from Charles Wesley, “Long my imprisoned spirit lay, fast bound in sin and error's night, thine eye diffused a quickening ray, I woke, the dungeon flamed with light. My chains fell off, my heart was free. I rose, went forth and followed Thee. Let's pray together.

Father, thank You for the power of Your Spirit in granting us new birth in granting us life out of death, in recreating us. Father, we thank You for Your amazing work in our lives. Lord, we are not what we want to be. But we praise You by Your grace that we are not what we used to be. That You have changed us Lord, I pray that You would continue that work in us until the day Jesus comes or You take us to Yourself. Lord I pray for the person here tonight, who knows in their heart that they're still blind that they still are characterized by the deeds of the flesh. Not able to see or enter the Kingdom of God. Lord, I pray that they would call out to You tonight, that they would cry out from their misery and their sin and their wretchedness and plead with You to do this work in them. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen.