Regeneration

[00:00:03] Speaker A: Okay. So I don't know if anyone would have any. Does anybody have a fun fact that they would like to share? Any fun facts? Any go to's? Yeah. Jellyfish eat other jellyfish. Jellyfish eat other. I didn't know that. Wow. A fun fact. Yeah. [00:00:22] Speaker B: The gap between Bambi 1 and 2 is the longest gap between. Between any movie sequel. [00:00:28] Speaker A: The gap between really? [00:00:30] Speaker B: It's like 60 years. [00:00:33] Speaker A: There's no movie that goes longer than that. Wow, that's amazing. I'm amazed by that. Yeah. Okay. [00:00:42] Speaker C: Pandas roll around their babies because they can't keep you alive. [00:00:46] Speaker A: Oh, that's really sad. What? Yeah. Okay. Pandas roll over on their babies. Okay. [00:00:52] Speaker D: Polar bears, like, they wait for seals to come up. [00:00:57] Speaker A: Oh, wow. That's savvy. Okay, cool. Great. [00:01:03] Speaker D: Yes, polar bear's fur isn't actually white. It's the reflection off the sun. [00:01:09] Speaker A: Yes. Polar bears are not actually white. Is there any other polar bear facts? [00:01:13] Speaker C: Polar bears aren't white. [00:01:16] Speaker A: No. They don't have a pigment in their fur. [00:01:18] Speaker C: It means it's reflecting all the color. [00:01:21] Speaker A: Bears. A polar bear's paw. Are you serious? Are you just making that up? It's bigger than your average dinner plate. Aren't they the only bears that, like, hunt. They like, hunt humans. I think that's true. There's so many polar bear facts. I did not expect this. Yeah. [00:01:38] Speaker D: There isn't enough tryptophan in Turkey to make you sleepy. What makes you sleepy after they're speaking? [00:01:42] Speaker A: Dinner. Yes, I think that's true. I think that's true because I. I trigger yesterday, I didn't feel sleepy. But you know, when I had it on Thanksgiving with all that food, I got sleep. There's a lot now. Okay. I called on you. Yeah. Yeah. [00:01:58] Speaker B: Your body knows where all your organs go. So like after a surgery, they can just put them all back in there and they'll put them in the right place. What? [00:02:05] Speaker C: That's weird. [00:02:06] Speaker A: I feel like you're messing with me. They just like, toss them in there. [00:02:13] Speaker C: That's strange. That is very strange. [00:02:20] Speaker A: That one is crazy. Levi. [00:02:24] Speaker E: In dreams, like at. At night time, whenever you dream, like, people always say, like, I don't know, I didn't dream last night. Well, actually, you dream like multiple times at night. [00:02:31] Speaker A: You usually just forget it. [00:02:33] Speaker E: Yeah. And also, you also cannot read in dreams. Okay. Because, like, dreaming is on, like, one side of your brain and then reading is on the other side of your brain. [00:02:42] Speaker A: So you can't, like, you can't read in dreams. Okay. You feel you have another One. [00:02:47] Speaker B: Polar bears are bigger than your average dinner plate. [00:02:51] Speaker A: Okay, Caleb, Your toes are always touching. That's not okay. Yeah. Can you imagine if, like, your toes were, like, never touching? Your toes are always just, like, spread like that. That is so gross to think about. Liza, you have one. Fall asleep. Is that a thing? What if you fall asleep with your eyes open? That's quite a hurdle. I don't know that I can do that. And then you can't. You can't close them in your dream or open them. I don't. I can't follow that. Did I call it? It's nasty. We're just gonna do a few more. Okay. What? What? [00:03:44] Speaker C: So if your ear gets cut off, scientists will take, like, a piece of your rib and put it in your arm to very, like, develop stuff. And then they put it. They're like, carve it into an earth here. Then they'll, like, put it back on your. [00:03:56] Speaker A: Wow. [00:03:59] Speaker C: It's a fun fact. [00:04:01] Speaker A: Okay, yeah. I don't believe that, but who. Full speed. Running full speed for five minutes is impre. Like, I can't do a sprint for 10 seconds would absolutely destroy me. Yeah. I mean, that's insane. Yes. [00:04:22] Speaker C: Deer shed antlers in spring. [00:04:25] Speaker A: Do what? [00:04:26] Speaker C: Deer can shed their antlers in spring. [00:04:28] Speaker A: Okay. That's a fun deer fact. You were just hunting them, so sounds like you did your research. I think I've called on all of you before. I know. [00:04:42] Speaker C: I can tell by Ezra's laugh. [00:04:43] Speaker A: You should call me. [00:04:44] Speaker C: I want to know. [00:04:45] Speaker A: Yeah, close us down, Ezra. This is gonna be a really good one. [00:04:49] Speaker B: Is bigger than your average polar bear. [00:04:50] Speaker A: What is Arrow Heights. [00:04:51] Speaker B: Is bigger than your average polar bear. [00:04:52] Speaker A: Arrow Heights is bigger than your average polar bear. Okay, thank you. That was a great one to end on. Although, actually, the. The reason I brought it up was because isn't. Isn't it true that lizards regrow their tail? Isn't that awesome? I was thinking about that when I prepared this lesson because it's relevant to the lesson. Is it all lizards or, like, some technically any lizard experts? All of them. Any of them. Okay. Levi said it's all of them, so it's all of them. I thought that was cool because they. They like. What we're studying today is regeneration. They regenerate their tails. So I was thinking. As I was thinking about the regeneration of souls, I thought about lizard tails and I thought, oh, that's interesting. I want to talk about that. So let's do some fun facts. But of course it's related in a way, but it's not exactly the same. Right. You know, we can't. Like a lizard regrowing its tail. You can't regenerate your soul on your own. It's not something that naturally happens from your own biology, unlike a lizard. And so we need God to do it. And so we're going to talk about what exactly regeneration means and all of that in a minute. But let's do our review real quick. What is theology? Been a few weeks. You this time study of God. Okay. And. [00:06:19] Speaker C: How to be more like him. [00:06:20] Speaker A: And how to be more like him. That's right. Good. That was a good tag team work. Now what is the kind of more broad category? So theology covers everything, but what's the little umbrella we're in now? Salvation. That's right. The doctrine which is like the teachings of salvation. Now what have we covered under that umbrella of salvation? We've covered three things, three lessons. Yeah, Yeah. Common grace was the first one because common grace kind of helps point people to God. And so that's why it falls under this category. But it's not the same as saving grace. Common grace can be given to anyone in different measures, Christian or non saving grace is grace that leads to salvation. And so the week after we talked about election, what that means, how God elected us, how different Christians have thought about that through church history. And then we talked about union with Christ. Right. Being one with Christ, you die with Christ, you are raised to live with Christ through faith. And that is the heart of salvation. So today we are now talking about regeneration. Now starting with election. So common grace was kind of a little different. It kind of fits in the category. But starting with election, everything we've talked about and we'll be talking about for the next few weeks is kind of happening in order. So this is in an intentional order. We kind of think of these things in this order. Now some of the things are simultaneous, like you could say regeneration and conversion, when you repent and have faith kind of happen at the same time. But there's this logical order. So, you know, election we read in the Bible, happens before the foundation of the earth. So that, that's why we studied that one first, that is before creation. Then there's kind of a calling from the spirit called an effectual calling. We didn't study that, we are studying some others. And then we get to regeneration, which is being made new. So if you want to write that down, regeneration is like being made new, a new soul born again. All of these are words we can kind of substitute for regeneration that might Make a little more sense. Regeneration, this being made new, leads to conversion, which, as I said, is faith plus repentance. And then that leads to being justified, being adopted, being sanctified, persevering, and then at the end when Christ returns, being glorified. So that's kind of the order of salvation. We'll go through those topics over the next few weeks, but we're going to talk about regeneration. So here's the summary. The summary main idea part at the beginning. Regeneration is the mighty work of God by which unbelievers are given a new nature, being born again. So regeneration is the mighty work of God by which unbelievers are given a new nature being born again. Now for our major affirmations. So, number one, regeneration is necessary. We need it. It's necessary for this. Let's go to John. So open your Bibles. If you don't have a Bible, you can go to the back and get one. We've got a bunch back there. We're going to go to John 3, John 3, very famous passage. We're going to read verses 3 through 5. So John 3, 3 5, John 3, 3, 5. All right, I'm about to read it. John 3, 3 says, Jesus answered him, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born again, he. He cannot see the kingdom of God. Nicodemus said to him, how can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother's womb and be born? Jesus answered, truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born of water and the spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Okay, so question for you guys. What does it mean to be born again and how is it related to regeneration? Yeah, yeah, repent. Put your trust in Jesus. Okay, yeah. How's it related to regeneration? We're talking about regeneration. I go to this passage where he talks about being born again. Why? How are they related? Any guesses? Yeah. Did you have a different answer? Yeah, yeah, they are the same thing. They are referring to the same idea. So I'm just trying to familiarize you guys with kind of the language the Bible uses. You're not going to see a lot of verses that use the word regeneration. So it's an idea that we have to look for based on what we're reading. And so being born again or being regenerated is necessary for what? Why do we need regeneration? To be saved. Right. Jesus says, here to see the kingdom of God. I think those are fair parallels. And flip over to ephesians. Now, Ephesians 2 helps us with this even further. Ephesians 2. Just going to read the first few verses. And you were dead in your trespasses and sins, so you were dead in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience, among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath like the rest of mankind. So we see here that us he's talking about humanity. So everyone is by nature, so just, by nature of being born a human, a child of wrath, that means stained by sin, plagued by sin, sinful all the way through. And so that is why we need regeneration. That nature, that wrathful sin nature needs to be taken away and made new. So regeneration equals new creation and salvation from death because of sin. So it's new creation. It is salvation because of sin. Now, if you don't see that you are dead in your sins, then you won't see that you need regeneration. You need to understand that what Paul says in Ephesians 2 is true of all people, by nature of their humanity, by nature of them being born into sin. If you don't see that, you're not going to understand why we really need regeneration. But if you do see that, if you recognize that what Paul writes here does describe you, then you need to be born again. You need to have faith in Christ. You must trust in him. And that is the truth. We all need to be made new. We can't just think of ourselves as new. We can't just make ourselves new, like a lizard can regenerate its tail. We can't just renew our own souls. We need Christ through the Spirit to do it for us. And that leads us to the second affirmation. Regeneration is a divine work. Regeneration is a divine work. So that just means a work of God. When you see the word divine, it is a work of God. It is a divine work. We're going to look at a few passages. Let's go first to Titus. Titus 3, Titus comes after 1 and 2 Timothy, right before Philemon in Hebrews so Titus 3, Titus 3:5. We're going to read Titus 3:5. Titus 3:5 says, he saved us, not because of works done by us in righteousness, but according to his own mercy by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. What does this verse teach us about regeneration? Something you could learn about it in this verse. [00:15:50] Speaker D: God is the One who saves us. We can't do anything to make our Savior. [00:15:55] Speaker A: Yeah. God does it. That's right. Anything else? Yeah. Anya also said it's not something we can do. So that's why he says, not because of works done by us. Regeneration happens because of what? God's mercy. See that in the verse? Right? Because of his mercy, according to his own mercy, by the washing of regeneration and renewal of the Holy Spirit. So we also see that the Holy Spirit's work is especially related to regeneration. I think we did talk about, just briefly, regeneration when we were studying the spirit and his works. This is one of them that's especially attributed to him. Okay, so Titus 3 not by our works. It is God's work done by the Spirit because of his mercy. That's kind of the highlight of what we learn. Let's go back to John. John, chapter one. Can somebody read John 1, 12, 13? Yeah. [00:17:33] Speaker B: But as many as received him, to them he gave the right to become children of God to those who believe in his name, who were born not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. [00:17:46] Speaker A: Okay, thank you. What does this teach us about regeneration? [00:17:52] Speaker D: Yeah, you can't regenerate by your own works. You have to come to God. [00:17:56] Speaker A: Yeah, God has to do. You have to come to God. You can't do it by your own works or the words of the verse. Your own will. You can't will it yourself. Okay. Anything else? So everyone who becomes a child of God according to this, did what? According to, like, the first couple phrases of verse 12. What have they done? What do they do? Yeah. They believe in his name. They've received him and believed in his name. He's given them the right to become children of God. And these people who have believed, they were not born of their own will, they were born of God's will. So that's kind of what John is teaching us, too. And I think that works well with what we read in Titus. We're going to go to one more verse and see what Colossians 2 says about regeneration. So go to Colossians 2. Does someone want to read when you get there? Colossians 2. 13. 2, 13. Hank. Thank you. Yeah. So what do we get about regeneration here? Yeah. Yeah. God forgives you of your sins. So, again, it is God. I'm showing you these. It's not just one verse that tells us that God does regeneration. We see this constantly through the Bible. This is a divine work. It's a work of God. God Makes you alive. He does this because he has forgiven your sins, though we were dead in trespasses, which is another word for sins. So you cannot make yourself alive. That's what I want you to know. Probably one of the top lessons I want you to walk away with. You cannot make yourself alive. You cannot recreate yourself. Regeneration and salvation are God's work. He does it. You know, if I were to pour out a puzzle on the table back there, is the puzzle going to put itself together? No, that would be ridiculous. Now, you know humans are not puzzles, right? Puzzles are inanimate. Just an illustration. But, you know, even if I do the whole puzzle, but I leave out one piece, is it ever going to get that one piece in by itself? No, it's going to remain without that one piece of which would be terrible to look at, a nearly done puzzle. You know, when you lose a piece, it's just the worst. I don't know, maybe you guys don't do puzzles. That's okay. Anyway, I think this is somewhat analogous to the sort of control we have over our regeneration. Now, of course, repentance and faith are things that we have a hand in doing, but regeneration, the remaking of your spirit, is something that only God contributes to. In fact, the main thing we do contribute to, it's been said, is the sin that makes it necessary. We need to be regenerated because of our sin. That's how we contribute to the whole affair. But I want you guys to see this not as something that's bad, like, whoa, I can't do anything. So what am I supposed to do? Just sit here and hope that God regenerates me and cross my fingers that he actually has? No, I think this is good news because it's not some roll of the dice chance. If you see your need for a savior and you repent and believe, then you've been regenerated. I believe. And what this shows us is that you can't mess it up. You can't try to recreate yourself and clean up your life and fall short. You can't mess it up. You can't get your regeneration right, wrong, or impartial. Because the perfect God does it, and he does it perfectly. And God does it perfectly through his word. James 1:18. You don't have to flip there. I'll just read it real quick. James 1:18 says, of his own will he brought us forth by the word of truth, that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures. So this is God's doing of his own Will, he brought us forth, and he does it through His Word. So through the Word, preached through the Word. Read. This is how he mainly operates, to regenerate people. For those of you who have believed in Christ that you are saved from your sins, then you have a moment where, or at least maybe a season of life where you believe that you were converted. Well, at some point, you were reading the Bible, hearing it taught, thinking, thinking about it, praying about it, or some mixture of those things. And so it was through the Word that you were made new. That is how God's will operates. It is through His Word. All right, now, the third affirmation, regeneration, is both removal and imparting. It is both removal and imparting. So another verse I will just read, but you can write it down. If it's not at the top of the page. I think it might be, is 2 Corinthians 5, 17. That is a great verse to memorize, too. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away. Behold, the new has come. So what is removed in regeneration? What is removed? Sin. Sin. Or in this, the old self. The. The old creation. Your old soul, so to speak, is removed. But like our affirmation is, it's both removal and imparting what is imparted or given. Huh? [00:24:36] Speaker D: A new self. [00:24:36] Speaker A: A new self. Right. So if sin is removed, righteousness is imparted. Your old self is removed. The new is imparted or given. That is what regeneration is. It's not just one or the other. It is both. It is the complete rebirth. It's being born again, not just dying with Christ, but being raised to live with him. It is the whole thing that is regeneration. Your sin dies with Christ so that you may live eternally with him in holiness. Now, the final affirmation is. Is this regeneration precedes conversion? I don't know. Did I have. Are you having to write the word precede? Do you need. Or is it. Do you write conversion? Okay. I didn't know if you needed help spelling precedes. It's not proceeds, it's precedes conversion. So it comes before. The reason I say this is we. We could read a couple other verses, but we're going to go to First John 5. You can go here with me. It might be helpful to see it with your eyes. So first John, not the Gospel of John, but one of the letters towards the end of the Bible. 1 John 5. We're going to read verse one when someone gets there. You want to read 1 John 5:1, First John, five one. Anybody want it? Okay. [00:26:04] Speaker D: Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God. Everyone who loves the Father loves his child as well. [00:26:14] Speaker A: Thank you. Yeah, that's good. So I think it helps us to see this idea that regeneration precedes conversion. So to read it again, and I think I even have a different translation, so we'll get to hear it in different words too. But not to be confused, we're reading the same verse. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. And everyone who loves the Father loves whoever has been born of him or His Son. So according to this verse, everyone who we can see, everyone who present tense believes. So everyone who in the present believes has been. So this is pointing to the past now has been born of God. Everyone who believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Does that make sense? So the way that John is writing this is pointing us to all of you who believe you have been born of God. He's pointing to something that preceded something else. He's helping us see kind of the order of this to again help us confirm that God is the one who does the work is because he has made us new. We have been born again. That we now believe in Christ. If you have to first believe. If you have to first believe and then you can be born again, well, then it kind of seems like now regeneration is from your will. Right? So this kind of harmonizes with those other verses. Remember John 1:12, 13, we're born not of blood, not of the will of man, nor of the will of the flesh, but of God, of the will of God. So it must come from God's will first. And then we believe. We turn from our sins and believe. And so that's why I think this verse kind of harmonizes with those others to help us see this progression. And I think we might talk about conversion next week. I can't remember what I have written out next, but we'll kind of see how the natural progression flows into that and what exactly that looks like. But first, before we end, we need to go through a few more things. We've got errors to avoid and some applications. But first, major errors to avoid. First, we must highly hold Jesus emphasis on the mystery of regeneration. So there's an element of mystery. It doesn't mean it's unknowable, but it is something that is high, maybe something that we struggle to comprehend, but it is explained sufficiently in the Bible. But I think there will always be an element of mystery regarding Regeneration. So this just means even though I'm teaching all these things and might seem like I know all these answers, well, there will be people that disagree with a lot of the answers I've given today. I've tried to be faithful to what I think the Bible teaches, but we want to approach it humbly, and we don't want to go further than what the Bible teaches us. So we want to make sure we're staying within the bounds of Scripture. And Jesus even kind of confirms this element of mystery. So we read from John 3 earlier. Well, later in that passage, John 3, verse 8, Jesus says to Nicodemus, the wind blows where it wishes, and you hear its sound, but you do not know where it comes from or where it goes. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. So he's saying we see the effects of regeneration. We see when someone's been made new, but we don't really know where that came from or how it goes. We don't know the intricate ways that God does renew the soul. So there is an element of mystery that we can't fully comprehend. The second error we want to avoid is confusion between regeneration and conversion. We don't want to mix regeneration and conversion together, because when we're dealing with all these things, it's just easier for us to keep it neat and tidy. Once we start kind of blending things together, we make a little bit of a mess. So to help, regeneration equals new birth by the spirit. So if you want a short way to think of it, regeneration equals new birth by the spirit. Another short way to think of conversion. Conversion equals faith plus repentance. So there's some math for you. Conversion equals faith plus repentance. You know, if we combine and switch these around, then we become the authors of our own salvation. And the Bible is clear that we are not. Now let's enact the doctrine. You know, I wish we even had more time to think about these things and how we can apply them to our lives. But this is why we always define theology as studying God and how to be like him. Even, you know, regeneration might be a more obvious lesson for how you can apply it to your lives, but all of these lessons do have implications for how we live. So first, what I thought of was, be thankful to God for His mighty work of regeneration. Be thankful. A lot of times with these ideas, we kind of have this same application to be thankful. I hope you don't find that tiring or lazy. I think it's good. We should give thanks to God and Especially when we're learning about things that he has control over. We just must be thankful to God for his mighty work of regeneration. Why should we be thankful? [00:31:33] Speaker D: Thanksgiving. [00:31:36] Speaker A: Sure. Yeah. But why should we be thankful for this specifically? Not just because there's a day that tells us we have to be thankful, but that's a good time to remember. Yes. [00:31:46] Speaker D: Because he died for us on the cross. [00:31:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's right. That made, you know, this possible. Made it possible for us to be united to Christ and be regenerated by his spirit. Yeah. [00:32:01] Speaker B: Because he's not obligated to save us. [00:32:05] Speaker A: Exactly. He is not obligated to save us. Right. We just. A few weeks ago, we're talking about election and reprobation, meaning that there are people that are not saved, that are not elect, that don't become regenerated, that aren't converted, that aren't justified or adopted, they aren't sanctified, they don't persevere, and they're not glorified. That happens to a lot of people in this world. And so we should be thankful that God would look at any of us and save us, regenerate us, help us to be born again. We should be thankful because, again, God is not obligated. We are sinful. Right. We are born in the same sin nature that the people who were washed away in the flood of Genesis were born into the same exact nature as them. They were all wiped away. And so God's not obligated to save Noah. He's not obligated to save us. I think that's a great answer. Second application, develop the right expectations for the results of regeneration. What might be a bad expectation? You know, you've maybe been regenerated. In other words, you've now repented and believed in Christ because you've been born again. You have believed in Him. Now, what might be a bad expectation to have for your new life? Yeah, you're going to be perfect. Hank, you're going to say the same thing. Yeah, that might be. Yeah, both of those are so great. Yeah. So one bad expectation is, now I'm perfect. I have a righteous soul. You know, my new. My new lizard tail is here. And you know it's going to be perfect. Right. But it's also, hey, now my life is going to be good. God's going to show his favor upon us. You know, Psalm 90 is praying for God's favor. Now I'm actually going to have his favorite. Nothing bad is going to happen. Both of those are bad expectations. Regeneration does not remove the effects of sin in this sinful world. And that includes even in you. You're going to be conflicted and you will sin, but you must live a life of repentance. The final application communicate the gospel by which unbelievers may be born again. Right. So as we are thinking about the doctrine of salvation, all these complicated terms and such, I hope it's kind of helping you understand it all a little bit better. Maybe it'll help you in evangelistic conversations. That doesn't mean you need to throw out all the fancy terms you might learn. But just having a better understanding of it all can help us be more confident sharing the gospel. So I encourage you to think of, maybe even write down some names, think of opportunities you might have to share the gospel this week or even coming up, maybe around the holidays when family are in town. You might be around unbelieving family members. Maybe you aren't, but maybe you are going back to school for what, a week or two? I don't know how long? Three? Sorry, never mind. Anyway, anyway. Hey, this is a good opportunity to kind of look for those opportunities. Great. Any questions about this at all? Any regeneration type questions? None? Okay, great. If you do have any that you think of later or didn't want to share now, you can ask me at any time. With that, let's pray and we can head on over. Father, thank you for your spirit that does the work of regeneration. We pray that you would call some in this room to yourself, that you would give them a new spirit, that they would be born again and believe and have faith in your son and be saved from their sins. Lord, we thank you that you have done that for so many people in here and the people at our church. God, help us to find opportunities to share the good news of being born again to someone this week. We pray this in your son's name. Amen.