In this sermon, the preacher emphasizes the Christian experience of being dead in sin and feeling the wrath of God. He criticizes the idea of coming to God for personal gain rather than seeking God for who He is. The preacher highlights the importance of the gospel in convicting individuals of their sinful condition and producing repentance. He then references Romans 6:16 and 1 Timothy 4:16 to emphasize the need to obey the doctrine of righteousness and continue in it for salvation.

We're going to continue this morning, uh, the series that we've been up on now for seven weeks upon, Does Doctrine Matter? It's been my earnest prayer, and I done ran one off, I didn't even say anything yet. And the Praise and Worship Leader's gone. He must have forgot his Bible. Tim's a real blessing to us, church. He does so much behind-the-scenes stuff. I don't want to brag about him while he's in here, because his head's swelled up, but Tim's a good boy, and he really has a passion for Jesus. And we need to be thankful for the gifts that God gives us, because sometimes whenever you're not thankful for things, things can all of a sudden be taken away. Then you'll be thankful for them, but it'll be too late. And we're going to continue in this, um, this journey. And again, it's been, it's my prayer that when we start hearing the true doctrines of the faith, that we don't shrink back and go, oh, that's going to be dry and crusty. That we have a vivid understanding of doctrinal matters that doctrine is life. And we're not talking about the dry, crusty stuff that's stuck in seminaries. We're talking about the oracles of God, the very words of the living God, the foundations of the faith, where we can build our lives upon that sure foundation, where the winds and tempests of life do not remove us from our steadfast devotion to Jesus Christ. Amen? And this morning, uh, last two, the last two weeks, we've talked about the doctrine of radical depravity, and we're going to start today. I'm going to launch into it. I will not conclude the day that we're going to talk about the doctrine of regeneration. We're talking about regeneration and put that in layman's terms, salvation. And so we're going to go to Romans chapter six. We're going to read that as well as first Timothy four. These are foundational scriptures to the series. And then we're going to launch on forward and see what God would have for us this morning. The Bible says in Romans chapter six, starting in verse 16, and you can read along with me if you would like, no, you not that to whom ye yield your servants to obey his servants. You are to whom you obey, whether of sin and death or obedience under righteousness, but God be thanked that you were the servants of sin past tense. Hallelujah. Past tense were not are were servants of sin, but you have obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine that was delivered unto you being then made free from sin. You became the servants of righteousness. Turn over in your Bibles to first Timothy chapter four, first Timothy chapter four and verse 16. We'll wait till the rustling of the leaves come to a halt. In verse 16, the word of God says, take heed unto thine self and unto the doctrine and continue in them for in doing this, thou shalt save both thyself and them that hear thee. Doctrine matters. Friends, doctrine matters. Let's pray. Father, just come and reveal truth to us. Father, we know that you are the true revelator and father, let our minds, Lord, comprehend and receive these truths of the word of God. Father, open our minds that we may understand the scriptures, enlighten our understanding father, that we may discern Lord and know the truth of the word of God, Lord, that our hearts be quickened and alive by your grace. And Lord God, give us a hunger and thirst, Lord God, for the word of God, Lord, that we would not, Lord, be afraid of doctrinal truths, Lord, not when we shrink back, but Lord, that we would understand, Lord God, that true doctrine, father, God, has your power released into it, Lord God, and Lord, that it not only grips, but changes our hearts, our natures, even our identities. So, Lord, work through your word, work through your word in the lives and the hearts of your elect, your children, your people, those that trust you and call upon your name. And we give you the praise in Jesus name. Amen. I want to clarify something that I've not clarified in this teaching, and I've almost done so willful. I was written by a brother on the internet this week, and he'll probably be listening even to this message and asking if we are Calvinists. No, we're not. But neither are we Armenians. We are Christians. I don't filter doctrine through what two reformers wrote about four or five hundred years ago. But we preach the God, the word, the word of God as though the God of the word reveals it to our hearts. And we're not picking sides. And I don't have to choose this side or that. I'm born again by the blood of Jesus Christ. I have the spirit of God dwelling on the inside of me. And friend, I don't need Calvin and I don't need Arminius to have doctrinal truth. I have the Holy Ghost. Amen. So I want to clarify that we are not preaching Calvinism. We're not preaching Arminianism. We're not going to get into those debatable issues. They've not been resolved in four hundred and fifteen or twenty years are not going to be resolved today, but we're going to preach the truth of the word of God. I'm going to quote Calvinists because what they're saying is right. And I'm going to quote some Armenians because what they're saying is right. It's true. It's the truth. And listen, those Armenians, those Calvinists are my brothers in Christ and I'm not at war against them. But I'm in covenant with them. And there are things that men disagree on, but it does not make them incompatible by nature. We are born of the blood of Jesus Christ and we are not going to divide ourselves. We're going to stand united. And as long as you and I live in this body, we're going to know in part you're not going to have the totality of the understanding of the colossal subjects of the doctrines of the faith of the word of God. You're listen, your mind is very finite, is very limited. But yet the word of God that we love and we hope to is not finite. It is infinite. And there is no way that your mind can completely fathom the totality of the word of God because your head would blow up. You've not been created to have that type of understanding. There is a time coming when we will. There is a day coming whenever we are made complete, perfected, when we leave these these sin laden bodies and enter into an inheritance that is incorruptible above it. We'll know then all things fully. So anyway, having said that, I'm going to go ahead and get turned over here. We're in part seven. We're going to talk about the doctrine of regeneration. We've talked about the sufficiency of the word. We've talked about our need for the doctrines of the word of God. We spent a couple weeks camping out upon the sufficiency of the word of God because there is a move in this day and time that we are living in to undermine the sufficiency of the scriptures that we have to modify the scriptures to be totally relevant to our culture. Beloved, the word of God is relevant to every culture and the word of God should conform culture to the word of God and not the culture to redefine the word of God. Beloved, we've got to be very careful not to err in this regard. And we've talked about the depravity of man, that you were born with the stamp and the mark of Adam upon your countenance. You were born dead in your trespasses and sins, not a little bit dead, but utterly dead, dead without God, without hope even in the world. But today we're going to begin an adventure into the doctrine of regeneration. I'm going to be turning to Titus chapter three, so you can go ahead and get going in that direction if you would like. Just flip over a few pages from where you were there in Timothy. Again, I'm finding myself and whenever I sat down, I spend a week praying before I even began to do a diligent study and research into the scriptures in regard to these doctrinal tenets and matters. They're colossal. It's frightening to me to have to undertake such a mammoth subject, such as the doctrines of the faith. It is frightening because the the the colossals and the magnitude of what we're trying to introduce and to speak upon with only a certain amount of of time and you only have a certain amount of of ear that you're going to give this morning because about the time that your backside starts hurting, you're going to be thinking more about how much pain you're in than what's being said. But again, I spend a week in prayer and then I open my Bible and begin to spend hours in study to present these scriptural truths to you. And I see the enormity of it and it is overwhelming to me. And so I want you as the people of God to be praying for me that God would would work in me, that God would speak to me, that I might be able to give accurate discourse and instruction upon these hallowed themes of the word of God and to have clarity that we might understand because you and I both know that as soon as confusion comes in and misunderstanding that the enemy steals away the seed there's been so we we need to have clarity we need the spirit of God to reveal to us these truths but the doctrines of the word of God the doctrines of of the faith are within the reach of your understanding. Don't think for a moment that it takes a theologian in a seminary somewhere to understand. In fact, beloved, I really believe that your common man such as you and I can understand the word of God just as well if not probably a little bit better because we we don't make make read something into it that's not there. We can just with the childlike faith absorb the truth of the word of God and then begin to live it. Amen? Without any argumentative spirit in regard to the word of God. And so I'm going to try to lay before us these foundations. Again, I want to reiterate this is frightening to me because of the enormity of it, but it is the cup the Lord's put in front of us. And with God's grace, it's going to become our blessing. It's going to become our blessing. So here we are, we find ourselves in Titus and we're in the third chapter and we're going to start in verse three. It says this, for we ourselves also were sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving divers lusts and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful and hating one another. Does that ever creep back up in you sometime that hateful thing? Boy, it does me. I have to put my foot on it, push it back down. I want to clarify something before we take another step forward. There's always going to be a battle on the inside of you between the flesh and the spirit. Don't ever think that the flesh and the risings up the flesh are ever going to be tamed utterly in your life. There always is going to be contention between the two. Ishmael and Isaac are always going to hate each other. And there's always going to be enmity between your natural estate, your natural man, the flesh man, and the spiritual man. The thing is though, is that the body of sin is destroyed. You don't have to obey the natural man, the natural voice, the voice of the flesh any longer. You don't have to. We have victory through Jesus Christ, the spirit of God and the blood of Jesus Christ gives us victory over the flesh. From time to time, we may, we may fail under temptation and a weak moment, but beloved, it goes against the core of who we are in Christ Jesus. We hate it. We loathe it. And we definitely are not going to entertain it as a lifestyle where the born again, reformed, regenerated people of God, God has given us a new heart. The word of God goes on to decree. And again, we see here is talking about what is talking about our deformity is talking about how we were alienated away from Christ is talking about our depraved estate, which we've talked about for the last two weeks before today. But after that, the kindness and the love of God, our savior toward man appeared not by works of righteousness, which we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the was washing of regeneration. Let's say that with me. Regeneration. It's not so frightening, is it? Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy ghost, which he shed on us abundantly. And I love the terminology, which he shed on us. Oh, we didn't provide it for ourselves. Listen, we were so dead in our sins. Listen, when I was lost, I was so lost. I didn't even know I was lost. I've been like on a camping trip, walking in circles around thinking, you know, where camp is and you're just convinced, you know what it, but you're just walking in circles lost. You don't even know it till nightfall and camps nowhere near. Amen. Pastor Tim and I finally bought us a GPS. We once was lost, but now we're found by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior, that being justified by his grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life. I believe that the last two messages upon man's radical depravity sets the, uh, the tone or that it's going to gloriously project the beauty and the wonder of the doctrine of regeneration. And I've made mentioned the last two weeks, I believe that we should never forget who we were, that the backdrop of our depraved nature should really enhance the glory of Christ's salvation that he's clothed us with. You know, I, I am what I am and you are what you are by the grace of God. But let me tell you so that I don't forget for a moment who I was because beloved, if I forget who I, who I was, I forget to be thankful for the Lord of glory that has crowned me with so great a salvation clothed me with such a righteousness that's been imputed to me that I did not deserve in any way. Amen. One of the great Puritan fathers, a guy that brother Vernon and I share a common interest in as a guy by the name of Stephen Sharnock and Sharnock was most noted for his writing upon the existence and the attributes of God. And, um, Vernon and I both love to read that book. And unless you're interested in tough reading, don't read it. It's tough, but it's, it'll bless you if you do read it. But Sharnock said this, that regeneration is a mighty and a powerful change rot in the soul by the effacious working of the Holy spirit. We're in a vital principle, a new habit, the law of God, a divine nature are put into and framed in the heart, enabling it to act wholly and pleasing to God and to grow up there in to eternal glory. But it's the radical change of nature that God through his sovereign grace works in the heart of someone that's absolutely defiled by their inherited estate through Adam. One of the things that we really challenged with when we're presenting the true gospel to young people is to get past seeing their personal sin, to see the nature of sin that grips them and holds them in bondage and in captivity. Blood that we commit sin because we're sinners and God cast to come in and make the whole vessel clean. When Jesus saved you, he did not come and make a better improvement to the old you. He didn't give you some, a prison principal supply that you'll have to do this and do this. You'll become a better person and folks will tolerate you a little bit better. No beloved. He came in and gave you a brand new nature that old stony heart of sin was plucked out. According to Ezekiel, he gave you a new heart of flesh with new and right desires. It's not an improvement of the old. It's a doing away with the old and by the miraculous working of grace, giving something that was never there before. That's regeneration. There are certain historical documents lining out the tenants of the faith that have gone down through history. We've read a couple out of the West minister catechism. There's another article of the faith, another, um, um, set of tenants that were, that were pinned. They're called the cannons of Dorte and the cannons of Dorte give this, it does count something funny. So I'm like saying the cannons of the dork, but it's not that his cannons of Dorte. And so that group of godly men that had a desire to pin the true doctrines of the faith, knowing that there was going to be a demonic attack against what is truth and what is not truth in the years to come. And thank God these men did just that. But the cannons of Dorte said that God, this is in regard to general regeneration, that God penetrates into the inmost being of man, opens the closed heart, softens the hard heart, circumcises the heart that is uncircumcised. He infuses new qualities into the will making the dead will alive, the evil one, good, the unwilling one willing, and the stubborn one compliant. That was me, the stubborn one compliant. He activates and strengthens the will so that like a good tree it may be enabled to produce the fruits of good deeds. Amen. Now, one of the greatest deficiencies in the modern church, and you all have been here for a long time listening to me preach. Some of you like Philip's been here since the beginning of time. And one of the things that I've been harping about is the deficiencies that we have in our modern religious culture upon instructing upon themes such as biblical regeneration. It's almost a term that's not even heard today in today's society of religion regeneration. What does that mean? You know, we today have this terminology about accepting Jesus. I try to refrain from that, number one, because it's not biblical. The question is not whether you accept Jesus. The question is, will he accept you? Come on. And but there will be no accepting of you until there's a thorough work of repentance in our hearts. There must be repentance, not a repentance of the flesh, but a repentance by the grace of God. And we're going to talk about that today. But our religious culture, my friend, has adopted an easy believism, adopted a decision ism as a means unto salvation, whereby the whole work is contingent upon man, man's ideas and not God and God's work of his sovereign grace. And I'm going to talk about a modern American evangelism a little bit, and I'm doing this because all of us are called to do the work of an evangelist. Beloved, I'm going to I'm a pastor, but I'm an evangelist. You're a parishioner, but you're an evangelist. Every one of you. Listen, you don't have to go from one corner of the country to the next preaching and meetings to be an evangelist. The apostle Paul said, do the work of an evangelist. Every one of us are called into the ministry of reconciliation. Is that not true? But we need to check in to see if the practices that we are practicing as being ministers of the manifold grace of God, if we're in line with the word of God. And so most of you know real well that I'm not too high on modern practices in the church that I believe that as the word of God declares that we need to go and to redig the old wells we saw in the last probably 100 years, we've seen so many false false conversions. And there's a reason for that. One of the things that we've seen influenced is our definition of success. And I believe that the idealism of the easy believism and decisionism that is that is so contingent upon is that this is this is the whole foundation of it. They use God as a means to another or some other expected end instead of God being the end in himself. Does that make sense to you? This is the deal there. We give a gospel call. Come to Jesus for what you can get. Come to Jesus for what he can do for you. Are you with me? Instead of presenting and illuminating how depraved and how thoroughly wicked we really are. But if you begin to see that you're depraved, if you begin to say that you're cut off from God, you're deserving of God's wrath. In fact, God's wrath is in store awaiting you. But you will run to Jesus to flee from the wrath to come. If any of you have ever read into the historical writings, such as the Pilgrim's Progress, you know that the motive for Pilgrim leaving the city of destruction and headed towards the celestial city is that he was fleeing from the wrath to come. Evangelists began to reveal the evangelist came and he preached a message of what the message of truth regarding how lost that he was and the judgment and the wrath of God that's upon all humanity that is without Christ. And beloved, today we have all this stuff going on and I've been to those meetings, come to Jesus, he'll do this for you, he'll do that for you. And it's almost like that we were 10 shekels in a shirt, as Paris Readhead said in that famous message. We'll sell out. And then two weeks later, we find that same individual that came forward and made a decision still down at the bar drinking. He's still in jail on Sunday morning for beating his wife. His ankles are still bleeding because he kicked the dog and the dog bit him. He still has that nasty displacement. He still has that filthy sin riddled nature. He came to God as a means to get something instead of coming to God for God being the very end himself, that we might inherit him. Beloved, what did Adam lose? Did Adam lose his financial, his financial or monetary abilities? Did Adam lose? What did Adam lost? Adam lost God. Adam lost God. The work of Christ and the incarnation and the work of regeneration is to restore the creature and creator relationship that we might be one and united with God once again, where we've been before, separated from God because of our sin nature. Amen. And so we see in these offers that you can come to Jesus for as a means for a more financially secure life. Come to Jesus as a means to get a better job. Come to Jesus. He'll help you quit that or quit that. Beloved, it's inconsistent with true biblical doctrine. God is not our means to another end. God is our, our end. And he is not a means. Does that make sense to all of us? And beloved, the reason that we need to know this, because there's going to be an opportunity in your life for you to do the work of an evangelist. That's not just Tony and I's job. That's your job to love and read second Corinthians chapter five. He's committed unto us, the people of God, the ministry of reconciliation, that whenever you are on your job, that God in his providence has given to you. And there's that man or that woman that's in a position to where their life is devastated. Then you have an open door to be able to do the work of the evangelist and to minister the truth of the word of God. And to see God began to stir, God began to work above it. You're the one in that opportunity and not me. I'm not there. Tony Mac's not there. And we're doing what God's called us to do. The work of evangelism to the open doors that God sets before us. But you know what? Isn't it amazing that God puts you on your job, Debbie? And then God puts you on your job, Brandy. And isn't it amazing that all those years that you've spent there, you've never seen me there. Those hurting people that I've not had an opportunity to reach into their life, but you have. And so we need to have a biblical understanding of how we're to present the gospel of Jesus Christ to reveal the true need of humanity. The true need. It's not just that we need to have a better financial life. It's not just the need that we need to be a better husband, but we need to have a depraved heart regenerated by the working of God's grace that we might be a clean tree through and through a clean river through and through pure and undefiled before God by the working of regeneration by the Holy Ghost of God that we are made absolutely new. You know, friend, this is foreign today, but this was not for 150 years ago. This stuff was preached from the pulpit. If you you're a student of of of the of the literature that was that was printed back in the 1800s and beyond, you will see with every man of God or that wrote in regard to regeneration and salvation. This this stuff that we're preaching is not foreign and new is what is from the you read Augustine in the first century all the way through the Dark Ages, all the way through the Reformation years. And you find a consistency upon the hallowed themes of regeneration, the work of God's grace, regenerating the soul, it being a work of God alone, which you read about man being totally lost, totally depraved. And we then we see the gospel of Jesus Christ is the means to whereby by the Holy Ghost that we're convicted over our sinful condition, over our sinful hearts, and that God begins to work in our lives to produce in us a repentance and a distaste for everything that we are and that we've been. And I'm getting a little ahead of myself, but I know that when I was converted to Christ, I remember that experience just like it was yesterday. I remember that God illuminated to my understanding into my heart how filthy I was. And I went from I went from my number one fan to my number one enemy. Listen to me, friend, almost to the point of loathing myself, even to the point of despair and wishing that I was dead. And it happened in a moment's time. God began to work in my heart and to reveal to me my depraved heart, my my my that I was just rotten through and through. As far as my sinful nature, I was rotten through and through. And God began to to give me a distaste for everything that I used to just run headlong into and to love. I used to love it. But I loved I loved to live the lifestyle of sin, even though there were certain penalties ascribed to it. I loved the lifestyle of sin. But God, God stricken my heart and everything that I loved in a moment's time. I was near to the point of vomiting in regard to who I was. And I'd never seen that before in my life. Well, the salvation is an amazing and miraculous thing. Regeneration is an amazing and a miraculous thing that God and I'm not saying that every experience is exactly the same because they're not. They're not. Stacy's salvation experience was greatly different than mine. But you know what? The result is the same, that God took that old nature and crucified it and gave her a new nature, clothed her in righteousness. But every every situation and every experience is probably going to differ. But I know there's one thing that's not going to differ. You're going to see your sinful heart and you're going to hate it because if you don't, you'll not have any desire to turn away from it. Say men with me, please. Now, I made mention a while ago that we must understand the purpose of redemption and the purpose of redemption is to restore the creature and the the creator relationship. What Adam gave away through transgression is restored through Jesus Christ. Now, are there benefits that are subsequent to regeneration? Of course there are. We all know, we all taste of it, we all have tasted of the goodness of God and the benefits that come with regeneration. But beloved, the most important thing is that the benefactor is the greatest gain. He was the greatest loss when man fell. And again, one of the most vexing deficiencies in modern Christianity is the failure to reveal to lost men how really lost that they are, how depraved they really are. And it's impossible, my friend, to impress upon lost men their need for a redeemer if they have not felt the depth of the depravity that is upon them and within them. And consequently, my friend, modern religion has altogether abandoned the preaching of the of the true gospel of Jesus Christ because it's offensive to people. It's offensive to people. They begin to introduce new techniques that are more familiar with corporate marketing schemes and scams than biblical principles. And this has come into what we call the church. And it's within these modern ideologies, my friend, that a lot of our evangelistic approach lies, and I use the word entombed because it truly is. We offer a Jesus that's passionate about giving you your best life now without warning the people to flee from the wrath that's to come. We boast in our numbers that have responded or made a decision, but the whole the whole system is corrupt, the whole system is flawed, and we wonder why the vast majority of the people never turn away from their sin. They never walk in obedience to Jesus Christ. They're never found in fellowship with God's people in the local church simply because their conversion is false. It's wholly the work of man, it's wholly the work of emotion, and it's also a work of propaganda. Beloved, regeneration is wholly and completely the work of God in the life of the man or the woman that is dead in the trespasses and in their sins. Now, I'm not inclined at all to believe that that man can be uncooperative with the grace of God and still be converted, as some people believe. There's some people who believe that, that you can you can be completely uncooperative with God's grace and you can still be regenerated or converted. Beloved, that is not scripturally sound. It's not scripturally sound. But the scriptures make it very evident that regeneration is wholly the work of God, abounding in the lives that are dead in the trespasses and sins. Beloved, we must respond. You must respond to grace. I remember, and I told Choots and Tim this morning in our pastor's meeting, I remember that when God awakened me to how dead I was in my sin, I didn't even know it. But there was a moment in time where it was quickened or something came alive on the inside of me. It was a choose this day who you're going to serve. Choose this day. Beloved, I can choose to follow Jesus Christ and to walk away by God's grace from all that I have been, all that I have done, and to live and move and have my being in Christ, or I could continue in that in that portion of swine food that I've been feeding upon my whole life. You know, my parents didn't even have any idea how bad I was. They didn't have a clue what was really going on in my life. I was deceitfully wicked, deceitfully wicked. Some of you understand that because you were the same. But beloved, I know this, that God worked in my heart, my life, that I made a decision to turn away in the turn of Jesus Christ and to follow him as that invitation was before me. The foundational text says this, not by works of righteousness that we have done, but according to his mercy, he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ, our savior, not as terminology, not by what we've done, but according to his mercy that he saves us. It's the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost, of the Holy Ghost, which he shed abundantly upon us. But what have you done in this matter? What what portion of you is in this equation? When God began to impress himself upon you, that he began to awaken you under your condition, he began to reveal the sufficiency of Christ, that he revealed your need for Christ. But there came a pinnacle moment when you must say, Lord, I need you, Lord, come into my life, Lord, be my king, be my all. There must be a response on the behalf of man. It's important that we see that there are folks out there that don't believe that. You're going to possibly encounter them. In your life and in your ministry. I'm going to make mention of two theological terms, I'm not going to camp out there long, it's not too significant, but the meanings are significant. The terms aren't. The first term is is monarchyism. The second is synergyism. And how many of you all ever heard those words before? How many of you all have never heard those words before? You probably never hear them again. They're theological. I want to explain them for just a moment. Monarchistic means it is the work of one person who exercises his power. And in the case of regeneration, it is God alone who is able. It is God alone who performs the work of regenerating the human soul. The work of regeneration is not listen, this is this is monarchyism, that the work of regeneration is not a joint venture between the fallen person and the divine spirit. It is solely the work of God. So here it is. This is what monarchyism means. That God does everything. That man doesn't even have to give response. Man's not man's not even responsible to to cooperate and to correspond and to call out to the Lord. But the synergists, synergyism believe that the work of the regeneration is wholly the work of God, but that man is a free moral agent in that he must cooperate with the spirit of grace. And so, again, I don't want to confuse anybody with weighty theological terms, it's not the terms that is important, it is the truth that is important. But which is that the Bible supports? Is it monarchyism? Is it synergism? Beloved, I believe that a synergism, the word of God says in Romans 10, 13, for whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved. Beloved, there has been a battle going on for hundreds of thought, even thousands of years between those two camps. And this let them battle if they want to. I don't choose to battle. I choose to stand on the side of truth. I know by God's word backs me up. I know by personal testimony and experience even in my life experientially that the Lord set before me a moment of time that choose this day who you are going to serve the Lord. I'll follow you. And of course, you all know my stupidity at that moment. I put qualifications on God. So, Lord, I'll follow you and I'll do anything that you ask me, but I will never preach in front of people and I'm never going to sing in front of nobody. Almost two years to the day, I was doing both and feeling like a fool. So, beloved, it is the work of God, regeneration. It is a miraculous work. But beloved, it's also apparent that regeneration is contingent upon the lost man calling upon the name of the Lord. And again, I think that you and I all and everyone in this room that's been born again, that's passed through that birth canal of regeneration can give personal testimony that that pinnacle moment in time when the Lord came requiring of thy soul, he came requiring of your soul, who are you going to serve? That he revealed to you, he opened your eyes to things you've never seen before, the wickedness and the and the corruption and the radical, the depravity that vexed your own soul. And you began to see that, you began to feel that, you began to hate that, you began to have a distaste for it. And the Lord said, follow me. Who are you going to serve? And that there has to be a choice of your free will as God by his grace is awakening you that you begin to respond. You begin to respond to what God is doing. Beloved, I know, you know, the Bible backs up and decrees we must respond to the truth. Amen. Now, I've covered a lot of territory so far, but we need to know that one of the lacks today in the evangelical church is the experience of regeneration. And a lot of this is due to our methodology, using and marketing Jesus as a means to a desired end instead of Jesus as being an end of himself. It's impossible to accurately represent Jesus as savior unless we represent man as a fallen entity. Why is it the Jesus said that the gospel is going to be a stumbling block, that he's going to be a stumbling block because ain't nobody out there wants to hear how bad they are. And today, what do we have? What do we have? We've got mental technicians standing behind pulpits that are preaching Sigmund Freud and not preaching Jesus Christ. If you apply this principle, if you'll do this, if you'll do this, you'll just be a better person. I love it. I don't care what you add to pigs vomit. It's still pigs vomit. You can add corn. You can add roast beef. You can add turnips and it's still pig vomit. Are you with me? But no matter what principles you try to enact in your life to become a better moral, you, you're still a filthy swine. You're dead in your trespasses and sins. And we're living in a hypersensitive world out there that does not want to hear the truth in regard to their depraved nature. And so what we have today is marketing scams going on, making saying, come to Jesus and you're going to get to be a millionaire. And we're not hearing come to Jesus because you're radically depraved and you're in need of regeneration because the wrath of God's being stored up against you. According to the Bible in Romans chapter one, the wrath of God is being stored up. It's in store awaiting those that reject the gospel of Jesus Christ that push away the truth that continue to live in their trespasses or die in their trespasses and sins. But there was no living in my before Jesus Christ days. There was only a miserable existence. Amen. Let's talk just for a short time about the effects of regeneration. Let me ask you a little question. If regeneration is a radical change of nature, shouldn't there be a corresponding radical change in our total life? Now, listen, I understand completely the work of sanctification that God as his word is being being preached and revealed that we grow from grace to grace. But we all know that we participate in that. But I know that by by experience and by the word of God, the truth of the word of God, that whenever you're truly regenerated, there is a radical change in your spiritual dynamics and in your nature. Something that was dead is now alive. I know that whenever God worked in me, the work of regeneration, I went home to our to our little redneck abode, our little trailer house sitting out in Grandma's front yard. I came in and my wife's like, who are you? There was something different and nothing had to be said. There was just something living. Whereas before something was not, nothing was living. It was all dead. And now all of a sudden something is alive. Listen, still messing up from time to time, still at time hit my thumb with a hammer and cussed like a sailor. But there was something within the core of who I was, was radically different. And beloved, that's regeneration, that God comes and gives life to where there has been death. He gives life. He takes a dead man and makes him live again. That is the work of regeneration. It's a radical change that is within our natures. Listen, how can we claim to have an encounter with a living God and yet remain unchanged in our attitudes and in our conduct? It's impossible, isn't it? Come with me in your Bibles to a second Corinthians chapter five. Am I boring you? There's coming a time. There's coming a time when you're going to need these truths. How many of you parents put sugar inundated sweet peas on your kid's plate every meal or lollipops and Kool-Aid with like 10 cups of sugar in it? Every meal, every meal, every meal, every meal. What would happen to your child's health? Deteriorate. Now, Brandy got a little baby. Do you feed that baby sweet stuff all the time or does she get carrots and peas and stuff that she needs? Cooter's probably giving her deer steak. You know what? There are stuff that I remember whenever Cody and Lindy were little babies that we gave them that they didn't necessarily want to eat. I mean, there were peas and other ground up, bland, blended things. But you know what? They had the nutrients and the substance that the bodies needed. We didn't always give them ice cream cones. In fact, we gave them the meat. We gave them the things on their plate that would be beneficial to their health and their well-being and their bodies. You know, but you know what we have going on in the church today is that we constantly giving out sugar and no one's getting any meat. No one's getting any meat. And when you give meat out, folks start choking and sputtering and spewing and they don't do it really. And in a physical way, they just simply fall asleep in the church and just push it away. We don't want that. Tell us how nice we are. Tell us how good we look. Give us a few steps on how we can get more stuff. You know, forget that. We're going after meat. Amen. Listen, he that hath the son hath life. We're just going to give you the word, the word and the son. They are one. We're giving you the word. We're going to give you a healthy, beneficial diet of truth. Amen. And I love on you in the meantime. Don't worry. I'm still going to love on you, but I'm going to love on you as I'm feeding you. I'm going to grab that hair and pull that mouth open. I'm going to stick some peas in there. Swallow. Your parents are like, that's what we do with our kids at home. You're going to eat that liver and onions where you want it or not. For second Corinthians chapter five, again, we're talking about regeneration, being and working a radical change in our, in our nature. Verse 17 says this. Therefore, if any man be in Christ, he's a new creature. Old things are passed away. You know what the old things are? They're the, they're the, it's the death that has held us in bondage and in captivity for a lifetime. And all things are become new. All things are of God who has reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. Who's doing the work here. He's doing the work. He's reconciled us to himself by Jesus Christ. And he has given unto us the ministry of reconciliation to wit that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses and sins under them. And we talked about imputation last week. Did we not? What did Adam do? Imputed his sin to your life. What Jesus Christ do imputed his righteousness into your life. Thank God for imputed righteousness where there's been imputed sin and he's committed unto us the word of reconciliation. Beloved regeneration is not an enhancement of the old nature to make society a better place to live. Nor is it a betterment of the old to divert us away from unfavorable or unbeneficial consequences that are to our corruption. God is not a therapeutic system that gives us some principles to apply to govern our lives or to give us a better or an enhanced life. Now, this is not the case. Beloved. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the revelation of the supremacy of Christ in contrast to the degeneracy of mankind. Also, my friend, the gospel is the revelation of death being conquered through death and an imputed unrighteousness being thwarted by imputed righteousness and access being granted to God by his grace through faith. So regeneration is the absolute. It's the emphatic change of God in regard to our nature, that which has been degenerate through imputed unrighteousness has become regenerate through imputed righteousness. Regeneration not only impacts the total man, but it recreates the total man. He is a new creature or a new creation. Amen. I know what you all doing. You're turning the heater on, so this will be shorter message. I got two more layers to go for a professing believer. To continue in his old sense. And I want to mention to continue in his old sense is to refute the totality of the re-creation. And regeneration. Listen, if I'm continuing to practice wickedness. Understanding that the issues of life come from the heart, I must conclude that I am unconverted and I'm yet in my sins. Beloved, if there is no victory over sin, what have we been saved from? What have we been saved from? With the radical change of nature comes a corresponding change of practices and lifestyle. Regeneration is the divine operation of God that renders the power and the nature of sin null and void. The word of God says in Romans 6, 14, sin shall not have dominion over you. The power of sin has been broken. Ephesians 4, 2 says, let him that stole steal no more. Beloved, if you're a thief before you came to Jesus Christ, you're going to be delivered from your thieving activities. Your desire for stealing is gone. In fact, now you want to labor working with your hands, the thing which is good so that you may have to give to him that is in need. That's the Bible. That's regeneration. Now this one will make you mad. 1 John 3, 9 says whoever is born of God does not commit sin. His seed remaineth in him and he cannot sin because he is born of God. Listen, that's not talking about falling prey to the lure of temptation and committing a sin. It's talking about the sin as an entity raging its effects upon you. It's lost its power. 1 John 5, 18. We know that whosoever is born of God sinneth not, but he that is begotten of God keepeth himself that the wicked one touches him not. How many of you in this place believe the Bible? Amen. Do you believe that our God is able to keep us, to preserve us and present us to himself without fault, without blemish, without any such thing, without any wrinkles? Do you believe God is able? Do you think God is able to keep that which he has purchased, that which he has totally and radically changed? God is able. He is able. Let me say this. Regeneration is not a revocation of the possibility of sin. It's a revocation of the power of sin. It's not a revocation of the possibility of sin. It's a revocation of the power of sin. The heart that's been regenerated is not free from the possibility of sin, but it's free from the love and the pursuit of sin. Are you with me? It's important that you listen. The regenerate man may find himself caught up in a sin, but he's undone by it. Whereas before his sin never really even entered across his mind as that it is a sin. J.C. Ryle said this. If he said that he had no sin, he'd be lying. 1 John 1.8. But he can say that he hates sin and that the great desire of his soul is not to commit sin at all. He cannot prevent bad thoughts from entering his mind or shortcomings or omissions and defects from appealing in both words and his actions. He knows that in many things that we offend all, but he can truly say in the sight of God that these things cause him grief and sorrow and that his whole nature does not consent to them. His whole nature does not consent to them. A person who has been born again, a person that has been regenerated, does not habitually, say habitually, does not habitually commit sin. He no longer sins with his heart and will and his whole inclination. There was probably a time when he didn't think about whether his actions were sinful or not. He didn't always feel grieved after doing evil. There was no quarrel between him and sin because they were friends. But the true Christian hates sin, flees from sin, fights against sin, considers it his greatest plague. He resents the burden of its presence, mourns when he falls under its influence and longs to be completely delivered from it. Sin no longer pleases him, nor is it even a matter of indifference to him. It has become a horrible thing which he hates, a horrible thing which he hates. However, he cannot eliminate its presence from within him. You got time for one more point? A second evidence of regeneration is that God gives us, by his grace, victory over this world. Turn with me to your Bible to 1 John chapter 5. I know by experience that whenever this ministry began to practice the preaching of the true gospel of Jesus Christ and began to come against the easy decisionism, the easy believism, that we started seeing the miraculous work of divine grace in the lives of these young people. We started seeing young people that were thoroughly and radically changed in their hearts. Now listen, the numbers, if you want to go by numbers, the numbers aren't as many. Beloved, I'd rather have two true converts than 200 deceived folks that are running forward thinking they've got something that they've never experienced, that are deceived into a religious system, thinking that they have a standing with the father that they do not have, but their nature is still inclined and fueled by and empowered by evil and not been overturned by the work of regeneration. 1 John chapter 5 verse 4 says, Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world. And this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith, that whoever was born of God overcomes the world. A man who is born again does not use the world's opinion as his standard of right and wrong. In fact, you're going to be standing alone. I remember when the Lord began to deal with me, I'm either, he said, Lord spoke to my heart, said, you're either going to be a part of my kingdom or you're going to stay in the cop culture. And the moment that I yielded my life in totality to the Lord, all of a sudden I was a plague whereas before I was a party. When you're born again, loving, we will not use the world's opinion as our standard for right and wrong. And we don't mind going against the world's ways. We don't mind going against the world's ideals. And we don't mind going against the world's customs. What the people of the world think and say about us no longer concerns us. We've overcome the love of the world. We, we don't even seem to find any happiness or any pleasure in the things that seems to bring happiness to everybody else, or even the things that used to bring happiness to us. We can't find any pleasure anymore. We see these things as foolish and unworthy of someone that's truly born of God. The true regenerate loves the praises of God more than the praises of man. He fears offending God more than offending man. It's unimportant to the regenerate man or woman, whether they're blamed or whether they're praised because their first aim is to please God. The regenerate man or regenerate woman finds themselves at odds with this world and the whole sum of this world system. Regenerate cannot make this world their home. God's not born of this world, but he's born of God. Being he's born of God, the treasures of this world are not his portion because his portion is that which is yet to come. Beloved also earthly mammon is not the pursuit or the object of the pursuit of the regenerate soul, but only the true riches that come from knowing Jesus Christ. Only the true riches that come from knowing Jesus Christ. Beloved, the truly regenerate truly cannot find his home in this world. Why? Because it's a pilgrimage, not a paradise to us. It's a pilgrimage to us and it's not a paradise. This is not our home. We are seated with Christ in heavenly places. Beloved, if we've made this world our home, if it's lure is our passion and pursuit, we can surely know that we are yet natural born citizens and we are alienated from Christ. Let me say that again. If you've made this world your home, if it's lure is your passion, if it's your pursuit, you can know that you are still yet a natural born citizen of this world and you are unregenerate and you're dead in your sins. The truly regenerated heart is a sojourner up on this earth and this earth is a journey and we are not natural born citizens of this world. We are born of the kingdom of God and that which is to come. Let me ask you a question, friend. Is your home in the here and now or in the kingdom that is yet to come? I'm going to read an old hymn that was written back in the probably 16, 17 hundreds. I'm going to close. I want us to be very mindful about what we're talking about, regeneration, about how it offsets from depravity. Depravity is the man that is dead in his sins in his natural born condition. God, by the powerful and miraculous workings of grace, awakens a sinner to his sin to where he sees his sin as sinful, not only sinful, but exceeding sinful. And by God's grace, he turns away from his sin and turns to Christ by faith that Christ has become his sacrifice, taking his blame, taking his place, experiencing and absorbing the wrath of God in his stead and is completely overwhelmed with love for Jesus and vows a vow to follow Christ by God's grace and power all the days of his life. Seeing that he is an alien and a sojourner and a pilgrim upon this earth. It's not his home, nor does he find his pleasure here. He finds his pleasures and he finds his home in Christ. But we've got to preach the true gospel. Love of the kingdom of God is not a marketing scam. It's for it. Listen to me. It's for eternity. It's for keeps. We need to preach the gospel of Jesus, preach the gospel. Remember the woman at the well? He didn't kiss her on the forehead and say, go on home and live the way you've always lived. He said, woman, you living in sin, the guy you're living with, it's not your, it's not your husband. You've been married five times. He revealed everything that she'd done. He deals with her heart. He deals with real time issues. He deals with her depravity, but then she's changed. Then she's changed. In fact, she's changed in so much. She goes home and God just begins to move everywhere because everybody knew that this woman was wicked. And now all of a sudden, this woman is changed by the glory and the power of God. Can you imagine what that guy at the house experienced when she came home? Velma, what's happened to you? So I met this man that told me everything that I did. He didn't condemn me. He just saved me. And she probably grabbed that dude up and put his cowboy boots on. They probably went right down to the church and got married. And one of the other packed his bag. Man, I want to see regeneration in the church. Not decisionism, not easy believe ism, but true regeneration where God impacts lives and people are changed by the very core of who they are to the redeemed and reformed and changed early delivered from sin, becoming lovers of Christ and living for the king of kings and not divided, not divided, trying to live the best of both worlds, but wholly abandoned into Christ. Isn't that what you want to see? Isn't that what you want to experience of? We need to see regeneration. Yeah, I don't want to hear any more of this. How many decisions were made? I don't want to hear that anymore. I'm tired of pastors asking me, how many people are you running? I'm not running any of them. They get to set. And you some kind of sadistic preacher, you run your preach, your people. I'm tired of the numbers, the competition, the pride, the arrogancy. But I'm just crying out for God to radically regenerate those that are lost, to save them by his power and grace alone, to set their feet up on the path of righteousness for his name's sake, that his name might be honored and glorified. I'm tired of the notches in the belt that we can get a big name and a big head. What about the glory of God? We talked about that. The reason God has put us on this earth is to glorify him and to enjoy him forever. You're created by him and you're created for him. And all that we do in the work of the gospel, the ministry is for his glory and not for our name. Let our name be a curse, but his name be honored and glorified. He's the redeemer. He is the king. I long for the day when God comes down in a powerful way and shakes the heart of a corrupt man in so much that he's radically changed, never more the same. He goes home, a changed man, a glorious man, a glorious woman of God. The counsel of God and the presence and the peace of God in their hearts and the passion of the Lord God. Well, they're not ashamed to pray over their meal in public. They're not ashamed to carry their Bible with them to work. They're not ashamed to minister to Jesus Christ because he is their all in all. I want to see some real Christians today, not this weak, puny vomit that is so familiar and accustomed in our society, what we call Christians. We can't even tell the difference anymore between someone that calls themselves a believer and someone that says they're a devil worshiper. You can't even tell the difference. And that shouldn't be. Beloved, there should be such a pronounced difference just in the very presence of a true child of God, that the glory of a holy God is upon a child of God, saved, regenerated by the glorious power and grace of our God. Okay, you ready for the hymn? Listen to the words. Awakened by Sinai's awful sound, awakened by Sinai's awful sound, my soul in bonds of guilt I found. That was a type error, it doesn't say that twice. Awakened by Sinai's awful sound. Computers just mess with me. My soul in bonds of guilt I found and knew not where to go. Eternal truth did loud proclaim. The sinner must be born again or drink an endless woe. I heard the law, its thunders roll, while guilt lay on my heavy soul. A vast oppressive load, all creature aid I saw was vain. The sinner must be born again or drink the wrath of God. The saints I heard with rapture tell how Jesus conquered death and hell and broke the tempter's snare. Yet when I found this truth remain, the sinner must be born again. I sunk in deep despair. But while I thus in anguish lay, the gracious Savior passed that way and felt his pity move. The sinner once by justice slain, now by his grace is born again and sings redeeming love. That gives me goosebumps on the side of my face to even hear those words because this is my story. This is my life. Everything that we have just read in that short treatise is the Christian experience. Dead in our sins, feeling the wrath of God. My friend, I know this by experience. I felt the fires of hell before. It was by God's revelation. The thing God in his love offered to take my place, even though I spit in his face, yet he gave me opportunity to receive his grace and he saved me. He saved me. An undeserving, rich, depraved, wicked, evil, a hater of good, a hater of God, an eternal enmity in my heart against a holy God. And he took my place. He took my place. Jesus not only died for me, friend, he died as me. He took my place. He unshackled my chains. So I can sing that song. My chains are gone. I've been set free. My God, my savior, he's ransomed me. I love that. I love it. Those chains were broken. He came and saved me. I was dead in my sins, but now because of Jesus, I'm alive. And I owe him my life in this life. I live now. I live according to the faith of the son of God who loves me and has given himself for me. Let's stand.