Bye. We thank you, Father God, that
you've done it all. You've done it all for your people.
We thank you, Father God, that in the word that we hear, we
pray, Lord, that you would send us out to live and be comforted
by what you preach to us for. We pray for those that can't
be here today and we just long for those to be with us again
as we pass forward and pray that, Father God, that you would bless
this time to us simple question simple task for us now this last
little time we have what is regeneration what is it to be
born again according to the scriptures you can't see the kingdom of
God You can't enter the kingdom of God unless you are born again. As we saw in our studies in John's
Gospel, there are two musts meet in salvation. You must be born
again. George Whitfield has preached
must be born again on several, often, and one lady came up to
him and said, why do you keep saying you must? He says, because
you must. You must be born again. The Son
of Man must be lifted up and the two inseparable necessities
of entering heaven. You must be washed. You must
have the washing of regeneration. You must have new life put in
you and you must be justified. You must be washed clean from
all of your sins. Turn with me in Titus. We're
going to turn this into a to be a Bible study. We'll be looking
in various places. I want us to see as best that
Lord will allow us what the Bible means in the rest of the New
Testament and some of the old by what it is to be born again. There's a famous passage of scripture
in Titus chapter 3 And for want of time, I want
us to, I want to begin in verse three, but the first two verses
are about authority and the necessity of being under authority, and
ultimately we want to be under God's authority. We want to,
but listen to what, Verse 3 says, this is Paul's description of
himself and his fellow man. For we ourselves, he's talking
about he and Titus and the rest of all those who will be saved. This is what they say about themselves.
For we ourselves are also sometimes foolish, disobedient. That's unpersuadable. Ever met
an unpersuadable person? I have, lots of them. We were
sometimes foolish, disobedient, deceived, serving diverse lusts
and pleasures, living in malice and envy, hateful, deserving
of the hatred of God, and hating one another. And here's one of
those glorious buts of the scriptures. After the kindness and love of
God our Savior. That word is philanthropy. Love. "'Love of God, our Saviour, toward
man appeared, "'not by works of righteousness which we have
done.'" It's very evident, if you're in that category mentioned
there in verse three, you don't have any works of righteousness.
"'Not by works of righteousness which 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 Saviour. That being justified is to be
declared without sin in God's sight, because
of the finished work of the Lord Jesus Christ, being justified
by His grace, we should be made heirs according to the hope of
eternal life. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that thou affirm constantly, that They
which have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. These things are good and profitable
unto men. The washing of regeneration. It's a biblical term, isn't it?
I want us to look at how the rest of the scriptures speak
of this term because something that's so extraordinarily significant,
God gives us a multitude of pictures of it so that we will get a clearer
and clearer understanding. This must, you must be born again.
You must be born again. And I'll just go through these
scriptures, and you can follow along if you wish, or just listen
in. But in Ephesians chapter one, this regeneration, this
being born again, is called a quickening. It's a life-giving activity. You have he quickened who were
dead in trespasses and sins. In Colossians chapter two, verse
13, it says, and you being dead, in your sins and the uncircumcision
of your flesh, he hath quickened, made alive, given life, together
with him, forgiven you all trespasses. Isn't that remarkable? So many
people think that God forgives us all the trespasses up to the
time of our conversion and then we're responsible to try and
deal with them after that. That's not what the scriptures
ever, ever, ever say. Having forgiven you all your
trespasses. Verse 14, blotting out the handwriting
of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us,
and took it out of the way, nailing it to the cross. The Lord Jesus
Christ in that great sermon in John chapter six says, it is
the spirit that quickeneth. This is the work of God, the
spirit, exactly what the Lord told Nicodemus. It's the spirit
that quickeneth, the flesh profiteth. Nothing. If we'd ever get to
understand that, God will have to teach us for that to be life
and spirit to us. The words that I speak unto you,
they are spirit and they are life. So being born again to
be regenerated is a quickening, it's a giving of life. Secondly,
it's a creation. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
how do you get in Christ? 1 Corinthians 1.29 God puts you
in Christ. It's the work of God entirely
to put you in Christ. Therefore, if any man be in Christ,
he is a new creature. All things are passed away. Behold,
all things become new. That's why David prayed, didn't
he? Create in me a clean heart. What I see is just filthy. Restore
unto me the joy of thy salvation. Ephesians 2.10 is a well-known
verse, isn't it, where God says, For we are his workmanship, created
in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained
that we should walk in them. It's a creation, it's a giving
of life, and it's a creation. For God, we read this last week,
2 Corinthians 4, 6, for God who commanded the light to shine
out of darkness has shined in our hearts. It's a creative activity
of God to shine light in our hearts, to give the light of
the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of the Lord Jesus
Christ. It's called A New Man, Colossians
3.10 says, and put on the new man which is renewed in knowledge
after the image of him that created him, where there is neither Greek
nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, barbarian bond, barbarian, Scythian,
bond or free, but Christ is all, And in all, what does the new
creation believe? Christ is all. In everything. All the time. In everything.
Christ is all. It is, as we saw in John chapter
3, to be declared born of God. But 1 Peter 1.3 says, Blessed
be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according
to his abundant mercy hath begotten us again into a lively hope by
the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead. Being born again,
1 Peter says, I love this passage of scripture. I think it is so
powerfully poignant and so powerfully important for we who preach but
also for we who hear and we who are given a concern about our
souls. It says in verse 22, seeing you
have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit,
unto unfeigned love of the brethren, see that you love one another
with a pure heart fervently, being born again. Not of corruptible seed, but
of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth
forever. For all flesh is as grass, and
all the glory of man as the flower of the grass. The grass withereth,
and the flower thereof falleth away, but the word of the Lord
endureth forever. Isn't that wonderful? And this
is the word, this ever enduring word, which by the gospel is
preached unto you. There is no gospel. If there
is no gospel, there is no word from God, no matter what people
think. It's a quickening, it's a creation,
it's being born of God. It's the new man, Ephesians 4.24,
and put ye on the new man which after God is created. How does God create? Which after God is created in
righteousness and true holiness. Isn't that remarkable? That's
the new creation. It's the new man, isn't it? We
read Colossians 3.10 earlier, put on the new man. It's called
in Ephesians 3.16, the inner man. It's called in 1 Peter 3.4, the
hidden man of the heart. And what is the hope? What is
the hope? The hope is Christ in you. There's nothing less than God
Almighty taking up residence in one of his own. You must be born again. You must
be born of water. You must be born of the Spirit.
To enter heaven, we must be justified and we must be regenerated. We
must have a new life and we must have all of that sin taken away. We must be made to be a perfect
receptacle for God Almighty to live in. God is of two purer
eyes than to behold iniquity, and yet he embraces his people
with the deepest love and the deepest affection you could possibly
imagine. We must be born. We must be born
again. There must be that fountain opened. Our fall into sin is a twofold
problem. Sin is what I do. And my problem
is my guilt because of what I've done, what I've sinned because
of my sins. I must have the guilt of my sin
dealt with. Sin is what I am. It's my nature. I must have both of those dealt
with. And that's what the water and
the blood which flowed from the Lord Jesus Christ's side did. It is. It is the bringing of
salvation, to go back to Titus with me if you can, it is the
bringing of salvation to God's people. I'm sorry we're skipping
all over the scriptures today, but I want us to try and get
a picture of it. Titus 2.11, for the grace of God that bringeth
salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us, grace is not
ineffectual, teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lust,
and that we should live soberly, righteously and godly in this
present world, looking for the blessed hope. How do we do all
that? We look for the blessed hope, the glorious appearing
of our great God and Saviour, Jesus Christ, who gave himself
for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity and purify
unto himself a peculiar people, zealous for good works. Man needs
to be set free. What is regeneration? It is the
implanting of all of those things that we've read about. There
is no seeing the Kingdom of God, there's no entering the Kingdom
of God without regeneration without being born again. There is no
faith without regeneration. There is no love for the Lord
Jesus Christ. There is no repentance. There
is no obedience. There is no hearing and loving
the Saviour. There is no persevering in faith.
There is no love for the brethren. There is no poverty of spirit.
There is no mourning for sin. There is no hungering and thirsting
after righteousness. There is no being merciful. There
is no being a peacemaker. All of those things come with
the new life. All the fruit of the Spirit must
come with regeneration. What is the evidence? Christ
is all. Christ is all. Christ and Him
crucified is all. To go back to where we have been
looking in John chapter 19, I just want to look at this work in
light of the prayer of the Lord Jesus Christ from the Cross of
Calvary. Once again, I'm sorry for skipping all over the scriptures,
but I want us to see that when the Lord Jesus Christ died on
the Cross of Calvary, he had psalms and prayers in his heart. All of the sins of all of God's
people were laid on him. He was lifted up. He was made
a curse. for us but in the midst of that he lived on the cross
in perfect love for his father in perfect faithfulness his faithfulness
was a faithfulness under death under the most appalling circumstances
but when he was mentioning these psalms he was praying those psalms
They were on his thoughts. And when we go back to these
Psalms, we'll see the glorious declaration of what it is to
be born again according to what the Lord Jesus Christ was praying
on the cross of Calvary. So sing with me. Psalm 22 begins
with those glorious words, my God, my God, why hast thou forsaken
me? And he gives the answer in verse
three, because you're holy. You inhabit the praises of your
people, Psalm 22. He was under the wrath of a holy, holy
God as all those sins laid on him. All that was in that cup
received the just punishment of God Almighty. But if you go
down to verse 22 with me, the psalm speaks of all of the activities
of what was going on on the cross, and then he says, what he will
do He will come and preach the gospel. I will declare thy name. He'll declare the name of God
unto my brethren. In the midst of the congregation,
I will praise thee. And then he describes these people
born of God. Ye that fear the Lord. They are the seed of Jacob. In themselves, they're just like
Jacob, a deceiver, a usurper. All you seed of Jacob, you glorify
him. What is the heart's desire that
he puts in all the born again children of God? Father, glorify
yourself. Glorify your name. Do whatever
it takes in me and through me and through your people to glorify
your name. And fear him, all ye seed of
Israel. Verse 25, my praise shall be
of thee in the great congregation. I will pay my vows before them
that fear him. What is the characteristic of
being born again according to the Lord's declarations? Before
the water and the blood flowed from his side to wash us clean. Verse 26, the meek. The meek shall eat and be satisfied. They shall praise the Lord that
seek him. They will seek him. Nicodemus
came seeking him. Verse 27, and all the ends of
the earth shall remember and turn unto the Lord. They'll return, they will in
this regeneration turn to the Lord and they'll keep turning
to the Lord. And all the kindreds of the nation shall worship before
thee. And they'll be, in verse 30,
they'll be that seed that shall serve him. They shall come, verse
31, and what shall they do? The born again children of God,
they shall declare his righteousness. Because that's the only righteousness
that there is. Unto a people that shall be born,
that he has done this. They will declare his righteousness
in that he has done this, he has finished this. That's what
that word means. He's finished all that he came
to do. He's paid the debt in full. In verse 69, we have many references
to verse 69 in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We speak in
verse 9, it says, for zeal of thine house has eaten me up.
He says, reproach has broken my heart, in verse 20. And it
speaks in verse 21 of, they gave me gall, they gave me myrrh for
my meat, and my thirst, they gave me vinegar to drink. They're
the words he spoke on the cross, I thirst. But in verse 32, he
speaks of what he will do in the hearts of his people, the
humble. So what do we have? Those that fear God, those that
are meek, those that seek Him, those that remember Him, those
that serve Him, those that declare His righteousness. The humble
shall see this and be glad, and your hearts shall live that seek
God. The Lord heareth the poor. They are the poor, poor, poor
in themselves, poor of righteousness, poor of ability. And he despises
not his prisoners. He makes his people, and he takes
them, Zechariah 9 says, and he makes them prisoners of hope.
We're captives to his being our only hope. Verse 35, they're
called Zion, the monument raised up, that city. The seed, verse
36, he finishes, the seed also of his servants shall inherit
it. They're the ones that inherit everything. They inherit along
with him. And what do they do, these born-again
ones? They that love his name. If the
water and the blood has been applied by God the Holy Spirit,
they just love his name. We love everything about him.
You wouldn't want to change a single thing about the character of
our God. Love every aspect of it. And
let's finally go to Psalm 31. This is the last psalm that he
spoke from the cross. Into thy hands I commit or commend
my spirit. And he speaks of what he will
do and then he speaks of what will happen in the hearts of
his people. Oh, how great is thy goodness
which thou hast laid up for them that fear. which thou hast wrought for them
that trust in thee before the sons of men. Think of Nicodemus
before that Sanhedrin and all of that vitriol and deceit that
was poured out. Nicodemus was made just to stand
there. Listen to what God says he'll
do to them in verse 20. Thou shalt hide them in the secret
of thy presence. God has his lambs in his arms
and they are hidden in him. The world doesn't know them,
but he knows them. Not only does he know them, but
he holds them there. Seeing the secret of their presence
from the pride of man, thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion. He'll keep them secretly in a
tabernacle or in a booth. Verse 23, I love the Lord, all
ye saints, for the Lord preserve us, the faithful, here they are,
they fear, they make, they come, they seek, they remember, they
serve, they're humble, they're poor, they love his name. He preserves the faithful, be
of good courage, and he shall strengthen your heart, all ye
that hope in the Lord. What is it to be born again? It's an act of God's sovereign
will, by his own will begat he us. It's a gospel seed planted
in the hearts of God's people, which the Holy Spirit comes and
makes spirit and life to us. And what's produced in regeneration?
We just read it earlier. Blessed be the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ, which according to his abundant mercy
hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection. We
have a hope. What's produced? A hope. A real
hope. That's what's born in us. Christ
in us. The hope of glory. This hope
is a person. The new birth is not some power
to make us get better and better. It's put in us so that we'll
glorify God and we'll look to Him always. It's the inner man. And how is this hope sustained? Come back with me to Titus chapter
three. How is this hope generated? By a sovereign work of God. What is this hope declaring? It's declaring the righteousness of
God, the washing of regeneration. It's declaring His work of righteousness. It's declaring His justification
of all of His people, that we should be made heirs according
to the hope of eternal life. This is the kindness of love
of God our Saviour toward men, washing every generation, renewing
of the Holy Spirit, declaring that being justified by his grace
we should be made heirs. Then in verse 80 he says what
we are to do. He says how it's come to the
hearts of his people through the preaching of the gospel,
declaring the righteousness of God, declaring the new birth
that comes from God. This is a faithful saying, and
these things I will that thou affirm constantly. What do we
affirm? What do we affirm? The washing
of regeneration by God Almighty, which is shed on us abundantly
through Christ Jesus our Saviour. We affirm them constantly that,
in order that, and because of, in order that, that they which
have believed in God might be careful to maintain good works. How do you maintain good works?
exactly the same way you became saved in the first place, by
the washing of regeneration, by the justifying work, by the
grace of God Almighty. The dead come to life through
the preaching of the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. The living
made alive are sustained in life by the preaching of the finished
work of the Lord Jesus Christ. We declare to each other, don't
we, this is what God has done. What is the motivation for good
works? It's finished. It's finished. This is faithful. This is a faithful
activity. This is a faithful saying. that
these things I willed that they affirm constantly. What did we
say? The Lord Jesus Christ has done
it all. The Lord Jesus Christ has finished the work. The Lord
Jesus Christ has cleansed all of his people from their sins.
The Lord Jesus Christ has put away those sins by his own blood
forever and ever. Let us draw near. With a true
heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from
an evil conscience and our bodies washed with pure water, let us
hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering, for he
is faithful that promised. Hebrews 10, 22. This is the washing
of regeneration, the renewing of the Holy Ghost, spread abundantly
on us. What a Saviour, what a glorious,
glorious Saviour. Let's pray. Our Heavenly Father,
we do thank you again that your dear and precious Son cried out,
it is finished. and that you, when you saw the
suffering of his soul, you were satisfied. And for the joy that
was set before him, he endured the cross and scorned the shame.
Oh, our Heavenly Father, we thank you. We thank you for a glorious
finished work. We thank you, Heavenly Father,
for the ongoing application of that work. When you make your
people needy, you make them to call, you make them to come,
you make them to cry. You make them to rejoice in your
righteousness and yours only. We thank you for the regenerating
work. We thank you, Heavenly Father, that all of your works
which begun are works which you have promised to complete in
the hearts and amongst your people until the day of the Lord Jesus
Christ. We thank you that we must be
born again, but we thank you especially that we are born again
by your Spirit's work, and we're born again to see the glories
of your dear and precious Son, and the wonder of his redeeming
blood, which has washed us from all our sins. May we go from
here, Heavenly Father, living to honour him in our thoughts
and our words and our deeds and walk before this world with a
desire in our heart to proclaim the glories of your dear and
precious Son to all that we meet. We pray these things in his precious
name and for his glory and the good of our souls. Our Father,
be merciful to us. Amen.