Andy Woods - Soteriology 14: Regeneration

good evening everybody if we could take our Bibles and open them to the book of Titus the book of Titus chapter 3 verse 5 and we are in a section of our class on the doctrine of salvation where we're talking about Roman numeral six the results of salvation so under Roman numeral five we spent a lot of time explaining how you acquire salvation which is by faith alone in Christ alone and then once salvation is gained what exactly do you possess and kind of the goal of this section is just to describe your wealth in Christ dr. Schafer whose picture I have up there described 33 items that a person receives the moment they trust in Christ and I went through that list very fast and we're not going to drill down on all 33 items but we're going to spend some time drilling down on some of them so last time remember we talked about when you come to Christ you are God's son or daughter you're brought into adoption and then we also talked about how you receive at that point the gift of eternal life and let me move into a third blessing that we have and that's something called regeneration what is regeneration regeneration is the impartation of divine life it's it's the moment upon faith in Christ that that spiritual life comes into a lost person and that ministry of the spirit of god is desperately needed because of our condition in the first atom remember what God told Adam back in Genesis 2 verses 16 and 17 the day that you eat from the tree thereof is the day you shall surely what die now Adam lived about 930 years so he didn't physically die that second although the process started but he did die spiritually that second because the human being is basically comprised of three parts body soul spirit and the spiritual quality in him which gives people the capacity to relate to God that spark of life was extinguished and as we are all born under the first Adam that is essentially our condition were born into the world spiritually dead of the book of Ephesians chapter two and verse one you know all but says that as do many other passages but Ephesians 2:1 says you were dead in your trespasses and sins now a lot of people over do spiritual death and I'll talk about that in just a moment spiritual death does not mean inability to respond to God let me postpone that discussion for a few points down the road but because we are spiritually dead in fact Ephesians 2:1 basically says Walking Dead people when you translate that in the Greek because we are spiritually dead the greatest thing that we need is spiritual life and that's something called regeneration Jesus called it the new birth that the whole point of his conversation with Nicodemus over in John 3 remember the whole Nick at night conversation that Jesus had with Nicodemus remember what he said there truly truly I say to you unless one is what born of water and the spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God so Nicodemus who was a Pharisee in fact he was the Pharisee the chief Pharisee you have a lot of religiosity but you're dead spiritually and what you need is the new birth regeneration the impartation of divine life he tells Nicodemus that's his greatest need and that is the greatest need of all human beings today because in the first Adam we are spiritually dead we do not have that life of God inside of us so this is what's called the new birth and unless someone receives the new birth from God they're not a Christian it doesn't matter how religious they are it doesn't matter what where they go to church it doesn't matter what religious data is in their mind it doesn't matter what their parents did or didn't do all those things are irrelevant if you're not born of the Spirit you're not a Christian period so I brought down this little saying here you may have heard this if you're born once you'll die twice if you're born twice you'll die once so we all know what that means right if you're born once physically but you're never born spiritually then you'll die twice I mean physically you'll die and then your soul goes into where something called the second death revelation 20 verses 11 through 15 describes it as the second death which is the lake of fire eternal separation from God so you die physically and then your soul goes into that terrible place conversely if you are born twice you'll only die once what does it mean to be born twice well you're physically born and then there comes a point in your life where you trust Christ as your Savior and the spark of life or the impartation of divine life regeneration comes into you and if that's your condition which I hope you're in then the worst thing that can happen to you is you'll die one time you'll physically die and you know what you might not even that not even have to do that before the rapture generation I can't guarantee that we are but I hope we are because there's a generation that will not physically die that will be caught up but if we're not the rapture generation then the very worst thing that can happen to you is you can physically die but your soul has no part in the second death so really the fundamental question in a person's life is have they received this new birth regeneration the impartation of divine life now where do we find this word I've just described the concept but where do we find this word regeneration it's in Titus 3:5 the Greek word that's translated regeneration is Pollan Pauline Ganesha so let's read this verse here Titus 3:5 which is where I had you turn Titus says and of course that verse didn't look familiar to me because I'm in the book of Ephesians let's try Titus Titus 3:5 says he saved us not on the basis of our deeds which we have done in righteousness but according to his mercy by the washing of regeneration that's the word I'm trying to unpack here regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Spirit so that word translated region generation is the new birth it's the impartation of divine life and its Pauline Ganesha which is a compound word Pauline means again and you recognize a Ganesha what book of the Bible do you think of their Genesis which is the book of beginnings so Pauline Ganesha it literally means to begin again that's the word translated regeneration that's why 2nd Corinthians 5 verse 17 says if any man is in Christ he is a new what creature the oldest passed the new has come and you literally are a new person because you are functioning now the way God intended human beings to function which was which is to be alive not just physically at the body level the soma level not just alive at the soul level so the sookay level but alive at the spiritual level and that's why paul says the things of god to the natural man now who's the natural man the natural man is the person that's alive soul and body but not spiritually the natural man is this the Ephesians - one person who is a walking dead man that person the things of God are a mystery to him in fact they're foolishness to him so you can go up to somebody who has never been born spiritually and you can start talking about spiritual things and it's like you're talking to a foreign language to them because they don't have any capacity to understand it because they don't have the regeneration or the new birth or the life of God inside of them now Pauline Ganesha is all is used only two times in the New Testament it's used here in Titus 3:5 it's used one other time and take a look at this it's interesting over in Matthew 19 verse 28 this is the the other time that this word Pauline Ganesha begin again regeneration impartation of divine life is used and here it's talking about the Millennial Kingdom and notice what Jesus says there Matthew 19:28 says and Jesus said to them truly truly I say to you you who have followed me in the regeneration now that's Pauline Ganesha in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on his glorious throne you also shall sit upon twelve Thrones judging the 12 tribes of Israel now that's talking about the Millennial Kingdom when Jesus is going to reign on David's throne and the twelve disciples that had followed him will be on Thrones reigning over the twelve tribes of Israel and the Millennial Kingdom is called a regeneration so there it's not talking about spiritual regeneration it is in a sense but it's talking about the physical regeneration or restoration of the earth after the horrors of the seven-year tribulation are over and this is it very interesting because it's being used in an eschatological end times context our word pauline ganesha so we have in our end times understanding and order we call it premillennialism which basically means Jesus comes back first pre not talking about the rapture at all talking about the return of Christ at the end of the seven year Tribulation Period Jesus Christ comes back first and then what follows is what the Millenium which is the regeneration of all things so if you can understand that example or concept then you just apply it to someone's spiritual life first Jesus comes into them right and then what results is a regeneration or an impartation of divine life and the reason I make an issue out of that and I'll develop this more a little bit later but there's a lot of people today arguing that you have to be regenerated first before you can believe now you'll notice that when Jesus uses the word regeneration in an eschatological sense there's an order here first he comes back then the Millennial Kingdom the regeneration of all things comes so in the same way first Jesus you trust in Jesus your body becomes the temple of the Holy Spirit and the result of trusting in Christ is regeneration or the impartation of divine life so we are not teaching here at all that regeneration is the cause of faith okay regeneration is the result of faith and that is sort of a hard concept to get across unless you can understand the end times analogy that Jesus is using in Matthew 19 verse 28 and I'll talk more about how people get the order lopsided in just a moment but the Bible is very clear that regeneration the impartation of divine life cannot and will not happen you know in a person without exposing the lost sinner to the Word of God so you know Romans 10:17 right faith comes by hearing hearing by the Word of God this scripture is the instrument that the Holy Spirit uses to convict the lost sinner of their need to be regenerated of their need to believe in Christ and this is not just taught in Romans 10:17 remember the verses that were working through on Sunday morning second Timothy three a couple of not last Sunday but the prior Sunday we talked about 2nd timothy 3:15 that the scriptures are capable of making one wise unto what salvation so Timothy teach the Scriptures because God uses the scriptures in your life to make you wise unto salvation so that's another verse that shows that the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to convict people of their need to believe in Christ a couple of other verses on that you might just jump over to the book of James for a minute James chapter 1 verse 18 James of course being the first New Testament book ever written earliest one we have written about ad 44 to 47 James the half-brother of Christ wrote this book and James says in the exercise of his will he brought us forth by the what word of truth so that we might be a kind of firstfruits among his creatures he's talking about the new birth regeneration and notice that God brought this forth in us by exposing us first to the what word of truth one other verse if you just go over one book to the right first Peter chapter 1 and verse 23 Peter makes a beautiful statement about God's Word and in the process of verse 23 he says for you have been born again that's the new birth regeneration you have been born again not of seed which is perishable but imperishable through the living and enduring Word of God and he goes on there and he quotes Isaiah 40 verse 6 which talks about how the grass withers the flower fades but the word of our Lord stands forever but in the process of describing God's Word Peter is very clear that you have been born again by the word God the Word of God is living and active and so the Spirit of God uses the Word of God to awaken the sinner to their need to believe in Christ so that the Holy Spirit will come into them so that they can be regenerated the impartation of divine life as a result of salvation so that's why exposure to the scripture in the life of a church in our own individual lives even when you're evangelizing people I would encourage you to commit a few scriptures to memory like John 3:16 or others because that's really the tool that the Spirit of God is going to use to convict people of their need to believe in Christ we a lot of times thinkit's are artful persuasive verbal skills and those are nice you know if people have those but that's really not the definitive issue the definitive issue is God's Word it's the word that he uses to make people aware of their need to be regenerated now going to that last bullet point there this is an important issue does regeneration precede faith one of the things that is in ascendancy today particularly in the United States of America amongst Bible teachers is something called reformed theology I would give it another term a hyper-calvinist sort of approach and essentially what they do is they camp very heavily on the word dead Ephesians 2:1 says we're dead in our trespasses and sins and so basically what they teach from that because of the emphasis they place on dead which they define as inability you don't even have the ability to believe in Christ what they'll say because how can a dead someone that's dead believe so what God has to do is he has to regenerate you first see they've got the order backwards we're defining regeneration as a result of salvation they're making it the cause of salvation so God must do this work in your heart not of conviction but regeneration and as you're regenerated then you'll have the capacity to believe see now who gets regenerated then it's the elect get regenerated if you're fortunate enough to be one of the the elect then God regenerates you so that you can believe and this goes through the mnemonic device tulip which is the device that's used to sort of unpack Calvinism and Calvinism is basically a system of logic John Calvin was an attorney who developed the early phases of this system and it's it's beautifully logically structured if you buy into step one if you buy in a step one then steps two three four five come easy the problem is are they right with step one see but basically what they teach is you're dead you don't have any ability to believe in God so that's the T and total depravity so God must do a work of regeneration in you and once you come alive spiritually then you'll have the ability to believe and that's what they call irresistible faith that's the I in tulip you're irresistible not drawn to Christ because you got regenerated before you even believed and the reason you got regenerated is because you're one of the elect and the reason God only regenerates the elect is because the dead person can't believe in Christ anyway and since faith or regeneration is something God gave you your faith can never fail so if your faith ever starts to fail you ever have any doubts in the Christian life if your faith ever starts to fail then the question mark in the back of your mind is well maybe I was never one of the what one of the elect so you see how the whole thing follows logically I mean it makes perfect sense from a logical point of view the the the issue though is not logic because logic is only as good as its starting point if the starting point is fallacious then the rest of the steps really don't matter the issue isn't is it logical it's very logical the issue is is it biblical and I believe that that system is wrong because there is not a single verse in the Bible and I'll show you several that teach the exact opposite that teach that regeneration precedes faith what the Bible says over and over and over again and that's why I brought up the example of Matthew 19:28 in eschatology the Millennium the regeneration of all things which follows the return of Christ what the Bible says over and over again is regeneration does not precede faith but regeneration follows faith that's why we're discussing regeneration under the heading results of salvation so a few verses that show you that regeneration is the results of salvation not the cause of salvation now the very rigid Calvinists they love John 1:13 which says who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man but of God and they say well there it is you're born again by the will of God so what they what they think that means is you're born again because God regenerated you so that you could believe and they use a lot of this lingo faith as a gift the problem is they leave out verse 12 but as many as what received him isn't that something we do as many as received him to them he gave the right to become children of God even to those who what believe isn't that something we do don't we believe and then once we believe then we're born again and we find ourselves in the will of God because God is willing that who should perish that none should perish second Peter 3:9 but if you cut off verse twelve and you just look at verse thirteen which is what theologians do a lot because they write systematic theologies and they'll use verses to support their points and you have to watch them very carefully because a lot of times they're using a verse out of context to support an inaccurate point just because someone quotes the Bible doesn't mean they're doing it accurately because the three rules of Bible study or what context context context when you look at the whole context at verse thirteen when you connect it back with verse 12 it's not saying you're regenerated so you can believe it's it's actually saying the exact opposite we believe we receive and then regeneration the impartation of divine life is the result of salvation look at that middle box there John 3:16 look at this for God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that whoever would believes in him shall not perish but have what eternal life doesn't that look like eternal life follows belief there uh-uh here's another verse John 5:24 Jesus says truly truly I say to you he who hears my word and believes him who sent me has what eternal life so once again it doesn't give you the foggiest hint that eternal life is something regeneration that comes before you believe so result of believing John 6:44 this is the will of my father that everyone who beholds the Son and believes in Him will what have eternal life see how eternal life regeneration the impartation of divine life is something that follows beholding and believing so it doesn't it doesn't give you the foggiest hint that somehow you receive eternal life first so that you can believe I mean you would never if you were stranded on a desert island and you'd only had the gospel of john to rely upon and you didn't know anything about the theological debates or people pushing this doctrine you would never reach the conclusion that regeneration is something that precedes faith regeneration as a result of faith in Christ coming inside of us John 6:47 truly I say to you he who believes has what eternal life see how eternal life follows believe it doesn't say truly truly I say to you he who ever has eternal life believes which which is what they're doing is they're inverting the order because they're taking the doctrine of deadness and they're placing such a stress on it that it becomes disproportionate and when you talk up to the five-point Calvinist hyper-calvinist there's always two things they talk about over and over again the sovereignty of God and the depravity of man and they I've already shared with you their emphasis on the depravity of man how it's disproportionately overemphasized believe me I believe that human beings are depraved okay no problem there I don't define it the way they define it they define it as people don't even have an ability to respond to the gospel there's there's no biblical support for that but what they talk about is the depravity of man and the sovereignty of God and in their system God is in control of everything God is even in control of whether you're going to believe or not because you can't have faith unless God gives it to you as a gift and so in at the end of the day they actually believe that they are protecting the sovereignty of God by not allowing man to play any role whatsoever in salvation to my mind that is a denial of how God made us God created us in whose image his own and part of being an image bear means of freewill volition and because we are created in His image and because we have free will when salvation occurs he God is not overriding somebody's freewill they are making a response of volition and the only one God will accept is faith but you see in the hyper-calvinist system faith is something that God does and at the end of the day they talk about how it has to be that way because we need to a protect God's sovereignty and we need to respect the depravity of man and I think their understanding of the depravity of man is disproportionate to what the scripture says and there's no need to protect God's sovereignty because of God is sovereign he can protect his own sovereignty Kenny and it's failing to understand that man is an image bearer of God that is how God made us see think about this for a second it would have been really easy for God to just not put the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden at all I mean if there's no tree of life I'm sorry I said that wrong the tree of what's the other tree Tree of Knowledge why put the Tree of Knowledge in the Garden of Eden at all just take out the tree of knowledge and humanity wouldn't have sinned well the problem is there has to be a tree of knowledge in the Garden of Eden because there has to be an new of rebellion if man and woman through volition choose that Avenue rebellion and if that Avenue for rebellion is not there God is not respecting how he designed us as image bearers so one of the most frightening things that we possess as human beings is a free will and what is the smartest thing you can do with your freewill imitate Christ who said not my will be done but what thy will be done the smartest thing you can do with your free will is give it right back to God and in every issue of life but God is not going to snatch it from you or take it from you or coerce himself upon you because if he did that he wouldn't be respecting how he has manufactured us in His image here's another verse John 20 verses 30 and 31 it says therefore many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book but these have been written so that you might believe that G is Anu believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that by believing you may have what life in his name so do you once again see how life regeneration is the result of salvation and not the cause of salvation now what does the Spirit of God do though in the unsaved person the the Spirit of God is very active regarding the unsaved person I don't mean to give you the impression that the Spirit of God has no influence over us at all in terms of our decision to believe because I don't think a person can actually believe until they come under the spirits convicting ministry and the Spirit of God will seek you persuade us to believe through conviction but he won't believe for you and that's the whole point that Jesus was making in the upper room in John 16 verses 7 through 11 when he was saying it's to your advantage that I go because when I go the comforter will come the helper the Paraclete the Holy Spirit the one that comes alongside and assists and in the process Jesus starts talking about what the Spirit of God does in the world this is not a ministry here that we're reading that he performs in the life of the believer obviously the Holy Spirit does many things in the life of the believer that's not what Jesus is talking about here he's talking about the ministry that the Spirit of God does in the world and notice what it says I tell you the truth it is to your advantage that I go away for if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you now that was Christ's first order of business when he ascended to the right hand of the Father acts 1 and began his present session at the Father's right hand as a priest after the order of who oak is a deck and the first thing Jesus did when he entered that position is he sent the Holy Spirit and that's what's going on in Acts chapter 2 I tell you the truth is your vantage I go if I do not go away the helper will not come to you but if I go I will send him to you when he comes now he starts talking about what the Spirit does for the unsaved person he will convict who the elect no it doesn't say that he will convict the world that would be everybody in the world as far as I can tell the cosmos he will convict the world of three things and he describes him concerning sin now is sin their singular or plural singular he's not convicting the world of sins he's convicting the world of a sin he will convict the world of sin righteousness and judgment that's verse 8 verse 9 he starts to explain what each of those things mean concerning sin the Greek there is hamartia it's a singular noun concerning sin because they do not believe in me concerning righteousness because I go to the Father and you will no longer see me and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world has been judged so is your in your office or a workplace or school or even in your family and you're around unbelievers you have to understand something that the Spirit of God is convicting them over and over again of three things convicting them of sin because they do not believe convicting them of righteousness because they do not have it Jesus is leaving they need the transferred righteousness of God which they think we all think we can get by good works the Spirit of God is persuading them us before we got saved otherwise and concerning judgment because the ruler of this world who was the ruler of this world the devil is being cast out and he is convicting them that if they don't enter the belief in Christ and receive the transferred righteousness of God then they will go down in smoke no pun intended just like Lucifer and you have to understand that when the when you're talking to an unbeliever you have to cooperate with what the Spirit of God is already telling them or convicting them of in order for your evangelism to be fruitful so the more you can introduce these subjects sin righteousness and judgment as Jesus defines them judgment because they're going down with Satan righteousness because they don't have the transferred righteousness of God and sin singular because they do not believe the more you can work those concepts into your evangelism the more fruitful your evangelism will be because you'll be communicating things that the Spirit of God is already convicting the world of you see and this is what Lewis Sperry chafer called true evangelism it's learning to use vocabulary that that the Spirit of God is already trying to convict the unsaved world of see a lot of times when we evangelize we're talking about all these other different things and we need to start cooperating with the Holy Spirit understanding what he is already doing in the world and start using words that he himself is trying to convince the world of and then you'll you'll see a new fruitfulness in your evangelism but I really want to focus here on verse 9 concerning sin because they do not believe the Holy Spirit is not out there convicting the world of sins he is not convicting the world of spousal abuse pornography drug abuse profanity going 85 and a 55 mile an hour speed zone see those are things we like to focus on but that's not what the world that's not what the Spirit of God is doing the Spirit of God is not out there trying to morally reform the lost world you have to understand that what he is doing he's not convicting them of sins he's convicting them of sin singular the sin of unbelief which is the only sin that's unpardonable if you die and unbelief there's no there's no hope for a person so he is trying to convince them that's what convict means it means to persuade she's trying to convince them that they are committing it right now as we speak a singular sin against God they are not believing in Christ because they are not believed in Christ they have never received the transferred righteousness of God and they're on their way to judgment just as Lucifer is on his way to judgment so there is no moral reformation that the Spirit of God is working in the unsaved now after you get saved and the Spirit of God is inside of you through regeneration guess what he'll start convicting you of sins oh you're gossiping you're gossiping you shouldn't be doing that you know you lose your temper pretty quick you shouldn't do that you know once you feel a little nicer to your wife and your husband why you always you know negative in your speech you know these kind of sins that we commit he'll start working on those in a in a process not called justification but what sanctification but until this until the person's regenerated the Holy Spirit's not doing that at all in people the Holy Spirit is convicting them of sin singular so you look at this very carefully and it's very clear that the Spirit of God is not going to believe for somebody it's fear of God it's not going to come into someone's life and override their volition so they have to believe in God and coerce them against their will that's where the hyper-calvinist concept you know really falls apart it doesn't it doesn't grapple well with these texts that we're looking at now a person cannot believe in Christ though it is true until they come under conviction so in a sense depravity is there where we can't believe until we're convicted but once under conviction and this clearly says he convicts the world once we're under conviction we have an ability through human volition to respond to the gospel so a lot of people you know they have an unsaved co-worker unsaved friend they always say how can i what should i do how can I reach them I would start praying over time that this ministry goes into effect in that person's life the Spirit of God is already doing that according to this verse and then and then become informed enough in the Bible where you start using but Cabul that's consistent in your evangelism to that person with what the Spirit of God is already trying to convict them of so in hyper-calvinism the whole name of the game is faith as a gift why is faith a gift because you are depraved where you don't even have an ability to respond to God so God has to regenerate you as the cause of faith see regeneration is not the result of faith in their system it's a result of faith in the way we teach it based on the Bible but in their logical system faith is a result of regeneration so faith itself becomes a gift and you hear this a lot in their circles they'll say faith is a gift and they will quote Ephesians 2 verses 8 and 9 which at first glance looks like it's teaching faith as a gift you you all know these verses for by grace we have been saved through faith that not of yourselves it is the gift of God not as a result of works so that no one can boast and they'll say there it is right there in the Bible faith is a gift the problem is in Greek the New Testament was not written in English it was written in Greek genders nouns have genders masculine feminine neuter genders are very important the genders must agree with each other if the gift that he talks about here is faith then there must be a gender agreement in gift and faith for that for their mindset to work and the problem is when you study this in Greek those are to differ genders faith if I remember right is neuter neuter noun excuse me faith is a feminine noun gift is a neuter noun gift is neuter faith is feminine so therefore the nearest antecedent of gift cannot be faith well then what's the gift when you studied out in the Bible what you'll see over and over again is the gift is salvation the gift is the not the cause of faith but the what result of faith so the gift is every thought of benefits that come to us through this marvelous package of salvation faith is not the gift salvation is the gift and I just share that with you because when you're in a very strong Calvinistic environment they'll quote this verse constantly and if you're not familiar with the nuances in the Greek language it will seem as if faith is a gift so again it's this system we're depraved logically we don't have an ability to respond so God regenerates us so we can believe so faith itself is a gift coming to Christ is virtually irresistible and I would say the starting point of the whole thing is wrong yes we're to pray but we have an ability to respond to the gospel by way of faith when we come under conviction and therefore the regeneration that we received and not come before we believed it came after as a result and when you get into these circles of very hyper Calvinism what they'll tell you is church history is on our side and I've been in countless arguments with people on this and they'll go into the sages of the faith they'll go into Luther and Calvin and they'll say you know who are you to disagree with these giants but the that's when you really start analyzing the history what you'll discover is history is not on their side as as frequently as they make it sound for example notice what one of the greatest preachers the Christian world ever had Charles Haddon Spurgeon said in a sermon he says if I am to preach faith in Christ to a man who is regenerated then the man being regenerated is saved already and it is unnecessary and ridiculous thing for me to preach Christ to him and bid him to believe in order to be saved when he is saved already being regenerate am i only to preach faith to those who have it absurd indeed exclamation point is not this waiting till the man is cured and then to bring him the medicine this is preaching Christ to the righteous and not the sinners so here you find Spurgeon who just carte-blanche rejected this idea that regeneration precedes faith and you say well you know Andy why make an issue out of this because it affects how you present the gospel if you believe that a person must be regenerated so that they can believe you will not preach the gospel to them what you'll tell them to do is pray for the gift of faith now here is a quote from John MacArthur it's in one of his sermons and when you get into the John MacArthur and I agree with a lot of the things John MacArthur has said and teaches I don't carte-blanche reject everything the man has done I have a very strong disagreement with him though on these soteriological salvation issues and when you get into their circles and you start to rub shoulders with these types of people you have to toe the line on all these points and if you will not tow the line you are almost persona non-grata and what I'm trying to say is this is significant because it affects how you present the gospel so here's a few words it says and I'll start the the MacArthur quote starts about halfway through it says if faith is a gift of God then how do I get it do I do nothing and hope God will sovereignly bestow it upon me or do I cry out to God and pray that he will give me the gift of saving faith dr. John MacArthur apparently holds the second option at the end of one of his messages he gave a Salvation appeal and said the following now here's the quote from the sermon at the end of his message you know there was a gospel presentation kind of like how we give our gospel presentations at the end they do the same thing in his church and he says faith is a gift from God it is permanent the faith that God gives you begets obedience you see and this is where the whole doctrine of lordship salvation comes from if faith is really a gift of God then there has to be a lot of fruit in a person's life if it's from God right or else maybe they never had saving faith and if they never had saving faith maybe they were never regenerated so they could believe and if they were never regenerated so they could believe maybe they were never one of the elect and it leads to and I've been in enough environments where they teach us it leads to a very hyper critical spirit towards your fellow brothers and sisters in Christ if someone doesn't show up to Wednesday night Bible study you know oh maybe maybe they never received the gift of faith if I ever received the gift of faith because they're faltering and if God's faith was really in him and he gave it to him there shouldn't be any faltering there shouldn't be any sin there shouldn't be any ups and downs if there's any lack sation or movement back into sin in any sense there's there are very severe statements that people make against other people about whether they're saved or not and that's that's one of the downsides of being in these circles anyway I can't remember where I was in this quote but faith is a gift from God it is permanent the faith that God gives begets obedience so if you start to have any doubts maybe you don't have the faith from God what does the book of James tell us the book of James tells us that when we pray we should believe and not have what doubt because he who doubts is like a wave tossed and blown by the wind doesn't that text indicate that a believer can have doubts have you ever had doubts as a Christian I've had doubts as a Christian many times the problem is when you go through these valleys and you have doubts if you believe faith is a gift you're going to start thinking well maybe I don't have the right faith that God gives because if I have the faith that God gives and God can't fail I shouldn't be having doubts and a lot of emotional psychological type problems that people have in Christianity is related to these kinds of doctrines that I'm trying to expose that's I'm not trying to give you a lecture on theology I'm trying to show you these things because what ideas have consequences the way you believe about a lot of these things will impact your emotional makeup as you go through the Christian life so anyway back to the quote faith is a gift from God it is permanent the faith that God gives begets obedience God can give it to you and he sustains it may God grant you a true saving faith a permanent gift that begins in humility and brokenness over sin and ends up in unto in obedience unto righteousness that's the true faith and it's a gift that only God can give and now here's the presentation of the gospel you ready I've been underlined and if you desire it pray and ask God that he will grant it to you so what is the gospel that he just preached the gospel he just preached is not here's Jesus here's his death here's his resurrection here's what he did for you now you respond to that by faith that's not what he's preaching here he's telling people to pray for the gift of faith you go through the book of Acts where they evangelized all over the place and you show me a single time or Paul or anybody else told the lost sinner they need to pray for the gift of faith what they did over and over again is they presented Christianity they presented the cross the resurrection and the good news and they told people to receive it as a free gift by faith trusting that the Spirit of God was convicting those people of their need to respond to the message that's the gospel Paul all of these guys never went around and told people you know you're so dead in your own will that you need to be regenerated so you can believe so pray for the gift of faith and what I'm trying to say here is this is not just a pie in the sky debate it shapes or influences how you actually present the gospel so all things considered going back here to my prior slides and I really plan on being a lot further along but that's okay because this class is going to go on into the summer Sunday mornings so I need to stall anyway because I'm running out of material but regeneration is the impartation of divine life okay you need it because you are spiritually dead doesn't mean inability what it means is you can't respond to the gospel until the spirit convicts you of your need for it and Jesus told us the Spirit is doing that in the world when you receive the gospel it is the result of faith God is not believing for you but he is imparting to you new life the Holy Spirit enters you as you respond to the gospel and it's the greatest need a human being has if they never receive this then they go into the second death regeneration literally means beginning again whether you study it soteriological E or eschatologically it's always first comes Christ then regeneration follows and it's the result it is accomplished through an exposure to God's Word that's what the Holy Spirit uses in his conviction to awaken people to their need to trust in Christ and regeneration does not precede faith conviction precedes faith but regeneration does not precede faith regeneration is the result of faith and I try to share with you that there's actually some it's not just a theological discussion this shapes your philosophy of ministry and how you share the gospel and that kind of thing anyway that's a lot to chew on isn't it for a Wednesday evening we'll go ahead and dismiss our folks need to pick up their kids it's 8 o'clock sharp and I'm sure those pricing questions on this yeah you

Channel: Andy Woods' Unofficial Channel

Views: 2,684

Rating: 4.9550562 out of 5

Keywords: andy woods, andrew woods, dr, regeneration, soteriology, calvinism, calvinist, calvinists, first, after, Jesus, gospel, osas, once saved always saved, predestination, election, macarthur, john, paul washer, mcarthur, john piper, matt chandler, eternal security

Id: TU1zw-9qL7o

Length: 57min 37sec (3457 seconds)

Published: Fri May 24 2019